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Another month has passed, and spring is around the corner -- but not just yet. While our windows may still be closed, it's time for another edition of songs that might otherwise come from one of my windows as you walk by.
As a reminder of the format, I'm writing one of these columns and filling it with songs from a variety of genres of music. I don't expect anyone to listen to all of these songs! Some months, you may even not be interested in any of them, and that's fine!
However, it is my sincere hope that some of you might find some new songs and artists that you like. All of these songs are widely available on streaming services and by doing some quick searching on Youtube and such, and if I want to highlight something harder to find, I'll include detailed instructions on how to do so.
Without further ado, here's some songs that would come from my window this month -- if it was, you know, open.
Fiction -- Yuki Kajiura
I first crossed paths with Yuki Kajiura's music in the anime ".hack//SIGN" (which will likely be a future Throwback Thursday) and then again in the anime "Madoka Magica" (which will also likely be a future Throwback Thursday). She doesn't only do anime music, however -- she has several albums of original compositions that are unattached to other projects.
Fiction is a track from an album by the same name, and while you'd never actually get me to sing in public, it's one of a very small number of songs that I can sing every word of. The repeated motif of "la, la la la, la la la" as the song changes and evolves is an amazing touch, and I love the way the perspective of the speaker shifts throughout the song. If you like pop music (or anime), give this a chance!
The River -- Exploring
Birdsong
I'm a big fan of percussion-heavy music and also of music with unusual stops, pauses and timing signatures. This band utilizes all of these things and more. If you liked the Amazing Devil song from January, odds are you'll like this as well. The piano work being placed in the foreground of the song really helps to drive it along.
This band is pretty young and new as best as I can find out -- I ran into them when they guested on a song on another album and was impressed enough to track down their own work. So far, this album -- The Thing with Feathers -- is their only album, but I'm eagerly waiting for more.
Stratus -- The Night Flight Orchestra
Like the 80s? Like groovy 80s rock n'roll? You need to listen to The Night Flight Orchestra. The sound and soul is there, but it's been updated with modern influences and techniques. This album just came out very recently so I don't have a ton to say about it just yet -- if you like the listed song, you'll probably like the rest of it, though.
NFO has been around since the early 2010s, so their sound is well-honed and they're very good at what they do.
Minne -- Oonagh
& Santiano
This is a duet between two German artists, and, fair warning, it is completely in German. I had just enough German in high school and college to get myself into trouble, but not enough to where I can make out more than half the words or so -- and, really, that doesn't matter at all.
I personally consider vocals to be an instrument when listening to music, and while there are bands that I consider the lyrics crucial to appreciation, most of the time it doesn't bother me to not have a full picture of what's going on if the rhythm and melody are good -- and for this song, they are most definitely good! Give this one a shot for the first minute or so...if it doesn't grab you by then, it probably won't and you can move on.
The Pot & Kettle --
The Rumjacks
This song is an absolute earworm that lived in my head endlessly for a few weeks a while back. A slowly building Irish-punk style bop, it'll have you chanting "life ain't nothing but a fever dream" to anyone around you that'll listen.
If you've heard of or listened to bands like Flogging Molly, Gaelic Storm and so forth, you'll love this. If, on the other hand, I am speaking in tongues...well, we'll get there.
Reverie/Harlequin Forest -- Opeth
Here's your metal song for the month. It's basically impossible to pick one song that is "the essence" of a band like Opeth, but Reverie/Harlequin Forest is my best shot. One massive song, clocking in at 11:39, R/HF crystalizes the full breadth of "death metal Opeth" within its expanse. After this album -- Ghost Reveries -- Opeth would go through a metamorphosis and begin to tinker with 70s prog rock/psychadelia (think Camel, Comus and Jethro Tull) for a few albums, and now they're doing something different yet again, showing signs of a third era fusing the two.
And if that anecdote doesn't convince you that all is not what it seems here, I don't know what else to say. Most of this song is clean vocals, although lead singer/guitarist Mikael Akerfeldt bridges in his signature deep growl for a portion of the song around 2:30, before resetting again to placid calm by the 4 minute mark. Things pick up again around 8 minutes, with the faster tempo -- and growls -- returning for about 2 minutes before a 1:30 tail.
I'm listing all of this to highlight that, while the song is 11 minutes long, there's a ton of variation within it, and it goes by much faster than you would expect because of that. If you end up liking this, Opeth is a band with an incredibly deep discography going back to 1995 that covers multiple genres, as I mentioned previously. There is something here for everyone, although, as most of it is either death metal or prog rock, obviously fans of those genres will have the easiest time of it.
If you can't tell from the fact that I've written easily twice as much about this song and band as I have any of the others, I really, really like Opeth. They aren't my literal favorite (that title, and my heart, belong to Seven Spires) -- but they're way, way up the list. If you've been liking my suggestions thusfar, I'd highly recommend giving them a try. If this song is too heavy, look up the album Damnation, or consider checking out their proggier work like In Cauda Venenum and Sorceress.
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Arianna McKee is Design Editor for The Express.