Friday Favorites: Music Edition

This week we’re talking about favorite songs. Current favorite songs, at least, because my “favorite songs” change with the weather…or my mood…or who I have a crush on at the moment…or whether I’m at work, or driving, or folding laundry. So these are the top ten songs I’m listening to over and over lately.

1. Scouting For Girls, “Heartbeat”

This song…it just makes me ecstatically happy. It makes me want to dance, or to have a group of adorable British boys in suits appear out of thin air and sing it to me when I’m having a bad day. “I’ll give you my jacket, I’ll give you my heart.” Gah, so sweet!

2. Jay Sean, “Stolen”

(Sorry about the Russian subtitles over everything. It’s the only video I could find that allowed embedding.)

The video annoys me because a) cheating and b) Bipasha Basu, but I love the song.

3. Khaled, “El Arbi”

I was reading a cookbook a few weeks ago that had a list of music to listen to when you’re cooking different ethnic foods, and it mentioned Khaled as an Algerian pop superstar whose music was insanely catchy. And since I’m a sucker for Bollywood and bellydance-type music, I had to check it out. And now I have a new favorite singer.

4. Gym Class Heroes featuring Neon Hitch, “A** Back Home”

I always hear these songs on the radio and think, “Meh,” until one day something clicks and I suddenly love them. I like the edited version of this song because I’m not a big fan of profanity, especially when it’s completely out of sync with the tone of the song.

5. Ester Dean featuring Carlinhos Brown, “Let Me Take You To Rio”

I haven’t seen the movie Rio, but I heard the soundtrack was good. I love this song. It makes me think of walking on the beach and fruity tropical drinks and palm trees.

6. Benny Dayal and Aditi Singh Sharma, “Choomantar” from Mere Brother Ki Dulhan

Some Bollywood movies take me completely by surprise – I don’t think they’re going to be all that great and then BAM! New favorite. Mere Brother Ki Dulhan (My brother’s bride) was like that. And the soundtrack has been my most-played of the past few months. All the songs are good, but this one is my particular favorite.

7. Akon and Hamsika Iyer, “Chammak Challo” from Ra.One

Here’s my deep dark secret: I love Akon. Here’s my not-so-deep-dark-secret: I love Bollywood. Put them together, and I’m very happy!

8. The Civil Wars, “20 Years”

I have this thing about country music: I don’t like it. So when everyone started going crazy about The Civil Wars, I didn’t want to like them. But then I heard one of their songs, not knowing who was singing, and now I love them. Go figure.

9. Shakira, “Ciega, Sordomuda”

I always feel like I have to point out that I liked Shakira before everyone else in America had heard of her. (Okay, so I read about her in Sassy magazine. Still. It was before the “Whenever, Wherever” days, and way before the “She-Wolf in your closet” song.) And she was SO MUCH BETTER when she was singing in Spanish. Just sayin’.

10. Mumford & Sons, “Hopeless Wanderer”

My brother got me obsessed with this one. Now I can’t stop listening.

5 songs the radio should stop playing right now!

Because my taste is the only one that matters, obviously.

Assuming right has prevailed and Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, and Britney Spears have all been banned from the radio, these are the other songs I never want to hear again. At least until 20 years from now when someone does a “Music of the 00s” retrospective and our kids all laugh at what we thought was music.

1. “Moves Like Jagger”

Because every time he says “take me by the tongue and I’ll know you”, I picture someone grabbing someone else’s tongue and leading them around, and it just sounds painful to me.

2. “Someone Like You”

Yeah, I liked this song, too. The first time I heard it. By the 400th, I was just wishing someone would give the poor girl a cough drop.

3. “Pumped-Up Kicks”

Because it’s just really freaking annoying.

4. “If I Die Young”

Morbid much?

5. “Love in a Hopeless Place”

Because it gets stuck in my head and I’m really tired of hearing “we found love in a hopeless place” over and over and over again.

Music and Musings

When I need to get a lot done at work, I go to YouTube and pick a song I feel like listening to. Then as that song ends I pick a new one from the suggestions on the sidebar and see where it takes me. Yesterday I started with Florence and the Machine and ended up listening to Don Omar.

“Danza Kuduro”

“Taboo” – I like the little dance he does at the beginning.

I wish I understood Spanish better (I can read it fairly well, but spoken Spanish goes right over my head). I’m always afraid that what I think is just a fun song is actually extremely scandalous.

This week for breakfast I’ve been eating “Magical Breakfast Cream” from The French Women Don’t Get Fat Cookbook. It’s really kind of revolting. You put some yogurt in a bowl, add flaxseed oil and lemon juice and honey, and then ground-up walnuts and crushed shredded wheat cereal. It tastes like…well, you know how when you throw up your mouth tastes like bile or stomach acid or something? It tastes kind of like that for the first bite or two. Then it gets better, but it’s still not very appetizing. But it’s apparently really good for you, and it does keep me full from breakfast at 7 to lunchtime at 12:30, so I’m still eating it. This was the fourth day, and it’s growing on me.

And some Bollywood, since Limette requested it: I watched Namastey London the other night, and liked it a lot. It took me a little while to get into it, because I felt more sympathetic towards the dad than Katrina Kaif’s character, but once they got to India it was really fun. I thought it was an interesting twist on Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam – in both movies the unwanted/arranged marriage husband gives up the woman he loves so she can be with the man she thinks she wants, and in the end his sacrifice is rewarded with his love being returned. Namastey London is a lot less melodramatic about the whole thing, and doesn’t have Salman Khan acting like a nincompoop, so I like it better.

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Having finished season 5 of Doctor Who, I have to eat a few of my words from my last post. I loved the last 3 episodes, and not just because it was nice, for a change, not to be sniffling and hunting for kleenexes during the season finale. I loved Davies, but he was a little too obsessed with the tear-jerker endings. And Rory was awesome. And Amy. And even River Song stopped annoying me and I could finally see how she could be tolerable. So there you go. I still think the lizard people were boring, and the angels this season were disappointing, but we can’t have everything.

And now for a bunch of YouTube videos, since I have nothing else to say.

“Lonely’s Lunch” by You Say Party – I’m not sure what the video has to do with the song, but I love it.

“Apology” by Safetysuit – I saw this used for a Doctor Who video, which wasn’t very good, but I liked the song.

I don’t know that I would have thought to combine Florence and the Machine with North and South, but somehow it works.

“Mahi” from Raaz 2, a movie I have no interest in except for this song.

One more: “Humko Deewana Kar Gaye”, from the movie of the same name. Ridiculous movie, great soundtrack.