Songs of a Lifetime

Ok, so I ripped this from one of those cheesy facebook chains I posted ages ago, but I do believe it will give a decent insight into... I dunno, my writing style, I guess. I'm not really trained, or professional, or anything. I'm doing this as an amateur project. If I manage to take off, brilliant! Thanks in advance! ILU for reading!

If not, then meh. it'll keep my brain a bit more active :P

Anyway, the cheesy facebook chain was ''fill in your top 10 songs, chain your friends to find theirs''

Here's mine, in random order:

Some of these might seem whiny or over emotional. Sorry. :P

1) Chasing Cars - Snow Patrol

Come on, gotta get ONE cheesy reason in here, surely? Well, in this note, this is it. This was the 'song' for me and dawn as a couple. We were both worn out one night, sat up at like 3/4 am talking about random nothings, and this song came on media player.

It went something like this:

me: Oh man, this song totally fits my mood right now.
Her: hm?
me: ''If I lay here, If I just lay here
Would you lie with me, and just forget the world?''
her: Chasing cars ^^
me: we should totally steal that as our song :P

And from then on it was. Regardless of how shitty and complicated everything's been since then, even though hearing it now makes me miss her, and want her to be back with me, it still raises a smile every single time. I'll never, ever get tired of hearing it.

2) Komm, Susser Tod (Come Sweet Death) - Shiro Sagisu (Beware - this paragraph contains spoilers for the original version of Neon genesis: Evangelion. It may not have any bearing on the REBUILD series though, but if you're watching that and thinking of going back, keep that in mind)

Put simply, imo, this is the most beautiful song I have in my entire collection. When I watched the anime, it was an odd time. I was getting pretty 'meh' about the whole deal with life, to be honest. Watching the anime for the first time... is crazy. You won't get half the stuff you see and hear, and the rest will be flat out crazy. End Of Evangelion, the film with an alternate perspective on the end of the series, doesn't let up on either half. The imagery is insane, and the songs playing are mostly used for pure brutality in juxtaposition.

See, the imagery for the section while this song plays in is, quite literally, the end of the world. All of humanity, already thinned out to half it's modern population by a disaster 15 years prior to the series, is being mushed into one, giant, singular being. Everyone is losing their individuality, and their bodies are being destroyed. Thing is, all of it LOOKS gorgeous. And as I said, the OST is every bit to match. This song kicks in when the lead character is trying desperately to cling to his individuality, and reaches out to the main female character. She promptly, brutally, and utterly rejects him, basically telling him that he sucks, he's weak, and pathetic, and she'd never help him.

This song kicks in as they get into a violent fight, and he begins to strangle her... and honestly? It's the most beautiful 7 minutes ever put to record, as far as i'm concerned. Whenever i'd hear it, i'd always feel oddly calm, more stable. And again, after dawn, it changed... I'm sorry I brought her into this again, but seriously? After she started to change me, i'd hear this song, and actually get hpeful. I'd feel better, smile, and cheer up a LOT. It was weird.

It's long winded, sorry. And it probably doesn't make much sense. I guess you have to see it.

3) Shinobi Vs Dragon Ninja - Lostprophets

I've always LOVED this band, ever since the first time I heard this song. Which, as a friend said in his version of this, was at the tender age of 15, going to Blaises on my first night out. First I get planted on the floor, with a guy landing on the back of my head, or my back, (I don't remember exactly) Then this one guy gets his leg fucked up by us, or someone close by. While the guy is laid out on the floor waiting for an ambulance, the crowd leaves a gap, forms a barrier, and leaves him to it. Business as usual. It took ages to track this song down to a band (I wasn't really musically aware of much at the time) but once I did, I got the album, and that was that.

They also used to play this with Faith and and Robbie Williams (though I dunno why the latter got that reaction) when everyone used to go apeshit for it at the arena. I remember that time when everyone came from seeing pitchshifter at the town hall and the entire room got fucked up. I looked around to see everyone i'd come with standing and putting people down HAHA. There was also the time me and malcolm robertson took each other out, picked each other up, THEN realised who the other was, shook hands and ran back into the pit afterwards. haha :P

It always reminds me of that period just towards the end of being at macmillan. It reminds me of the few wonderful people that I found that didn't talk shit about me, and actually talked to me, without just flat out labelling me a freak. I'll always appreciate the fact that I knew them, and actually made the effort to talk.... however little it was that I actually DID say much. :P

4) The End Of Heartache - Killswitch Engage

This will easily be the least personal reason for any song in this note. This song is simply awesome. That's all there is to it. it's just one of those songs that grabs you, and doesn't let go until it's over. Then leaves you wanting more. :P

5) Supermoves (Animatrix Edit) - Overseer

This one is less of a ''it reminds me of people'' thing, and more of a personal music taste matter. See, I heard this on the animatrix, in the episode where Humans and Machines went to war and fucked up the planet, it's the song playing when there's that big confrontation on some huge, desolate battlefield, and they bombard each other with bombs, shortly before the tide begins to rapidly shift towards the machines, and humans realise how stupid they are.

I went and bought the OST album off the back of that, and that is what really shook me out of sticking to rock, and moving on to basically being all ''If it sounds good to me, i'll listen'' As a result, a LOT of stuff I never would have listened to before that is in my CD collection/on my computer now.

6) Jesus Bleibet Meine Freunde (i'm sure that is in the wrong tense/using the wrong form of the word friend. Yay GCSE german?) I don't know the composer.

Following on in the Film End of Evangelion, this continues as the films soundtrack once the brutality is over, and Komm, Susser Tod ends. It's the first classical piece of music I ever liked, that's all there is too it really. Aside from being a sublime song, as a result of this, I even have some beethoven and a few other classical bits in my music collection.

Who saw that coming? Honestly? :P

7) Wait And Bleed - Slipknot

Now, there are so many bands and albums, and songs from this period in time I could have chosen, but given who it is, and how much I listened to them, it really had to be these guys, and this song.

I got their Self titled/long number album for my 16th birthday. Rock had just come mainstream again, ironically thanks to Limp Bizkit releasing an average follow up to a great album, and a lot of people were jumping on the bandwagon. I won't lie, I got that album because I just liked their version of the mission impossible theme (and also because they made the entrance music for The Undertaker's new personality on the WWF xD), but then I got this one just because it was rock music, and I wanted to look into it. Yeah, you are reading that right - I too, was jumping on that bandwagon, in the beginning.

And let's face it, for someone with limited musical awareness and little interest, this was a baptism of fire. Jumping from Limp Bizkit to Slipknot? It's a pretty hefty leap right there. And at first I really couldn't even tell which song was which. it was so fast, so brutal, my ears just couldn't keep up. But eventually, I started to listen to it more and more, I started noticing Corey Taylor's vocals seeping through and grabbing my attention, and this was the first song to do so. From then on, I was hooked. As some of you would know, I just kept looking for the harder bands, and the ones with kickass songs. Even I will admit there's plenty of bands I used to dismiss for lacking 'that killer track'

Unlike earlier additions to this list, it's hardly club friendly, so it's not like it brings back memories of being out and drunk with everyone at blaises, or the arena. However, the amount of time I spent listening to it, it's natural that it ended up being emotionally bound to memories of the people I spent time and had fun witha t the time. Those of you reading this know who you are.

Again, thanks for not just dismissing me like most of the others. I owe you guys a lot. This song will always remind me of that, no matter where I go or what I do.

7) Sway - Lostprophets

The only artist to get mentioned twice. If Shinobi was a reminder of being in school and going to blaises and the like, then sway is a reminder of college. I could have gone with any number of songs from the album, but I went with the best. This is the ultimate chillout song. I ALWAYS listen to it coming down from a night out before I go to bed. And even though fucked things up for myself while I was there, it's a good reminder that I actually did have fun while I was there anyway. Of course, with it always comes a pang of regret, wishing that i'd worked harder, and done more, but what can I do about that now? I don't consider the time a waste, however, because of the fun times I had with everyone.

From playing Shithead with bob and everyone else wherever there was the space, to fucking around with Jordan and Adam and everyone, or just dicking around with Richard and Chris, and that group, I felt a lot happier then than I had in the compulsory education system. Of course, that a lot of the people that didn't like me were gradually being thinned out didn't play a small part, but for the third time, it was being surrounded by awesome people too.

8) The Running Free - Coheed and Cambiria

This is more recent, and a little shallow. Essentially, it's the 'theme song' I took and assosciated with my maple story character. It doesn't mean much, it's not like I hold pride in the guy or anything, but my entire time there has been spent proving a lot of people wrong, and it's not even like i've been trying to.

First, I picked something of an underdog class, one considered one of the worst in the game.
Second, I took a statistical build that technically made me weaker
Third, I shot past evey single level target that people said i'd never reach in a million years.
Fourth, i've achieved times soloing bosses that people claim are impossible for my class. I made the guy THAT strong.
Lastly, I am the 11th highest character of my class on my entire server. People are talking about me at times like i'm ''destined to stand above the rest as an example in the number one spot''

Now, don't get me wrong, I don't really take any of that seriously. And contrary to how it reads, I don't hold ANY pride in any of that. To me, aside from some sentimentality in it being emotionally attached to the happiest period of my life, and making some REALLY good friends there (ohi cheri <3) it's just a character in a 2d field. Pixels. Data. Eventually it will be destroyed when the game shuts down. I'm aware of that, and have no qualms with it. It's BOUND to happen.

But think about this: I don't seriously care about the game. I like playing it for fun, and I liked messing around with the friends I made there, but I never really put much of my effort into it. Imagine what i'll be able to do when I DO care about something properly, and i'm motivated to achieve my potential. Truthfully it scares me.

But yeah, the song is basically, every time someone tells me I can't do something for being the class I am, I stick on this song and play it. Then I go and do exactly what i've been told i'd never be able to. :D

9) Motion Picture Soundtrack - Radiohead

One last Dawn Related song. I got into Radiohead in 2007. As some of you would know, we were harassed by her ex for the first 6 months or so of our relationship. When we finally got rid of him, things were a LOT calmer, and we would pretty much be there specifically to see each other, with nothing else really making any difference to us. At the time I was also volunteering full time at Barnardo's in middlesbrough, and no matter how much it wore me out, or how little sleep I got, I would always try to make sure I saw her. I was essentially being awake from like midnight to 5 PM every day, and sleeping for the rest of it lol.

When I started listening to this stuff, the dust was settling, and we were getting used to the calm again. It was just really nice, I guess. Radiohead always take me back to that period when we were happiest, and getting along best. Of all the songs I could have chosen, this one takes it for being, well... it's just a gorgeous thing to listen to. Very calm, very melodic, and never boring, it's one of the ones I could just stick on repeat and leave it to play for hours at a time :)

10) How To Save A Life - The Fray

The last entry, but by no means the least. Whenever this song plays, I tend to think of the friendships i've let go over the years, and the people that matter to me, but I rarely contact. In no way do/did I ever stop valuing anyone that's happened to, but it just happened anyway. =/

If anyone in question is reading this, i'm sorry.

So yeah, that's it. I hope it paints a decent picture of the kind of things I like (or rather, some of the picture)

Right now, i'm only really planning on writing up a review of Start Something by Lostprophets. Then maybe something I hate after that. If you have any requests (Dawn already said she wanted me to review an Otep album) then just post it. I do believe guests are allowed to post, so there's no annoying email spam or anything. Just go ahead and leave your suggestions. Thanks for reading :)