My Taste in Ten Songs

I grew up surrounded by music, so here, I’ve tried to distill the fundamentals of my musical taste into ten pieces of music, starting with…

Radiohead - Pyramid Song

The difficulty in writing good music is finding the balance between familiarity and experimentation. Of all my favourite bands, Radiohead consistently finds that line, all while throwing out different sounds for each album. Pyramid Song is warm, yet longing - its haunting melody draped over lush piano. The real musical trick is that when the drums arrives, you realise the jerky rhythms have been in 4/4 the entire time.

Claude Debussy - Arabesque no. 1

Pianos are going to play a large part in the choices here - an instrument I grew up with and played as a child. For piano, Debussy is my classical pick. Often, he’s less concerned with distinct melodies, preferring to use harmonic palettes and textures to create evocative soundscapes. Here, we’re treated to delicate cross-rhythmic melodies, and long tension building arpeggiated passages (you’d better believe that pulling this off is very satisfying)

Susanne Sundfør - Memorial

I found Susanne off the back of Ten Love Songs, her deepest dive into pure synthpop. The heavy dancepop tracks with their dark beats are exactly My Kind Of Thing, but then there’s Memorial, where she shows off her powerful and versatile voice, before a lush instrumental interplay between strings and piano.

Keane - Somewhere Only We Know

The nostalgia pick - While all my friends were getting into cool music like Red Hot Chilli Peppers and Eminem, I headed straight for the mid-tempo piano ballads of Keane. Somewhere Only We Know was the first song I’d ever called a favourite. It has a real yearning quality to it, but importantly, it’s easy enough to play on piano.

Todd Terje - Alfonso Muskedunder

If you like bouncy synthpop and have a strong stomach for kitsch, Todd Terje will be a very good time! His, to date, only album is full of playful dance bops that musically explore more than your average dance tracks. Alfonso Muskedunder is a explosive jazz-electronica track that exhibits his best assets - experimental (but not at the expense of being catchy), quirky, but mostly just fun!

Go_A - Shum

I’ve watched the Eurovision Song Contest for at least 20 years, but some awful friends of mine enabled the addiction further. It isn’t known for bold musical exploration, but the bombastic spectacle more than makes up for that. When a country does go for something unique, it stands out, and Ukraine’s 2021 entry is a dynamic fusion of national folk music and electronica that builds and builds. I love the stupid little triangle hit before the final verse thunders in.

Cardiacs - RES

Cardiacs are your favourite band’s favourite band. You’d be forgiven on first listen for believing a recording studio let a bunch of 7 year olds loose with their expensive drumkit, but the more you listen, the more you realise just how tightly composed the chaos really is. They play with everything from unusual tonality, rapid rhythmic shifts, and aggressively abrasive instrumentation. RES starts out normal enough, then launches into an instrumental spectacular that won’t rest for two seconds. They could even pull it off flawlessly live!

John Grant - GMF

Self belief anthems usually fall flat because they’re a product of a music industry looking to exploit teenage insecurity. John Grant is demonstrably not that: a gay man who dealt with a homophobic upbringing, addictions, and HIV. His version of a self belief anthem is firmly tongue-in-cheek and self deprecating, but very welcoming, and it reads all the more sincere because of that.

Fleet Foxes - The Shrine / An Argument

This track encompasses everything about Fleet Foxes, my favourite band. Evocative lyrics, backed by Robin Pecknold at his most expressive; warm, intimate vocal harmonies that flow over a variety of terrains from delicate guitars to tense strings. Songs that make you feel like you’ve been on a journey are the most rewarding, and by the time the saxophone cacophany dies, I feel like I’ve been everywhere.

Gerald Finzi - Magnificat

Choral music is something magical - the confluence of pure human voice to create lush soundscapes. Finzi’s Magnificat is my favourite choral piece because of the sheer variety of chorus. He weaves the text into the most exquisite melody lines and switches the mood effortlessly - quiet and somber, building to grand crescendos. Our conductor always told us to sing the Amen “like the most beautiful thing you’ve ever heard.” And he’s right. Because it is.