I'm Floating Toward the Sun

The second week of classes just finished up and I have started to get my routine down to a science. I know where I am going at what time. I have my schedule memorized and lunch time is never an issue. While I walk around campus, I always have my iPod and I find myself listening to select songs more than others. It seems as though every week it changes.

I listen to a lot of music all of the time, but my ears are generally dominated by a few songs each week. The top five songs of the week are what drives me and makes sure that I am awake and ready for the next class.

This past week was quite a mix of different music. A little punk, a little metal, a little of I'm not sure what to call it.

"Take a Bow" - Muse

The song starts almost enigmatically. A synthesizer draws you away to another galaxy far, far away from this one. The song tells a story of what could be a corrupt leader being tried by it's subjects for all of the wrong that he or she has committed.Muse has made some pretty weird music. Some of it just drives like a rock song and some of it jumps like a pop song. These guys are well-rounded in the music that they make. "Take a Bow" is from Black Holes and Revelations, and album that makes all of these leaps in just under an hour.

The words begin softly as if the people are just starting to realize what their leader has been doing. The people start to tell the leader that he or she will pay for the things that have been done. As the song continues, it all starts to pick up.

My favorite part of the song starts around two minutes in when the echo of Matt Bellamy's voice repeat in an almost robotic fashion. The song was used in the trailer for the movie Watchmen and that's what really got me into it.

"Right in Two" - Tool

I have always said that Tool is the new-age Pink Floyd. The things that Keenan says are just so outlandish. Maybe that's one of the reasons that I enjoy them so much.

Progressive rock is something that I really like. Odd rhythms and bizarre phrasing keep me listening day in and day out.

"Right in Two" comes off of 10,000 Days, a concept album about a man abducted by aliens and his struggle in expressing his story to everyone else.

I'll be honest, I have no idea what this song is about. I can't put my finger on it. He says things that are just so insane, I can't figure it out. My only hypothesis is that the song is in the first person point of view from the man abducted and that it's the way the things he says sound to everyone that listens--complete nonsense.

I think that the real reason I was listening to this song so many times this week is because I was trying to figure out what he was talking about. The fact that it's really calm and soothing only adds to it.

"Nocturnal" - The Black Dahlia Murder

This is heavier than all of the other songs from this week. I don't know what it is about these guys, but I can't get enough of them as band altogether. Their

music, especially the album Nocturnal, is amazing.

While I was listening to this album, I knew that I wanted to put something from it on the list this week, but I had a hard time figuring out which one.

I think what sold me was the chorus when he says, "Nocturnal majesty, sworn to black we'll always be." The way he screams those words and the effect they put on his voice is unlike anything I have heard from other death metal albums.

"San Francisco" - Me First and the Gimme Gimmes

This song is weird. Me First and the Gimme Gimmes are so great. They make decent punk rock without being total douchebags. The album Blow in the Wind is a series of covers. They reinvented songs by performers like The Beatles, Bob Dylan, and Cat Stevens.

This song was originally done by a man by the name of Scott McKenzie. I don't know anything about him. Until I looked it up, I had never heard of him. It's not a very long album--only about thirty minutes or so. This was another album that I had a hard time picking a song from. I listened to this over and over while I was waiting for class and this song jumped at me the most.

During the chorus, he sings rather high and for whatever reason, I liked that the best. It's interesting and fun.

"Sun of Nothing" - Between the Buried and Me

Colors is an album that I am kicking myself in the butt for not listening to earlier. I just got the album this week and I am amazed. It may be one of the best albums I have ever heard. With eight songs standing at one hour, it's a masterpiece.

Every song on the album links to the next. In essence, the album isn't split into tracks as much as it is split into movements. It all starts and ends with a piano and is injected with every genre of music in between. This is a metal album with a polka breakdown. With these guys, nothing is taboo.

The song I like the most, or at least so far, is "The Sun of Nothing." It's an amazing metal song with a mind-blowing drum intro, incredible guitar work and beyond solid vocals. The bass work is out of this world. What really sells me on this song, though, is the soft part at about eight minutes in. "I'm floating towards the sun, the sun of nothing." His voice just sounds so honest. I have been singing it out loud for the past two days.

This week was pretty good. Even though I was just thinking about the coming long weekend, it was overall a good week and I think the music reflects that.

"Angels on the sideline..."