Top 5 favourite pieces of music or songs

[Mycernius]

I did think about putting this into the J-pop section, but then I realised that the only people who really read that forum are j-pop fans, and I think this should be open to everyone. So it is probably better here as more people will probably see it. The question is not really as easy as I thought it would be; What are you 5 favourite pieces of music or songs. When I thought about it it took a few days to weed out my favs. These are
1. The finale from Swan Lake by Tchiakovsky- A loud and vibrant piece that lets the orchestra use it's full potential
2. Chung Kuo by Vangelis - When I first heard this I loved it. From his China album
3. Adagio for Strings by Samuel Berber - Probably best known for its use in Platoon. I have a vocal arrangement of this by the Choir of New College Oxford and it is better than the original version IMO
4. Love Song for a Vampire by Annie Lennox - I like Annies voice and I think this is one of her best songs. On the Dracula soundtrack album
5. Equinox 5 by Jean Michel Jarre - One of my top favourite musicians and one of my favourite alblums. It is difficult picking a single piece from the entire album, but this is probably The Jean Michel Jarre piece of music

 

[Tsuyoiko]

1. Aqualung by Jethro Tull
2. The End by The Doors
3. Telegraph Road by Dire Straits
4. Wonderful Tonight by Eric Clapton
5. Songs of Distant Earth by Mike Oldfield

 

[Kuro_Tsubasa69]

1. Lucky You - Deftones
2. In the Mood - Glenn Miller
3. Skylark - k.d. lang
4. Embryo - Dir en Grey
5. Pull Me Under - Dream Theatre

I have lots of others, but those are my top 5 at the moment.

 

[Kinsao]

The Root of All Evil - Marilyn Manson
You Really Got Me - Van Halen cover version, originally The Kinks, of course!
The Catholic Day (It's Not the End of the World) - The Zolge (which is kind of cheating as it's a 16-minute song! lol)
Forbidden - D'espairsRay
Hai - MUCC

There are some pieces I really love, but that I can sort of carry around in my head, if you know what I mean... it's like they're a part of my brain now... (Cage - Dir en grey, for example...)

It's so hard to choose between different types of music! I didn't put any of my fave classical ones....

 

[michi]

The first three don't change. The other two do depending on my state of mind

No Doubt ~ Don't Speak
David Bowie ~ We Are The Dead
Malice Mizer - au revoir
Ours ~ Red Colored Stars
Deftones ~ Change

 

[lastmagi]

1. The ambient-electronica from Miu Sakamoto's The Eighth Colour. The whole song is itself beautiful and perhaps my favorite of all time, but it's the electronic bg that makes me love it to death.

2. Into the Deep by an amateur musician Destiny. It's a remix of a game song that can be found in vgmix.com. Celtic-influenced instrumentals and delicate layers of sound makes this piece shine even above professional musicians.

3. Winter, by Tori Amos. A beautifully written song. Kind of depressing.

4. I love the lyrics of Final Straw by REM, in spite of its simplicity. It's probably one of my favorite political songs, because it conveys so much power just through its words alone. There seems to be a kind of restrained tension in the song, with the vocalist seeming to want to break out, but the music never letting him.

5. I Manens Favn, by Kari Rueslatten. The most folk-influenced song of her album, Spindelsinn. What can I say? Beautiful voice, beautiful Norwegian words (I'm in love with those trills!), catchy, and a mystical story.

Honorable mentions (yes, I know this is cheating! )

-The Cat's pyjamas, by Isobel Campbell - Cue creepy 60's bg. Cue voiceover: "Have you ever wanted to look beyond the clouds and the stars, or know what causes the trees to bud, or what changes the darkness to light. If you talked like that, people'd call you crazy. But if I could discover just one of these things- what eternity is for example- I wouldn't care if they did think I was crazy." Cue.... light-hearted dixieland big band jazz?! Brilliant.

-Asagao, by Paris Match. Beautiful smooth (loungish?) jazz.

-Pillar of Salt by Star Salzman (again, video game remix). Combines songs Dajil and Omen from Xenogears (great game, by the way) and gives a very suiting Middle Eastern style to it. The vocalist sings passages from the Torah (I think) in original Hebrew (I think), which become even more powerful when you have the translations. Epic, grandiose, powerful, and in a way creepy. (And I don't even like most of his remixes)

 

[Kismey]

My favourites change just about everyday. Depends on my mood really, and whatever I listened to that day.

Anyway these are the ones that come to mind right now (in no particular order).

1. Todokanai Ai to Shitteita noni Osaekirezuni Aishitsuzuketa... by Gackt
2. Who I am hates who I've been by Reliant K
3. Colors by Utada Hikaru.
4. Dive to Blue by L'arc~en~ciel.
5. Art of Life by X Japan.

 

[lastmagi]

3. Colors by Utada Hikaru.

Good choice. That's my favorite song of hers

 

[Sensuikan San]

Only 5? ...... deary me!

Anyhoo ... in no order at all .... :-

"Living in the Past" -Jethro Tull

"The Banks of Green Willow" - George Butterworth

"Introduction and Allegro for Strings" (Opus 47) - Sir Edward Elgar

"Rhapsody in Blue" - Gershwin

"Concierto de Aranjuez" - Rodrigo.

and ... and .... and ... only 5...?

John

 

[Mycernius]

and ... and .... and ... only 5...?

John

Seemed a good number to me. Makes you really think about it. Good choice with Gershwin. That opening with the clarinet is one of the coolest starts to a piece of music, and so distinctive.

 

[Revenant]

Sunrise (DJ Thunda & The K-20 Allstar Remix) - Afterlife - Love the women's voice, smooth and relaxing. It starts out with waves lapping, and then a very relaxing tropical tune on a guitar.

Ebla - E.S. Posthumus - Sounds somehow revolutionary, like powerful events are taking place.

Sweet Song (Xenosaga II ending theme) - Yuki Kajiura - Joyful,vivid, yet somehow nostalgically sad.

Terra's theme - Nobuo Uematsu - The image of a noble country, with beautiful country comes to mind.

Sleepers Awake - Steve Coulter - Bach's tune put to harp and hammer dulcimer. Somehow always captures the magic of Tolkien's world, or especially Rohan for me anyways.

There are so many more, but I'll just give a sort of cross section of some of my favorites.

 

[misa.j]

My favorites change every now & then, but right now I like these ones.

1. Space Dementia
2. Time Is Running Out (both by Muse)
3. Burning Down The House by Talking Heads
4. Letter To Memphis by The Pixies
5. Once In A Life Time, again by Talking Heads

 

[ragedaddy]

Narrowing it down to 5 songs is quite difficult, but I'll give it a shot.....

1. Say it Ain't so - Weezer
2. Home - Staind
3. Twisted - Keith Sweat
4. Notorious Thugs - Biggie & BONE
5. Boku no okurimono - Chemistry

 

[-Rudel-]

Well well well. I will go off of what is in my 6 CD changer in my car.

I love music so much it's really hard to say what my top 5 are. So I usually make my own CDs with my favorite artist(s) and their songs. If I love the whole album, I will just put the artist('s') cd in.

I usuallychange them out about every 2 weeks. These CDs have been in for 1 1/2 months now.

1. Perfo (local punk/indies band)

2. Home Made CD (Favorite songs from Anti-Flag, Vood Glow Skulls, Hanoi Rocks, Guttermouth, Tsunami Bomb, and 98 Mute)

3. Home Made CD (Various Dance/Trance Remixes of Rammstein and Ayumi Hamasaki songs. [German & Japanese]

4. Home Made CD (Favorite songs from Orange Range, 175R, Shaka Labbits, Flow, & Bleach03) [Japanese]

5. D[di:] - Fire Star Man (Japanese)

6. Mongol 800 - Message (Japanese)

 

[Sensuikan San]

Seemed a good number to me. Makes you really think about it. Good choice with Gershwin. That opening with the clarinet is one of the coolest starts to a piece of music, and so distinctive.

I must agree with you ... !

I thought it was going to be easy - but when you're limited to five - you really have to think about it, don't you!

My apologies, therefore, to : Mozart, Beethoven, Mick Jagger, Annie Lennox, Dave Brubeck, DeBussey, Frank Bridge, Hubert Parry, Lionel Bax, Lennon and McCartney, 'Long John' Baldry ...... oooh! So many!

ﾆ淡ﾆ停?｡ﾆ停?徑

 

[Kinsao]

3. Home Made CD (Various Dance/Trance Remixes of Rammstein and Ayumi Hamasaki songs. [German & Japanese]

Hey, Rudel, who's made the Rammstein remixes? I love Rammstein!

 

[kirei_na_me]

Wow, Mycernius and lasmagi, I am so impressed with your lists!

Why? Because I have never seen anyone include Love Song for a Vampire by Annie Lennox and Winter by Tori Amos on any list. I am so happy to see this! Those are two of my favorite songs and it is rare to find someone else who appreciates them! You two are great!

It is very, very difficult for me to pick only 5. My taste in music is so random, that my top 5 is constantly changing. It depends on what I'm feeling at the time. I will think about it awhile, though, and try to come back and post them later.

 

[-Rudel-]

Hey, Rudel, who's made the Rammstein remixes? I love Rammstein!

Let's see here: Jacob Hellner, Clawfinger, Alex Empire, Meshuggah, Battery, Charlie Clouser, DJ Drug, Azad, Front 242, Krieger, Pet Shop Boys, Johan Edlund, KMFDM, Ad Rock, Apocalyptica, Rob Zombie.

Chris Vrenna from NIN is getting ready to do a remix on Rammstein's new Single from Rosenrot. He worked with Marilyn Manson, Rob Zombie, & The Smashing Pumpkins.

 

[Kinsao]

Oh wow! Thanks for the infos!

 

[kirei_na_me]

In no particular order:

The Doors - The Crystal Ship
NIN - Something I Can Never Have
Tori Amos - China
Bob Dylan - Lay Lady Lay
Pearl Jam - Black

Rudel has good taste in music too!

 

[sadakoyamamura]

Well mine would be:

Kanon by Pachelbel, this has got to be my wedding march.
Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy by Tsaikovsky.
Tender Passion by Origen
The Man Who Sold the World by Nirvana
Dreaming With You Tonight by Selena


But I could name more... Can I? Can I?

 

[Hyde_is_my_anti-drug]

My current top 5 are:
1. "Lyudi Invalidy (Dangerous and Moving)" t.A.T.u
2. "Horizon" Hyde
3. "Illuminati" Malice Mizer
4. "I Must Be Dreaming" Evanescence
5. "Dive to Blue" L'Arc~en~Ciel