10-DAY MUSIC CHALLENGE - Day Two: my 9 favourite songs

Continuing with my 10-Day Music Challenge, here are my 9 favourite songs.

As a composer, it's nearly always the music that attracts me to a song first and the lyrics a distant second, if at all. As you'll see there's even a song in my list that I disagree with lyrics but the music is just so amazing....

Click here to hear my favourite 9 songs as a Spotify playlist (minus the Peter Gabriel which isn't available on Spotify!)

1. I Can See Clearly Now - Hothouse Flowers



Such a great song, and I particularly love the Hothouse Flowers version.

2. Leaving on a Jet Plane



A simply lovely song that takes me back to my Uni days for some reason (no, I wasn't at Uni in the '60s!)

3. Come What May (from "Moulin Rouge")



I love the power and OTT-ness of this - a tour de force, a wall of emotion.

4. Finlandia Hymn - Sibelius



Not because of any religious reasons, as is well known I'm an atheist/anti-theist, but just because it's such a magnificent melody. Along similar lines are I Vow To Thee, My Country and Jerusalem - great tunes, somewhat spoilt with religious lyrics. This version is in Finnish so it sort of nullifies the lyrics if you don't know Finnish!

5. Father, Son - Peter Gabriel



I loved the Millennium Dome for so many things but, in particular, the spectacular show that happened 3 or 4 times every day. The soundtrack was written by Peter Gabriel and this is a very touching song.

6. Somewhere (from "West Side Story") - Bernstein



The best song from the greatest musical ever written. By the time this is sing at the end of West Side Story I'm always blubbing!

7. One Day Like This - Elbow



It's overuse as inspiring background music by lazy television producers has made this a bit of a cliché, but it doesn't stop it being a tremendous song and one I'll always turn up a little!

8. Time After Time - Cyndi Lauper



I liked this song a lot, then it was used in Sliding Doors, one of my favourite movies of all time!

9. Jai Ho (from "Slumdog Millionaire") - A. R. Rahman



I never understood why Slumdog Millionaire was promoted as a "feel-good movie" with so many awful things happening in it. However, this song is a amazingly feel-good song and deservedly won the Oscar for best song. It's a shame that the Pussycat Dolls put out a version with them warbling over it and unable to pronounce the title but this version, the original is great!

That was VERY difficult! - so many songs I like - so many that just didn't quite make the final cut! I could easily have included songs by Blur, The Divine Comedy, Philip Glass, Ash, Wheatus, Bill Whelan, Dixie Chicks, Seth Lakeman..... the list could go on and on and on!

Click here to listen to my near misses as a Spotify playlist.

What have I missed? What are your favourite songs?


This is the plan of my 10-Day Music Challenge - I'm currently on Day Two:

Day 1 - My 10 favourite albums
Day 2 - My 9 favourite songs
Day 3 - The first 8 songs to come on shuffle
Day 4 - My 7 favourite bands
Day 5 - My 6 favourite song covers
Day 6 - 5 Bands for my dream gig line up
Day 7 - My 4 guilty pleasures (artists or songs)
Day 8 - My 3 favourite vocalists
Day 9 - My 2 favourite music videos
Day 10 - My all time favourite gig

10-DAY MUSIC CHALLENGE - Day One: my 10 favourite albums

This list will, I'm sure, be in a continual state of flux. At the moment these are the albums that I'd say are my 10 favourites.

1. A Short Album About Love - The Divine Comedy

The greatest album of all time? Funny, sad, catchy and brilliantly orchestrated.

Click here to listen on Spotify.










2. Different Class - Pulp

A mirror to 90s' Britain. Perfect songwriting.

Click here to listen on Spotify.











3. Bat Out of Hell - Meat Loaf

Still Mr. Loaf's greatest moment. A perfect set of songs written by Jim

Click here to listen on Spotify.











4. New Blood - Peter Gabriel

Orchestral re-imaginings of Peter Gabriel's greatest hits - simply stunning.



5. Symphony No. 3 - Gorecki

Tragic and atmospheric - slow-moving and emotional.

Click here to listen on Spotify.











6. Cosmic Thing - The B-52s

Just great fun.



7. Moulin Rouge - Original soundtrack

Surely the greatest soundtrack album ever?

Click here to listen on Spotify.











8. The Seldom Seen Kid - Elbow

A brilliantly crafted set of songs - more than just One Day Like This.

Click here to listen on Spotify.









9. Strike - The Baseballs

Great upbeat rock and roll covers of pop songs.

Click here to listen on Spotify.











10. Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends - Coldplay

Yes, yes, everyone hates Coldplay and they're really boring.... well, sorry, I quite like them and I particularly like this album.

Click here to listen on Spotify.









What do you think? What are your favourite albums?




Here's the plan for the rest of my 10-day Music Challenge

10 things I like

After I wrote my blogpost 65 Things I Hate, several people challenged me to come up with a list of things I like - some wondering whether I just hated everything!

So, after much consideration, here is a list of 10 things that I really like (in no particular order):


1. Jellyfish - I think they're beautiful. I'd love to have a room where the walls were an aquarium full of wonderfully lit jellyfish...





2. Debating for the sake of debating

3. Old, historic cities like Oxford, York, Bath and Edinburgh





4. Composing and conducting



5. Cathedrals and other big churches (which may seem odd as I'm an atheist - but I love the architecture and scale of the buildings - I find nothing spiritual in them)



6. Going to the cinema (particularly when I'm the only person there)

7. The Adagio from Schubert's String Quintet in C




8. Art galleries

9. Silence (or as near to silence as possible)




10. Gadgets - particuarly my iPhone, iPad, MacBook and iMac....

TOP 10: Favourite Movies

I've done various Top 10 lists about movies but, so far, not compiled a Top 10 of my all-time favourite movies. Until now!

They may not be classics, and some might not even be very good, but they're my favourites - the 10 I'd take to a Desert Island, we're that situation to arise.

It's quite a mixture and, I guess, it's always changeable - if I had done this yesterday or last month the 10 might not be exactly the same.

1: Lost In Translation

2: Moulin Rouge



3: Picnic At Hanging Rock

4: West Side Story



5: Schindler's List



6: The Mission

7: Scott of The Antarctic

8: The Man in the White Suit

9: A Room With A View



10: Amelie



So what would your Top 10 include?

And what would you recommend I watch based on my list?