Seven Songs in Seven Days is a challenge that has made the rounds on Facebook. It’s pretty simple – post a song and your reason for choosing it every day for a week and nominate others to do the same.
If you were to ask me tomorrow, no doubt my choices would change, but for now these are my seven songs.
- Patrick Wolf ~ Overture
I love Patrick Wolf, the staggeringly original folktronica surrealist. I was introduced to his music by a university friend and we’ve since seem him in concert twice. Overture was the first of his songs that I heard and it’s a perfect introduction to his style – quirky lyrics, unusual instrumentation, electric violins and Wolf’s deep, passionate vocals.
2. David Bowie ~ Sunday
For an artist with a career as long and varied as David Bowie’s, there are dozens of songs I could choose for this. I’d heard most of his big hits but never explored any of his albums until Heathen was released. The opening track for that album, Sunday, became an instant favourite and was the first song I listened to after learning of his untimely death. I love the quiet melancholy of this song and the triumphant mood shift at the end.
3. Nouvelle Vague ~ Master and Servant
A French acoustic cover band that specialises in reimagining New Wave classics with female vocalists shouldn’t work. But work it does and some of their covers have actually surpassed the originals. This piece features Mélanie Pain in perhaps my favourite of her Nouvelle Vague performances. Pain has since released a couple of excellent solo albums and is heavily featured on Villeneuve’s first album.
4. Fleetwood Mac ~ Woman of 1000 Years
Everybody knows the Fleetwood Mac of the late 1970s and 80s, but they’d been around for almost a decade before that in an ever-changing lineup. Woman of 1000 Years is one of my favourite songs from that earlier period and features Danny Kirwan, a key early member who has been all but forgotten today.
5. Villeneuve ~ Dry Marks of Memory
Villeneuve’s second album was released with so little fanfare I didn’t learn about it until months later. Criminally under-rated and virtually unknown in this country, Villeneuve is a truly talented artist. Creating a completely different sound to his first album, Dry Marks of Memory is the title track. A song that I can listen to on constant repeat, the lyrics are full of creative metaphors that I just love. There are a few artists that I like to listen to while I write and Villeneuve is near the top of that list.
6. General Elektriks ~ Raid the Radio
In the spring of 2012 I took a holiday to Brazil with two friends. Some songs evoke memories every time you hear them; this song takes me back to lunches in restaurants along Copacabana beach, lazy evening drinks in Santa Teresa, a craft shop on a cobbled side street in Paraty. Everywhere we went, that song seemed to be playing. When I got back home I looked it up and have loved it ever since – to me it’s a perfect song for summer.
7. The Doors ~ The End
Relatively few songwriters are true poets – Jim Morrison was one. At their best The Doors created visceral, highly visual song poems. Almost any of their tracks could have made my list, but today it’s The End. Like all the best songs, this should be played LOUD.
There you have my choices and my reasons. Do you like my taste? Did I choose a good band but the wrong song? Do you have recommendations for me? Let me know in the comments below.
© Calum Campbell 2016.
Calum Campbell 