In the midst of getting rid of this stupid cold, helping Ryan get over his stupid cold, waiting for my birthday, waiting for my Chinese "School Rumble" costumes and watching too many episodes of "Parking Wars" on Netflix, I thought I'd post about the music that I like. Oh yeah.
Do you have a song that just sounds so right you get a chill and the hairs on your arms stand up? Yeah. There are a few for me. Every now and then I'll find a new one, but these two always do that for me: "Owner of a Lonely Heart" by YES and "Rio" by Duran Duran. There's something about the way they're arranged that just sounds so pleasing. They're from the same era and the bass is incredible in both; they're bright, glistening examples of exactly what good 80s music was and still is.
Another group of songs that I've just discovered to give me chills are the songs on the soundtrack to Elizabeth I The Virgin Queen starring Anne-Marie Duff and Inception's Tom Hardy. The soundtrack was put together by Martin Phipps and features Elizabethan sounding songs performed by a group called Mediaeval Baebes. Every single song is absolutely gorgeous and they will immediately put you in a mind to don a ruff and grab a quill and a bottle of ink to write your own sonnets. The movie was wonderfully done and the soundtrack is incomparable. I mean...I liked Elizabeth and Elizabeth: The Golden Age with Cate Blanchett - she makes a marvelous Good Queen Bess and the dresses and sets are to die for - but they're so inaccurate and Hollywood-esque that they truly pale in comparison to the modest "Elizabeth R" series with Glenda Jackson, the "Elizabeth I" two-parter with Helen Mirren and this Virgin Queen TV movie.
Umm...I've gone a little off topic. (I like to rant sometimes.) Back to the music.
Well, when those Medaeval Baebes start harmonizing, chills race over me. They're so haunting, many of the songs on this soundtrack. I can't get enough. I also like that Martin Phipps wrote a song based on some lines from Elizabeth I's own poem called "On Monsieur's Departure." Attention to detail is always a super plus in my book.
On another note: Tudor overload going on over here now! I'm watching "The Monarchy with David Starkey" part II and I'm reading Margaret George's latest novel, Elizabeth I. I just watched that Anne-Marie Duff movie about Elizabeth last week (and I'm aching to see it again), I'm listening to that movie's soundtrack and I think I'm going to re-read Margaret George's The Autobiography of Henry VIII after I'm done with her book on the latter part of his youngest daughter's reign. *sigh* I overwhelm myself with these things and I do nothing to stop it.
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