The Official "Personal Soundtracks" Thread

[murlough23]

I could never get into drunken cock-rock. As a genre I find it to be rather hard to swallow.

[NinjaRob17]

My latest mix, including a lot of my favorite songs of 2011, as well as some songs I'm digging at the moment.

1. "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)" -They Might Be Giants
2. "Barton Hollow" -The Civil Wars
3. "Nugget" -Cake
4. "Blood Pressure" -MUTEMATH
5. "Gone Away" -The Offspring
6. "Burn Alive" -Trash Talk
7. "The Anthem of the Angry Brides" -Norma Jean
8. "I Tamper With The Evidence At The Murder Site Of Odin" -Dethklok
9. "Ocean Planet" -Gojira
10. "It Was A Dark and Stormy Night" -Five Iron Frenzy
11. "Drinking Problem" -Surfer Blood
12. "Where I'm Going" -Cut Copy
13. "Stillness Is the Move" -Dirty Projectors
14. "Feel It All Around" -Washed Out
15. "How I Know" -Toro Y Moi
16. "Midnight City" -M83
17. "Cracked Promises" -5 & A Dime
18. "Headlines" -Drake
19. "Want You Gone" -Aperture Science Psychoacoustics Laboratory
20. "Limit To Your Love" -James Blake
21. "Exile Vilify" -The National

And some songs from previous mixes that would round out my "Best Songs of 2011" list.

"There Must Be Something in the Water" -Blindside
"Cardiac Rebellion" -Becoming the Archetype
"Kaputt" -Destroyer
"Space Is Only Noise If You Can See" -Nicolas Jaar
"Build A Wall" -Burlap To Cashmere
"Circadian" -Your Sparkling Death Cometh
"Mutual Core" -Bjork
"When Will You Die" -They Might Be Giants
"Black Tongue" -Mastodon

[murlough23]

19. "Want You Gone" -Aperture Science Psychoacoustics Laboratory
21. "Exile Vilify" -The National

I see you're a fellow Portal fan. "Want You Gone" was in my Top 10 songs last year. It's almost criminally catchy; I like it even more than "Still Alive".

[NinjaRob17]

I see you're a fellow Portal fan. "Want You Gone" was in my Top 10 songs last year. It's almost criminally catchy; I like it even more than "Still Alive".

That I am, I just finished Portal 2 a few days ago and thought it was even better than the first. I think I agree with "Want You Gone" being better than "Still Alive" but that may be because it's still fresh to me, whereas "Still Alive" is old hat by now (I have both versions of the song, have played it in Rock Band numerous times, and saw it performed live at a Jonathan Coulton concert).

[murlough23]

That I am, I just finished Portal 2 a few days ago and thought it was even better than the first. I think I agree with "Want You Gone" being better than "Still Alive" but that may be because it's still fresh to me, whereas "Still Alive" is old hat by now (I have both versions of the song, have played it in Rock Band numerous times, and saw it performed live at a Jonathan Coulton concert).

I didn't get around to checking out the first Portal in 2010, after getting hooked on a few other Steam games, and I was duly impressed, though bummed that it was so short. The second game was definitely an improvement in just about every way. (I wish they'd been able to put the Pneumatic Diversity Vent in the final game, but oh well.)

[murlough23]

January/February mix. This one was tricky, with a few conjoined songs by artists that I couldn't really separate from each other, and a few spots where I experimented with crossfading between songs for a smoother transition.

DISC ONE
1. "Charlie Brown", Coldplay
2. "Don't Kick the Chair", Dia Frampton feat. Kid Cudi
3. "Midnight City", M83
4. "Science Fiction", The Hawk in Paris*
5. "Toes", Lights
6. "Romance", Wild Flag
7. "Write About Love", Belle & Sebastian feat. Carey Mulligan
8. "Sixteen", Deas Vail
9. "Free My Mind", Katie Herzig
10. "Home Is a Fire", Death Cab for Cutie*
11. "The Plains/Bitter Dancer", Fleet Foxes
12. "Day Residue/Circadian Cues", Jeremy Larson
13. "The Ash Is in Our Clothes", Sleeping at Last*
14. "Galaxies", Owl City*
15. "Cosmogony", Björk
16. "Let There Be", Gungor
17. "Blessedness of Everlasting Light", David Crowder Band**

DISC TWO
1. "Erase This", Evanescence
2. "Yellow Belly", Thrice
3. "Right Book", Kathryn Calder
4. "Surgeon", St. Vincent
5. "We Added It Up", My Brightest Diamond
6. "Equals", Mute Math
7. "Unsinkable Ships", Meg & Dia
8. "Owl's Head Park/Early Earthquake", Eleanor Friedberger
9. "Jerome", Barenaked Ladies
10. "J.P.M.F.Y.F.", Kat Maslich-Bode
11. "Girl with the Red Balloon", The Civil Wars
12. "Dear True Love", Sleeping at Last
13. "Thrive", Switchfoot *
14. "Unobstructed Views", Death Cab for Cutie *
15. "Slow Waves", Falling Up ***
16. "Beth/Rest", Bon Iver
17. "We All Go Back to Where We Belong", R.E.M.

* Indicates a short crossfade into the next track.
** I tacked on "The Sound of Light" and "Interlude" since all three tracks feel like a unified movement on the David Crowder album and it ends the first disc in a less jarring fashion, but I didn't want to list an overly long title on the CD cover.
*** "Slow Waves" has a very long postlude with long gaps of silence, so underneath the last minute and a half or so, Bon Iver's "Lisbon, OH" slowly crossfades in as an intro to "Beth/Rest". It's slightly disorienting since the two pieces aren't in the same key, but I liked the effect.

[plvarona]

I recently burned a CD inspired by a retreat I attended several weeks ago.  The theme of the retreat was "Our Stones, His Blessings", so not surprisingly there are a lot of songs with "stone" references.  The songs are also ordered close to chronologically in terms of what event in the retreat they were referencing, with a few songs shifted around for better flow.

1. "Tell Me The Story Again" Chris Rice
2. "His Eyes" Cool Hand Luke
3. "Chaos" MuteMath
4. "In The Night My Hope Lives On" Andrew Peterson
5. "Sleepless Night (Only Hope in the Storm)" Fernando Ortega
6. "Sins Are Stones" John Mark McMillan
7. "The Problem" downhere
8. "Black Heart" Photoside Cafe
9. "Drag You Down" Shirock
10. "This Road" Ginny Owens
11. "For The Heartbreak" downhere
12. "Many Roads" Andrew Peterson
13. "Carry a Light" Alli Rogers
14. "Meant to Be" Steven Curtis Chapman
15. "River God" Nichole Nordeman
16. "Free (Take My Life)" Jill Paquette
17. "Roll Away Your Stone" Mumford & Sons

[murlough23]

My March/April soundtrack.

DISC ONE
1. "Simple Song", The Shins
2. "Hurts Like Heaven", Coldplay
3. "New Map", M83
4. "Odd Soul", MuteMath
5. "The Floor", Umphrey's McGee
6. "Revenge", The Echoing Green
7. "Cruel", St. Vincent
8. "Somebody that I Used to Know", Gotye feat. Kimbra
9. "Walking in My Sleep", Kathryn Calder
10. "Danse Caribe", Andrew Bird
11. "Troubled Waters", Sucré
12. "Crags and Clay", Gungor
13. "The Broken Ones", Dia Frampton
14. "Open Arms", Elbow
15. "Not Fooling Around", Butterfly Boucher
16. "Simple Machine", The Hawk in Paris
17. "Closest I Get", Katie Herzig

DISC TWO
1. "Anthology", Thrice
2. "Doors Unlocked and Open", Death Cab for Cutie
3. "Siberia", Lights
4. "Deep Space", Eisley
5. "Pulling Down the Sun", Deas Vail
6. "Stars", fun.
7. "Brother Moon", Gungor
8. "Oh My God/I Am a Seed", David Crowder Band
9. "Movement and Location", Punch Brothers
10. "Sim Sala Bim", Fleet Foxes
11. "20 Years", The Civil Wars
12. "March", Kat Maslich-Bode
13. "Waste It", Jonas Bjerre
14. "Outlines", Sleeping at Last
15. "Descending", Jeremy Larson
16. "Reaching Through to the Other Side", My Brightest Diamond
17. "I Can See Your Future", Belle & Sebastian