During this recent dry spell of postings, (during which Morgan and I have been doing many, many, fascinating things…none of which leave us any time to blog,) one woman has stepped into the breach. Darcy, inspired by her own juggernaut-like musical guilt complex, contributes the following:
Click here to download Darcy’s Guilty Pleasure Mix
Darcy's other guilty pleasure is relabeling food products
“I should probably start with I love music. However, I live in a place called Groton, MA. The biggest news story from the past year was a group of Black Angus cows escaped from their pen, and six are still missing. Yes, we have feral cows in our woods. Needless to say, it’s hard to find anything particularly obscure or indie. Lucky for me, I’ve got groups of friends and family who supply me with a steady stream of new material, which spurs new searches etc.
I’ve always seen guilty pleasures in music. It’s the music that you’ll blare until company shows up. You make sure you’re not on “THAT” playlist. It’s not the cool, hip, trendy music. It’s usually pop, and it’s so damn happy! My father, usually a reliable source for really good music, admitted to picking up a song by Miley Cirus. My reaction: Thanks for telling me, but please also say I’m adopted. After cutting back on songs for this list, I’ll admit, I’m my father’s daughter. So, open up that bag of cheese-puffs and let’s dig in to my guilty pleasures.
1. Set Adrift on Memory Bliss – PM Dawn: I love this song. The samples of True by Spandeu Ballet, the hypnotic voice of the lead… you can’t really call him a singer, but he’s not really rapping either. I dare you not to smile when you hear it.
2. Kiss – Prince: I think this is a guilty pleasure for me because I can’t help but sing along towards the end. And the fact that Tom Jones sang it too can’t hurt its credentials.
3, 4 , 5, and 6. Love You Madly/Friday I’m in Love/Be My Yoko Ono/Milkshake Song – Cake/Cure/Barenaked Ladies /Angry Salad: Why is it uncool to have a song that’s happy? These songs are happy to be in love (Sometimes only on a specific day but cut me a little slack.). It might be argued that Angry Salad can’t be a guilty pleasure because most people have never heard of them. I would argue that if you lived in Portland, ME (and what I hear, a good portion of NE) during a summer in the late nineties, you would have heard this song in heavy rotation.
7, 8, and 9. Melt With You/Life In a Northern Town/Tenderness – Modern English/Dream Academy/General Public: My eighties fix. Really how ridiculous are these songs? I can see the keytars in my sleep, but only through the fog of hairspray.
10. Ticks – Brad Paisley: Country music is all about guilt. And I love this song with abandon. On top of all this, we live in a crazy active tick area and I have used this as a pick-up line. Oh yeah, I’m that smooth.
11. Good Love Is On the Way – John Mayer: Recently this song came up on my iPod and a friend of mine reacted with “Are we listening to John Mayer?” I quickly skipped forward, but I realize that I might be the only person over the age of 11 who likes his music. Some of it gets overplayed, sure, but all in all I think he’s gotten a bad rap.
12. Standing Outside A Broken Phone Booth with Money In My Hand – Primitive Radio Gods: The first embarrassment is I actually know the full name of this song. The second is that I really like this song.
13. I Believe in a Thing Called Love – The Darkness: Admit it, you love this song. It’s completely over the top; the video features a spaceship and a giant squid which they destroy with lightning from their guitars.
14. Your Dog Has No Tail – Jay Mohr: For sticking with me, I give you one of my favorite impressions of Christopher Walken. Be forewarned, you will be quoting from this by the end of the day. “
As a variation on the Chinese Fortune Cookie game, I will add “in bed” on to the end of everyone’s comment and forward it to Darcy. Comment away.
