Random Track of the Day

[Trollheart]

Title: "Etude for Piano No. 9 in F Minor, Op. 10"
Artist: Frederic Chopin
Format: Composer
Year 1829
Genre: Classical
Nationality: Polish
Taken from: N/A
Familiarity with artist: Duh
Familiarity with album: N/A
Familiarity with track: Yes very
Comments: I know my Chopin, but not all of his compositions. This one is quite famous and so I of course recognise it; kind of the quintessential chamber music you'll hear in movies set in the 19th century. Not much else I can tell you about it, but definitely worth a listen, as is just about anything he wrote.

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[Trollheart]

Title: "Wildfire"
Artist: The Coral
Format: Band
Year 2002
Genre: Neo-psychedelia/Folk Rock
Nationality: English
Taken from: Debut self-titled album
Familiarity with artist: I've heard one album
Familiarity with album: This is it
Familiarity with track: But I only heard it once so I don't remember any of the tracks.
Comments: I do remember being very impressed with what I heard though, almost on a par, if I recall, to how I felt after hearing The Maccabees for the first time. This is a short little track with an edge of seventies rock, maybe even psych or space rock; sharp guitars, deep lush organ, but it doesn't impress me the way I think other tracks on the album did.

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[Trollheart]

Title: "Hang on to Yourself"
Artist: David Bowie
Format: Solo artist (RIP)
Year 1972
Genre: Glam rock/Proto-punk
Nationality: English
Taken from: 5th album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars
Familiarity with artist: I may have heard the odd tune (!)
Familiarity with album: Love it
Familiarity with track: Not my favourite, but is there a bad track on that album?
Comments: Comment? You want comment? Just listen to it, son. It's Bowie at his whacked-out best, when songs like "Starman", "Rock'n'Roll Suicide", "Suffragette City" and the title track made us all look up and say, uh, wha? The world would never be the same again.

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[Trollheart]

Title: "Voyage of the Damned"
Artist: Iron Fire
Format: Band
Year 2012
Genre: Symphonic Metal/Power Metal
Nationality: Danish
Taken from: 7th album Voyage of the Damned
Familiarity with artist: Zero
Familiarity with album:
Familiarity with track:
Comments: I must say, the album cover looks cool, and if I hadn't already checked I would have said maybe Viking Metal? Well apparently the album is a concept based around science fiction, so maybe not. Certainly gave me that impression though. I definitely hear a lot of progressive metal in here too, and in fact I think I'd dump the Power Metal tag and label this Symphonic/Prog Metal if it were me. There are none of the galloping drums, squealing keyboards or dark intonations that are so endemic to PM, and this fits much more into the prog metal frame for me. The dark, almost-but-not-quite-unclean vocals sprinkled over the track do nod back to symphonic metal, though it's odd to hear what sounds like Robbie Williams singing!  Yeah it's a long track - over ten minutes - but does make me want to hear more.

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[Trollheart]

Title: "De todos modos"
Artist: Ednita Nazarios with Russell Hitchcock
Format: Solo artist
Year 1995
Genre: Latin Pop
Nationality: Puerto Rican
Taken from: 2nd compilation album Super Exitos
Familiarity with artist: Zero
Familiarity with album:
Familiarity with track:
Comments: When I was listening to yesterday's track I accidentally hit next instead of play. Imagine my surprise when Danish metal band Iron Fire began singing in a sweet female voice in Spanish! I have no idea who this lady is, or why I have her album(s), but I do recognise Hitchcock - he's one half of Air bloody Supply, whose discography refuses to be deleted from my ipod Classic (mostly as it's too much hassle, thank you itunes!) so I'm kind of predisposed to hate it. But let's see what it's like, and how much input Russ has on it. It's not too bad actually, reminds me of a Latin Jennifer Rush. Waiting for Hitchcock to supply (geddit?) the other vocal, not hearing him though. Surprised they bothered crediting him. Unless that was him on the guitar? Does he play guitar? No, it doesn't seem so. Well fuck him then: I can't see he adds anything to this.

The song itself is decent enough, nothing special, nice little ballad and she has a good voice. I imagine the title translates to something like "always" or "in every way" or something like that. Hey, it wouldn't make me want to go listening to her other albums, but I also wouldn't mind hearing more.

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