Ten Million Fireflies

[alexiscartwheel]

I’ve professed my love for Last.fm before (The statistics! The beautiful statistics!) but this weekend I decided to see how the other half listens and signed up for Pandora. Yes, I do everything the New York Times tells me to do.

I didn’t realize that Pandora actually has employees who listen to songs and create metadata pertaining to various characteristics. That’s… pretty cool, really. I decided I should check it out and see if I could find better new music suggestions based on characteristics of the songs rather than social data from the listeners.

So far I’ve created several radio stations for myself, with some interesting results. Pandora offers to tell you why it picked each song for you, and I’ve noticed a trend of justifications related to such things as “extensive vamping” and “repetitive melodic structure.” The drums, the drums, the drums, the drums…

Completely unrelated to Pandora, I’m really enjoying the song Fireflies by Owl City. (Sadly, I cannot embed.) Reminds me a bit of The Postal Service. Also, Vampire Weekend has a new single, Horchata, which contains the lyric "I'd look psychotic in a balaclava." Awesome.

Comments

[sagacious-c.livejournal.com]

Ooooh, I like that Fireflies song. It does sound a lot like The Postal Service -- I actually thought it was Ben Gibbard singing at first.

[alexiscartwheel.livejournal.com]

I thought the same thing. Turns out the singer is from Relient K, which I would not have guessed.

[bara-eponine.livejournal.com]

I read up on them and they said it does sound a lot like the Postal Service, but wasn't that a side project for Death Cab for Cutie? My boyfriend calculated how many hugs that guy would have received from those lightening bugs.

I love that song! The rest of the album is so-so.

[alexiscartwheel.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Ben Gibbard of The Postal Service is also the lead singer in Death Cab For Cutie.

I haven't heard the whole album, but I really like the single.

[d4ni.livejournal.com]

I don't think I've heard "Fireflies" but I have heard Owl City's other single, "Hot Air Balloon." My first impression was "Ben Gibbard what???" before I realized who the band was.

Pandora always tells me I like music in a minor key. I like how it tells you the reasons it's giving you certain songs. Any time I've used it though, I wasn't impressed with the variety of music it was giving me. Also, you didn't need Pandora to tell you about the "repetitive melodic structure." I could have told you that!

Also, I really like "Horchata." On first few listens, it hooks me better than most of the songs on VW's first album. Though, on reflection, I enjoy that album way more now than I did a year ago.

Okay I'll stop ranting now!

[alexiscartwheel.livejournal.com]

I can always count on you to turn up if I start talking about music! :P

Yes, I already knew I liked repetitive things. I was just impressed that their little computer algorithm figured that out so quickly! I get the "minor key tonality" thing pretty often, as well as stuff about electronic influences and piano stuff.

Muahahahaha. Take the chapstick, put it on your lips...

[carrotgirl.livejournal.com]

Ooo, this sounds dangerously addictive...I should check it out.