Top 25 most played

[vaneramos]

I've managed to tweak this iTunes list slightly over the past few days and present it now as a snapshot of my current musical head space. Many of my all-time favourite songs are here, or at least favourite artists. Not necessarily in order.

1. Aimee Mann - "Invisible Ink": Here's one of the artists I was missing by not listening to music much. veganbear1970 introduced me to her recently, and I've been enjoying thoroughly.
2. Isreal Kamakawiwo'ole - "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" / "What a Beautiful World": Two great songs presented together, movingly.
3. Dahlia - "Pedro": This was part of a compilation ubermunkey left here last spring, and it became one of my favourites.
4. Katrina & The Waves - "Walking On Sunshine": My feel-good energy favourite. No surprise it came out in 1983.
5. Travis - "Why Does It Always Rain On Me": Discovered by accident when downloading music recently, because someone had misidentified the band as Rufus Wainwright. I love it.
6. Annie Lennox - "Into The West": One of the most beautiful songs ever, gets me every time.
7. Dream Academy - "Life In A Northern Town": I wasn't paying attention to pop music in the mid 1980s, so I don't know how this song ever registered in memory, but it is still a favourite.
8. k .d. lang - "Hallelujah": The best rendition of a great song. She has one of the most outstanding musical voices of the past 30 years.
9. Rufus Wainwright - "Vibrate": Want One is one of my two all-time favourite albums. Two songs from it made this list.
10. Rufus Wainwright - "14th Street": My favourite song by my favourite songwriter. Thanks to willowing for introducing me to him several years ago.
11. Spice Girls - "Viva Forever": Okay, so I like sappy music.
12. Amy Grant - "I Will Remember You": One concession to my evangelical Christian phase, I've been letting her music seep back into my life via iTunes. She's a good artist. This is a haunting song, not the same as the Sarah McLachlan title.
13. Annie Lennox - "Something So Right": Diva would be one of my desert island disks, but this track from Medusa made the list.
14. Orff: "In trutina" from Carmina Burana: Blends nicely with the other mellow tracks.
15. Bliss - "Kissing": Another track to remind me of ubermunkey's visit.
16. Buffy Sainte-Marie - "I'm Going Home": First encountered her singing in a community centre at a pow-wow in 1990, she's still one of my favourite songwriters, and this is an all-time favourite.
17. Darude - "Sandstorm": Recalls a time when I went clubbing more frequently.
18. Enya - "May It Be": I most often listen to serenity music on iTunes, and Enya is the Queen of Serene.
19. Jem - "They": dakoopst pointed out this artist, and I've finally had the opportunity to try her out on iTunes.
20. Jem - "Maybe I'm Amazed": Obviously I like her. Thanks, Stephen.
21. Joni Mitchell - "Both Sides Now" (2000): This was one of my favourites when Judy Collins sang it in the 1970s. I didn't realize who had written it until this jazz version appeared, which I like best.
22. k.d. lang - "After the Gold Rush": Both the k.d. songs come from Hymns of the 49th Parallel, the other one of my two all-time favourite albums. Thanks go to ghostsandrobots for bringing it along when she visited in November 2004.
23. Carl Jenkins - "Cantus Iteratus" from Adiemus: Songs of Sanctuary: I love the energy of this composition, especially since discovering that the words are meaningless.
24. Madonna - "Live To Tell": She deserves to be on the list, although this song wouldn't necessarily be my first choice (more likely "Skin").
25. Naked Eyes - "Always Something There To Remind Me": This was my favourite dance song in 1983 when I was in first year university.

Conspicuously absent is most of the energy music I enjoy—such as Human League and Duran Duran—that tends to get displaced by quieter stuff I prefer in the evenings.

Strangely, nothing showed up from Loreena McKennitt; but no particular songs stand out from the rest. Maybe this will change after I purchase (through iTunes) her new album, the first in seven years, An Ancient Muse, which just came out this week.