Soundtrack of my life: 2011

I didn’t blog yesterday! D: So i’l; have to do 2 today or something!

So, I was sitting here wondering what to blog, and then I thought about the soundtrack of my life. My life has a certain rhythm; apparently, the way I conduct myself has a sort of dance to it – from walking along to getting in and out a car. I love music. I love to dance. Here are the songs that have got me through 2011.

(N.B. These albums/ songs may not have been released in 2011, but they are ones that I have been listening to. I will list the album/ song and then give a clip of one song.)

So here goes, in no particular order, the stickandgooniverse soundtrack of 2011.

20 albums that got me through 2011

All things bright and beautiful – Owl City 

The sound of the seasons and new friendships. Also, a flashback to when I saw them live. A must have album!

Is for Karaoke – Relient K

Some excellent covers from one of my favourite bands of all time.
Hands all over (Deluxe Edition) – Maroon 5

Catchy tunes from misery, to runaway, to moves like jagger. I think its their best album yet.
The head and the heart – The head and the heart

I discovered this band when I saw them live. They are a soothing and sweet sound, like honey to one’s ears. They are the soundtrack of my summer, alongside Death Cab for Cutie.
Codes and Keys – Death Cab for Cutie

One of the best albums of the year. Death cab changed their setup a little bit and it makes them sound even better!!! So many good songs! And they are brilliant live!
Love Shine Through – Tim Hughes

A great album of worship songs. Heartfelt.
Michael – Michael Jackson

I know it had a lot of criticism, but I happen to like this album. It grows on you every time you play it.
Response – Phil Wickham

Phil Wickham. Amazing. Need I say more?
Soul Survivor Worship Remix – Soul Survivor

For all you christian hiphopopotami out there. Or if you like a good tune.
Supernova – 29th Chapter

29th Chapter’s final (and best) album.
Volume One – She & Him

Melodic, dreamy and sticks in your head.
Volume Two – She & Him

Even better than volume one; reviving a  style of music that was feared lost. It is lovely. Awwwww.
Wasting Light – Foo Fighters

FOO FIGHTERS are back with a pumping rock soundtrack! It is a winner!
We are the free – Soul Survivor

So many good songs, so little time…

10,000 Reasons – Matt Redman

Music to stir your soul.
Light the Sky – Soul Survivor

Last year’s album; tunes that are relevant to today.
Spirit Break Out – Worship Central

Another powerful worship album.
Danger Days – My Chemical Romance

It feels like a teen-rock rebellious album. Its good! Apparently, a lot of peeps don’t like it. I did though.
Siberia – Lights

I saw lights live last year. They are good! If you like electronic stuff, try this. (REPPIN’ THE TORONTO!)
Christmas – Michael Buble

Ho ho hold up! A christmas album? Yes! Because its christmas on sunday. Check this out its fab.

 

Stickandgooniverse Top 40 songs of 2011

 

The Adventures of Rain Dance Maggie – Red Hot Chili Peppers

RHCP are back and on the attack! Listen to that funk-ay bass!

Faster – Matt Nathanson

I discovered this in a starbucks! Its happy and catchy!

Give Me Everything – Pitbull

the sound of parties.

Buzzin (Clean Version) – Mann ft 50 cent

Catchy. See above.

Paradise – Coldplay

Para para. Para dise. dun dun dundun dun. dundundun dun dundundun dun. para para paradise. Every time she closed her eyes.

Just a friend – Booker T Jones

OH BABY  YOU. YOU GOT WHAT I NEEE-EEEDD! But chu say he’s just a friend. Another starbucks discovery. I like the piano!

Just Can’t Get Enough – Black Eyed Peas

I just cant get enough of BEP.

Home is a fire (Ulrich Schnauss Remix) – Death Cab for Cutie

A good remix of a good song

Dr. Worm – Relient K

They call him dr. worm. I don’t know why. He’s a good song!

California Soul (Lincoln Lawyer Remix) – Marlena Shaw & Ya Boy

Feelin’ like the lincoln lawyer as I roll in my car.

107 Degrees – Citizen Cope

A laid back song. Good for chilling!

Louder – DJ Fresh

The sound of new beginnings. And fake swordfights. Its goanna get its goanna get its goanna get louder!

All of the Lights – Kanye West

Rapping with my sis!

My Last Song I Sing For You – Raph Oyelade

lovely song! Also, I know the guy!

E.T. – Katy Perry ft Kanye West

I don’t know how I came to like this. It just happened…

Calda Estate (Dove Sei) – Raphael Gualazzi

Learning Italian and grooving to the piano!

Party Rock Anthem – LMFAO

Because, quite frankly, everyday I’m shuffling.

Pumped Up Kicks – Foster the People

The sound of night travel.

Oh Boy – She & Him

She & Him lovin’ !

Stereo Hearts – Gym Class Heroes ft. Adam Levine

Love this song! Stuck inside my head like my favourite tune.

Angels – Owl City

I recall singing this with my friend in a spar shop. Why? Who knows!

Doors Unlocked and Open – Death Cab for Cutie

A song that I taught myself on the piano. It was the sound of my summer.

Rocketeer – Far East Movement

Spring tune. Looking to the future.

On the Floor  - JLO

I know its jlo but its the sound of parties and being with friends. And showing everyone how I could breakdance, and suddenly becoming popular!

The Ballad of Mona Lisa – Panic! At the Disco

A tune for walking through town

Love, Selfish Love – Patrick Stump

I miss fall out boy. And then this came out and I was happy!

Arlandria – Foo Fighters

one word: TUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUNE

Ghosts – The Head and the Heart

I love the style of music.

The World As I See It – Jason Mraz

A taster of whats to come on the ol’ Mraz front next year! Sweet song!

Who’s That Chick? – David Guetta ft Rihanna

Don’t know how I came to like this either. But I did. Who’s that chick?

Forever – Wolfgang Gartner ft Will.I.Am

Got this stuck in my head for weeks. I was shocked at the video and so will not post it.

Check it out – Will.I.Am ft. Nicki Minaj

Great track based on video killed the radio star. (Couldn’t find the radio edit on youtube sorry)

Yeah 3X – Chris Brown

Check out that dancing! ( I think this is the clean version)

Alpha and Omega – Israel & New Breed

Powerful. Great. I love this song.

Endless Hallelujah – Matt Redman

Great song about heaven (sorry about sound quality)

Love Shine Through – Tim Hughes

Another great worship song from Timmy H!

Here I Am- Kevin LeVar & One Sound

Love performing this with the pentecostal gospel choir.

I Will Run – Freddy Rodriguez

as above.

There is a King in You – Donald Lawrence & Company

as above

God is Able – Hillsong

The best Hillsong song of the past few years.

 

 

So there you have it! The songs of 2011! Hope you enjoyed them as much as I did!

 

Lazy songwriting day

Its been quite a lazy day. I feel like these San Franciscan sea lions lying around on Fisherman’s Wharf ^ . I say its been a lazy day, but I have read a book, driven round town and recorded 2 song demos. Despite this, it still feels lazy. Perhaps its because its been a relatively quiet day.

One of the song demos that I recorded today was a spontaneous song that I thought up during a period of free worship in church a couple of months ago. There is a certain song by Hillsong United (which name escapes me at the moment!) that we used to sing in church, and one of the other worship leaders would always sing a certain phrase in free worship afterwards. I don’t know if it was neuro-linguistically programmed into him or something, but every time we sang it, he would sing ‘My rock and salvation’ every single time without fail. And not only that, he would always sing it to the exact same tune. It was lovely. So, I wrote these lyrics down and added to them a few months ago. Not being able to think of anything to go with them at the time, the song got sidelined and put away. Until today.

If you read one of my previous posts titled ‘struck a chord’, you may have noticed that I was on a mission to put some delightful new chords I discovered together to create a worship song. One of them being last week’s chord of the week, C2. (This week’s chord of the week is D/F#!)  So, putting two and two together (C2 pun not intended!), I wrote this chorus. Unfortunately, thats all it is at the moment – a chorus. Perhaps it could become one of those ‘repeater’ songs. Except the chorus has 2 endings that alternate. Maybe I should write some verses or something. Anyways, heres what i’ve got:

My rock and salvation/ I’m falling again at Your feet/ come to worship/ in awe of Your majesty/

from the depths of my soul/ i’ll praise Your name/ (and the cry of my heart / sings out Your praise)

So there you have it. The spontaneous song. I don’t have a name for it yet. Perhaps it’ll be something relating to rocks and salvation.

I was just flicking through the Psalms for a bit of inspiration, because you know, they are all songs and poems to God. And where better to get inspiration from a worship song than the bible?; moreover, the songs of King David, documented extravagant worshipper. I stumbled across a bookmark in Psalm 95. This is where it gets awesome. To my delight, this is what I read:

Psalm 95

New International Version (NIV)

Psalm 95

¹ Come, let us sing for joy to the LORD;
let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.
² Let us come before him with thanksgiving
and extol him with music and song.³ For the LORD is the great God,
the great King above all gods.
⁴ In his hand are the depths of the earth,
and the mountain peaks belong to him.
⁵ The sea is his, for he made it,
and his hands formed the dry land.

⁶ Come, let us bow down in worship,
let us kneel before the LORD our Maker;
⁷ for he is our God
and we are the people of his pasture,
the flock under his care.

New International Version (NIV)

Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica

So instantly, from verse one, BOOM! There it is! Let us sing (and even shout) with joy to the Lord, the Rock of our salvation. Wow! And then it describes the majesty of God – how He created the earth, and how He is the King of Kings. Finishing off, it goes to worshipping Him. Its like i’ve subliminally memorised and paraphrased this Psalm! Or maybe i’ve had a worship AHA! moment, like King David did! Divine inspiration or major coincidence? Either way, i’m pleased – i’ve written another worship song to God! And I have inspiration to add to it, or even write more!

Even on a quiet and lazy day, God still manages to surprise me and show me amazing things. And I have cause to bring Him praise. I think this is awesome!

He shows me that He is always with me, even when I feel like a sea lion. He shows me that is always there for me, even when I am all on my own and everything is quiet.

I will sing!

It is now over a week since I dipped my toes in the sea of blogging. Having thoroughly tested the water, its now time to jump in and swim about a bit. From standing with both feet in the water, I’ll take a running start and gracefully jump into the wordy waters. I’ll soak in synonyms, marinate in metaphors, and do other things with words that people do at times like these. If you aren’t following my train of thought here, yes I am still talking about blogging. However, what I am trying to say in more eloquent terms is that today is the day I go public and start telling people about my blog! HAHA!

Despite the fact that I haven’t told anyone about it yet, you may be interested to know that my blog has hailed to 2 different American states already, and has been liked by a few people!

So, back to the task at hand.

(Firstly, i’d like to point out that the guy in the picture up there isn’t me. Its a picture of Death Cab for Cutie that I took a couple of months ago when they performed live at the Academy. WOOP WOOP DEATH CAB!!! They’re great! Check them out!)

This year, I am doing the Soul Survivor Bible In One Year programme. Its not the first year that they have done the program – it started last year. (However, I must shamefully admit that I got as far as Christmas last year and then gave up Heres to a better run this year!! ) The program consists of an old testament passage, a new testament passage and a psalm or proverb each day. Its really good, and I heartily recommend it! Soul Survivor even have their own wordpress blog that you can look at, which gives you the passages and a reading guide at thebibleinoneyear.wordpress.com . Check it out! It broadens your mind! And its also nice to hear another person’s interpretation of the day’s passages!

Usually, before reading my bible, I like to try and still my heart, focus on God, and pray that He speaks to me through the passage(s). This morning was no different.

Today’s reading included a Psalm – Psalm 13 to be exact. I like the Psalms because they’re songs and poems to God. Some of them are just proclaiming how awesome He is, whereas others are a cry for help. Others are just like AHA! moments penned down. Here it is:

Psalm 13

New International Version (NIV)

    For the director of music. A psalm of David. ¹ How long, LORD? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
² How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
and day after day have sorrow in my heart?
How long will my enemy triumph over me?³ Look on me and answer, LORD my God.
Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death,
⁴ and my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,”
and my foes will rejoice when I fall.

⁵ But I trust in your unfailing love;
my heart rejoices in your salvation.
⁶ I will sing the LORD’s praise,
for he has been good to me.

New International Version (NIV)Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica

As you can probably see, Its a bit of a cry for help. King David is writing in the first half of the psalm something along the lines of (to paraphrase) “God, help meeeeeeeeeee! Please! I’m having a bit of a crisis here! Please answer me… or I’ll die! and then my enemies will be like ‘showed him lol’”. Yes, I admit, i’ve used a bit of artistic license here – I don’t think lol is a phrase used in any bible! But you get what I mean don’t you? It all helps paint the picture. King David is having a bit of a flap and he really needs God here. Did you get that? Good. Lets continue.

So, I got this far and nothing had really spoken to me from the Psalm. So I read on… and BAM! There it was! HIYOOOOO!

Lets take another look at verses 5 and 6 shall we?

 ⁵ But I trust in your unfailing love; 
   my heart rejoices in your salvation. 
⁶ I will sing the LORD’s praise, 
   for he has been good to me.

Wow. Even though David was having a major freak out (or ausflippen, if you feel like saying it in German), he decides he’s going to put his trust in God. He has faith here that God will sort his problems out for him. And David even writes that his heart rejoices in the salvation he has been given through God! He’s so happy and grateful that he knows the God who created him and can sort out his problems! And he’s equally happy that he can call on God, knowing that God will answer his prayers! David finishes the psalm with verse 6. I think this is the nicest verse of the psalm. “I will sing the LORD’s praise, for he has been good to me.” Wow! He doesn’t mess about with his words here – he cuts right to the core! He knows God has been faithful to him in the past, and he knows that God will remain faithful forever! So what does he do? He vocalises it! He sings! What a lovely way to be.

I read this and I got to thinking about why I sing to God and why I lead worship on a sunday morning. And to be quite honest, its for the same reason as King David – I just want to thank God because He’s been good to me! It made me think of a song which also sums it up quite well: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRyTP7XwIL4

The song is called ‘Because of Your Love” and I think it was originally written by Al Gordon, one of the founders of WorshipCentral. It has a great bassline, and the lyrics really sum up why we worship God!

The chorus goes like this:

Because of Your love/ Theres dancing in my heart/ Because of Your grace/ I am free/ Because of Your faithfulness/ Theres a song that must be sung/ I will sing/ I will sing/ Because of You

There is an overwhelming fire that burns in your heart when you know Jesus. A thousand rivers could not quench this fire! Nor could the power of all the rainstorms of Britain! (Trust me, there are megaloads of rainstorms here!) And when you ponder upon what He has done for you, and what He continues to do for you every day, you just can’t help but praise Him. I might even praise Him right now!

I’ll let you into a secret. Sometimes, I just suddenly feel moved to sing praise to Him and bust some funky moves! I get right into it, because I want God to know how passionate I am about Him, and how grateful I am that He is a part of my life. So I worship, and I worship HARD! And then other people walk in the room. It can be awkward sometimes, but you gotta do what you gotta do! You’d be surprised how infectious it is as well! It spreads like wildfire, and before long, there could be a small crowd singing and dancing in worship alongside you! Theres something wonderful about people worshipping God together. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but it sure is something to behold!

I’m thankful to God for what He has done for me. I’m thankful to Jesus, that He gave Himself to save me, and that He loves me unconditionally. I’m thankful to the Holy Spirit that He lives in me and works through me. I’m thankful that God even bothers with someone like me!

I try to worship God daily. Be it through song or dance or whatever means possible, I will praise Him because of His everlasting, unfathomable, unfailing love.

This Sunday, I will be leading worship at church.

I will sing The Lord’s praise, for He has been good to me.