Tag Archives: #november5starshuffle

November Five-Star Shuffle: “Disconnected”

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Big Choice“Disconnected”
by Face to Face
from the album Big Choice
1994
Buy the album on Amazon

In my first year of college, I met my friend Brendan, and in between watching boat loads of horror movies and drinking boat loads of cookies and cream shakes at Village Inn, we listened to and talked about a whole lot of music. We already had some crossover favorites, but he also got me into a bunch of punk (or punk-ish) bands – NOFX, Blink 182, Pennywise, Propagandhi, and, you guessed it, Face to Face. Though there’s certainly a time for the lightheartedness of the first two bands, I always appreciated that Face to Face was more sincere without being super hardcore, and I love the singer’s voice.

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November Five-Star Shuffle: “The Wrong Child”

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Green“The Wrong Child”
by R.E.M.
from the album Green
1998
Buy the album on Amazon

Sorry to disappointment our adoring fans, because I know I am one day late on my 5-star entry for last week, so getting it in now. And what a punch in the gut depressing entry it is. I think I’ve mentioned before that I was a big R.E.M. fan in my youth, probably up until around Automatic for the People. I don’t remember if Green was their first album I had, and I might argue that Document or Life’s Rich Pageant are better albums, but Green is still the pinnacle of their albums for me. The one that had the most impact and stuck with me the most. In fact, thinking about it now, I should probably do it as an Album of the Month at some point, so let’s get to the song.

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November Five-Star Shuffle: “Why Would I Want to Die”

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Concrete Dunes“Why Would I Want to Die”
by Grandaddy
from the album Concrete Dunes
2002
Buy the album on Amazon

I love the idea of a monthly theme based on shuffling, and not being able to skip, but the problem is for me my 5 star playlist is only has 122 songs on it (vs. 2448 4 stars), so all of them are going to be things I love and almost never skip. I’m very restrictive about what makes 5 stars, whereas there are plenty of moments of potential embarrassment (if that’s what Lance was hoping for) in the 4 star list (I’m not entirely positive Lance and I use the same criteria for our rating system). But, this month is about the best of the best, so onward.

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November Five-Star Shuffle: “Lake Shore Driving”

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Okay, here are the rules for the November theme, Chris.  Open up iTunes (it has to be a fresh open).  Go to your 5-Star playlist and hit shuffle.  Write about the first song that comes up.  No skips allowed, unless by some crazy circumstance, you hit the same song on your next post.  So here goes.  Wow…

Big Thing
Big Thing

“Lake Shore Driving”
by Duran Duran
from the album Big Thing
1988
Buy the album on Amazon

I’ve been in love with Duran Duran for years.  I came a bit late to the party, missing their early-80s works when they were crazy popular.  Big Thing was probably the album that first got me into them but I quickly added their more popular and poppier albums to my collection.  Big Thing is kind of an odd album coming off the pretty funky turn they took with 1985’s Notorious which saw the once quintet reduced to a trio.  If Big Thing is odd, then “LSD” is an accurate acronym for this weird-ass, but wonderful track. Continue reading November Five-Star Shuffle: “Lake Shore Driving” →