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You searched for ‘Manic’, which matched 21 songs.
click - person recommending, year, performer, songtitle - to see more recommendations.
A Design for Life  performed by Manic Street Preachers
Recommended by DearPrudence [profile]




Bitter-Sweet  performed by Roxy Music  1974
Recommended by delicado [profile]

For someone like me, the strangest thing about getting really into Roxy Music is the overt rockiness of a lot of their material. Even on this track, which is one more of their slower, more mournful numbers, there are a lot of very heavy rocky moments. They work pretty well though, and I'm certainly not complaining.

The atmospheric opening is breathtaking, and Bryan Ferry's vocal as he sings 'I've opened up my heart' is incredibly beautiful. The words and music seem to meld together in a very pretty way, but then before long the track mutates into a stomping, carnival like passage that clearly influenced Nick Cave to a considerable extent. Throughout the song there's this interchange between delicate, melodic verses and the rowdy, discordant section. Like another favorite Roxy track, 'Just like you', this song finishes with a clever chord change.

I'm sure many people would find 'Bitter-Sweet' much too dramatic and serious - perhaps some days I would too - but it does have an incredible elegance and style that makes me keep on listening.

from Country Life, available on CD



Diesel Raven  performed by Chris Clark  2001
Recommended by sok186 [profile]

Often miscategorized as an Aphex Twin rip-off, it seems that Chris Clark took IDM's last fresh breath with his first album, 'Clarence Park'. This song is one of the examples that demonstrates just how much potential this man has. He's able to juggle rhythms and melodies while constantly tweaking the dynamics of the actual sound waves. Few people play their Electronics like Clark.

from Clarence Park (Warp)
available on CD - yes (WARP)


if you tolerate this your children will be next  performed by manic street preachers
Recommended by morning belle [profile]




I�m not saying  performed by Nico  1965
Recommended by delicado [profile]

This magical track is from a 1965 single produced by Rolling Stones impresario Andrew Loog Oldham. It's a folky pop song with a manically strummed acoustic guitar and constant beat. There's some more full orchestration (brass and strings), but it's slightly hidden in the mix. The charm of this song for me lies in both Nico's bittersweet delivery ("I'm not saying that I love you/I'm not saying that I care/If you love me..I'm not saying that I care/I'm not saying I'll be there when you want me") and the catchy chord sequence in the verse. Some of the bridge sections are slightly corny and obvious musically, but Nico's majestic vocal lifts the song and makes me want to hear it again.

from the single I�m not saying (Immediate IM 003)
available on CD - The Classic Years (Polygram)




  Gwendolyn: I love this song, Nico is one of my favorites. Her voice has such a uniqueness. It's very deep and peaceful.
  brightdayler: Oh, wow. This comment is four years old! But I just joined this place and this is one of my favorite songs right now, in 2006. I harbor a little resentment for Delicado, who claims the bridge is corny. I know it's not so insightful to say this since two of Nico's songs were used in another Wes Anderson movie, but the bridge section reminds me a lot of Rushmore, when Max and Blume do a simultaneous jump on bikes at the end, after their reconciliation. I guess that's why I like it. I wish Nico would have done more stuff like this.
  belphegor: i grew up on the gordon lightfoot version--but cripes, leave it to nico to so deliciously catastrophize a perfectly good tune. hers is amazingly well executed in the sentiments conveyed, ...and some catchy, too! love it, love it, love it.
Jackie Collins Existencial Question of Time  performed by Manic Street Preachers
Recommended by DearPrudence [profile]




Love Vigilantes  performed by New Order  1985
Recommended by delicado [profile]

I heard this track again recently and it had an almost chemical effect on me. Why? It's hard to say. I can't claim to be especially moved by the lyrics, but the song captures a certain mood which makes me want to shake around. The track has a nice balance of instrumentation - New Order trademarks like strong, crisp drums and prominent bass, and a melody played on the melodica.

The other highlight of the song for me is the manically strummed guitar break near the end - a great moment. Maybe it's just nostalgia, but this track still has a lot of power for me.

from Low Life, available on CD



Love’s Sweet Exile  performed by Manic Street Preachers
Recommended by DearPrudence [profile]




No Brakes On My Roller Skates  performed by Hot Skates 3000  2003
Recommended by jeanette [profile]

Billie Ray Martin under a briefly fashionable electroclash pseudonym. Our Germanic techno-soul diva sonically revisits and updates her underrated Electribe 101 days for a foray into what almost becomes disco metal. This quirky 12" is on lurid pink vinyl, and features a blistering remix by her old mate Mark Moore (of S-Express fame) on the B-side.

from 12" single (Disco Activisto DAREC001)


Oba, la vem ela  performed by Jorge Ben  1969
Recommended by delicado [profile]

An incredible, hard-to-describe classic from Jorge Ben. It opens with a funky, feverishly strummed chord sequence, and builds up beautifully. Warm strings come in, while the vocals become more and more manic (in a good way). I really can't do this song justice in words, but I urge you to check it out. Jorge Ben really is a genius songwriter, and his backing group, 'trio mocoto' really rock.

from Forca Bruta
available on CD - mojo club volume 4 (Polygram Germany)




  sodapop650: My favorite Jorge Ben is his work on the LP "Tudo Azul" by Ze Maria. If you are not familiar with Ze Maria he is a very hip brazilian organist. The easy comparison whould be with Walter Wanderley, but he is way way cooler with a chimelike reverbed style and a lot darker sound, almost creepy voodoo northern Brazil Bahia sound like the way "Os Afrosambas" by Baden Powell Vinicius de Moraes and Quarteto Em Cy is. A guy I work with is from Brazil and says that although just about everyone is Catholic in Brazil many practice voodoo too and that Vinicius made a pact with the Devil in return for his career - There is something distant and weird about that LP - and the Ze Maria LP as well. Anyway, I think "Tudo Azul" which is available on CD is the first versions of Ben classics Mas Que Nada and Por Causa de Voce Menina. If you go on to ebay look for a guy named Alan Bastos, he sells tons of cool Brazilian CDs cheap.
  tinks: was this recorded in '69? it's the first track on his '76 "samba nova" lp...is that a re-recording, or what? can somebody shed some light for me? at any rate, it's a great album for, uh, "lovin'". my favorite track would have to be "vendedor de bananas cosa nostra--bicho do mato", if not for its unwieldly title alone.
  sodapop651: No this LP is on Continental Label and recorded in 1963. It is available on CD. Tudo Azul, I think it means "everything Blue"
  tinks: the version i have is definitely not from 63, it's waaay too funky.
  delicado: I'm confused about the whole thing. I have no idea where I originally got 1969 from (other than that the arrangement suggested it); the song is on 'Forca Bruta', which I thought was from 1975, but I think in retrospect that's just the date of the copy my (appalling quality) LP was bootlegged from.
  delicado: Ok. It turns out there's a pretty good Jorge Ben discography at http://www.uol.com.br/benjor/disco.htm, which confirms the date of Forca Bruta as 1970. I think sodapop was talking about the (completely separate) Ze Maria album. I heard 'mas que nada' from this album, and it was indeed excellent.
  Marco-Visitante: Official and completes discography of Jorge Ben Jor is here: http://www.jorgebenjor.com.br/sec_discogra_discos.php?language=en
  sodapop650: But I've changed my mind. My new favorite Ben classic is "Carnaval Triste" of the Sacundin LP. There is also a great Ze Maria cover of it off an even earlier LP I'm not sure who penned it or recorded it first. But its meditative and chantlike and very voodoo.
Obscurity Knocks  performed by The Trash Can Sinatras  1990
Recommended by john_l [profile]

A terrific debut single, this song strikes me as having what psychiatrists would call a mixed manic-depressive state. The mania is in the pace, which is fairly quick, and the vocals, which never seem to stop, while the depression is in the guitars which are rather poignant, what with minor seventh chords and so on. There are a number of good songs on the LP, although none quite like this, and the second LP "I've Seen Everything" is pretty good too, particularly the single "Hay Fever". It's all basically guitar pop but with a few twists and turns along the way.

from Cake, available on CD


Obstacle #1  performed by Interpol  2002
Recommended by umbrellasfollowrain [profile]

It's manic. Snapped wires. Screaming at the boxcars as they go by. Kid listened to too many Joy Division records in high school and not only did he pick up an attraction to crazy, but he learned how to freak out to that crazy in melody as well. And freak out he does. But he'll tell you why he's freaking out, he'll make you feel it too. And turns out, he has good reason to freak out. Dude's in deep with a bad chick who's, well, she's pretty bad. He waits until the chorus before shrieking for help, "She can't read!" There are those intimate little details that make you realize he's caught in this relationship, he's in love, he loves crazy, he's not getting out any time soon. "It's in the way she pulls it." and the amazing line, "Her stories are boring and stuff /she's always calling my bluff." Sears my frickin' heart.





  executiveslacks: I wanted to hate Interpol, but simply couldn't after hearing this song.
Ode to Billy Joe  performed by Buddy Merrill  1968
Recommended by delicado [profile]

Another amazing version of this fantastic tune. This features several very different-sounding multitracked guitars, and really is quite astounding. It feels very short at a little under 2 and a half minutes. The opening features an acoustic guitar playing a wonderfully delicate and precise rhythm, accompanied by a nice wall of strings and electric guitar hits. A twangy picked guitar plays the melody, building gradually for about a minute.

The track then explodes into a quite amazing sequence, in which a dirty-sounding fuzz guitar picks out a bassline while a manic and jazzy improvised guitar solo moves around over the top and the strings maintain some solid bluesey chords. The sound is extremely funky, and vaguely reminiscent of some tracks from the late 60s 101 strings album 'Astro Sounds from beyond the year 2000', but ends up being more tasteful. Pure genius!

from Land of a Thousand Guitars (Accent ACS 5026)
available on CD - 25 All time hits (Accent)



She’s Not Just Anybody  performed by Dovers  1966
Recommended by richteratmosphere [profile]

A manic swirl of Zombies magic and Byrds jangle. Transcends the garage genre. All eight sides of their four singles are essential listens.

from We're Not Just Anybody (Misty Lane)


The Nights  performed by Lee Hazlewood  1968
Recommended by delicado [profile]

This song is unlike any other I've recommended, but it's hard to hear this and not sense the pure genius which infused Lee's best work. The song is a dramatic narrative about an American woman who runs off to marry an Indian and join their tribe. Instead of singing, Lee simply speaks the words, while every now and again a manic chorus chimes in with 'Thuuu Nights' while a string section scratches away. If I had as cool a voice as Lee (er, and some talent at recording), I guess I could take the songwriting approach that he has here - the music is quite simple, but the narrative as spoken by Lee is gripping, and the entire production is impeccably executed. Check out 'Jos�' for another successful song with this formula.

from Hazlewoodism - its cause and cure (LHI)


This Joke Sport Severed  performed by Manic Street Preachers
Recommended by DearPrudence [profile]




Walking On Your Hands  performed by Red Lorry Yellow Lorry  1986
Recommended by numbersix [profile]

Slightly "Lust For Lifeish", manic missile from a band dismissed by some as Joy Divison rip offs but who really had their own quirky lustre.

from Paint Your Wagon (Red Rhino)



  kohl: absolutely. they had their own style and this song is pretty good.
Whip It  performed by Devo  1980
Recommended by audioadventures [profile]

One of the most underrated mood tracks of the era. An uptempo urgent drumbeat hits manic guitar riff - Crack That Whip! And you're away....


available on CD - Classic Cuts Alternative


You Are the Generation That Bought More Shoes and You Get...  performed by Johnny Boy  2004
Recommended by Ricard [profile]

...What You Deserve

There wasn't enough room for the full title of this song.
Phil Spector Wall of Sound-influenced pop genius!!! Probably the best song of last year, & the Crews Against Consumisimo extended mix is, amazingly, even better.
Surpirsingly, this was produced by James Dean Bradfield from the Manics, though way better than anything they've ever done.
Good title as well.




You Love Us  performed by Manic Street Preachers
Recommended by DearPrudence [profile]




Your Turn, My Turn  performed by The Go-Betweens  1981
Recommended by Dalriada [profile]

This track is on one of those New Wave compilations that I tend to hoard but never really listen to. Well, yesterday I listened to it and found this precious jewel that's been on constant repeat ever since. I've always known about The Go-Betweens, people always told me "The Go-Betweens this", "The Go-Betweens that" and "Why don't you listen to The Go-Betweens?" but, honestly, I never really bothered to. They didn't sound that exciting to me. But this here! Like most ingenious and overwhelming things, at 3 minutes running time it is much too short and yet it is just long enough. It is 3 minutes of concentrated beauty, drama, new-wavy-angst and poetry. It feels like a heartbreak after a night of heavy boozing with its swaying, jerky melody and Forster's manic-depressive vocal performance. Actually, I should try listening to it after a night of heavy boozing and see if it can get any better than it already is.

from Send Me a Lullaby, available on CD


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