I don’t know how or why this song by Alanis Morissette got into my head today, but I immediately loaded up iTunes on my iPhone and downloaded it. It’s a great song and Alanis has an awesome voice.
Head Over Feet
Alanis Morissette
I had no choice but to hear you
You stated your case time and again
I thought about it
You treat me like I’m a princess
I’m not used to liking that
You ask how my day was
You’ve already won me over in spite of me
And don’t be alarmed if I fall head over feet
Don’t be surprised if I love you for all that you are
I couldn’t help it
It’s all your fault
Your love is thick and it swallowed me whole
You’re so much braver than I gave you credit for
That’s not lip service
You’ve already won me over in spite of me
And don’t be alarmed if I fall head over feet
Don’t be surprised if I love you for all that you are
I couldn’t help it
It’s all your fault
You are the bearer of unconditional things
You held your breath and the door for me
Thanks for your patience
You’re the best listener that I’ve ever met
You’re my best friend
Best friend with benefits
What took me so long
I’ve never felt this healthy before
I’ve never wanted something rational
I am aware now
I am aware now
You’ve already won me over in spite of me
And don’t be alarmed if I fall head over feet
Don’t be surprised if I love you for all that you are
I couldn’t help it
It’s all your fault
I went looking for some music to get “Fall for You” by Secondhand Serenade out of my head when I noticed that Chris Tomlin had a new album out. I’ve gotta say, it sounds good so far! I will add the music video to this post when it becomes available, but in the meantime, here’s a video of Chris talking about “I Will Rise” (lyrics are below the video).
I Will Rise
Chris Tomlin
There’s a peace I’ve come to know
Though my heart and flesh may fail
There’s an anchor for my soul
I can say, it is well
Jesus has overcome
And the grave is overwhelmed
The victory is won
He is risen from the dead
And I will rise
When he calls my name
No more sorrow, no more pain
I will rise on eagle’s wings
Before my God, fall on my knees
And rise
I will rise
There’s a day that’s drawing near
When this darkness breaks to light
And the shadows disappear
And my faith shall be my eyes
Jesus has overcome
And the grave is overwhelmed
The victory is won
He is risen from the dead
And I will rise
When he calls my name
No more sorrow, no more pain
I will rise on eagle’s wings
Before my God, fall on my knees
And rise
I will rise
And I hear the voice
of many angels sing
Worthy is the lamb
And I hear the cry
of every longing heart
Worthy is the lamb
And I hear the voice
of many angels sing
Worthy is the lamb
And I hear the cry
of every longing heart
Worthy is the lamb
Worthy is the lamb
I will rise when he calls my name
No more sorrow, no more pain
I will rise on eagle’s wings
Before my God, fall on my knees
So I was downtown at City Market when I came across the lovely Jessica Sonner. At first I wasn’t really paying attention because it was windy and I was worried that my gyro would fly away… but once I downed my gyro (from the Grecian Garden BTW), I was more in a mood to listen to her music. To learn more about her, you can visit her web site at jessicasonner.com. Her music is also available on iTunes and Amazon.com MP3. Since she’s an independent artist, it’s hard to find her lyrics, so I’ll leave you with a video of her singing “This Backyard.”
So I’m sitting here mixing and compressing this week’s sermon audio and decided it was an awesome time to go ahead and write another lovely blog post!
Now for those of you who know me, you know that I LOVE music. My music library isn’t as large as some, but that’s typically because I have weeded out the junk that I never listen to. Right now I’m at 5,000 songs… which is pretty good for me. I am also VERY picky as to how my music is organized. So how do I do it? Here’s some hints:
GENRE: Genre is a hard to pin down, because various artists like to change their style up a bit, even if it’s just for one album. I typically go by their “average” genre, meaning that whatever style they do the most is how I categorize them. I typically go to Rhapsody.com, insert the artist name, and then it usually tells me what genre that artist fits into. Why is this important? Well, if I like the Goo Goo Dolls, I may like other artists that fit into that genre. So it’s important for me to make sure that I have the genre nailed down as best as possible.
YEAR: Year is important for putting together smart playlists that go by year. For example, if I want all my music from the sixties to show up, it is important for me to make sure that all the music is tagged correctly. For newer music (late ’90s to present), this isn’t a big deal at all. But when you’re dealing with older songs, this starts to become a pain. As we start to get “old,” we find out that music we listened to in the ’90s, ’80s, ’70s, ’60s, typically come out on compilation or “Best of” albums… even when you download it from iTunes or Amazon.com MP3. The best way to find out the year in which a song was released is to search for the song on Wikipedia If you can’t find the specific song in Wikipedia, look for the artist.
ALBUM: If you’re like me… which some of you are, the album is actually important. Usually I’ll buy a compilation or “best of” album to get the best tracks and then rip it to iTunes. But I typically like to have the correct album information (to go with the correct year). The best way to do this is to search for the song on Wikipedia, which is usually pretty good about having discographies. If you are unable to find it, another good resource is to do a search for the song on Google and adding “recording year” to the search. So let’s say I wanted to find out what year Dido’s “Thank You” was released I would type something like “Dido Thank You ‘recording year’”. Along with finding the album, you may want to go to Amazon.com and get the coverart for the album, there are also programs that will search your iTunes library and find the missing album coverart for you. In fact, I think iTunes now does this.
BPM: If you’re into dance/trance/techno music, it may be a good idea to make a note of the beats per minute (BPM). On Windows, I use a program called beaTunes. I love using the BPM information when coming up with mixes for my workouts. Why? Because I can start out with a song with a slower beat and work my way up to a faster song and so forth. This does take work, as beaTunes doesn’t always get the correct beat count, but if you’re really into it, this is a great tool.
RATING: Rate your music! This is probably the biggest advice I give to friends who can’t get the results they want from their playlists. Here is how I rate my music:
- No stars = Hasn’t been rated or don’t like it
- 1 star = Did not like it (probably won’t listen to it much, if ever)
- 2 stars = Almost into it (will listen to it, but not on a regular basis)
- 3 stars = Liked it (average rating)
- 4 stars = Really enjoyed it (would listen to it more often)
- 5 stars = Loved it (would count as one of my top favorite songs)
So there you have it, there’s just a few ways you can clean up your library. In future posts, I will talk about creating effective smart playlists in iTunes… but until then, clean up that library!
Before I had bought an iPod and even before I had broadband, I bought music from the iTunes Music Store (now known just as “iTunes Store”). I was thrilled! For once I didn’t have to go to the music store and pay an overpriced amount for an entire album when all I really wanted was a single! But there’s a darkside to the iTunes Store, DRM.
Now before you attack me, I don’t share my music. I’m pretty protective of that. But when I pay for music, I want to OWN my music, not just have a license to listen to it… which is essentially what DRM does. And with iTunes, they’re making the blatant assumption that they will always be your digitial music player and provider. So when you buy tracks through iTunes, you can only listen to them through iTunes.
Sites like AllofMp3.com popped up which sold DRM-free tracks and showed the recording industry that people were willing to pay for music as long as they didn’t have restrictions placed on them, which is why I’m excited to see a service such as Amazon’s MP3 download service.
To find the Amazon MP3 download service, locate the part of the menu that says “Digital Downloads” and then select “MP3 Downloads.” That’s it! You now have access to a catalog of music that is DRM-free, you get the MP3 file and it imports it into your favorite music player (even iTunes). You do have to download a small piece of software, a download manager, but it’s small and unobtrusive.
What’s the downside to this service? Well, unfortunately the selection isn’t nearly as good as iTunes. But as more record labels allow DRM-free music to be sold, the more music you’ll see show up on this service. I personally only downloaded two songs out of the possible five that I wanted because they didn’t have the artists I was looking for.
But if you’re looking for an alternative to iTunes, Amazon.com’s service is definitely worth a look. If you have an MP3 player (not an iPod) and listen to a ton of music, Rhapsody and Napster is a good alternative with unlimited music for your compatible device starting at $9.99. Of course once you cancel your subcription, you lose all your downloaded music.
Friendly Reminder:You should back-up songs that you download from services such as iTunes and Amazon.com, they aren’t responsible if you lose your files! Seriously, if you lost a CD, would you go back to the record store and ask them to give you another one? Nope, that’s what I thought!
Now before you attack me, I don’t share my music. I’m pretty protective of that. But when I pay for music, I want to OWN my music, not just have a license to listen to it… which is essentially what DRM does. And with iTunes, they’re making the blatant assumption that they will always be your digitial music player and provider. So when you buy tracks through iTunes, you can only listen to them through iTunes.