April 23, 2005
Slowly the edge gets closer to you
MP3 - Ozma - Restart
Anyone who has spend more than 15 minutes with me at some point in their lives has probably been persuaded to listen to some Ozma, voluntarily or not. Ozma is so catchy, so melodic, so witty and hard rocking that I'm surprised if and when people don't fall instantly in love with them as I did 4 years ago. Mostly, people either enjoy them or are kind enough to humor me and change the subject.
I still maintain that though they were only around long enough to put out four full length albums, Ozma did more than enough in their short existence to solidify themselves as my second favorite band of all time. (The Beatles are quite the difficult act to top.) In most respects, their sound isn't very unique. There are a lot of people who do they same thing as Ozma do - it's just that nobody does it better. 
The songwriting combination of Ryen Slegr and Daniel Brummel is a powerful one-two punch that has created some of the funnest lyrics I've ever seen written. Brummel's voice often steals the spotlight, Jose Galvez breathes life into every song with his energy, and Star Wick's keyboard will stick in your head for weeks.
It's inevitable that I'll be posting a lot of Ozma tracks on here, mainly because there's never a bad time for them. But if I'm going to start somewhere it'll have to be with "Restart." "Restart" is a song that has creeped its way into several of my friend's and relative's personal playlists, and I get a lot of satisfaction from that. Maybe I'm not so far off base. It took a short time for it to become a personal favorite, and I suspect that's because it's their best work - even though it lacks the standard Ozma elements (a casio hook, a smile on your face, and a whole lot of rockin'). But there's plenty of time for that later.
MP3 - Jeff Buckely - Eternal Life
And while we're on personal favorites, it's only fair to yet again point out Jeff Buckley's masterpiece "Eternal Life". For as long as I've found it necessary to reccomend music to people, I've pulled this song out. It's a beautiful rock song. And if you're in to deep philosophical meaning in your songs, it's got some of that too. Buckley had a wonderful career ahead of him go to waste when he drowned in 1997 at the age of 30. His only album Grace is still a favorite of music critics and his untimely death is still tragic and confusing. The song is made memorable by Buckley's voice and gifted songwriting.
LINKS:
Buy Spending Time On The Borderline here.
Buy Grace here.
View the lyrics for "Restart" here.
View the lyrics for "Eternal Life" here.