Instrumentals

Hello everyone. I wanted to update my blog sooner but unfortunately the internet on our campus died. Actually I’m writing this in Word and planning to post it whenever our connection returns. Anyway, I apologize if you were eagerly awaiting a new post all weekend long.

Also, on Friday night before the death of the internet, I managed to stick a little last.fm box in my sidebar. It lists my top artists for the week, so you can check out which artists I like to listen to that aren’t likely to be featured on this blog. (If you don’t know, last.fm keeps track of the music you play and then you can check out all your statistics.)

Right. Let’s talk about music. My theme today is instrumentals. It takes a lot to make a good instrumental song. An instrumental version of a song that normally has lyrics is not what I’m talking about here. I’m talking about songs that manage to evoke feelings or atmospheres without words. A successful instrumental not only achieves this but also is attention-grabbing and interesting to hear. With that in mind, here are four songs that I think fit these criteria.


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Fire Walk With Me (Twin Peaks Theme) – Angelo Badalamenti. I guess I should say that I think this track is pretty much The Best Instrumental of All Time, Ever. It is simultaneously lush and minimal, intimate and epic, subtle and powerful. I’m not sure what else I can say—just listen to it. [amazon]

18 – Moby. Moby has a keen sense of instrumentation that is evident in all the music he makes. He often samples vocals from other records—meaning he takes them out of their original context and wraps them up in totally new instrumentation. Thus he has a strong sense of exactly what role instrumentation plays in a song. This track is from his album 18, which includes a couple of other great instrumentals, “Fireworks” and “Look Back In.” [amazon]

Espionage – Green Day. You may notice that all the other songs in this list are slow, evocative tracks. When you think of Green Day, are “slow” or “evocative” words that come to mind? Of course not. Especially not a track from an album called Shenanigans. This song is perhaps a bit less profound than the others, but infinitely more fun. It is Green Day’s tribute to James Bond-ism, spies, and the 60s. Green Day actually have another instrumental that very nearly made this list, “Last Ride In” which is found on their album nimrod. [amazon - Shenanigans][amazon – nimrod]

New Orleans Instrumental No. 1 – R.E.M. R.E.M. are known for having moody instrumentation in their early career, mostly because no one could comprehend Michael Stipe’s infamous mumbles. The man himself has, in the past, mysteriously claimed that R.E.M.’s early records had no words, only phonetic sounds. This track is from their most celebrated album, Automatic for the People. In a record about life and death, this song expresses the hazy middle space between the two under the guise of a city that itself seems to walk the line. (If you were curious, there is indeed a New Orleans Instrumental No. 2.) [amazon]

I hope you enjoyed the songs. As an aside, does anyone out there reading know how to make links to the iTunes store? Leave me a comment or email.