Recommendation #10: Little Dragon

Here is a tune about money not buying happiness and here are the lyrics.

Recomendação nº 9: Wunschpunsch

Alguém aí via a Fox Kids nas manhãs de 2001?¹ Curtia a magnífica Wunschpunsch?

Dois irmãos feiticeiros, Tirana e Bubônico, têm a missão de amaldiçoar a cidade de Megalópolis, mas nem desconfiam de que seus animais de estimação, o gato Jacó e o corvo Maurício, são espiões da Alta Cúpula dos Animais, que em cada episódio lhes dá charadas, que precisam resolver antes de sete horas de feitiço, pois após esse prazo a uruca se torna permanente.

Eu sempre achei o conceito de usar a cabeça, mas num contexto explicitamente mágico — e portanto aparentemente ilógico ─ fascinante, o que deve explicar porque também curtia Charmed².

Lamentavelmente, desapareceu da TV e da Internet. Nem a abertura brasileira eu encontrei, então fiquem com a estadunidense:

1. De segunda a sexta às 9:30, pra ser preciso.
2. Curtia na época. O Sony Entertainment Television dificultou a minha vida e eu acabei não vendo as temporadas 4, 5 e 6, e depois eu me convenci de que correr atrás delas hoje não vale o esforço.

Recommendation #8: XKCD

Maaaan, I suggest almost only music in this category… Let's go for a webcomic.

I've been following XKCD for I-don't-even-remember-how-many years, and have read every single strip up until a very recent point, so I can attest its virtues. Keep clicking random, you will not regret (unless you're sucked in and stay for too long).

P. S.: sometimes author R. Munroe even bothers to make really complicated non-comedic strips.

Recommendation #7: Regina Spektor

I give you All the Rowboats, Regina Spektor's complaint about art being too locked up in museums. Here are the lyrics for optimal appreciation.

Recommendation #6: Björk

This time I bring a poetic analysis with the recommendation:

One breath away
from Mother Oceania,
your nimble feet
make prints in my sands

You have done
good for yourselves
since you left my wet embrace
and crawled ashore

Every boy
is a snake, is a lily
Every pearl
is a lynx, is a girl

Sweet like harmony
made into flesh, oh
You dance by my side,
children sublime

You show me continents,
I see the islands
You count the centuries,
I blink my eyes

Hawks and sparrows
race in my waters
Stingrays are floating
across the sky

Little ones,
my sons and my daughters, oh
Your sweat is salty
I am why
I am why
I am why
Your sweat is salty
I am why
I am why
I am why

Our story starts with us being able to breathe out of the ocean, developing feet — although they weren't quite nimble at first — and crawling to the shore. On the third stanza, humans are reminded of their similarity with the rest of the kingdom Animalia (assuming the pearl represents the oyster); indeed, about 70% of the genetic code of every animal is the same. When the melody changes, the lyrics regard the geological scale in which the personified ocean would count time. At the end of her speech, Mother Oceania claims she is still somehow a part of us: we came out of salty water billions of years ago and now it comes out of us; what a fine symmetry.

Oceania is not just a trippy Nature-driven song — as we should expect from ms. Guðmundsdóttir. It's an ode to Evolution, to the biosphere's ability to spread all over the planet. I like to see it as a compensation of creationist deity-praising music. More than religion, science can and should be fodder for art.

P. S.: I read some people saying the backing "vocals" throughout the song are supposed to be dolphins, which is a nifty touch.

P. P. S.: here is an energetic cover by the unfairly obscure Spiritwo.

Recommendation #5: Kimbra

The inimitable Kimbra faces a copycat in the video for the awesome Human (lyrics).

Recommendation #4: Sara Niemietz

The Pokémon first opening theme with a genius twist. Ends at 4:19.



Check also her channel (this isn't from there).

Recommendation #3: Queen Adreena

I got this long ago via an interesting post by a friend, which you should check out, 'cause unlike me, he has something to say, so he's not succinct. XD

Recommendation #2: Interstella 5555

Interstella 5555 is a very interesting sci-fi movie which is also a Daft Punk album — and no word is said besides the songs lyrics.

1. [00:00] One More Time
2. [05:10] Aerodynamic
3. [08:50] Digital Love
4. [13:14] Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger
5. [16:57] Crescendolls
6. [20:50] Nightvision
7. [22:42] Superheroes
8. [26:36] High Life
9. [29:53] Something About Us
10. [33:42] Voyager
11. [37:28] Veridis Quo
12. [44:15] Short Circuit
13. [47:31] Face to Face
14. [51:28] Too Long

Recommendation #1: Kimbra

And there’s no conspiracy
behind the way two hearts meet
when love is a two-way street

Kimbra simplifies love on Two-Way Street (lyrics).