This sounds like it should be a generic bossa nova cash-in film song, but instead, it's strangely haunting and gripping to my ears. While it's a sweetly orchestrated piece (a bossa nova guitar and beat, a flute melody, and a Stan Getz-esque tenor sax, backed by a subdued orchestra) I feel as if there's something menacing just beneath the surface. However, it's so subtle, this could be in my head. It's taken from the 'The Glass Bottom Boat'; maybe I have to see the movie and decide.

It's in waltz time, with a strummed electric guitar intro followed by female vocals, bass & drums. There's a short female vocal counterpoint part, then the louder chorus. Towards the end the song changes key with a solo guitar figure, joined then by bass, then the the synth & drums enter in a musical explosion that's really cool.
I did'nt like this song at first, liking the rest of the album("Winds Take No Shape") better but the song has grown into one of my favorites on this record.
The full album is one of my favorites of the decade, second only to "Flying Saucer" by Astronaut Wife.

A short and sweet orchestral piece featuring harpsichord and some sort of mallet instrument (is that just a vibraphone???). It has sort of a subdued Burt Bacharach sound especially in the harpsichord. I'm noticing that many of my recommendations feature harpsichord... Strange.

This song is stone-cold, ultra-serious, odd, and mesmerizing. It's James Brown recounting a strange, anecdotal poem about a dream, in which he experiences the personification of heroin delivering a sermon. He rhymes accompanied by a subdued and melancholy backing band, playing lingering horn drags, and slow, lazy bass and drums. This is not your typical James Brown material, but it has an powerfully surreal and painful effect.

pure bubblegum psychedelic soft pop, with lyrics about sucking on "lollipops". the most familiar version of this song is probably the one written for france gall, but i prefer the version where serge himself (in a great faux-na�ve manner)provides the vocals. the sugary strings of the original(?) are replaced by a great subdued wah wah guitar and organ backing on this version, and a lot of little touches wich help make the song a bit more bizarre and playful than the other version. nice for sunny picnics and bicycle rides in the countryside, eh?

Always loved this song by Burt Bacharach and this version sounds just heavenly. From the credits, it's easy to spot why: Claus Ogerman. He's in top form here, transforming the song into a gentle bossa nova with all the Ogerman magic of that time, very similar in sound and texture to his work on Antonio Carlos Jobim's "The Composer Of Desafinado Plays": Gentle basic rhythm section, subdued piano, airy flutes and trumpets and of course those impeccably arranged strings swirling in and out during the song.

A very ethereal song that is perfect for the lilting girlish voice of Blossom Dearie. She is also an accomplished pianist and plays on every song she sings. She is backed by a standard jazz trio on this track and they play in a wonderfully subdued manor that allows her voice and the words to be the focal point of this song. Originally written by a french songwriter, Blossom Dearie heard the song while living and performing in France in the mid-1950's. Upon her return to the United States, she asked her friend, songwriter Johnny Mercer, to write english lyrics to the wonderful melody. The words he wrote tell a beautiful story of love lost, but fondly remembered thru a familiar smell or sound. A standout track from the marvelous LP of the same name. Give it a listen the next time you go to your local music store.

Great soundtrack to a sun-drenched sunday afternoon. Birdie members Paul Kelly and Deborah Wykes met as tour musicians for Saint Etienne, and in fact they sound similar with Deborah Wykes sounding like a somewhat subdued, toned down Sarah Cracknell. But you can hear more influences, with all the warm instrumentation in the song (acoustic guitar, flutes, muted trumpet, various analogue keyboards) it's close to late 60s easy listening pop, Bacharach and The Carpenters.

When I first came to this site I was suprised to not see any Harper's Bizarre tunes! They were a pretty fab vocal group who seem to be getting their due.

This song is from an almost unknown "lost" album from 76'. (Their heyday was the mid to late 60's, and had great success with their hit "Feelin' Groovy" in 67') And is a suprisingly jammin' version of a song from 1943 called "Speak Low" (From the film "One Touch of Venus"). I've heard other versions of this song, but nothing like this!

It starts off sounding like an O'donell Levy track, with a slinky/breezy latin step, and smooth, jazzy, compressed chords gliding across the top..... And then the vocal kicks-in, with this apropos low vocal harmony, instantly recognizable as HB, but more subdued.... They take the song and totally make it their own! Really just a superb track! Very A&M like, but with a bit more whimsy.... This record is hard to come by and needs a re-issue..... HELLO?!

HB is a must for fans of later B-boy's stuff or other Sunny pop from LA in the 60's and 70's!!!

This is the final track off their 1982 LP "Heartache", which is the Most Underrated LP Of All Time, and one of the three or four best of the 1980s!! The song actually sounds quite a bit like David Bowie's "Let's Dance" (which it preceded by about 18 months, in case anybody wants to raise plagiarism issues), only serious instead of stupid.
It's one of the more subdued tracks on the LP, which I would characterize as being most like the livelier end of Simple Minds (say "Sparkle In The Rain" or "Once Upon A Time"-era), but with a powerful lead singer who is probably closest to Jay Black of '60s hitmakers Jay and the Americans, or maybe Gary Puckett of the Union Gap (I am not knocking Jim Kerr's vocals by the way).

The full track listing for this wonderful LP: Time After Time, Living In A Heartache, Madelaine, L'Image Craquee, Spirits; The World, Dancing Inside You, Major Major, Too Late To Fly The Flag, Standing In The Rain. Produced by Mick Glossop.

On �The Cutter� fellow Liverpool natives, Echo and The Bunnymen successfully wed the Eastern influenced psychedelic sounds made famous by hometown heroes, The Beatles. Crafting Eastern influences into a new post-punk hybrid that was sweeping England in the Early 80�s. It was songs like �The Cutter� that would help define the newly coined Neo-psychedelic sub-genre, practiced by such group�s of the period as The Chameleons U.K., Psychedelic Furs and Simple Minds amongst others. The track opens with a keyboard approximation of Indian strings, whirring briefly before the band kicks into a percolating groove of popping bass, driving straight drums and chinking guitar accents. Ian McCulloch adds another layer of �60 nostalgia, employing his expressive, slack-jawed vocal delivery that conjures aural images of the late Jim Morrison as he unfurls lines that drip with apprehension �Who�s on the seventh floor? / Brewing alternatives / What�s in the bottom drawer? / Waiting for things to give�. The Eastern strings re-enter at strategic points, filling in space between verses and McCulloch�s esoteric pleas to �spare us the cutter!�, which sounds like a good idea in any case. The arrangement also veers into epic territory quite unexpectedly in the second half, signaled by a sweeping wave of keyboard and McCulloch�s more subdued delivery as poses a string of rhetorically poignant questions, �Am I the happy loss? / Will I still recoil? / When the skin is lost / Am I the worthy cross? / Will I still be soiled? / When the dirt is off� -as the music swell behind him. Like any good single, the track never looses steam, cruising through each section with power and grace. A nod is in order for Ian Broudie, who�s smooth production helped The Cutter become Echo and The Bunnymen�s first top ten single in Britain and a linchpin track for the Neo-psychedelic movement.
(AMG)

Mixing light bossa nova guitar, gentle strings, flutes, subdued piano and muted trumpet (or trombone, not sure) this is a very elegant, romantic sounding track by Piero Piccioni, evoking, as the title suggests, images of the blue sea glittering in the summer sun. Moodwise it's quite reminiscent of Jobim's "Tide" and "Triste".