Artist	Song
Thiruda Thiruda	Rasathi
Talking Heads	Papa Legba
Sarah McLachlan	Silence
Kate Bush	Cloudbursting
Van Morrison	When Will I Ever Learn To Live In God
Sufjan Stevens	Come on! Feel the Illinoise!
Celine Dion	A New Day Has Come
Delerium feat. Sarah McLachlan	Silence
Bright Eyes	From A Balance Beam
Simon & Garfunkel	The Sound Of Silence
Kate Bush	Under Ice
Rufus Wainwright	One Man Guy
Sarah McLachlan	Sweet Surrender
Talking Heads	Slippery People
Crash Test Dummies	God Shuffled His Feet
Jeff Buckley	Hallelujah
S.P.Balasubramaniam	Gayatri Manthram
	[download]

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[February 2005] Songs that give me what I imagine a religious or spiritual experience would be like.

01. Thiruda Thiruda is a Tamil film that my Mum likes. I have no idea what the song's about (probably a love song), but it's stunning. Done a cappella-style, and it's feels (to me) deep and full of mood. The way the male/female vocals play of each other is wonderful, and the harmonies!
02. don't let him catch you, don't let him get control. Voodoo-licious. Inutterably creepy and again, very moody. The rattles, the percussion, and DB's eerie vocals are excellent.
03. Very relaxing, and with added monk-chanting! Feels very church-y - I can smell the incense.
04. Mmph. The parts where the bass kicks in, and the strings start that slow crescendo (around 40 seconds and two minutes). Kate's voice adds to the effect, but it's the music that really gets to me in this.
05. down through centuries of great writings and paintings. Oh oh oh. I can't even begin to explain. I can't. It's fucking stunning - and when the organ comes in? Gah. It's so warm and so beautiful.
06. I get the stupidest grin on face when I listen to this song. It's perky, uplifting, chirpy, and the lyrics and instrumentation are astounding.
07. I don't care if the song's sappy, and ridiculous and oh-so melodramatic (as seems to be Celine's style), it touches me and gives me a happy, warm feeling, it makes me feel inspired and full of wonder.
08. in this white wave, in this silence, i believe. Daaamn, but I love this track.
09. The sheer enormity of this song makes me sick. Some people might think of Conor Oberst as a whiny little fag, but there's no denying that the boy can write.
10. hear my words that i might teach you, take my arms that i might reach you. The very mood of the song, the hushed tones, give it that holy, reverent, no-talking-in-church feel. Shivers.
11. Kate's work just has that otherworldly feel. This song makes my arm hairs stand on end.
12. The song that inspired the mix. In '31 Songs' Nick Hornby says that when he hears Rufus and Martha harmonise in the song, he hears God (or something to that effect). I love the song, but don't quite feel it that far.
13. are you an angel? am I already that gone? It's the soaring vocals that do it
14. god help us! help us lose our minds! David Byrne's crazy vocals near the end always have me imagining him having some sort of fit of ecstasy - like the whole speaking in tongues deal. And the backing singers are so exuberant.
15. "i beg your pardon: i'm not quite clear about what you just spoke - was that a parable, or a very subtle joke? This? This is my kind of God.
16. Obvious, maybe. But it gives me that quiet-sad-reverent feeling right in the pit of my stomach.
17. The Gayatri Mantra is the most revered mantra in Hinduism. It is proclaimed in the Bhagavad Gita as a Universal Prayer, meant to protect every individual irrespective of gender, creed or caste. At fifteen minutes (actually, it's taken from an hour-long CD - the same chant going over and over again. Which, I suppose is the definition of a mantra), it won't fit on the CD, but it's here more for nostalgic reasons (Malaysia, July/August 2004, a three-hour drive in my uncle's car. It's wonderful, but I thought I was going to go insane).

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