I've had quite a few pieces of music that absolutely captivate me to a spiritual level, and many times I feel as if I've just grown ten years wiser by hearing some of these musical moments. Not intellectually, but rather, as if I've experienced a part of the world - a part of life itself - that had previously been shut off from me and everyone else on earth. Compiling a list of all the music that has had such a powerful effect on me will be difficult, partly because time has faithfully eroded many memories and diluted others.
Nonetheless, this is an incomplete list of pieces that have taken me to a realm beyond that of this world. And I know it looks like it, but I am not just arbitrarily listing off a whole bunch of songs that I *like*, or even love. As numerous as these songs are, each and every one has had a profound effect on me.
Note that some of these songs no longer have the same effect on me, either from being listened to death or my musical taste evolving, but nonetheless I'll include them anyways since their effect is life-long, even if I don't actually enjoy listening to them now as much.
That said, these are certain moments in songs that are immensely powerful:
All of Us - Blindside (spine-chilling chorus)
About a Burning Fire - Blindside (intensely passionate climactic part)
Aliens Exist - Blink 182 (sorry, but the chorus just had a tremendous effect on me)
Shine - Chihiro Onitsuka (that one spine-tingling part is beyond words; THIS is why I listen to music)
Ice Dance / The Grand Finale - Danny Elfman (that breathtaking choral part)
Everlong - Foo Fighters (you know the chorus)
Pardon Me - Incubus (you know this chorus too; the lyrics resonate immensely with me)
Flake - Jack Johnson (perfect chorus)
All You Wanted - Michelle Branch (one of the most beautiful choruses I have ever heard)
Goodbye to You - Michelle Branch (amazingly, also one of the most beautiful choruses I've ever heard)
Falling Away With You - Muse (verses that make the surrounding world dissolve away)
Blackout - Muse (when the electric guitar comes in; one of the most beautiful uses of distortion ever)
Futurism - Muse (the swirling guitar solo is one of the few that I truly would call orgasmic)
Space Dementia - Muse (the climactic coda is pretty much musical perfection - not a statement to be taken lightly)
Plug In Baby - Muse (the falsetto part at the end is intensely spine-tingling)
Citizen Erased - Muse (the piano coda is one of the most beautiful pieces of music I've ever, EVER heard)
Screenager - Muse (the chorus is so tragically beautiful, I almost want to cry)
Yellow Ledbetter - Pearl Jam (beautiful solo)
A Certain Cemetery - Pretty Girls Make Graves (when this is over, it's all right)
Planet Tokyo - Puffy AmiYumi (call me crazy, but the chorus is intensely beautiful)
Piano Concerto No. 2, Mvt I - Rachmaninoff (the delicate upward arpeggio part)
I Could Have Lied - RHCP (powerful solo)
Softer to Me - Relient K (amazingly intense scream; for five or so seconds, this is music at its most powerful)
Like the Angel - Rise Against (beautiful chorus)
San Francisco - Scott Mckensie (timeless vocal melody)
Vermillion Pt. 1 - Slipknot (the solo is immensely powerful - the beauty of distortion!)
Handle This - Sum 41 (lovely little solo)
Hell Song - Sum 41 (perhaps my favorite electric guitar solo of all time, massively beautiful)
Hooch - Sum 41 (also one of the few guitar solos I would call truly orgasmic)
Chop Suey - System of a Down (what can I say, the chorus changed my life)
ATWA - System of a Down (the first verse is powerfully delicate, and the solo is an emotional surge)
Piano Concerto No. 1, Mvt I - Tchaikovsky (the introductory melody is pretty much the whole reason why I listen to classical music; aka, changed my life)
Aenima - Tool (the shift in time-signature with the intense drumming is so dark, and so massively powerful)
10,000 Days (Wings pt. 2) - Tool (ethereal soundscape)
Something With Heart - Me (sorry, but listening to the solo in this song removes me from this world and - for a moment - I attain a moment of pure, authentic nirvana)
Say It Aint So - Weezer (This waaaaaaaaay, is a waterslide that takes you etc.)
Kieu - Me (the solo actually feels like it's talking to me, trying to tell me something about my own inner being)
Time to Say Goodbye - Sarah Brightman (the chorus, oh my God)
Promises - Adema (powerful chorus)
Blame Me - Adema (another powerful chorus)
Betray - Adema (what can I say? Adema has a knack for powerful choruses)
I know it's an extensive list, but I truly mean it; every single one of the above has had a profound effect on my life. And now for entire pieces that do just the same, only the whole way through:
Brother - Alice in Chains
Nutshell - Alice in Chains
Rotten Apple - Alive in Chains
Asthenia - Blink 182
Untitled - Blink 182
Adam's Song - Blink 182
End of the Movie - Cake
Hailey's Song - Eminem
Rock Bottom - Eminem
Stan - Eminem
If I Could - Jack Johnson
Hallelujah - Jeff Buckley
23 - Jimmy Eat World
Lovely Day - Lit
Tourniquet - Marilyn Manson
The Nobodies - Marilyn Manson
Something to Sleep To - Michelle Branch
The Small Print - Muse
Map of Your Head - Muse
Cancer - My Chemical Romance
Fake Plastic Trees - Radiohead
More Than Useless - Relient K
Eve of Destruction - Barry McGuire
Highwayman - The Highwaymen
Disgustipated - Tool
Before I Go - Unwritten Law
Nanking - Me
Dukkha - Me (writing this song and then listening to it and loving it changed my life completely)
Speculum - Adema
The Last Song - The All-American Rejects
...again, don't let the fact that the list is long make you think any lesser of any of these songs.
That said, I will now reveal what have been - in my experience through life - the most powerful pieces of music I've ever heard. I've listened to a hell of a lot of music in my life, and these are the very pinnacle of it all:
Somewhere Over The Rainbow/What A Wonderful World - Israel Kamakawiwo'ole Specifically, the Somewhere Over the Rainbow section that opens the piece is indescribable. It is beauty in its purest form, and for a few minutes I feel like I'm in the world that people have always dreamed of but have never attained.
I Am the Highway - Audioslave When I close my eyes and listen to the "guitar solo" part of this song, the entire world of homework, parents, friends, war, poverty, hunger, joy, sorrow, pain, nationalism, and all other facades of stress simply dissolve away. For a short half-minute or so, I lose myself in a musical texture of absolute, pure peace.
Ocean - John Butler This piece, played by one guitar, embodies all there is to experience in this world. The superfluous entities of names and histories and bodies and items are stripped away, and what's left is the sonic texture of existence.
Well, I just spilled the entirety of my heart and soul to an internet forum. My God, am I crazy or what?
PS - If any of you would like to discuss any of these songs, just leave a comment and I'd love to chat about it.
You have good taste. It's very diverse. And your not afraid to admit to being moved by some of the pop-ier songs.
"Screenager - Muse (the chorus is so tragically beautiful, I almost want to cry)"
agreed
"Piano Concerto No. 2, Mvt I - Rachmaninoff (the delicate upward arpeggio part)"
that part sends shivers down my spine
"I Could Have Lied - RHCP (powerful solo)"
definitely one of froosh's greatest solos
"San Francisco - Scott Mckensie (timeless vocal melody)"
a classic
"Aenima - Tool (the shift in time-signature with the intense drumming is so dark, and so massively powerful)"
"I'm praying for rain... I'm praying for tidal waves"
^ The mere fact that you were able to understand which part in an 11-minute piece I meant by my vague "delicate upward arpeggio part" description truly serves as a testament to the power of that short, but oh-so-sweet moment.
Good to see someone else here who loves San Francisco; it's my mother's all-time favorite song. =]
I do like I Am the Highway, but there's another version you may have heard... the non-vocal parts are pretty close, I believe, but Cornell's singing is much improved imo. It was an mp3 that I picked up online, possibly before the album was released. Have you heard this other version, by any chance?
^ Alas, I haven't heard the version. Cornell's vocals already seem pretty damn great in the album version, so this alternative version must be one hell of a treat. :0
I'm very pleased to see Eminems Hailey's Song. I've always thought it should have been released to the public as a single. It's truely one of Eminems best written songs. Infact, there is a good few songs on The Eminem Show that effect me that way, as me and my friend used to play that all the time (He was, very tragically, killed in a car crash) and it just reminds me of a better time...when we used to laugh and rap along to the lyrics in Without me and Superman, to even such random chats about what is REALLY in Eminems closet. It's really just one of those albums that every song has a memory...
The Tchaikovsy is amazing as well. That's a good (which I have since learned on organ) piece to change your life with. Mine was Bach's "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor BWV 565" when I heard it on Fantasia when I was really little, and Fantasia still remains my favorite "movie" to this day.
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