Wish I Had An Angel | Alone In The Dark | Nightwish

Here's a quick background of Nightwish. They're a Finnish band who are famous for writing gothic-rock songs.

One of their most popular songs is Wish I Had An Angel, which was very successful in European and even North American charts.

I don't think there's anything really unique about this song. It's just another, good, basic, rock songs, and I really appreciate that. Solid rock songs like this is becoming harder and harder to come by, and it's good the ones that are good are still energetic and well written.

Song	Wish I Had An Angel
Album	Alone In The Dark
Artist	Nightwish
Genre	Rock
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Soldier's Lullaby | Evolution | Alex Mitchell

Man, this song is cool. Soldier's Lullaby is really a song performed with nothing more than an electric violin and a loop station.

Alex Mitchell really uses the loop station and electronic effects to really emphasize the emotions in this song. For those who don't know, a loop station is a machine that basically loops certain parts of play. For example, at the beginning of this song, Alex plucks his violin with the loop station on recording. After that, the loop station repeatedly plays the pizzicato section over and over again. At other points, you can also hear him loop another layer of sound on top of the pizzicato. By using reverb effects on top of everything, the noises produced really seem to go together and make a really somber atmosphere.

There are several distinctive parts in this piece. One can hear the steady, sad beat from the pizzicato at the beginning. When Alex starts using his bow, I can imagine a soldier really questioning himself about the actions and sins a soldier is destined to commit. The atmosphere then changes, and then comes the march. And at the very end, comes the regret, and of course, sadness.

A wonderful piece. Don't forget, this song is entirely performed by one person. I think it's quite safe to say that Alex Mitchell is quite the one man army.

Song	Soldier's Lullaby
Album	Evolution
Artist	Jason Anick
Genre	Electronic
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Union | Monkey Business | The Black Eyed Peas

I'm very excited to have discovered one of the older songs by The Black Eyed Peas. This post is about Union, a great song about humanity.

Although The Black Eyed Peas have been rather disappointing to me personally, this is one of the good songs they've made that isn't filled with booty crap.

This song has a great trumpet and piano feature, making it even a little jazzy. It's not often that I find a jazzy rap song, and so this is relatively fresh to me. I'm surprised that this song didn't go viral like many of The Black Eyed Peas' songs.

In a sense, this song is trying to convince of all that we should focus our efforts not on war and hell, but instead on true crises like poverty and lack of proper education. I'm glad that this band created a nice song like this.

Song	Union
Album	Monkey Business
Artist	The Black Eyed Peas
Genre	Hip-Hop/Rap
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Sleepless | Sleepless | Jason Anick

After recently discovering the beauty of gypsy jazz (a type of jazz that originated in France, often with guitar and/or violin), I happen to just stumble upon Jason Anick's creation here.

Obviously, gypsy jazz isn't very popular here in North America. And I know, jazz plus a violin really does sound weird at first, but once you've heard this piece, you'll forever change your mind.

This song is very upbeat, featuring both the guitar and violin. If you close your eyes and let your mind wander a little, you might even see a couple doing a tango in the darkness.

Song	Sleepless
Album	Sleepless
Artist	Jason Anick
Genre	Jazz
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Oah | No Boundaries | Alexander Rybak

For those who shamefully don't know, Alexander Rybak is an European pop artist who won Eurovision 2009. His success and creations did not stop there, and we can see his fun, free-spirited nature in this wonderful song, Oah.

This song is sung to Moa, Alexander's love who constantly rejects him. Good ol' Alexander never loses heart, as you can hear from this song, as he doesn't give up on trying to win her over.

It's hard to hear fun songs here in North America. Being mostly polluted with trash-talk and overrated rap songs, Oah is a nice change from heavy vocals and guitars to a simple laid-back song (with a touch of violin).

Wanna freshen up with some European style? This song is definitely not to miss.

Song	Oah
Album	No Boundaries
Artist	Alexander Rybak
Genre	Pop
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