Orange mix
February 21st, 2008 at 11:58 p.m.
3 or 4 years ago I made a bunch of compilation cds for a girl. Sure, it was the modern “mixed tape” but I went all out. I made a complete set, based on color, red, orange, yellow, blue, green, grey and black. I even made covers and cases for them all. Enough, I was smitten. It’s been a while and I’ve managed to lose the lists through my various computer upgrades, but I’ve always wanted to make some new ones.
There’s something that appeals to me about grouping songs by color. Colors, like music are just so damn subjective. You like heavy metal and funk and I like acoustic guitar. I prefer greens, greys, and reds and you’d rather a baby blue or magenta. Despite all that subjectivity there’s some emotional link between the two. It’s not immediately apparent and there’s definitely not one single reason that makes me think a song belongs to a certain color, regardless, a color usually pops into my head when listening to songs.
So, for the past few weeks while listening to my collection whenever a color popped into my head I’d drag the song over to a different colored playlists. I’ve only got a few with enough songs in them at this point, but I figure over the next few months they’ll start to fill up and I’ll just release a new one when it’s done. I started with the orange mix, since it filled up first, and for me the colors ranged from fresh squeezed orange juice to a perfectly setting sun and possibly a pumpkin somewhere in between. Each song has a different reason for the orange, but I don’t want to cloud your judgement too much. I’d rather just let you listen, so here’s the mix and the list:
The orange mix (26mb mp3)
- Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels) - The Arcade Fire, Funeral
- Come Pick Me Up - Ryan Adams, Heartbreaker
- The Kids Don’t Stand a Chance - Vampire Weekend, Vampire Weekend
- The Pelican - Menomena, Friend And Foe
- Mr. November - The National, Alligator
- Time Runs Out - John Frusciante, The Will To Death
- Thirteen - Big Star, No.1 Record Radio City
I’m curious, does anyone have a song that makes them think orange?
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Sweet man! That’s an awesome idea. :)
It’s funny, I have the opposite experience with music. I tend to visually think about songs and albums based on the album artwork colors. Somehow the album artwork really affects how I see a song or album. To the point where I can’t divorce the two. I suppose if I stopped looking at the artwork I’d come up with my own color ideas. Either way, I look forward to hearing your Orange Mix, I have a feeling they’ll all end up feeling very orangey to me.
@StevenRay Thanks!
@Shawn Yeah, I can see that happening although for whatever reason it hasn’t influenced me too much. Hopefully my “album art” has influenced you enough though that it’ll seem very “orangey”. Or, maybe tangerine…
Some great tunes in there Tom!
For me, I’d say just about anything released between 1988-1991 in REM’s back catalogue makes me think “orange”, the track “Orange Crush” notwithstanding. Orange is an odd colour - I can more easily think of songs that would be blue, red, or green. Not so easy to do with orange though.
@Scott Oh yeah, a lot of REM’s stuff seems orange to me too. I’m in agreement with you on orange being a bit of a tricky color. It just happened to be the first list that filled up. I plan on doing a red, green, or blue mix next so not to worry!
Definitely a good winter mix in spite of the springtime ambitions of its namesake. (:
I really like the pace of this mix, it’s never too fast, leaving the listener behind, but when it does slow down, it’s never sleepy. Good stuff.
Eels “Fresh Feeling” is my perfect orange song.
Actually, its a pornj song (a transcendent combination of safety orange and hot pink)