Variations on a Theme: Outer Space

Excited for the space force? So am I. Listen to this playlist to get pumped for it!

1. “Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space” by Spiritualized

This is a really interesting song. It starts as a round over Pachabel’s Canon, and I know that numerous artists have made fun of that, but this isn’t like the others. The Canon is very subtle, and there are instrumental lines that join in the round. Overall the effect is very psychedelic and smooth. Really glorious to listen to.

2. “Spaceman” by The Killers

Yeah a space playlist wouldn’t be complete without this. What I really enjoy is the song’s upbeat and peppy feel, so often we are saddened by looking at ourselves from afar, but this revels in it. It gets the sentiment that if we are so small, nothing we do matters, and therefore we can do whatever we want!

3. “Space Jam” by James Newton Howard

Space Jam is the best documentary out there. This song also spawned the meme of taking songs and mashing it with this one. There’s a list of the best ones here.

4. “Imperial March” by John Williams

Another classic, you can’t listen to this without thinking of space and sci-fi. Williams is a brilliant composer, and tunes like this that create such an atmosphere behind them demonstrate why.

5. “The Planets” by Holst

There’s a rule somewhere where if you are playing in a concert band you have to like Holst. This is basically the epitome of that. I know “Mars” and “Jupiter” fairly well by now, I’ve played in them multiple times. The others aren’t really practical for concert bands so they don’t get performed very often. “Neptune” though is really gorgeous (it involves a choir) so I would give that a listen. Apparently this was also the first piece to include a fade out at the end!

6. “Cecilia and the Satellite” by Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness

This is a gorgeous song, I think I heard somewhere that the lyrics are about the songwriter’s daughter. I’ve seen multiple people choreograph to it (one of them might have been me heh heh) because it has a great balance of melody and strong downbeats.

7. “Starman” by David Bowie

There was no way that I was not including this. This album was my first exposure to Bowie’s music, a very long time ago, and it still retains that mystical charm after all of these years. I can’t think about this song now without thinking of him and all the good that he brought into the world. I hope he’s waiting from the stars.

8. “The Commander Thinks Aloud” by The Long Winters

Ending on a bit of a downer here, this is a song about the Columbia shuttle crash. It was featured on an episode of the “Song Exploder” podcast if anyone’s interested in that. One of the most interesting bits that the artist shared on that podcast was how he repeats “the crew compartment’s breaking up” and it has this effect of becoming monotonous after 3 or 4 repeats, but then the meaning hits you all over again around the 8^th. Often he’ll start to cry during live performances at that point. I never think about the effect that artists are going for with repeats, and that was a really cool insight into what he was thinking with that. Sorry it’s a depressing end, but it’s a lovely song.

That’s it for this month, be on the lookout for next time, we’ll be covering SCIENCE!