Thursday 30 April 2015

Aberrant - Along Came Terragen (Updated)

Chrissie was curled up watching a film with Steve and Holly; the other side of the world, Adam was doing something similar with Sam and Nicky. The broadcast was interrupted - all TV channels, all internet traffic - by a fair-skinned man with short, light-coppery hair. He spoke eloquently about the ways novas were beyond humanity and should be governed by their own kind and their own rules - those nova prepared to settle for less, he implied, were sheep. The tone upset Chrissie, made her fear it would lead to trouble from the angrier and more unstable novas and backlash from baselines - she was particularly concerned for her human friends, who would be as caught in the middle as she was, but without the protection of quantum powers. The mystery red-head announced 'TerrraGen' as a new group of novas. 

Steve wished Chrissie luck as she flew to the Hub. Adam, meanwhile, agreed to stay with a concerned Sam - as long as Chrissie kept hi updated.

The team - sans Rachel, still on sabbatical, and Adam - gathered in the briefing room, along with Jen and Alastair. There were none of the usual jokes and pranks, and Chrissie could see the muscle tension in members of her team was a tight as her own, although on the surface all was calm. Sadiq was called in and confirmed Chrissie's suspicion that the nova on screen looked the same as the nova found in the memories Antaeus uncovered from the mind of the space engineer.

It was agreed that, for now, the best thing for members of the Initiative to do was stay quiet and unobserved - continue humanitarian efforts, but make no public declarations. Although frustrated, Chrissie could see the sense in that: they didn't know all the existing facts and couldn't see what the fallout would be. Best to stay quiet and be ready to act if needed.

After, Chrissie sought out her brother: she wanted back-up to visit her parents, whom she'd avoided since returning Pete to them. She felt this was no longer an option. They drove so he could borrow her car and still get back if she had to leave early. Pete's efforts to cheer Chrissie up ended as they climbed the steps. Their mother opened the door and greeted Pete cheerfully.

"Chrissie's here too."
"Where?"
"Right here. Right next to me."
"I don't see anyone. Do come in, Petie."
"Not until you say hi to Chrissie."
"It's alright, Pete, it doesn't matter," although it hurt more deeply than she'd known her parents still could.
"Who's 'Chrissie'"
"Don't do this, Mum. Your daughter" 
"I don't have a daughter."
"Yes you do, she's right here."
Chrissie couldn't hold her tongue any longer: "You should know, you were there."
And finally, finally, their mother turned to her and cut Chrissie's heart with seven syllables. "Not that I'd ever admit".

Chrissie regained herself and turned to leave. Despite her assurances that she was ok and he ought to stay, Pete insisted on leaving with her so they drove back in a near silence: Chrissie did not want him to see how angry she was. She dropped him back then sent the car on to its space at the Hub as she flew up, up and up. Once far enough above flight paths, she sped as fast as she could go - faster than she thought she could - to reach Adam. Her landing on their helipad was ungainly, but had the advantage of alerting the adults so that Sam met her with a sympathetic look and a strong cup of coffee, whilst Adam led her to their sound-proofed theatre so she could scream the injustice of it to him. 

Calm again, she convinced Adam (sounding a little lost in his new role as husband and father) to come back with her for a bit: Pax was due to be giving a press conference that Chrissie very much wanted Dave to sneak them into. Sam was pleased at the prospect of having him out of her hair for a few hours: there's only so many times you can wake up to discover your whole house redecorated before you start to crave stability in your scenery. 

Dave agreed to take them along as trainees/assistants once they'd reassured him they were only going to observe, not cause trouble. Chrissie was careful to hide her distinctive hair under a peaked cap and wore clothes as close in style to the other journalists and associated press-type people, but on the way in another reporter spotted her and started demanding her view on Terragen. She refused to comment and moved on quickly.

Pax's speech was brief and to the point: that he and Team Tomorrow did not agree with Terragen and that mankind - nova and baseline - needed to work together. The crowd roared for me, but he was done. Mic drop, peace out, gone. (And for a treacherous moment, Chrissie wondered if she should have followed up on the interest he'd shown her. But then, Steve was not an ordinary baseline.)

Back at the Hub, Chrissie invited Adam, Alastair and Jen to dinner and thanked her lucky stars that Steve would be happy to host at no notice, he being a much better cook than she.

And it was a lovely meal, until Steve stood to get dessert and a crashing noise familiar to the novas echoed in the distance. Before the sirens and car alarms had time to begin, Alastair had teleported the baselines to safety and returned to take Chrissie and Adam to the source.

The warehouses lining the street had been destroyed. Silhouettes of several people could be seen: no remains, just scorched patterns and an absence of the pin-prick holes that covered the ground and all surfaces. The epicentre of what seemed to have been an explosion of needles was pretty clear: slivers of living metal were returning to a man-shape ahead. As the figure coalesced, they saw this was more of a bipedal, metallic, man-sized lizard than a normal human; something that seemed more alien than nova.

He turned, and spoke, and his voice was sibilant.

Wednesday 29 April 2015

Musical A-Z - H

There should hopefully be Aberrant commentary tomorrow, and Pathfinder by the end of the bank holiday weekend. I know I keep promising to get back on track and failing, but I am trying.

Hanson


I had such a crush on Taylor Hanson when I was younger - and with my long, blonde hair people joked I was the missing member. Their debut album was the first cd I owned - a reluctant birthday present from my Dad. I knew all the words to this and sang it all the time...

(hed) p.e.


And for something slightly different... This is a song absolutely guaranteed to get me onto the dancefloor. It brings back fond memories of moshing at home and at uni.

Hundred Reasons


Listening to this makes me think I should actually get some of their music.

They played at Reading festival the year I went. I was vaguely aware of them as a band but didn't (don't) really know them. They impressed me, though, because someone bottled the stage and took out half their sound equipment: the mic and I think the drums were ok, but the guitars all out. They could have stormed off, but instead the singer pointed out how unfair the bottling had been on the people who wanted to hear them play. He then, with the drummer, got the crowd clapping rhythms and arranging chanting-style sing-alongs with us, then oversaw the building of human pyramids and generally kept us entertained whislt the roadies raced around to get them back up and running. They earned my respect for that.


There are a few other bands/artists that have particular songs that I particularly enjoy, but nothing else that strikes sufficient chord for me to add now. I'm really struggling to think of people for I, but later in the alphabet it gets busy again. 

Tuesday 21 April 2015

Musical A-Z - G

Shorter post this time - Real Life has interrupted. I'm hoping to get back to character concepts and roleplay write-ups soon, but they do take more time and energy.

Garbage

I really like what I know by Garbage - they're another band I ought to have more by than I actually do.

The Go! Team

You may recognise this from Little Big Planet - that they are on the soundtrack was one reason I liked the game. I think they are fun and upbeat and immensely enjoyable. 

Grae Westgate


So, confession time: Grae and I went to uni together and I was there when he was offered his recording contract, so I'd be really excited for him to do well. I know what music and performing means to him, and I'm not too cool to admit I'd like to bask in a little reflected glory.

We bonded over our shared love of Buffy, used to meet up for coffee now and then and chat about why we loved the show, and when I discovered he'd moved to my locale I was thrilled to bits and we spent an afternoon chatting Firefly. It was cool.

His blog's here.

I was really torn as to which song to pick - Autumn Song is about our university, so that feels pretty special to me, and his cover of Sexy and I Know It makes me giggle. I went with this one, though, because of where it comes from. After university, I came back home and Grae went to Japan. He was there for the Fukushima earthquake, separated from his lovely girlfriend and unable to contact her, so he wrote this. I think it's beautiful, especially live. 

Green Day

Green Day were the first band I saw live, for the International Superhits tour. I thought they were so incredible live I couldn't listen to them on cd for months after; they just sounded flat.

Again, it was hard to decide which song to pick, but when I was doing A-Levels I knew I would be giving up French at the end of the first year, to focus on drama, physics and maths. There were a few of us in this situation - Mrs Hammond was an amazing teacher, but her ex-husband (the other French teacher who'd be taking us) was not and he put a lot of us off. After we'd sat the AS exams, we had to come back to school for a few weeks before teh summer holiday, but because the first bit of the A2 course - the bit we were now meant to be doing - was really dull, she let those of us who weren't carrying on sit at the back and translate our favourite songs into French. I can still sing a fair amount of this. 

Thursday 16 April 2015

Musical A-Z - F (updated)

Faith No More

My big sister got into grunge before it was popular. I never particularly liked Nirvana (although I do love Dave Grohl, and the more I'm learning about Kurt Cobain the more I respect him), but I do like Faith No More - particularly this song. It's fun - and in the soundtrack for Grosse Point Blank!

Faithless

As I said before, Husbit and I have differing favourite music genres - but Faithless is another of the bands we both love. This song I particularly love - there's something very powerful about the lyrics, and Maxi Jazz has the most amazing voice.

Fear Factory

And this is another we both love. I wanted to choose Linchpin  or Edgecrusher to remember dancing away with Boyd and Arthur on Rocsoc nights at The Angel when I was at uni, but this was the first Fear Factory song I heard - a friend and I used to make cd's up for each other and this was a song he shared with me. I ended up buying a fair amount of their stuff, so I've always thought mix discs/tapes were beneficial to the music industry (but that's another rant).

Feeder

Like I said, teenage insomniac. Love this song. Listening to Feeder always makes me think of the best parts of my teenage years.

Five

And the compulsory embarrassing confession - I was a huge fan of 5ive when I was younger. Little E and I even had a dance routine we'd perform in the back of the car when we forced Dad to put this cd on... 

Flogging Molly

So this is one of the moments where I love, love, love a song but somehow haven't got around to getting my hands on more of their stuff - not a mix disc this time, but at clubs.

Just, it's such a fun song I'm scared the rest of their stuff won't live up to it ([spunge] really let me down like that). I hope you like it to!

Florin Street Band (update to add)

So if you're in the UK, you may remember a few years ago when people fed up with X Factor winners dominated the Christmas Number One slot and a Facebook campaign successfully got Rage Against the Machine's Killing in the Name to win instead. That was fantastic, not just because I'm a big fan of RAtM but also because it meant the following year people realised it didn't have to be all about X Factor and there was more competition - more songs that actually felt Christmassy, and an excitment about the charts that X Factor had destroyed.

I'm a little biased by this one: my uncle's one of the guitarists on it. He's since developed a nerve/fine motor control condition that means he can't play guitar, which is heart-breaking because he's one of the best musicians I know.

Foo Fighters

And another where I like the video! I love the Foo Fighters - saw them at Reading Festival the same year as Feeder, actually, and really enjoyed both. I'm sharing this one because it's the tune I'm using for my aerial hoop routine at circus.

Wednesday 15 April 2015

Musical A-Z - E

Eels

This is one of those songs that always makes me smile.

Electric Six

Another song I think is fun - upbeat and cheerful and one that gets me dancing.

Eminem

This song is less happy. In fact, this is the first song that ever made me cry - or rather, the first song that brought existing tears out.

I suffered very badly with depression as a teenager until about 18 months ago. I'd got quite into Eminem (you can blame Dido for that - the sample of her song Thank You used in Stan caught me) and was on the bus back from town having bought his Slim Shady LP. I was listening to it on my discman and this song started. It reached the chorus and tears started falling down my face. I now see the lyrics are a bit ham-fisted, but at the time the chorus spoke to somewhere inside me that was mad and sad and fighting to stay alive.

I've lost my love for Eminem, but this song will always be important to me. 

Enya

Some music is wonderful not because I love it but because friends love it and it makes me think of them. This always makes me think of Dee, and thinking of Dee always makes me smile - she's a very important friend, someone I don't see for years then we meet for coffee and it's like no time has passed.

Eurythmics

Annie Lennox has another voice I love. I like this song a lot, too.

Tuesday 14 April 2015

Musical A-Z - D

David Bowie

When I was very little, my favourite book was Outside Over There by Maurice Sendak. My elder sister recently admitted that it upset her, but she still read it to me as many times as I demanded.

I saw Labyrinth at some point around that time, or rather the second half of the film without knowing what it was. It stuck with me, though, and when I saw the film on my housemate's shelf at uni I was sure it was the film of my memory - and it was. It is the film I normally reach for when I need cheering up.

My housemate had it because she was obsessed with David Bowie. I didn't really know anything by him - my previous exposure had been the mother of my French exchange student (also a fan) asking me "Iz eet 'Bowie' or 'Bohie'?", to which I had no answer - but Penny's enthusiasm wrapped around me and I think it's fair to call me a fan.

Bonus video: 


My brother showed me this - Chris Hadfield, a Canadian astronaut, performing Space Oddity under licence on the ISS. Very, very cool.

Dido

This is someone else with a voice I think is beautiful.

Disturbed

I've heard it said that the things you learn to love during your teenage years are the things that stay deepest in your soul. This is another from a band I discovered then - I really, really like this song.

Donna Summer 

I love her voice. I wish I could put my finger on why this song touches me, but I think it's wonderful.
Drowning Pool

Very fond memories of dancing to this at the Villa at home and the Angel at uni. Always makes me think of a girl in the year above me at school - she was a big fan and one of those people you like but are a bit shy of so we lost touch. Which was a shame - she played the bad guy in a (very amateur) pantomime in which I played her evil wife.

Monday 13 April 2015

Musical A-Z - C

Catatonia

At one point, my little brother was going to be called 'Hereward'. This was discarded when my Dad realised no one would be able to pronounce it correctly: 'Herrheywarrhd' is about as well as I can render. My little sister in particular was unable to roll her r's. She can now, and it's thanks to this song. She was pretty obsessed with it for a while, singing the chorus over and over again until one day we all realised her r's were rolling beautifully.

I still love this song. I love Cerys Matthews' voice and I love that it always make me think of my little sister.

Christina Aguilera

I settled into a preference for rock/punk/metal fairly in my mid-teens. In this, I was strongly influenced by a group of friends who were a few years older. Miriam, in particular, I looked up to with a respect bordering on reverence, so I was very surprised when she told me she liked Christina Aguilera. At this point, the onyl song of hers I knew was Dirrty and I couldn't stand it. Miriam agreed, but said I should listen to the album; I'd be surprised. I was.

Fighter was released soon after and I really like both the song and the video, but I think this song is hauntingly, horribly beautiful.

The Clash

The Clash are a favourite band of my Dad's, and his love of them rubbed off on me. I couldn't decide which song to use - I could very easily have shared nearly their entire discography in this post. But this one is about a daddy, so it seemed a suitable choice.

The Correspondents

I really like these guys - saw them live once and Mr Bruce has an insane amount of energy on stage. Husbit discovered them a few years ago and enjoyed their style. He's always said if we do get married (or at least have a party) our first dance should be charlston in style: he worked as a wedding DJ for a few years and got bored of the 'move slowly around in a circle' dance most couples do, but thinks the charlston looks fun and exciting. It also looks pretty exhausting, but we thought we might be able to abridge Washington Square for the dance. So I was torn between that and this, but this one won because I can't think of any other song that has 'reprobate' in the chorus. 

Cream

Dad had a vinyl record player when I was little. It lived in our lounge, on a cabinet filled with LP's and EP's. I recall Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club, the only Beatles' album he thought was any good, Velvet Underground, Simon and Garfunkel, the smell, the texture. Most of all, I remember his Cream album. It was cream coloured, a large box and signed by the three members.

I don't remember the other songs on it, but Dad used to play this one to us over and over again, in the way only a small child can demand.

Sunday 12 April 2015

Hissy Fits and Discordant Groups

In our last Pathfinder session, we ended up in combat with a bounty hunter-turned-assassin who was causing problems in Pitax. My character couldn't land a blow - her blades are both keen with the intention of increasing the number of criticals she does, but when only a natural 20 will hit, it feels redundant. That quickly becomes frustrating and it didn't take long before I'd slipped off into the other room trying to find a way to explain that I was bored of the combat.

I felt embarassed and guilty for being cross: I know my GM puts in an awful lot of effort and I don't want to hurt his feelings or ever discourage him because usually he's brilliant, but I was fed up. My guilt came out as petty anger which my GM dealt with very well, calmly sitting there and saying he'd take it all on board as I whined about how unfair it was to have been left to make a combat character (which I didn't want to do), to have tried to create a decent fighter through powergaming tactics (which I didn't want to do), and yet still to have been unable to hit anything. I sat out the rest of the combat; Husbit joined me to make sure I was ok. We rejoined the party once the guy was downed and our GM accepted my cues to continue as if I hadn't just had a toddler's tantrum.

I think he handled my petulance very well, but I've been trying to work out what could have been done to prevent it reaching a point where I boiled over the way I did.

First of all, there are pressures in my life right now that are beyond my control (and actually part of the stress is the fact they are beyond my control: I've always been something of a control freak). There's very little I can do about this; I just have to ride it out and accept that some days it is all going to get on top of me. Fortunately, I have very patient, very forgiving friends.

Second, sadly, is the current group. Since my brother left and a new player joined, there has been a noticeable power-creep among certain players that isn't to my taste. I can't keep up with it, and I don't enjoying playing with it.

Third, I ended up playing a character by role rather than concept, and got stuck with the role I least wanted. I'd created several characters as suitable for the game, avoiding rogues and sorcerors (because I nearly always play a rogue and Svetlana was a sorceror before a rogue). I couldn't play the ranged ranger because Husbit was playing a gunslinger, the cleric position was covered by a druid and a ninja meant my lack of rogue was not a problem. I was going to have to be the frontline fighter.

I wanted to play the skald. Skalds are a third-party (I think) character class for Pathfinder available on Herolab: they combine bard with barbarian, something I've long wanted to try. The rest of the group disagreed, on the basis that the 'raging song' ability wouldn't benefit them because it restricted cha, dex and int skills (except acrobatics, ride, fly and intimidate). That was fair enough, but as the game progressed I realised it would have been useful to have had a character with the knowledges and ease of speaking that Ylva was created with - and no one has yet used any skills beyond acrobatics and fly in combat.

That left me with Jvala, the spell-less ranger. I created her not expecting to play her, and used the third-party class only out of interest. When I realised I would be playing her, I'd forgotten she was't a traditional ranger until everyone started teasing me about her, referring to her as 'pointless' instead of 'spell-less'. This was building on previous teasing about Svetlana being pointless because she wasn't any good in combat and twice in quick succession botched trap-disarm rolls and is a half-elf (full elves having two points for their ears).

And this is where I needed to take some action because I should have explained this was hurting my feelings, rather than pretending I didn't mind whilst it scratched away at my self-esteem and self-control.

I'd also geared Jvala towards very mobile combat - I pictured her dancing around a battlefield with her leopard and wolf leaping to flank. Whilst building her, I discovered that the pets couldn't take team feats, which unbalanced my plan a little, but it wasn't until we were playing that I discovered she can only use both weapons if she doesn't have to move to reach combat, which completely defeated my purposes. That was frustrating, but the GM has let me re-jig things a bit. Unfortunately, she still can't hit anything.

The GM has been having great fun creating NPC's in Herolab. I don't blame him for this in the least (he says he finally understands why I'm so keen to play a bard), but it's meant we've had a spate of bad guys with very high AC. The other players (excluding the druid, who in many ways is having as poor a run of it as I am - another of my frustrations) explicitly stated I had to be the fighter, but I was the only one who couldn't hit.

So I got bored and stomped off.

A lot of it was cumulative petty frustrations that I'm not very good at vocalising because I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings, so the biggest thing I need to do is work on speaking out when something bothers me. At least some of the other players need to work on listening when someone has an issue.

I've spoken to Husbit about the ways he tends to dominate games and he's taken it on board with the character he's currently playing, and I'm optimistic will continue to take it on board with Alexei when we return to our main characters. The same conversation would not, I fear, be understood were I to try to have it with our new player, so I need to find a way to express my concerns without him feeling as though I'm being petty. I'm worried he'll think I should just shout louder if I want more game time, but I don't think it should be a competition and it's not just me who's missing out. 

For me, roleplay is a co-operative story-telling. Inevitably, some characters will get more attention at some stages, but the only time I have felt like I've been that character was the relationship with Noleski and that was rushed through. The GM has promised I will get more showtime when we come back from the Abyss, but I worry that the louder voices will overwhelm his promise.

I try to give time to the quietest member of our party. I'm not always successful and I sometimes pass the way I feel treated on to him and that is very unfair of me and something I'm working on. A good group, I think, should try to give all its members space to speak and opportunities to shine. The more confident players have a responsibility to help with this, otherwise it just becomes a shouting match where no one is having fun.

To echo what I said at the top, I feel a bit guilty writing this. I don't want it to sound like our group is a bad group or falling apart. Most of the time it has been great fun, but there are a few issues at the moment and we need to work together to resolve them.

Monday 6 April 2015

Musical A-Z - B

B*Witched

I can't pretend I've always had amazing music taste, and this is probably all the proof you need of that... But it's from the first CD I ever bought (their self-titled first album) so does deserve inclusion in this silly project. I remember watching them perform this on TotP, with ridiculous oversized flowers, and believing they were a French band because of the lyrics... hmmm.....

Talking of the lyrics, this was the first time that I learnt adults sometimes hear things in a way children don't: the line "I'll show you mine if you show me yours" concerned my father, but I knew they were talking about treehouses.

Barenaked Ladies

Another band from my later teens. I've been an insomniac as long as I can remember: I had a lot of blood tests for anaemia and other problems as a child because I was always so tired. It never occurred to anyone to check what time I stopped reading or how long I lay awake wishing I was still reading because there was no way I'd be getting any sleep. So this song really resonated with me (along with Feeder's Insomnia) and I still love it even though I haven't significantly suffered with insomnia since I finished uni. 

I like that this version has been made in a bathroom. Simple things and simple minds and all that.

Beastie Boys

I don't have much to say. I just think they're fun. Also, I'm pretty sure they were on the soundtrack for Tony Hawk (or maybe we just listened to them whilst playing), so fond memories of fun times with friends.

Billy Idol

Husbit and I have fairly eclectic taste, but mine leans towards rock/metal and his dance: Billy Idol is one of those artists we both love, so this album gets plenty of play time in the car!

Blink 182

And back to love songs, I'm afraid. I was trying to explain to someone recently why I'm so fond of this as a love song, and I think it comes down to the fact that the person being sung about is given agency: "She left me roses by the stairs, surprises let me know she cares". It's not about what she looks like; it's about what she does, and that's cool.

Bob Dylan

I don't particularly like Bob Dylan (although I do like other people's covers of his songs) but my Dad is a fan so I listened to him a fair amount as a child and always think of my Dad when I hear his music. Also, the first picture I saw of him looked a bit like my Uncle Bob which made me wish I liked his music more. 

Bob Marley & the Wailers

When I was doing my GCSE's, one project in English was a 'balloon debate' - in groups, we each chose a famous person (fictional, real, living or dead) and then defend their position in an imaginary hot air balloon that only had enough lift for one person. As I recall, one of the other groups chose Superman, which was ridiculous because he could survive jumping out of the balloon and anyway could carry the others that the balloon couldn't...

Anyway, our group chose Bob Marley and I'm glad because I knew very little about him and found what I learnt about him interesting.

We lost because the other teams pointed out he was already dead so it wouldn't matter, which we felt was very unfair. His music is still excellent.

Saturday 4 April 2015

Musical A-Z - A (updated)

A

If I'm going to do an A-Z of music, it makes sense to start with A.

I was in 6th form when the Hi-Fi Serious album was released and I loved it because it has such a fun feel to it - that's what it reminds me of now: being young and having fun.

Abney Park


Husbit found this goth-turned-steampunk-pirate band a few years ago - and I really enjoy them. I love the inclusion of fiddles and I really like Captain Robert's voice. I was torn between Airship Pirates  and Aether Shanty but ultimately decided on this because rum.

I enjoy the fictional backstory, too, and the geek within loves that there's a roleplay game based around it (just need to convince people to play...) 

Alanis Morissette 

I know plenty of people like to whine about her and debate whether or not Ironic  contains irony (it does), but I like her. As a teenager, I mostly knew her as God out of Dogma (and that my friend's mum's boyfriend had the hots for her). I was introduced to her music when I was at uni, by a friend who always played her albums when she had her girly-friends over because her other half doesn't enjoy her music. I think maybe that's why I feel there's something shameful about liking her music.

I went for this song because it reminds me of karaoke nights at the pub I used to work in. My boss was learning to sing (he went on to gigdoing Paul Weller covers, before being murdered the week I was away graduating) and had developed a good ear for what songs would suit our regulars (at least, those with potential... he never gave me a song). The first time I saw it was when he picked this for one young woman who'd been singing rockier songs more usual to our clientele - and yet this came out of her so beautifully. I always think of him when I hear it, in a happy way: it hit me hard when he died.

Alkaline Trio

This is another band I first heard as a teenager. My little sister was, at the time, a member of a church whose christianity often felt oppressive and aggressive, so I think part of the appeal of this band was the satanic undercurrents in some of the lyrics. But again, it's fun and upbeat music that reminds me of being young. This is probably my favourite of their songs. 

Apocalyptica

This song was used in a play by final year students the year above me at uni. I went to see it with a friend who's a massive Metallica fan and we just stared at each other as it started, grinning more and more as the chaos unfolded onstage. Perfect use of the song and as soon as we could we both got hold of as much by Apocalyptica as possible.

Archive (update edit to add)

Oops! Missed this one out when I first made this post. The song was used in the trailer for Cyberpunk 2020 and Husbit and I fell in love with it. I've listened to other pieces by Archive, but so far none have felt as intimate to me as this. I don't know enough about music to explain why I like it so much, but it is very powerful, and the lyrics dance through my head as a pleasant earworm on a regular basis. 

Arethra Franklin (update edit to add)

I think she has one of the most amazing voices I've ever heard. If I could sing like anyone, I'd want it to be her. I love The Blues Brothers, which is why I picked this one. 

Ash

And another song from my teenage years. 

Avril Lavigne

I'm not exactly a fan... but when this song was big in the charts I got mistaken for her once! I was chased down the high street by two girls shouting after me; when I looked around confused and walked off, they turned to each other and said "She's a lot ruder in real life"... Sorry Avril!

I've just realised I'm wearing the same jeans today I was then - black and very baggy. The pink strappy top and the long net coat are in the wardrobe. I guess I haven't changed as much since my teen years as I sometimes think.