While I listen to music more or less all day while work and whatnot, I infrequently like to pick out some of my favourite songs, turn up the volume and just sit back and close my eyes, focussing only on the music.

There are some tracks which have the amazing quality to completely take over your awareness as you really get into them. Here are some that do that for me. They range from old hits to obscure stuff, from chill-out to hard rock, and are in no particular order.

1. The Extreme – Daydream

This wonderful chill-out tune has a deep bass-line that instantly drew me in the first time I heard it on Digitally Imported’s Chillout channel. The lush instrumentation accompanied by a perfectly fitting break beat later on takes you through a dreamland of relaxation. It is all over the place in a big mess of harmony.

2. Phil Collins - In the Air Tonight

In the Air Tonight [sadly only 240p quality for the studio version I want to showcase] is more of a classic. It carries on slowly and gives the impression that something’s going to happen, which is the case near the end of the song. It just has this sublime pad and soft drum work going on throughout, along with subtle spacial effects on the vocals. The cool part about this track is that you tend to turn it up because the longest first part is relatively quiet. Since the song isn’t overly compressed as a lot of more recent music is, when the drums come in, they are rather hard-hitting. Also, after a few listens, you will find yourself air-drumming when that part kicks in.

3. Drugstore - Old Shoes

I have not heard the original of this Tom Waits cover, but this version I found on one of my parents’ CDs years ago is certainly a jewel. It morphs from very calm parts with light re-verb-y guitars into heavy parts with distorted shoegaze-like guitar work. The kick-off is usually paired with a little drum fill-in, after which all the guitars break loose again. The result is a wall of a sound which leaves no room for any other thoughts if you’re playing it loud enough.

4. The Cranberries – Zombie

This classic massive hit still manages to give me goosebumps after all the times I’ve listened to it. Somewhat similarly to Old Shoes, it has sections with guitar and bass all over the place, blowing you away. This, paired with a powerful voice and equally powerful instrumental parts, just works. The transition to the last part is really smooth and finishes it off beautifully.

5. Papa Roach – Between Angels and Insects

While this hard rock song by Papa Roach has (explicit) laden lyrics about money and materialism, that’s not the reason I listed it here. I have difficulty describing the part when it kicks in. It just take you over. It’s as if the full sound spectrum is being pumped in your ears, in a good way. Definitely the heaviest one of the bunch.

6. The Me in You – Low Battery

It’s a shame that the album version of Low Battery is not available on Youtube, as that one has a longer outro with more of the light guitar and piano goodness. The Me in You are a very new Belgian band. I got their debut album “Forgotten Clothes” as a birthday gift, and I’ve played through it many, many times since. The whole album is absolutely great, but this one is my favourite of the bunch. It’s a very mellow sounding track which takse a few listens to really appreciate the attention to detail, and how well everything works together. I suggest you go buy the album, it’s more than worth it.

There are probably more tracks I can list here, but these are the ones I recently got into again. I will probably write some more posts about music I particularly love in the future.