valentine's day EAR FARM's Top 8+ Posts Of 2007

EAR FARM's 8+ is a weekly look at songs longer than eight minutes. Each week, new song. There are no rules or guidelines here other than that I won't allow live versions of songs to be featured. Beyond that, it's anything goes. And very often, that's exactly what happens as the songs range from indie rock to jazz to classic rock to rap to R&B to classical to electronic to folk to anything/everything in between. Accompanying each song is anything from a personal story/essay to pictures, videos, cited research, original poetry... truly all manner of reflection and interaction with the week's selected long song. In a nutshell, for over two years 8+ has been EAR FARM's signature weekly column.

To date there have been 99 songs featured in EF's 8+, meaning that the next new 8+ will be the 100th 8+! To celebrate the occasion, and as a special thank you to all of the EAR FARM faithful, we're inviting you to vote/decide which song you would like to have featured in EAR FARM's 100th 8+. The four potential songs were selected to reflect some of the songs most requested via email and comments. So be sure to vote in the 8+ poll in the sidebar on the right. To give everyone enough time to get a vote cast we'll be doing a special remix of an old 8+ post next week (consider it a rerun) and the final 8+ of 2007 (#100 overall) will appear the following week. In other words, voting will close on December 25th and your 100th 8+ will be posted on the 27th.

In lieu of posting a new 8+ today, we've decided to wrap up 2007 by picking our 15 favorite 8+ posts from 2007 along with a separate list of 8+ posts written by guest authors this year. I've done up a very brief summary for each post in the list below to jog your memory/entice you to want to read the actual post; and also, I've gone ahead and re-uploaded (for a limited time) each of the songs to their original posts, so click through below to begin your adventure through the year's best 8+s and visit each original post to read and listen to each individual 8+. If you'd like to someday try your hand at writing a guest 8+ for EAR FARM, get in touch. If your favorite song has yet to be featured, or your favorite 8+ post from this year was left off the list, speak!

EAR FARM's Top 8+ Posts Of 2007
Lynyrd Skynyrd - "Free Bird" - young Matt attempts to woo girl by lying and saying the lyrics to "Free Bird" are actually his own poetry
Ludwig van Beethoven - "Symphony No. 6 in F major, Op. 68 - Allegretto" - a special Thanksgiving post: thankful Matt, thankful cat
Gioachino Rossini - "La gazza ladra (The Thieving Magpie)" - a visit to a famous cemetery in Paris to pay respects to deceased music greats
Artanker Convoy - "Open Up" - ass! Hot ass... young ass.
Clan of Xymox - "A Day (Remix)" - EAR FARM's Goth Aerobics
Pulp - "Seductive Barry" - an imaginary resume comprised solely of lyrics from Pulp songs
Pelican - "March to the Sea" - a parody of a rude record review posted on the website Pitchfork
Morrissey - "Southpaw" - after a seventeen year long relationship, Matt breaks up with Morrissey
Slint - "Washer" - a window into 19 year old Matt's mind - a fraction of a short story that was never finished and barely even begun
Martin Eagle Trio - "The Hipster" - a plea to stop using the term "hipster" to apply to every person in the world under the age of 35
Aphex Twin - "Ziggomatic V17" - a post written in binary
Explosions In The Sky - "It's Natural To Be Afraid" - a new game, a true story of life on the road with a band
The Velvet Underground - "The Gift" - Matt hears Velvet Underground for the first time in the back seat of a camaro
Jenő Jandó - "Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2" - the evolution of the use of this song in animated films, with accompanying YouTube clips

EAR FARM's Guest 8+ Posts Of 2007
The Fiery Furnaces - "Inspector Blancheflower” - Kevin hates long songs, but can't resist writing a lot about this one
Tori Amos - "Yes, Anastasia" - Cathy remembers when she once was Grand Duchess Anastasia of Russia
Boduf Songs - “Bell for Harness” - Matthew reveals the soundtrack to running in a residential neighborhood
Boris - "Flood" - Taylor finds hypnotizing patterns in the music of Boris
Agalloch - "In The Shadow Of Our Pale Companion" - David writes an 8+ via IM conversation with Matt
Guns N' Roses - "Locomotive" - Part 4 of Ryan Vanderboosh's epic GnR miniseries
Guns N' Roses - "Estranged" - Part 3 of Ryan Vanderboosh's epic GnR miniseries
Guns N' Roses - "Coma" - Part 2 of Ryan Vanderboosh's epic GnR miniseries
Guns N' Roses - "November Rain" - Part 1 of Ryan Vanderboosh's epic GnR miniseries

Click HERE to see a list of all 99 of EAR FARM's 8+ posts to date.


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See also:
- EAR FARM's Top Songs Of 2007
- EAR FARM's Top Ten Bands To Emerge in 2007 & Ten To Watch Out For in 2008
- EAR FARM's Top Concerts of 2007

Tomorrow:
EAR FARM's Top 15 Albums Of 2007