For the love of music

For a while, I've been meaning to do an A-Z of bands - a blog post per letter, with favourite songs by several bands starting with that letter. I was going to write up Pathfinder and Aberrant today, but I've been thinking about music. I asked on G+ and on Twitter what people's favourite songs are, and why.

The types of songs people love are many and varied, but there are a lot of similarities in the reasons: wedding songs, honeymoon songs, holiday songs, parent's favourite songs and songs that otherwise stir emotions.

So, here's some of my favourite songs; I'll start the A-Z another time.

Stellar by Incubus

This was the first song I ever heard by Incubus; I was 16 and it stuck to my soul. For me, it is the best way to describe falling in love.

Love Song by Snake River Conspiracy

This is another love song I love - much better than the Cure original version (so it's the music and not the lyrics, as I'd assumed until I listened to the original). I first heard it at uni, when I was really homesick and missing Husbit. It made me think of him with a comfortable sadness: "No matter how far away".

Good People by Jack Johnson

For my 23rd birthday, my little sister took me to Egypt. We had an amazing holiday - sightseeing in Cairo (I'd love to go back to the museum - I could spend years there) and scuba-diving in Dahab. Fantastic time - and this song (along with several others of his and several of Bob Marley's) played a lot in Dahab and always makes me think of the sunshine.

Little Sister is awesome. She arranged for a quadbike trip to watch the sun rise over the Nile and we ended at this oasis

Long Live the Queen by Frank Turner

My brother played this to me a few months ago. I wept in his car. This song is so powerfully sad and yet so intrinsically positive. I absolutely love it - even though it wrenches my emotions. Probably because it wrenches my emotions.

Danse Macabre by Saint-Saens

I adore this piece of music. I want it played at my funeral. Again, there's an element of nostalgia: it's used for the theme music of Jonathan Creek and I really enjoyed the show when I was younger. But the music stuck with me far more deeply and I don't know why.

It's actually really hard to stop - I could keep going with more and more songs and pieces of music. Will definitely have to have a go at the A-Z soon.

What about you? What are your favourite songs and why?