This recommendation comes from a long-time friend with whom I attended both high school and college. In fact, we both were valedictorians of our graduating class at Senior High School. I reconnected with her when I moved back to Montana last year, and her recommendation was actually for a music artist named Venus Hum. After searching Spotify, I found one of their albums and have listened to it several times over the past few months, primarily while driving up and down the north and south islands of New Zealand.
Recommendation #29 from Ashley Milsop
Best Remodeled by Venus Hum.
Classified as an electronic pop music group, its members are vocalist Annette Strean and instrumentalists Kip Kubin and Tony Miracle. According to Wikipedia, “Miracle has a rare heart condition which results in perpetually hearing his own heartbeat in his ears. This condition is known as “venous hum” from which the group’s name is derived.
Best Remodeled takes songs from several of their previous albums from 2000-2009 and represents them. It debuted in 2016, so I thought it would be a great way to experience Venus Hum’s music. While their music is catchy and I enjoyed listening to them, the lyrics are a bit difficult to understand. Take Hummingbirds, for instance.
Some of my favourite colours in the world
Beat against my eyelids with the blues of green hummingbirds
Some of my favourite colours in the world
Beat against my eyelids with the reds of pink hummingbirds
I want to be neat
I want to be clean
I want to be marvelous
Thank me
The colors of it
I didn’t connect with the music as much as I had hoped, mostly because of the lyrics. If you’ve been following my blog for any amount of time, you know my playlists mostly contain songs that have personal significance that speak to how I see and experience the world. I found Venus Hum’s song lyrics to be a bit esoteric and enigmatic. But, I’m sure there are stories behind these songs, just like there are stories behind people’s lives and actions, no matter how much we don’t understand them or think they are “stupid”. But, with so much other music out there, and because they haven’t produced any new music in several years, I don’t foresee encountering this music in the future.
Ultimately, though, I’m glad I listened to Venus Hum. I found the songs catchy, the use of electronic sounds interesting, and I will always think of Ashley when I hear this music. I encourage you to check them out, maybe their songs will speak to you in a different way than they did for me. And here’s a perfect way to start. For the song tied to this post, it will of course be one of Venus Hum’s. So, without further ado, I present Montana.