Learn More About Me: My Favorite Song
Posted on October 30, 2020 Posted by Athena Scalzi 18 Comments
Back when I wrote on here in 2018, I did two posts where I shared a “favorite” of mine. One was my favorite movie, and the other was my favorite anime (both of these remain true, two years later). So I decided to continue on with another one of my “favorites”!
Today, I’ll be sharing with you my favorite song. I’ve always loved this song immensely, but I only started calling it my favorite about two years ago. Before then, I just never had a favorite song. Whenever someone would ask me, I would tell them I wasn’t sure, because there were just too many I liked. But then I thought about it one day, like really thought about it, and I knew then what my favorite was. And one of the ways I determined that it was my favorite was by asking myself, if I was about to die, and I could listen to one song before I go, what would I pick?
The answer? “Starlight”, by Muse.
I’ve been listening to this song since it came out in 2006, when I was seven. It was one of the first songs I ever even remember listening to and thinking “yeah this is a banger”. I didn’t develop my own music taste until I was about eleven or twelve, so before that I just listened to whatever my parents played for me. And my dad liked this song, so I liked this song, too. I remember hearing it play in his office, and singing it alongside him.
So, this song is very nostalgic for me. But, it also genuinely is a good song. The vocals, the lyrics, my god the piano! And the way the music stops as he holds the last night so the vocals are isolated before the end? Amazing. It’s so beautiful sounding. It makes me feel far away from everything else. If I close my eyes and listen to it, I feel like the world around me fades for a moment.
For a long time, I didn’t know what this song was called. I would only listen to it when it came on by chance, when my dad played it. And I just knew it in my head as the song about a sailboat, because of the first line. I always thought of it as a kind of sad song, like the singer was forlorn about something.
Muse has some other great songs as well, personally I like “Supermassive Black Hole“, “Madness“, and “Uprising” a ton. Something about their overall sound is such a vibe, y’know? They are not my favorite band, however. I think I’ll save that for another “favorites” post.
Anyways, I hope you enjoyed the song. If you decide to check out the other songs I mentioned, I hope you like those, too! Let me know your thoughts in the comments, or share your favorite song. And have a great day!
-AMS
Muse are great live, very theatrical with lots of stage effects, one of the few bands I actually don’t mind going to a stadium for (I prefer smaller venues usually). I also wouldn’t call them my favourite band, they have a lot of SF themed songs though.
Lol. I’ve gotten to the point of breaking down my favorites by the decade!
Overall toss up between ’Rosalita’ (70’s) by Springsteen and ‘Gimme Shelter’ (60’s) by the Stones. Although you have to give a shout out to the Beatles and, ‘I Want to Hold Her Hand’, because that’s where it all started, for me. So old. ;)
130+ million views 2006 youtube link (kosher?)..
I like this song a lot, and hadn’t heard of the group before, so thanks for the recommendation!
Ho! I’ve always liked that song, but I didn’t know the name or the group, and I couldn’t remember the lyrics, so I couldn’t find the durn thing. Now I know. Thanks!
Here to emphasize the first comment about seeing them live. If we ever get to have concerts again, I highly recommend seeing them in any venue — and the concert theatrics are always scaled so that it really doesn’t matter where you sit.
The entire album this song is from (Black Holes & Revelations) is one of the best “crank it up open the car windows and sing along” albums.
To those of you discovering Muse from this post — you are in for SUCH a treat!
As an old person, I can say sincerely that I have never heard of the group or the song. But that’s OK, right? I’ve always considered my favorite song to be “Runaway” by Del Shannon.
But then, as I said, I’m old.
You have excellent taste, Athena! As a 50-something Gen Xer, my favorite band when I was young was Duran Duran and I still love them. The bands of your youth can bring you back in time. As I became an older adult (30s or so), I got away from listening to new music, so I missed Muse when they got started. I have discovered them in the past couple of years and have been trying to play catch-up after I found out how much I like the band’s music. Starlight is definitely a favorite. It reminds me of my youngest son, who is serving in the Navy. It’s the boat theme of the song and the idea it expresses about someone being far away. Thanks for sharing! – Mary
This is a worthy choice for a favorite song. It’s one of my favorites from the past 15 years, and I think it stands up even without the nostalgia factor (I’m 40).
Agree on seeing Muse live – great show. Although I think it was for The 2nd Law album… whaaa 8 years ago?!?
I listened to a lot of Muse about ten years ago. If you can find it (possibly only in a non-legal version on youTube) the BBC documentary “Muse: A Seaside Rendezvous” from 2009 might be interesting for you. The band met as teenagers in a sleepy seaside Devon town called Teignmouth (pop. 15,000, where a lot of people go to retire) and in 2009, after ten years of world domination etc, they decided to do go back to perform a pair of relatively supermassive homecoming gigs, each of which I think doubled the town’s population and was a bit of an eye-opener to the locals (and not just local fans went – some came from as far as Australia).
As well as covering the gigs and the prep for them, the docco follows the lads as they mooch about and reminisce about growing up and going away and coming back. In one section one of them says things move slowly in Teignmouth: the arcade amusements and games on the pier are not just the same ones that were there when he was a kid, but when his mum was too.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Seaside_Rendezvous
Muse is awesome!
Even though I am an old person whose favorite genre of music is classic small group jazz in the swing genre. Couldn’t be more different from Muse. On Pandora it’s called the Lounge Jazz Channel.
My current songs that are on endless repeat are by Roosevelt.
But I agree Muse is great!
Thank you for sharing your favorite.
Excellent song, excellent group! They were one of my favorites from “Absolution” through ” Black Holes and Revelations” to “The Resistance.” They also put on a heck of a live show.
I’ll agree with Mary Warner on the evocative nature of music – Duran Duran was one if my favorites in high school, Peter Gabriel and REM in college, and more relevant to when you first heard Muse, Simon and Garfunkel played for me by my parents when I was very young. I still love them all, both because I still consider them great music and because they remind me so strongly of times and places.
Your post also resonated for me with my experience with Simon and Garfunkel – I remember having reactions to “The Sound of Silence,” ” I Am a Rock,” “Mrs. Robinson” , and “The Boxer” that I couldn’t articulate and didn’t fully understand at the time, but I recognized when I got older and grasped what was going on in the songs.
Looking forward to hearing more about your favorites.
Excellent choice, Athena! Been one of my favorites for years. Starlight evokes some very personal emotions for me, and always makes me feel wistful about a certain time. Like Mary Warner, I’m a Gen-Xer in my 50s who discovered Muse well after most of their biggest hits. Since catching up there are several Muse songs in my regular playlists….they are not my favorite band, but lots of good songs. Nobody uses arpeggiation like Muse, and that’s something I really like about their arrangements.
Rick Beato apparently agrees – this song is on his list of “What Makes This Song Great” Youtube videos. Check it out if you already haven’t:
https://youtu.be/wfeJCQKCz1Q
I was massively into Muse about 10-15 years ago, and this album might be my favourite of theirs. Almost every track is a banger. Add me to the “see them live” chorus–I consider them the last great arena rock band (at least, I can’t think of any rock band that came after them who can do spectacle on that scale).
Good choice, good choice! Though my favourite from that album, on the basis of sheer batshit ballsy SF-themed showman hum-along craziness, has to be Knights if Cydonia. There’s a nice family link there with a 60s track, Telstar, if I remember right. But I could make an argument for inclusion in my all time top ten for 3 or 4 tracks from that album (Starlight among them). It’s a corker, and really sums up what Muse are about, IMO
Dude! Such a great song! I actually just discovered it a few months ago and have been OBSESSED! I always liked Muse well-enough, but I’ve been listening to this podcast called The Throwback Podcast where they were talking about their favorite pop songs of the century (so far) and one of the hosts made a great case for big, soaring chorus pop songs and this and Seasons (Waiting on You) by Future Islands were his exhibits A and B.Love the song. Love the blog.
Good choice. I wasn’t really aware of Muse until your dad shared the music video for Starlight and talked about them here on Whatever. Hopefully you will get a chance to see them live at some point.