VA - music for big ears (a butterboy compilation) (6 x CDs)

LISTENING BEYOND THE SURFACE

VA - music for big ears (a butterboy compilation) (6 x CDs)

Music for Big Ears isn’t about volume, it’s about depth. It’s a phrase that honors the kind of listening that goes beyond hooks and choruses, into the emotional marrow of a song. This 6 CD set invites that kind of attention: cinematic, poetic, and quietly radical. These aren’t songs that shout, they unfold, whisper, and linger.

Across this sprawling collection, we hear artists who treat sound as storytelling. Gene Clark’s The Same One opens with spectral grace, while Judee Sill’s The Archetypal Man and The Kiss blend theological metaphor with baroque pop precision. Tim Buckley’s Love from Room 109 stretches time itself, a 10-minute meditation on longing and memory. Fred Neil, Laura Nyro, and David Ackles offer songs that feel like letters never sent intimate, unresolved, deeply human.

The term Big Ears also speaks to emotional openness. It’s about sitting with ambiguity, hearing the ache in Wendy & Bonnie’s Endless Pathway, the surreal shimmer of Julia Holter’s In the Green Wild, or the quiet devastation in Mark Hollis’s A Life (1895-1915). These tracks reward patience. They ask you to lean in.

There’s cinematic texture throughout. David Axelrod’s Mental Traveler, Max Richter’s On the Nature of Daylight, and Harold Budd/Brian Eno’s The Pearl evoke landscapes more than scenes, you don’t just hear them, you inhabit them. Even folk-rooted cuts like Karen Dalton’s Something on Your Mind or Townes Van Zandt’s Quicksilver Daydreams of Maria carry visual weight, as if the lyrics were painted in brushstrokes.

And then there’s abstraction. Lucrecia Dalt, Arve Henriksen, Matana Roberts, and Meredith Monk push the boundaries of form, inviting us to hear music as philosophy, as ritual, as breath. These are songs for listeners who crave nuance, who find beauty in imperfection and meaning in silence.

Music for Big Ears reflects emotional intelligence, sonic curiosity, and cultural preservation. It’s a listening practice, a way of honoring the overlooked, the fragile, the profound.

I’m not sure who first used that phrase in response to one of my posts, but it stirred something. It reminded me of a particular way we listen, not just with our ears, but with attention, emotion, and curiosity. So, thank you, whoever you were, for sparking that memory. Here are 121 tracks that ask you to use your big ears. (B)

==========================================================

ALL 

OR

ALL 

===========================================================

Track lists

CD1

01 Gene Clark - The Same One 3:30 1966

02 Judee Sill - The Archetypal Man 3:36 1969

03 Tim Buckley - Love from Room 109 at the Is.. 10:49 1969

04 Fred Neil - Faretheewell (Fred's Tune) 4:01 1967

05 Laura Nyro - Captain for Dark Mornings 4:39 1969

06 Margo Guryan - Someone I Know 2:46 1968

07 Duncan Browne - My Only Son 4:05 1973

08 Terry Reid - Silver White Light 2:54 1973

09 David Ackles - Out on The Road 6:23 1973

10 Wendy & Bonnie - Endless Pathway 3:45 1969

11 Kevin Ayers - The Lady Rachel 5:20 1969

12 Bridget St. John - Ask Me No Questions 7:50 1969

13 John Cale - Amsterdam 3:13 1970

14 Linda Perhacs - Hey, Who Really Cares 2:35 1970

15 Michael Hurley - Sweedeedee 5:53 1971

16 Vashti Bunyan - Love Song 2:00 1966

17 Pearls Before Swine - Song About A Rose 2:21 1970

18 Nick Garrie - Ink Pot Eyes 2:43 1970

19 Bill Fay - Pictures of Adolf Again 2:27 1970

20 Colin Blunstone - Let Me Come Closer to You 2:27 1971

CD2

01 Townes Van Zandt - Quicksilver Daydreams of Maria 3:39 1969

02 Nick Drake - Fly 2:51 1970

03 John Martyn - Go Down Easy '73 3:35 1973

04 Judee Sill - The Kiss 4:36 1973

05 Jackson C. Frank - My Name is Carnival 3:46 1965

06 Karen Dalton - Something on Your Mind 3:23 1971

07 Mark Hollis - The Colour of Spring 3:52 1998

08 David Wiffen - Driving Wheel 4:21 1971

09 Tom Rapp - Fourth Day of July 4:59 1972

10 Carolyn Hester Coalition - East Virginia 3:07 1968

11 Eric Andersen - Blue River 4:45 1972

12 Phil Ochs - The Crucifixion 8:42 1967

13 Leonard Cohen - Famous Blue Raincoat 5:15 1971

14 Bonnie Dobson - Winter's Going 2:41 1969

15 Tom Rush - No Regrets 3:52 1968

16 Anne Briggs - The Time Has Come 2:42 1971

17 Tim Hardin - It'll Never happen Again 2:33 1966

18 Chris Bell - You and Your Sister 3:08 1978

19 Richard Fariña (Mimi & Richard Fariña) - Pack Up Your Sorrows [Motorcycle Accident 1966] 3:00 1965

20 Bill Withers - Hope She'll Be Happier 3:50 1971

CD3

01 Kevin Coyne - Eastbourne Ladies 4:33 1973

02 Joan Armatrading - Save Me 3:36 1976

03 John Howard - Goodbye Suzie 4:22 1975

04 Peter Hammill - Vision 3:13 1971

05 Loudon Wainwright III - Hospital Lady 4:05 1970

06 Tom Waits - Martha 4:31 1973

07 Andy Pratt - Avenging Annie 5:07 1973

08 Al Stewart - Room of Roots 3:52 1970

09 Michael Chapman - You Say 3:42 1969

10 John Phillips - Topanga Canyon 3:53 1970

11 Jim Sullivan - Plain as Your Eyes Can See 2:27 1969

12 Beau - 1917 Revolution 4:21 1969

13 Mark Almond - Journey through New England · Ballad of a Man 11:47 1972

14 David Mcwilliams - The Days of Pearly Spencer 2:34 1967

15 Alan Hull - Numbers 3:55 1973

16 Nick Nicely - Hilly Fields (1892) 3:30 1982

17 Chris Rainbow - Dear Brian 6:05 1978

18 Stackridge - Friendliness 3:49 1972

19 Claire Hamill - When I Was A Child 2:12 1971

20 Anthony Phillips - God If I Saw Her Now 4:14 1977

CD4

01 Scott Walker - Such a Small Love 4:52 1967

02 Richard & Linda Thompson - 08 - Pavanne 5:08 1978

03 John Renbourn - The Pelican 7:08 1976

04 David Sylvian - Let The Happiness In 5:35 1987

05 Joanna Newsom - Sadie 6:02 2004

06 Mark Eitzel - Everything is Beautiful 5:12 1996

07 Robin Williamson & His Merry Band - The Tune I Hear so Well 4:27 1977

08 Jane Siberry - The Taxi Ride 5:43 1985

09 Robert Wyatt - Sea Song 6:33 1974

10 Virginia Astley - Tree Top Club 3:48 1986

11 Essra Mohawk - I Have Been Here Before 6:42 1970

12 David Blue - Grand Hotel 4:05 1966

13 Colin Hare - Alice 2:15 1971

14 Judith Durham - Ferris Wheel 1:57 1971

15 Barbara Keith - Free The People 3:48 1972

16 Jim Croce - It Doesn't Have to Be That Way 2:33 1973

17 Tom Jans - Struggle in Darkness 5:41 1975

18 Eric Andersen - Violets of The Dawn 3:49 1966

19 Carol Hall - I Never Thought Anything This Good Could Happen to Me 4:02 1972

20 Andy Bown - Gone to My Head 3:12 1972

21 Chuck and Mary Perrin - Violets of Dawn 2:57 1968

CD5

01 Jackson Browne - Song for Adam 5:13 1972

02 Melanie - Some Say (I Got Devil) (B-Side) 3:08 1971

03 Steve Tilston - Slips Jigs and Reels 5:27 1992

04 Tom Paxton - Outward Bound 3:16 1966

05 Clive Palmer - Stories of Jesus 2:44 1971

06 Carole King - Tapestry 3:14 1971

07 David Crosby - Traction in The Rain 3:45 1971

08 Janis Ian - From Me to You 3:20 1975

09 Eric Kaz - Cruel Wind 4:17 1972

10 John Stewart - July You're A Woman 3:14 1968

11 Steve Young - Seven Bridges Road 3:22 1972

12 Carolyn Franklin - You Really Didn't Mean It 5:32 1970

13 Jim Ford - I'm Gonna Make Her Love Me 3:09 1969

14 Esther Ofarim - Sometimes in Winter 2:34 1996

15 Andy Fairweather Low - Reggae Tune 3:54 1974

16 Alan Price - Angel Eyes 3:13 1974

17 Keith Christmas - Trial and Judgement 9:43 1969

18 Marie Knight - Come Tomorrow 2:26 1961

19 Jim Capaldi - Don't Be a Hero 5:57 1972

20 Joan Baez - Love Song to A Stranger 3:55 1972

CD6

01 Scott Walker - Farmer in the City 6:40 1995

02 Julia Holter - In The Green Wild 4:08 2013

03 David Axelrod - Mental Traveler 4:04 1968

04 Lucrecia Dalt - No tiempo 3:35 2022

05 Mark Hollis - A Life (1895-1915) 8:10 1998

06 Colleen - Le Labyrinthe 5:12 2007

07 Max Richter - On The Nature of Daylight 6:11 2004

08 Annette Peacock - Survival 14:47 1979

09 Arve Henriksen - Opening Image 4:15 2004

10 Jane Weaver - Did You See Butterflies? 3:45 2017

11 Richard Skelton - Scar Tissue 1:56 2009

12 Lesley Duncan - Love Song 3:09 1970

13 David Sylvian - I Surrender 9:24 1999

14 Meredith Monk - Walking Song 2:58 1997

15 Micachu & The Shapes - Golden Phone 2:43 2008

16 Peter Broderick - And It's Alright (Nils Frahm Remix) 4:34 2009

17 Matana Roberts - All Things Beautiful 2:30 2019

18 Virginia Astley - A Summer Long Since Passed 4:37 1983

19 Tim Story - Without Waves 8:46 1982

20 Harold Budd; Brian Eno - The Pearl 3:13 1984

=============================================================

=============================================================

Music weaves itself into the fabric of our emotions, dances through the corridors of memory, and whispers to the soul of who we are. Sharing these stories deepens the connection, turning the experience into something timeless and profound.

=============================================================

=============================================================