Tag: songofmonth

“Adore”
Amy Shark

“Because I had a great night ’cause you kept rubbing against my arm”

This song–which Wikipedia tells me is from 2016–is being played with some regularity on one of the local radio stations.  The lyric above caught my ear and is the reason the song is featured this month.

I was so obsessed with boys as a teenager (and into my twenties). To this day, I wonder about the causes of that obsession and am thankful I don’t have to worry about raising a daughter to not be obsessed in that way.  I was completely the girl who would chalk up a great night to something that might be entirely unintentional. And “adore” is the exact right verb for what I felt for guys I liked.

I’m happy that period of my life is over, though I’m not fully convinced that it wouldn’t return if I found myself single again.

“This is the Day”
The The

This song is featured in the movie Every Day, which was a worthy adaptation of a really great YA novel.  I had a passing familiarity with this song, and I love when the music people involved with movies pluck just the right song to pair with the narrative and give a new audience a chance to also enjoy the song.

Also: When I worked for Bread & Circus (Whole Foods’ name in Massachusetts) one of my co-workers had a tangential connection to The The. Her husband had gone on tour with them, playing harmonica.

“Electric Love”
BORNS

Also featured in the movie Every Day, I just love everything about this, from the first word, “Candy,” to the last “Baby you’re electric love.”* I like it so much, I’m not 100% certain I have not already included this in the Song of the Month rundown. A quick search tells me I haven’t, so welcome “Electric Love.”

*I did some cross-checking because I would have spelled it “your electric love” but I could see how “you’re” also works.  Most lyrics have both ways.

“I Get Overwhelmed” by Dark Rooms from the movie A Ghost Story

Listening to the year-end best-of movie podcasts reminded me how awesome this song was. I loved A Ghost Story–it was #8 on my raking of movies watched in the theater. The soundtrack/score meshes perfectly with the movie and this atmospheric song comes at just the right moment. When I hear it in the future, I will probably forever get that oooey-gooey nostalgic feeling of a good movie watched.

“Ride On” AC/DC

Ride On – ACDC Bon Scott from Luis Patricio Vacas Torres on Vimeo.

This song made the list because not many people showed at the regular karaoke get together. It was just Jeff, Kelly and I, and we had two hours. Three people can go through a lot of songs in two hours. Eventually Jeff sang this bluesy number. I hadn’t heard it, but it’s my type of chilled-out song.

Interestingly, it’s hard to find a Bon Scott version of this song on YouTube. Hence the Vimeo link.

After hearing Vance Joy’s “Riptide” approximately 5000 more times than I needed to, I’m a bit hesitant to make this the song of the month.  But I can’t resist the rising notes of the chorus and the great leap of a few notes on the word “out.”  Plus, this song really cries out to be redone with a heavier horn section.  I see a good pep band arrangement somewhere on its horizon.

It’s catchy as all get out, though.  I’m probably going to get tired of it more quickly because of that.  Matt was even singing it the other day, not really knowing the words, just putting nonsense syllables to the notes chorus.

If you aren’t tired of it already, the below is a good acoustic version, including Australian DJs graciously letting Mr. Joy have a sip of tea before he begins.

“Welcome to the Black Parade” by My Chemical Romance

An example of me hearing a song while driving and trying to remember as much of it as possible, because I had left my phone at home, so could not Shazaam, or google once I parked the car.  Luckily for me, when I googled something like, “song that starts off with one singer and a few notes and then the band comes in and then something about carry on?” That mismash took me to a Yahoo Questions page a lo, here was the song I was talking about!

It turns out I’m 11 years late to this song. But better late than never, eh?  Also, it seems that this song is “emo,” at least according to the YouTube comments. Wikipedia tells me that MTV recognized it as the “Greatest Video of the Century” in 2017. It’s quite striking and obnoxious. Plus, it has marching band stuff in it!

“Anywhere” Passenger. Such a sunny song!  It came on the radio when I was driving through a cold rainstorm in the dark. At 5:30pm.  It was the perfect antidote.

Earlier in the month, I helped out with a retreat at Brasada Ranch.  One of the perks of that trip was that I got to rent a car and drive there myself.  I do love a good solo road trip.  I wasn’t as efficient at getting out of Portland as I wanted to be, so I didn’t properly prepare for my musical selections on the trip.  It was radio all the way.

And so I invented a game.  Once my known stations faded (which didn’t take much time at all, thanks to Mount Hood) I scanned until I found a song* and then I would stay with that station until it faded, or there was a commercial break. Then I would scan again and repeat the process.

*A song that wasn’t classical, smooth jazz or Christian.  (This is because I need words to focus on–thus no classical or smooth jazz.  And those words have to not supremely bug me, thus no Christian.)

This turned out to be quite a fun game that progressed in a predictable manner.  I heard a lot of country music.** I’m pretty sure I heard more country and top-40 music on that trip than I have heard in the last few years.  At one point, I came into a station where the DJ told me, “We’re in the middle of 10 songs of uninterrupted country music,” and I’m pretty sure by “the middle” she meant, “I’ve maybe played one song” because that was a very long stretch of uninterrupted music.

**And also unpredictably, when I got stuck on a reggae segment on the Bend public radio station. No commercials on public radio, so I had to wait for that station to fade.

It was interesting comparing the themes of the country music world. There was a lot of talking about how much they like the rural environment.  There was a ton more talk about god.  There was a goodly amount of flag waving.  I found myself charmed with Phil Vassar’s “Just Another Day in Paradise” which was a nice picture of real life.  (Looking at the video Phill Vassar is a very regular-looking guy.  Oh! Apparently this song is 15 or so years old)

I also enjoyed the parallels between top-40 and country music as when I head the Chainsmokers Honest, which is about how the guy isn’t so much into the relationship any more.  That paired nicely with a country song that I can’t find via googling. In it, the guy is singing to the current girlfriend/wife saying that he’s skipped town with a new girl who gets him in a way the current girlfriend/wife never did.  Unlike the Chainsmokers song, I didn’t care much for that one.

I also discovered this gem of a song called “Tennessee Whisky” which is nearly as old as I am.  (There’s so much music in the world!)  I’m pretty sure I heard the version by Chris Stapelton, who has a great voice. I also enjoy the lyric, “I stay stoned on your love all the time.”

At the end of the month (two days after this post was written, if these posts were written in real time) Kelly and I went to see John and Hank Green as part of John’s book tour for Turtles All the Way Down. They ended the show with the Mountain Goats, the band that John is a super fan of.  And 2017 does seem to be an appropriate year for the lyric, “I am going to make it through this year if it kills me.

 

This one comes to me via the Amateur Talent Contest at the Minnesota State Fair.  Grace Harmoning sang it in the Teen category.  I’d not heard this song before (probably due to the fact it’s a country song and my knowledge of that particular genre is sparse).  I could tell it was a popular song, because several people around me were singing along.

It was only after I watched the video that I found out its subject was domestic violence.

Don’t Take the Money
Bleachers

It’s very 80s, in a good way.  And there’s some romance.  From random googling, it seems that critics don’t much care for Bleachers, but I sure do.

Here they are on the Tonight Show.  I was a little amused by several things during this performance. Namely: why two drummers? the odd silos of keyboards framing Jack Antonoff; the fact that Mr. Antonoff maybe doesn’t need to wear that guitar during the performance of this song, given how little he plays it.  Still, I did like how he seemed to be connecting with the Tonight Show crowd, and it was interesting to see how something that sounds very studio-produced translated to a live performance.

“Fool for Love” Lord Huron.  As the comments section on YouTube reminded me, Girls Season 5 featured this song.  Girls tends to have excellent music choices for which we can thank Michael Penn.

“Dance, Rascal Dance” Baby Goya (a.k.a. Jack Antonoff, a.k.a. the Bleachers guy who has been featured before) “Is that Jack Antonoff?” I asked the empty house while watching the movie Hello My Name is Doris.  And it was!  He plays a hip musical artist and has a few scenes, which were amusing.  But you should watch this video because you get to see Sally Field’s amazing outfits.

In other music news, I was charmed by this story about the Killer’s song “Mr. Brightside.” It seems I’m not the only person who likes it.  It’s been on the UK top 100 for 11 of the last 13 years.   “Mr Brightside” Will Never Die and Here’s Why.
It’s a 2:35 minute story and worth a listen.

Hello from the future!  It’s mid-September, 2017 where I am.  The person I was in June doesn’t know this, but at some point in July or August, I’m going to discover Mr. Money Mustache (more on that later) realize I have a debt emergency (more on that later) and stop buying stuff.  So!  As of some point in the future, I will not be purchasing songs until I have emerged from my debt emergency.  But I am writing this June post from the future.  What should I do about purchasing the song of the month, which was one of the original points of Song of the Month?

Instead!  I will begin a YouTube playlist featuring all the songs of the month.  Here’s a link, though at this second, there are only two songs on it.  I’ll go back and add more when I have a little more time.

Further update! I will figure out how to share the playlist later and then post the link. There is not an obvious method that I can see.

“Fill in the Blank” by Car Seat Headrest

Thanks to Jan for featuring this song on her blog.  I love it so much. Lyrically,  I think it has the potential to be one of the go-to songs on the days when I need to buck up.  Musically, it hits a lot of pleasure centers, with the opening riff, the rough harmonies and that great double lyric part at the end.  The video is fun too.

“In the Long Run”  The staves

I also have Jan to thank for this song.*  The Staves have lovely harmonies, and also I love the content of this song.  I’m a big subscriber to the view that people will come back around.  You’ll see them again.

Castle on the Hill by Ed Sheeran

This will not be a song I purchase, because I’m going to get very sick of it very soon,  but this is totally a song of the month.  I think right now certain stations have this in an every-other-song rotational format.  It’s also being used in the trailer for Ferdinand, the animated film somewhat based on the classic children’s story.  In the trailer, they do not play the parts of the song about drinking, throwing up, smoking or kissing.  Mostly, they just loop the chorus.

I’m a sucker for songs that tell a story, especially a reflection-of-youth story.  “Summer of ’69” by Brian Adams, “Blood on Blood” by Bon Jovi, even “Jack & Diane,” before they played that Mellencamp song to death.  So this is a winner for me, even though I think it’s overly long and clunky in places, especially when he updates us as to what his friends are up to.  He has a lot of friends.  There are a lot of updates.  For how to do this a little better, see the aforementioned “Blood on Blood” where you get two lines: Now Bobby he’s an uptown lawyer, Danny he’s a medicine man / and me, I’m just the singer, in a long-haired rock and roll band.”  See?  Done!

I also am confused by Ed Sheeran.  While listening to many of his songs, the feeling I come away with is uncomfortable embarrassment. He seems to be trying too hard.  And I often don’t love what he writes about women.  Matt and I had a text message exchange about a one of his songs where one of Matt’s responses was, “That’s the song I was telling you about! She is clear with him about how she sees the relationship, and he writes a mean song because he wants to change things up and she doesn’t!”

I get the feeling that Mr. Sheeran grew up nerdy, but rejected the nerdy and now there’s this uncomfortable trying-too-be-cool vibe about him.  I’m also quite curious to know what he looks like in concert.  Does he dance around?  Stand still?  (I’m apparently not curious enough to pause what I’m doing here and google.)

*Jan.  Supporting this blog not only with comments, but also with post content!