here they are:
“Bluebirds Over the Mountain” by Robert Plant and Chrissie Hynde: When two rock legends collide, what is the result?! Well, as it turns out, it appears to be a fusion of psychedelic rock and bluegrass music. While that might sound like a strange combination, the Led Zeppelin frontman and Pretenders frontwoman manage to make it work here! “Bluebirds Over the Mountain” comes off like a slightly trippier version of the songs Plant did with country musician Alison Krauss back in 2007. Like much of Plant’s later material, there’s something mysterious and enchanting about “Bluebirds Over the Mountain”, particularly its folksy chorus of “Bluebirds over the mountain, seagulls over the sea. Bluebirds over the mountain, bring my baby to me”.
“Lottery” by Jade Bird: I feel kind of old reviewing this song, since Jade is, in fact, 10 years younger than I am! Speaking of which, age is actually a defining factor in the lyrics of her breakthrough song, “Lottery”, a rather playful and cheeky folk-rock number written in A major. The song even opens with the lyrics, “I was 19 and you were 23”, and the second verse contains lines like, “I’ll tell you about a guy I’ve been with. You ask how old he is and I laugh ‘26’. Nah, but he’s 30. How messed up is that?” When it comes down to it, though, age is just a number, and that seems to be the central point of “Lottery”. The theme of numbers also ties into the chorus when Jade says that the subject of her song used to tell her that “love is a lottery” and that he’s “got his numbers” and is “betting” on her. Finding a good song is a matter of luck. I think I’ve won the lottery with this one!
“Severed” by The Decemberists: The most heavily anticipated song of the week on the adult alt charts (and probably the regular alt charts, soon enough), “Severed” is not what you’d expect from Colin Meloy and his folk-rock entourage, primarily because the song is NOT folk-rock. The Decemberists have done slight detours from the genre before, like “O, Valencia!” and “The Perfect Crime # 2”, but at least both of those songs were guitar focused, so those both went over well with their core audience. “Severed” is not. It uses a rather dark synthesizer sound to dominate its atmosphere combined with an angular, jagged guitar in the background, slightly reminiscent of songs by groups like Joy Division. The Decemberists are known for having cynical and sometimes disturbing lyrical content in spite of their normally pleasant instrumental sound. “Severed” puts these factors at the forefront by being a brooding song both lyrically and musically!
