Hi everyone. This will be the LAST blog of the YEAR, not counting my Top 20 of 2018, which will be announced on Monday. Here are this year's final songs:
"I Know What It's Like" by Jeff Tweedy (Wilco): Much like Jeff Tweedy's debut effort without Wilco, "Summer Noon", "I Know What It's Like" has the essential material of most Wilco songs without it being Wilco. A healthy does of Dylan/Harrison styled folk-rock and country-rock twang, and lyrics that are simplistic and deep at the same time. With a yearning sound and nature centered lyrics, "I Know What It's Like" could be the unofficial "sequel" to "Summer Noon". This song works just as well in winter, though, giving Wilco fans a warm, fuzzy feeling during an icy, cold season!
"Roses And Sacrifice" by The Avett Brothers: The use of the word "sacrifice" in the title of this song makes it sound like it will be long and depressing, but it's actually anything but. It's only 2 minutes and 53 seconds long, and the "sacrifice" part of the song's title actually refers to either Seth or Scott pouring out his aching heart into song to express how much he misses a certain girl in his life. In essence, this is basically an "I miss you so much" kind of song, but the lyrics make it seem worthy of (and probably inspired by) something that Bob Dylan himself might have done.
"Salvation" by The Strumbellas: A grand comeback from one of the biggest hitmakers of 2016 (mainly for "Spirits") that sounds like it took a cue or two from Imagine Dragons?! Yeah. This is probably gonna end up being one of the biggest hits of 2019! If that's so, then the 2010's will definitely go out with a bang, thanks in no small part to The Strumbellas! Without even a week's worth of existence on the airwaves, 10 adult alt stations, and counting, have already started airing this song. There's no telling whether the meaning of "salvation" in this song is religious or if it refers to the uninhibited freedom one feels around a good friend (or boyfriend/girlfriend), but it's a relentlessly happy song that will probably get us through the increasingly dark times we've been having during the second half of this decade. Worth listening to, I say!
"Superposition" by Young the Giant: If you knew Young the Giant for their 2011/2012 smash hit, "Cough Syrup", then this might not be something you'd expect out of YTG. Unlike the accessible, arena ready sound of "Cough Syrup", "Superposition" has a more "trippy" atmosphere to it. For one thing, it uses more exotic instrumentation. I can't even figure out what the one instrument is they're playing that sounds something like an electric sitar. "Superposition" feels like a modern day psychedelic pop song, and with its spacey, philosophical lyrics, it's not hard to see why! The term "superposition" itself is actually a term associated with quantum physics. Mind blown!
"You're the One" by Greta Van Fleet: It was a head scratcher as to why a song as hard rocking as "When the Curtain Falls" got so much airplay on adult alt radio stations, as that doesn't often happen. While Greta Van Fleet's latest song, "You're the One", still sounds a bit like Led Zeppelin, it reflects the softer, folk-rock side of the band's material, which is more fit for adult alt radio stations to be playing. A few YouTube commenters have even said that it's the first GVF song they've heard that sounds like it isn't ripping off of another artist! While it's a little obvious that "You're the One" cribs from Zeppelin songs like "Thank You", "Your Time Is Gonna Come", and pretty much every acoustic Zeppelin song in the key of D major, it still sounds refreshing in comparison to most of GVF's other material. Aside from the incredibly Plant-like vocals, this song sounds like it could have been a Black Crowes song, a first for Greta Van Fleet!
