here they are:
"Every Shade of Blue" by The Head and The Heart: The first minute alone from The Head and The Heart's latest song, "Every Shade of Blue," provides a marked contrast between that song and their typical material. The Head and The Heart trick their listeners into thinking they're going to get an orchestral pop/rock song in the vein of Florence and The Machine or Lana Del Rey. However, about halfway into the song's first minute, acoustic guitars (gasp!), piano, and percussion all chime in, giving the song a more upbeat sound. The way some of the verse parts shift from G major immediately into G minor is a rare progression in pop music these days, which also makes this an interesting song. The song actually swings between being melancholy during the verses (yet still mostly major key), and being more happy sounding during the chorus. "Every Shade of Blue," then, is an apt title for this song! Blue can be a lonely and sad color, but there's also happier shades of it, like in the sky and on bluebirds.
"Growing/Dying" by Backseat Lovers: You could call a song like this one "indie rock that really rocks." As the term "indie" has been increasingly relegated more to folk and pop than it has to rock during the 21st century, it's easy to forget that "indie" once meant noisier bands like The Pixies, Dinosaur Jr., and Sonic Youth. "Growing/Dying" by Backseat Lovers definitely bears resemblance to The Pixies, from its minimalist yet dark lyrics to its meandering yet jagged guitar sound that never explodes too much (though it does feature slightly more distortion towards the end), even down to the lead singer sounding like a somewhat more nasal Black Francis/Frank Black with bits of Radiohead's Thom Yorke added in for good measure. The song also retains the cryptic messages that a typical Pixies song tend to have. "Growing/Dying" could be about loss of innocence, but I'm only drawing that conclusion based on the song's chorus. Its verses seem almost random to me.
"Oceans of Darkness" by The War on Drugs: A surprisingly happy and surprisingly short song from The War on Drugs, who are normally more melancholy and sprawling in their songs. Despite the song's dark title, "Oceans of Darkness" is really more of a love song, with the title coming from how "something more can be gained until my oceans of darkness pull me back in again." Adam Granduciel does have an undercurrent of doubt if we are to go by the song's refrain, but it otherwise seems like a song from a lovelorn soul who has finally found what's he's been looking for. As much as I've come to admire The WOD's typical neo-goth-prog sound, a fun song in their catalog still seems like a breath of fresh air for me!
"Off My Mind" by Joe P: "Joe P" could be any guy's name! But in this case, it happens to belong to an indie-rock performer whose breakthrough song just happens to be a song with both folk guitars and heavily distorted ones that seems like a kiss-off to his ex. The song is about how he struggled to get that person out of his life by drinking to forget about her, but that now that he has a new lover, his former is "off his mind." The song itself, aside from the lyrics, is also interesting. It starts off as a slightly disquieting yet still catchy acoustic rock strum before the electric guitars come in shortly afterwards to make the song slightly more intense. However, it never reaches a level of maximum distortion, and is instead more of a "cliffhanger" song, musically speaking, that never quite reaches a sonic resolution.
