New songs for January 10th, 2018

here they are:


"Everybody's Coming to My House" by David Byrne: From his distinctive vocals to his odd lyrics (the song opens with, "I wish I was a camera/I wish I was a postcard") and the eclectic mix of seemingly disparate musical elements as jazz, electronica, and rock, you can tell from the get-go that "Everybody's Coming to My House" is a David Byrne song! The Talking Heads frontman was last heard collaborating with the equally mysterious and eclectic musician, St. Vincent, and it appears that their collaboration together has had somewhat of an impact on him musically. The jazz/electronica fusion on this song was also present on Byrne's album with St. Vincent, "Love This Giant". "Everybody's coming to my house and we're never gonna go back home", sings Byrne during the chorus. He sounds paranoid and overjoyed all at once. Even into his mid 60's, Byrne is just the same as he ever was decades ago, and that's just the way we like him!


"Get It While You Can" by Robert Finley: The name of this song is not to be confused for the Janis Joplin song of the same name, but it sure maintains the fiery R & B style Janis had! Jazzy R & B musician Robert Finley has actually been alive for quite a while (he is 63 years old) and has been a musician for a long time as well, but he did not release any albums until two years ago. His debut album was fittingly titled "Age Don't Mean A Thing", and on his first big song, "Get It While You Can", he shows that age really doesn't mean a thing, as he pours his heart out into the catchy, spirited soul song with reckless abandon and fervor to make something that sounds both retro and modern all at once. Like Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles before him, Finley is blind, which makes his dedicated musicianship all the more powerful. His song might be called "Get It While You Can", but you can get the earthy, expressive passion of this song any time you want!


"Like A Motherless Child" by Moby: After famously attempting to add a rock/alternative flavor to his previously electronic music in the late '90s and into the early 21st century, Moby has decided to return to the electronica sound that first put him on the map with his latest song, "Like A Motherless Child". The title of the song, adapted from black folksinger Odetta (who is also lyrically sampled on Moby's "Run On"), is frigidly chanted almost entirely in monotone by Raquel Rodriguez during the song's chorus, which both opens and closes it. Moby "sing-speaks", also in monotone, during the verses with lyrics that revolve around the struggle between the sacred and the profane, further adding to the icy chill the song already gives off before he joins in vocally. To feel "like a motherless child" probably means to feel lonely, like something is missing, so Moby does a good job of emulating how that feels in the context of this song!

New songs for January 15th, 2014

here they are:


"Bad Blood" by Bastille: In an ever growing revolution of indie-pop bands that fall between electronica and rock, Bastille joined their ranks in summer 2013 with their smash hit, "Pompeii". Their latest song, "Bad Blood", also has an electro-pop/rock sound, but its minor key sound makes it considerably darker than "Pompeii", which was written in major key. One thing that both songs have in common is that they are both about the downsides of adolescence. "Pompeii" is about disillusionment, while "Bad Blood" seems to be about losing a friend. Sometimes, to get through the darkest of times, you gotta sing about 'em too, right?!


"Digital Witness" by St. Vincent: "And you may find yourself...listening to a song by St. Vincent!!" St. Vincent's first big breakthrough might have been with the enigmatic, Bjork-ish "Cruel", but it was her project with David Byrne that seemed to really bring St. Vincent (a.k.a. Annie Clark) into the limelight with many people (including Stephen Colbert!) St. Vincent's latest song, "Digital Witness", seems to have that fun, quirky blast of electronica-meets-funk-meets-jazz-meets-rock sound that Byrne typically has, both with and without Talking Heads, so perhaps Byrne's influence rubbed off on Ms. Clark!! St. Vincent is also just as enjoyably mysterious as ever in the lyrics of "Digital Witness", with one lyrical phrase asking, "What's the point of doing anything?", and another demanding to "give (her) all of your mind"!


"Girl You Look Amazing" by Nicole Atkins: "Girl, you SOUND amazing" is more like it (though Nicole certainly looks amazing too)!! Nicole's seemingly effortless combination of disco and indie-pop really shines through on this song just as it did on her debut from 5 years ago. The song also offers an empowering message to women everywhere to have a good, healthy sense of self-esteem. It's funny I mentioned David Byrne in my previous review for this week, because the inspiration behind "Girl You Look Amazing" was (guess who?!) David Byrne!! Apparently, Nicole had a dream where the Talking Heads frontman was singing a song called "Girl You Look Amazing" at a discotheque, and she just snatched the song out of her dream and into reality!!


"Say It, Just Say It" by The Mowgli's: Is there anything The Mowgli's can't do to win people over with their charming, fun, friendly music?! Between this song and their springtime megahit, "San Francisco", I would say that the answer to that question is "no" - there's nothing these guys can't do to make me and thousands of others break into a big grin!! "Say It, Just Say It" is a love song, pure and simple, but its bouncy melody and infectious harmonies seem to make it more than that! And then there's that cute little claymation video that would melt Gumby's big green heart just watching it!! The video for the song can be viewed here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRn8Sl6-sRo

New songs for June 20th, 2012

here they are:


"Anna Sun" by Walk the Moon: Anna SUN by Walk the MOON?! Did they title this song the way they did on purpose?! Well, anyway, "Anna Sun" is one of those songs that took a little while to catch up to the adult alt airwaves, but after about 3 months or so of being on regular alternative stations, "Anna Sun" has finally made an impact on adult alternative stations. It is a catchy song with melodic vocals. Never have lyrics like "this house is falling apart" sounded so infectiously vibrant! I recall that I heard the chorus to the song somewhere long before I reviewed it, so perhaps it was on a commercial somewhere. Not sure who exactly "Anna Sun" is, but the title of the song fits its mood. It's a very sunny, danceable song, and it's arrived (for me, at least) just in time for summer!!


"Give It Away" by Andrew Bird: Not to be confused for the Red Hot Chili Peppers song of the same name. This is, after all, a song from the quirky, orchestral indie-pop musician Andrew Bird, not a rock 'n' roll anthem good for parties. After the angst-ridden, orchestra-less "Eyeoneye" from earlier this year, it's nice to hear Andrew Bird get back to his classical-meets-folk-meets-rock sound he's known for on "Give It Away". There's a neat little twist to this song that makes it sound almost like a "Pet Sounds"-era Beach Boys song, though. The chorus of the song is fast and bouncy, where as the verses are more subtle and slower. Almost like the typical Moody Blues song, only here, the electric guitars and classical string instruments seem to "converse" with each other, instead of leaving one instrument section for one part of the song, and the other section for another part.


"Who" by David Byrne and St. Vincent: "Who?" "Who", indeed!! You could say that, together, the Talking Heads frontman and indie-pop-ster St. Vincent make the "Laurie Anderson connection". Byrne seemed to influence Laurie (the avant-pop musician best known for her charmingly odd song, "O Superman"), and St. Vincent seems to be influenced BY her. "Who" seems to be much more of a David Byrne song than a St. Vincent one, though, in which jazzy saxophones mingle with more contemporary, electronic sounding instruments. If this track were more St. Vincent-focused, it would probably be a lot more moody and/or ethereal sounding than this song. Pretty much the entire song is a series of questions, beginning with "Who will be my Valentine?", and ending with "Who is going to be my friend?", with the questions in the song getting increasingly more interesting towards the middle of it. Your question is "Who?", the answer is "People who are awesome!!"