“All of my friends are settling down/ Their only kids but their married now/ Let’s follow the lights, follow the crowd/ Baby we gotta get out/ Let’s get out of this town”
The first time I heard “This Town” was on a scorching hot summer day. It wasn’t like it was a “nice” hot either, it was painful. I was on my way to work and I was already sweating thinking about the huge paint job that was waiting for me once I get there. The first thing I remembered about this song was how the beat, instrumentals, and vocals all fused together to create a “chill” atmosphere in my tiny SUV. It helped to set my mind somewhere else rather than my unconditioned vehicle. With its downtempo and pinches of dance that remain constant throughout the track, it literally made me feel like I was on a much-needed break from reality. However, something I didn’t pay attention to the first time listening to this song were the lyrics.
Once I replayed the song a few times, I noticed that Kygo created a beat that works extremely well with Sasha’s vocals and the overall lyrical meaning of song. Sasha’s vocals are so soft and so calm that it would make any runner’s heart rate stabilize after the verse is sung. As for the meaning, the song is about slowing things down. Instead of conspiring to the same old routine of eat, work, sleep, repeat, this song suggests that we are all still young and should be experiencing and enjoying the world for what it has to offer. Just like Sasha Sloan sings, “I don’t wanna live my life in circles/ I just wanna find an empty road/ Let’s get away from here, let’s go.” So, let’s all get away and enjoy this beautiful world that gets lost in the everyday routine. The soft acoustics in the background with pinches of dance, the little twinkling that is heard in the background, Sasha’s vocals, and the lyrical nuances all fuse together to create to tell us all— “Hey! take it easy”
Alan Walker’s newly released track “I’m On My Way” starring Sabrina Carpenter and Farruko was released a few days ago alongside with a music video. Although the video doesn’t incorporate any of the artists on this track, it does portray and interesting sci-fi story. The protagonist goes an adventure to find mysterious rocks that ultimately lead her to an archaeological discovery. Now… I’m going to have to keep the “archaeological discovery” a secret until I enlighten you on who exactly Alan Walker is.
Walker is a Norwegian DJ. What makes this DJ different from others, is that he has started out in computer programming and graphic design and from there has learned to compose music through simply watching YouTube videos. Soon enough this 17 year-old European DJ produced a song called “Faded” in 2015 that received platinum certification in more than ten countries. Another attribute to Walker’s unique character is that he always appears to be wearing a hoodie and a mask that covers half of his face.
In an interview with Teenage Magazine, Walker explains that “It became a part of my uniform. I wear it to symbolize that people are all the same and all equal. I like to believe anyone is behind the mask, and anyone can achieve amazing things.”
“I’m On My Way” includes hidden elements of Walker’s unique characteristics in its very own music video and comprises a different type of sound than say Calvin Harris, David Guetta, and other big music composers out there. This track incorporates pop, reggaeton, and EDM. It starts off sounding like a mainstream pop song, but then a when the drop comes around its surprising components include a sub-bass and a clarinet tune —it is super cool and rare!
Now, going back to the big reveal…. like Alan Walker himself, the protagonist in the music video wears a hoodie and mask, and although the protagonist is a girl, she achieves an amazing discovery—Walker’s music. The huge archaeological discovery acts as a metaphor that symbolizes Walker’s music as a hidden “underground” statue and upon its ancient discovery, it literally informs the world, “I’m On My Way.”
Even though Billie Eilish’s new released track, “wish you were gay” sounds like a simple ballad, there are so many hidden elements in it that are heard each time you press the play button. What makes this track unique is that it is written by Billie and her brother, and it gears away from her “possessive act” in her other latest released track “Bury A Friend.” It is gentle and warm with pinches of twisted characteristics that follow throughout.
“Wish you were gay” begins with nothing but Billie’s tenderly soft vocals and a raw acoustic guitar to follow; however, this changes quickly after the first verse is sung because it drops a reverb and a sub-bass that causes a rippling effect throughout the rest of the track. The tempo is easy to follow because it is a slowed down “boom boom clap” that is heard in Queen’s admired song “We Will Rock You.” The tempo also works as a metaphor for the hidden audience that can be heard engaging and cheering on Billie through her breakup story. My favorite lines in the track are “I just kind of wish you were gay/ To spare my pride/ To give your lack of interest an explanation” because that way Billie, me, you, and everyone on the face of this earth as a legitimate excuse for their breakup. The track ends like the beginning, soft vocals and acoustics, but fades out with the sound of an audience’s warped clapping. It leaves you wondering what the next song on the album is going to be.
Billie’s upcoming album, When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? is set to release this March 29th. With two really well thought out songs already released from this album, I am curious to hear what other hidden elements are included in it.
Lost Cousins’ recently dropped debut album In Scenery creates a mind trickling experience by bringing together colorful psychedelic sounds and life journey experiences to compose an art that is full of foreign elements—complex right? But complexity is what to expect when listening to this album because it is Lost Cousins’ complex sound and lyrical nuances that make In Scenery unique. An underlying feeling of being mentally lost is created over the span of 9 tracks and 31 minutes, however it all fuses together to make an abstraction concrete. This can be explained best through the Lost Cousins’ band name.
In
an interview with Music Mushing &
Such, Lost Cousins’ explain that “because
we all left friends and family in our respective homes, we felt a sense of new
community, but also the loss of another. The name ‘Lost Cousins’ came from
those feelings… feeling connected to people outside your physical environment,
who you might not have communicated with in a while.”—this feeling is
exactly what lingers throughout In Scenery.
This Canadian four-piece psyche-rock
band create their psychedelic radiations through their very own experiences (moving
across country/ province) in which is used as the ground work for their music. Starting
out as university students in the small city of Kingston Ontario, Cam Duffin-drummist
and lyricist, Lloyd McArton-guitarist/saxophonist, Thomas Dashney-keyboardist
and Dylan Cantlon Hay on bass guitar all came together with similar experiences
of leaving their homes to pursue their education at Queens University. All band
members are not what you would call “city boys”, since they all came from rural
landscapes. Therefore, In Scenery acts
as tribute to the natural landscapes the band members miss since moving to
Toronto in 2015. What really fascinates me most is that not only do all the members
of Lost Cousins contribute to the vocals in their songs, but they also compose their
own music and lyrics in which they ultimately produced In Scenery.
The first
track on the album “Stay” prepares you for Lost Cousins’ multifaceted journey by
incorporating psychedelic sounds and indie in a head on collision with lyrical
nuances. The track starts out with a reverb, synths, and a looping electric twinkling
that sounds like you are being pulled into a temporary colorful surrounding filled
with foreign elements; however, when the chorus strikes with its upbeat tempo it
makes you want to bob your head to its naturally warm percussions. Throughout
the song it goes in and out of illusional momentary landscapes that set you up for
the rest of their audacious album. When I first heard this track, I couldn’t
stop thinking about an unexplained psychological scenario—when driving home
after a long day at work, I sometimes ask myself “how the hell did I get home
so fast?” It is the feeling of consciously being aware of where you are going
and how you are getting there, but only momentarily aware of your surroundings.
This unexplained psychedelic experience remains through the lyrical nuances in
this track— “up above without following/ another one gone/ open up again/ oh I
wanted to stay but I knew it was over.” It psychologically pulls you into its
musical and lyrical compositions, but then throws you back out into a
nothingness then repeats the process all over again creating an abstract
feeling of being lost.
The
next track on the album, “Mindmaker”, doesn’t help make it any more concrete. What
is interesting about this track is that it was the first track Lost Cousins’ wrote
for this album. With cymbals crashing, heavy percussions, reverbs, synths, and
electric guitar riffs, it takes you on a contrasting journey through the intellect.
It is about a battle within the mind to reach an inner balance between urban
city and rural vibes. With lyrics such as “All of the space you can’t occupy/ It’s
heaven and time” in the first verse contrasting with “All of the colors within
your mind/ It’s never divine” in the second verse, captures the midst of the
intellectual battle between the rural open spaces and the celestial city lights
that are engaged in a “Mindmaker bodyshaker” phenomenon. The end of the track finishes
with fading electrical guitar scaling that leads into the next song which reveals
the solution to the battle—a “City Escape.”
“Trails”, a ballad that is soft and progressively gets busy, is poetically enchanting. The soft piano keys descend under silvery vocals that sound like drizzles of rain. It all comes together when drum sticks click together and paired off with a piercing saxophone alto to create an organic environment. My favorite line in this song is “I know this is a rocky part/ Throw away the albums we’ll stand naked in the park” which resonates with Lost Cousins’ overall sound. Because they create their music with their very own instrumentation, they can create the exact same sounds that is heard on their album when playing live— “Screw recording equipment! because this band will still sound organically delicious even if they are performing live… in the park…naked”
Although
Lost Cousins’ maintain their psyche-electronic sound throughout most of their
album, they finish it with an alternative texture combined with hidden electronic
elements. The last song on the album, “Nothing” can appear as literally nothing
when it gets busy with its layering textures of alternative and electronic-rock,
but the band complete control over the busying layers it what pulls everything
together. The sound relates to the lyrical nuances that shape the song
ultimately especially in the line “It’s never nothing”—therefore causing you to
scratch your head and realizing… “okay wait it is something”. It is a beautiful
metaphor for someone being lost but finds something or someone to be grounded into.
Like that lost cousin you haven’t seen in forever, and even though you
reconnect with them over Facebook, Skype or even in a letter it still means
something.
InScenery is like perceiving an abstract piece of art that has absolutely no existence to it; however, its contrasting vibrant and dark colors, gentle and harsh brush strokes blend all together to create a piece that is ultimately and explicitly concrete.
Have you ever heard of a cover that includes the original artist? Hell no! —it is extremely rare! Daddy Yankee, the Puerto Rican reggaeton king, has released a remake of Snow’s 1992 hit song “Informer” with Snow himself called “Con Calma.”
I’m going to be completely honest, when I first heard this track I thought it was going to be another cover that yet again butchers an original. However, Yankee did more than just recreate a blast from the past, he included Canadian rapper, Snow, (that’s right Snow is Canadian—representing!) into his music to create a rich blend of today’s modern music of dance hall and reggaeton with early 90’s beats.
In an interview with Apple Music Yankee said that the 1992 hit “was one of my favorite songs growing up, and to do this the right way I needed the guy to be on the record.”
Being a person that absolutely hates remakes I appreciated what Yankee has so kindly gestured towards. Not only has Yankee included Snow on his track, but also Snow hasn’t appeared in the music scene for over 25 years and to appear with Yankee (let me remind you the creator of reggaeton) will do nothing more than place Snow in the music scene in a new, modernized and innovative way.
“Con Calma” is a track that reminds you that warm weather is right around the corner. It freshly squeezes the mixture of Snow’s vocals, which can be considered the definition of dance hall, and Daddy Yankee’s dembow rhythm to create a tropical holiday in your speakers. You cannot listen to this song without looking down and seeing both of your hips swaying back and forth. The upbeat sound of this track works well with the lyrics too because it is about admiring a girl for her mesmerizing dance moves.
I could see this track being one to creeps its way to the top charts internationally because of its hot temperature. With the weather heating up, I can only image people driving around with the top down and blaring this re-imagined old school hit. Thank you Yankee for yet another surprise!
There is a certain way gospel grasps the heart. It reaches out its musical hands and ignites the heart with one touch. I remember my first gospel concert was with my grade four teacher. Every Sunday we would go to a small church in Detroit to hear divine gospel sounds. Since then, I always found myself searching for that Sunday morning feeling. That feeling is home. It is a safe place. It’s a good old feeling you get when a relationship is created between you and your neighbor. Searching for this feeling led me to Phog Lounge to hear freedom singer, Khari McClelland, perform.
In a small rustic place with dimmed lights, and stringed outdoor lights to illuminate a small stage, a man’s voice was heard coming from the back of the room. Making his way through the audience up to the stage wearing a red beanie and a mustard color sweater, Khari McClelland, with nothing more than just his powerful tenor vocals, began to sing what sounded like a traditional slave song. Repeating the phrase “we are in this boat together,” Khari sang around the audience including every single person into his performance. The feeling that I was hoping to find finally resonated within.
Phog Lounge was the perfect location for Khari’s performance because everyone that walked through the door became a part of a communal family. A regular, standing next to me, described Phog as “a room in my house where all my friends could gather to have a warm conversation and a jam session.” He could not describe Phog any better. Each person that stepped through the front door was greeted with a hug or smile. In the vibrant decorative space, a family joined together to watch a performance celebrating not only Black History Month, but also a celebration of understanding an apology, and redemption for those who suffered, and still suffer today, from marginalization.
Upon Khari’s introduction to the stage, there were acknowledgements made to Windsor and Detroit Indigenous territorial names, which included the Ojibwa, the Odawa, and the Potawatomie. This made sense when I asked Khari why he named his tour We Now Recognize—he mentioned that “it comes from, Stephen Harper, Canadas’ former Prime Minister’s apology speech”. I really valued this because we rarely hear any organization or event acknowledge the traditional First nations names for the territories. It was simply an act of Truth and Reconciliation.
Khari has a special way bringing spirituals to life. With every song sung came an up and down and every musical note that followed did the same. Khari’s musical sound incorporates blues, jazz, folk, gospel, splash of reggae, and soul. Each sound had brought back liveliness to all those songs that have been buried for years. Khari was accompanied by a guitarist, playing an archtop guitar; a keyboard midi controller for the organ, drum and bass effects; and a backup vocalist. My favorite track performed was a song from his solo album called, “Song of the Agitator” which moved the audience as Khari asked everyone to hum after each line he sung. “Cease to agitate/ we will when the slave whip sound is still” — “mmhmm.” This not only included everyone, but it also brought everyone together creating harmony that filled the small and intimate space.
Judging from the audience’s cheers and, of course, his grandmother and mother in the front seat cheering him on, the audience did not want to let Khari leave after his last song. We begged Khari to sing not one more song, but two more in which he delightfully delivered. Khari McClelland has a special charm that he delivers in his music, and I am certainly excited to see what he has in store for the rest of his musical journey. His music not only moves one, but it also moves all those silenced voices that have been repressed for many years.
El Pasoan R&B singer Khalid (Photo Credits: Twitter @thegreatkhalid)
Is it even possible for Khalid to create one song that is NOT amazing?” —Seriously, this 20-year-old knows exactly how to please the ears of anyone. Khalid’s unique vocals and his style of music even has my boss (a heavy rocker) absolutely love his music. Every single that this young man has been in or has released is just amazing! One thing that is unique about Khalid is that although he has done many colabs with multiple artists such as Normani, Billy Ellish, Shawn Mendes, Post Malone, ect… he still somehow maintains his unique R&B chill vibe.
Recently, Khalid has joined with Disclosure to produce his new album set to release in April 2019. The first song that has been released from this album is called “Talk”. This hot new track is a combination of Disclosure’s known electronics and Khalid’s style of contemporary R&B. In this sizzling track the synthesizers are faded in the beginning, but not enough to overpower the mellowness. This beat not only has me feeling a type of way, but it is super catchy! The beat is a smooth R&B bounce that is incorporated with just enough electronic blemishes, which perfectly match to Khalid’s lyrics. The lyrics ease their way smoothly into a hot new relationship taking things nice and easy. Khalid mentions that he dreams about getting an attractive girl in his bed, but instead of moving things too fast he asks her “Can we just talk” to get to know each other better —ah such a gentleman! Just the thought of this track has me blushing and bouncing. Although Khalid might take things easy in his relationships he is not slowing down anytime soon in his music. I’m excited to see what Khalid’s sophomore album has in store for his fans this coming April.
“We all have bad days… but there is something good in everyday, so find that something and embrace it baby girl” I took this quite personal while driving on my way home from work after a long and tiring day. The wise words of wisdom that were preached through the speakers filled me with hope and made me appreciate everyday with a little joy and comfort.
This exact feeling of sincere hope for enjoyment in the day is exactly what Alice Merton places on a silver platter and brings to the table for her audience. Merton’s fun new track “Why So Serious” literally summons the inner child in you and get’s you out of that boring “serious” comfort zone. This is why I absolutely fell in love with this song because it is a reminder that I should let my hair down and live in the now, and of course, – “screw what the past holds!” (as for you men let that beard grow, eat a doughnut, and live in the now!)
This fun track is so simple, but also powerful enough to bring out a good energy in anyone. With the song’s hybrid upbeat pop guitar riffs and 80’s slow disco beats layered with Merton’s amazing rock vocals, I promise you, it will always have you bumping, nodding, and tapping your feet.
My absolute favorite part of the song is when she sings, “Try to learn to let go of all those things that tie you down/ Get rid of it, the voice inside that tells me that/I’m scared, yeah, scared as shit/But I wanna let go of it now”. Hell yes sister! Tackling everyday life and dealing with things that hold us down is scary, but Merton is so right, we need to let this go and live each day with no regrets. I swear the beat and the lyrics still lingers through my body wanting to step outside my comfort zone and embrace the enjoyment that Merton lends to her audience.
So common people “Why So
Serious?” Let it go! Find that little goodness in everyday and embrace it!
“The one good thing about being a piano player folks, is that you have a really good left hand; the nice thing about it is that you can pretend it’s anybody you want”
-Tori Amos
The very least expected thing
to say before playing a beautiful piano ballad. With a statement like that Tori
Amos had the audience screaming for her. As soon as Amos played the first keys
on the piano, the crowd immediately died down to listen to a song that is
thrilling yet unsettling.
In her album Under The Pink, “Icicle” starts with a preempt to what is to be expected throughout the song. The piano bit in the beginning sounds like a little girl opening her ballerina jewelry box and being pulled into a fairy tale. It is genuinely pure. This doesn’t last long as the piano becomes off key and a winter beast approaches stripping away any last piece of innocence the little girl possesses. The beginning of this track literally had me grasping onto every word that is sung throughout.
Aside from Tori Amos’
angelic vocals, her lyrics are quite unsettling. Over the past 25 years, there
have been so many different interpretations for this song. Some say it’s Amos masturbating
to the divine, others say it’s about twisted priests. Whether it is or not,
there is something disturbing happening throughout this track. It makes anyone question what the true meaning
behind “Icicle” is.
If you want to be pulled into a fairy tale that has been stripped away of its innocence, click the video below and give this track a listen. I promise you, you will be left with long lasting goosebumps that only a prayer or a heavy blanket will get rid of.
“Seventeen”, Sharon Van Etten (Remind Me Tomorrow)
By Maria Ceglie
Something seemed off the first time listening “Seventeen” from Sharon Van Etten’s recently dropped album, Remind Me Tomorrow. I found myself replaying it trying to figure it out. I went from feeling disturbed to being drawn into the stimulating sound. I could not understand it, maybe I wasn’t supposed to. I became frustrated trying to navigate through the pandemonium, so I decided to leave it alone and went to bed. Throughout the night something happened. I must have dreamt about my childhood, or a clear wake of nostalgia hit me in the face that had caused me to wake up singing the catchy lyrics “I use to be seventeen”. The rest was history.
Whether it’s synth-pop, indie rock, or alternative, it is hard to determine Sharon Van Etten’s style of music. Whatever it is, it makes this song beautifully unique. The instrumentals are an interesting combination of The Damnwells soft alternative strums combined with Echosmith’s “Cool Kids” and Tom Morello’s signature whinny guitar style. The song fades into a steady beat that introduces Van Etten singing “I know what you want to say” later diving into a pool of chaos with her screaming “I know what you’re gunna be.”
Her vocals along with her lyrics are definite and indefinite (doesn’t make sense, right?), but I think that’s the point. The electric guitar is similar as it includes heavy tabs and incomplete tabs creating the beautiful chaotic environment. Everything about this track contrasts and juxtaposes together revealing Van Etten’s emotional attachment to her younger self.
Someone told me once that everyone lives with an older/younger version of themselves. I believe that Sharon Van Etten’s “Seventeen” year-old-self busted out in this track and said hello to the world, as she end her song singing “You’re just seventeen.”
Notes on Notes 