Author: irunjt

This song does a good job of taking me back to middle-school/high-school in the 90s.  I hate to say it’s a vibe because I feel like I use that phrase too much, but I think it’s too accurate a word to describe this song.  That constant and beautifully simple guitar strumming.  It takes us on a journey.

“Names carved in the pavement, on the corner of the block where we all came from, when we were water bottle boozing in your basement, older sisters always hate it when we blame them, closet full of sweaters, from the 90s when our folks were still together, yeah, love is blinded by the pressure of forever, we made a bloodoath said we swore we’d do it better”

I find the idea of this song, the planning of the kind of adult you’re going to be in the future, pretty fascinating despite the fact that I don’t know that I ever really did it.  I’m still in the mode of planning the kind of adult I want to be.  It’s ever-evolving honestly.  A lifelong learning experience, right?

How many of us can say that we’ve “woken up feeling older?”  Even though I feel like that everyday, here’s a reminder about it being a mindset.  You control the weather in your immediate vicinity, and you can be as young, lively, and vivacious as you want. 

Enjoy this great song.  Do something today that makes you feel young again!  Tap into that inner child you used to be!

Be good, do good.  Love you.

Lauren Mayberry and the rest of the Chvrches crew are an absolute delight to the ears.

Lauren has such an angelic voice IMO and that synths and sounds that the band produces are a treat. If you ever get a chance to see them live, jump on it, because they are mesmerizing.

I love the tone the beat sets. We’re moving from the get-go.

“Sometimes I just drive, ’til the night turns off my mind, I’m passing cars and crowded bars, never know until I go too far, confusing faith and fear, paint a smile from ear to ear, ’cause if I blink, I start to think, I feel nothing, I feel everything, I try my best to turn down the noise, and I tell myself that boys will be boys, it’s getting harder to breathe so, baby, put me to sleep, ’til it gets better”

Next time you can’t turn off your mind, like Lauren mentions, go take a drive. Toss this song on, and maybe just Chvrches in general, and just be with yourself for a while.

I wish you everything. Be good, do good.

There is something magical about pairing Hozier with what seems like an entire orchestra.

God of War is a video game series that spans back to 2005. Tiny little summary below.

(From Wikipedia: Based on ancient mythologies, the series’ plot follows Kratos, a Spartan warrior who becomes the God of War and comes into conflict with various mythological pantheons. The earlier games in the series are based on Greek mythology and see Kratos follow a path of vengeance against the Olympian gods; the later games in the series are based on Norse mythology and see Kratos go on a path of redemption while also introducing his son Atreus as a secondary protagonist.)

Simply incredible songwriting on display in this song, and it honestly mirrors the quality of the game as well in the time I’ve spent with it. Hozier in his lane with a moving performance throughout. The music is awe-inspiring IMO.

“To all things housed in her silence, nature offers a violence, the bear that keeps to his own line, the wolf that seeks always his own kind, the world that hardens as the harsher winter holds, the parent forced to eat its young before it grows, every bird, gone unheard, starving where the ground has froze, the winter sun rise, red on white, like blood upon the snow, like blood upon the snow”

When those strings come in during that above part…my gosh. Not my favorite part but close. That honor belongs to this set of lyrics.

“It’s not my arms that will fail me, but this world takes more strength than it gave me, the trees deny themselves nothing that makes them grow, no rain fall, no sunshine, no blood upon the snow”

Put that in human being terms and it’s incredibly fantastic and deep advice on dealing with the good times but also with adversity, right? Everything that happens us, even that which forces us to bow and teeter on breaking, we are more because of it.

So that’s my advice to you today. Set an intention to deny nothing that makes you grow. This world can be cruel like Mother Nature. Remember Kintsugi.

Be good, do good. Love you.

Impossible. It simply is an impossibility. Never happen. I don’t care who you are. Where you come from. How old you are.

This song makes you move. Anyone can move to this song. My mom can dance to this song and she only knows the “Mom Dance”.

“My skeletons hand-me-down, my bones have been lost and found, I’m hearing a sacred sound, calling out my name, I’m covered in fingerprints, kisses of melanin, blessing my skin with the evidence, that I am made of you“

It’s also an incredible explosion of power and positivity. When we switch up the beat at 2:35? Perfection. She doesn’t just have a drop-your-jaw-voice either; she’s also funny.

This is such an ode to your ancestry, right? Being grateful for your own DNA, and trusting that you’re on the right path because of those who guided you for so long and forged who you are today.

Today I am grateful for your skeleton existing. Have a fantastic day. Do something that pays homage to yourself for making it this far.

Be good, do good.

This could have been the title track for the entire blog. 🙂

Here’s another band I’m embarrassed to admit that I didn’t give a real chance until last year. Probably even sillier for me to pick a super recent song too. Don’t yuck my yum. I arrived, albeit late. They are legends. I’ve heard their stuff. But this one resonated! Might have to do with the 90,000 minutes of music I listened to last year!

“I’m pillow drumming on the sofa, I keep rocking past the coda, and evn if the world is ending, as I go out, you’ll hear me singing, I don’t feel no pain, when people make me mad, I don’t hear a word they say, just the sound of scratches”

Then we launch into the fantastically catchy part! Earworms gonna earworm.

“I hear records in my head everywhere that I go, I’ve got records in my head spinning out of control, they go ’round and around, and again, ’round and around, and again, ’round and around and, oh yeah, records in my head”

This song just kicks. The whole time. Start to finish. Top to bottom. Inside and out. The driving percussion and electric guitar take center stage, but that bass…

Cool coincidence that they shout out “she who was posted just before them”, Lana Del Rey, in the song. We’ll hear from Rihanna, (also shouted out) fairly soon as I glance at the playlist. We might have some Nirvana. I honestly don’t remember about that one.

I hope you rock today as much as Weezer rocks to this day. What a shelf-life that band has had. Keep kicking ass Rivers and Co.

Be good, do good. Always.

It’s amazing to me that you can be a big fan of a genre and it takes you so long to discover someone this good. The entendres aren’t on display like they are in some Weezy rhymes, but there’s a HARDness to Wiley’s delivery. He has a bit of a growl and it does WORK on this song. This is on display during this section below and in the “hype time” at 2:08.

“Now I only put out good vibrations, I don’t even see the lows, tunnel vision to the paper, I don’t really need…”

The verse starting at 2:22 is just….sustained THAT. Speed, style, you can FEEL it.

That’s a lot of CAPS I guess, but you can hear it, right? This sounds different than what you hear as “Hip Hop” now. Produced by Hippie Sabotage too, which probably explains a lot of that different sound. They are worth listening to as well. I’ve known them for longer so I’m not sure there’s stuff on the blog playlist, but check ’em out for sure.

Do something creative today. Write a poem. Draw something cute. Stretch that right-brain a little!

Be good, do good.