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.
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.
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.
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”
Awesome album art shout-out
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.
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!
What a collection of sounds this song puts forth. Batiste is no joke of a talent, and paired with Wayne, we get a treat.
Best part of it though, is that it’s such a outside of the box beat for Wayne to rap on in that latter part. It’s definitely not what we’re used to, and it’s Wayne on that electric guitar too!
I won’t pretend to know much about what the lyrics are talking about outside of how it describes The City, but Weezy has a great verse over that beautiful piano.
“Time’s is hard, and the city’s uneasy, been a carnivore ever since I was teethin’, close the shower door on my city, it’s steamin’, I know I’m the God that my city believes in, Amen menage, The Devil been deceivin’ me, hard me on the hardtop, thinkin’ it was easy street, Mama used to scream at me and take me off that scenery, I been about a bag ’cause all I wanted was to be a G, that’s that New Orleans in me, I come from where the demons be, the dungeons and the dragons, I just asked them not to breathe on me, shit get difficult, then get nasty in the easy E, you don’t know what it mean to me, these mean streets, ain’t mean to me, gangster shit, life is a bitch, until she ain’t your bitch, the streets colder than the streets in Anchorage, swisher on my hip, make me walk like my ankle twist”
That’s a long verse to post, but it’s really on of Wayne’s best IMO. To have it over such a cool piano/beat combo is just icing on the cake, if you ask me. “I been about a BAG ’cause all I wanted was to BE A G”. Absolutely great.
I hope you dance through the day today with this song as the soundtrack. Do something fun for yourself. Be good, do good.
This song is way more than a song, as you’ll find out or have found out. The voice you hear on it is that of the late English writer, speaker, and interpreter of Buddhist, Taoist, and Hindu philosophy, Alan Watts.
I discovered Watts through watching reels on Instagram discussing the Yin and Yang. The video that contains the snippet I first heard about the “two fish” concept…essentially what I’ve discovered I need to strive for in all things…”balance”.
I enjoy that this song is set against the track of someone walking on a gravelly path. To me it speaks to being on a journey…and aren’t we all? We don’t talk about our journeys enough. Hell, until the last few years I don’t even know if I would even consider what I was doing “journeying” in any direction at all. I feel like I’ve just begun to get to know myself honestly.
That’s why this song stuck out to me.
Liveliness is change; it’s motion.
Applicable to so much. Really that’s the key to creating your own happiness I think. Discover. Explore.
Set an intention to discover something today, whatever it may be. Happy hunting!
No philosophy from me here today. I am just going to let this one sit and simmer. If this isn’t quintessential 90s Hip-Hop, then I don’t know what it is. In what I’ve listened to, it might be the best Andre 3000 performance there is. Just oozes his legendary style and technique.
So today, “throw your hands in the air and wave ’em like you just don’t care”.
Ben Joyette, wherever you are, thank you from the bottom of my heart for introducing me to Hip Hop. I treasure the memories of bus-rides sharing ear buds and runs with ya man. Hope you’re well.
“Black Metal Sparkle Folk” is how this band describes it’s sound. If that’s not a hook to get someone to listen, I don’t know what is.
“You think you know where I’m going, the truth is I haven’t got a clue, one thing I know where I’m going, there won’t be another you, and that don’t mean I found another man, and that don’t mean that I’ll fall in love again, where the ship is sailing, it don’t need a captain of the crew, where this train is traveling, the tracks lead me far away from you, and that don’t mean I found another man, and that don’t mean that I’ll fall in love again”
The harmonies in this song flit to and fro like bluebirds. Weaving so seamlessly together to evoke that emotions this song is meant to convey.
I am not sure if we have more Black Metal Sparkle Folk on the rest of our journey, but I am sure hopeful that we do!
I wish you peace today, for wherever you need it. Love ya.
This song is such an interesting mental-health/anxiety ridden take on love!
“I don’t know why I’m attached to all of my doubts, and I don’t know why I’m too rough on myself, you seem to float several inches above the ground, and you move always as if to music, love me till my legs can’t move, and I’ll sing till my face turns blue, I know it’s only love, but I’ll never get enough, I know it’s only love, but I’ll never get enough, and I don’t wanna fuck it up, and I don’t wanna fuck it up”
Something about the “I don’t wanna fuck it up” just stands out in this song. That anxiety is so palpable right? Just big sound for big feelings in that part. I love it so much. That’s the best part about Yoke Lore honestly.
BIG SOUND FOR BIG FEELINGS.
This band definitely strives for atmosphere with their sound…and it shows in their catalog. I really don’t think there’s a bad listen in it.
What are you gonna do for yourself today, friendo? Let’s set that intention.
Have a flippin’ fantastic day. I’m putting out that energy for you.
everything, etc. 