everything, etc.

What a mashup of genre here! I feel like the album cover is kind of telling here!

The lines of genre are just diffusing and it’s just….the Sound. I love it. I wish this song was twice as long as it’s 2:45, but something about the brightest stars burn out the quickest, I guess?

This song feels…earnest to me.

“At times, I really didn’t show, what was wrong with me, wrong with me, I told myself I cannot grow, without lovin’ me, lovin’ me, But this is just the hell that lives inside, hmm, tell me now, where to?, please be my guide”

Blends so sweetly into Phoebe’s part:

“I’ve been goin’, goin’ in circles, reoccurring dreams, talkin’ in my sleep, then I’m floatin’ up to the surface, I can finally breathe, I could do anything, and I don’t know why it’s alright, and it’s not at the same time, then I look up at a blue sky, and I know”

I hope this song helps you a little like it did me! BGDG

Holly is right up there with Olivia Rodrigo when it comes to conveying relational tumult. We’re not really in high school anymore with this one though.

I can’t quite nail down if this song is literally talking about three roommates, a remote and their significant other where she has a crush on the roommate, or somehow using it all as a metaphor for a love triangle. Maybe somehow all three? You decide!

“I heard you talking ’til the morning, heavy whispers from the next room, you say it’s never your intention, and I’m just in a bad mood, there was a possible connection, on the table for a second, then she made such an entrance, can’t stand all this tension, can you?, then we crossed paths by the bathroom, but I’d just rather be out of the picture, and I’ll do my utmost to talk to you, but I just wanna be out, I just wanna be out of the picture”

Whatever she’s singing about, she does so like a lonely songbird. I’m here for it, and much more of her catalog. Stay tuned!

BGDG

I absolutely adored Rodrigo’s first album Sour. She is so incredibly adept at synthesizing late-teenage relationship angst in musical form. It’s a pure distillation of it honestly.

The chorus slaps in this song, as the kids say, so here it is!

“I want to get him back, I want to make him really jealous, wanna make him feel bad, oh, I wanna get him back, ’cause then again, I really miss him, and it makes me real sad, oh, I want sweet revenge and I want him again, I want to get to him back, back, back”

Just a romp from start to finish. The standout verse? part? whatever. Half of these songs don’t even follow that kind of logic. Verse just sounds way better than part or section. Anyway, we’re back and it’s this one:

“I wanna key his car, I wanna make him lunch, I wanna break his heart, then be the one to stitch it up, wanna kiss his face, with an uppercut, I wanna meet his mom, just to tell her her son sucks”

Great punky vibe to this song. It’s a bop. (The kids also say that I hear)

BGDG! Love ya!

Swapping back to some good old acoustic guitar for this one! It’s actually the song that inspired my “Learn to Play Guitar” playlist. Such a pretty duet. We’ve heard Jill on the blog before, but this is the first time Mr. Hecht has been with us!

“When I wish upon a star, I don’t wish for anything, but I wonder where you are, and I wonder where you’ve been, when I wish upon a star, I don’t wish for anything, if I tried to reach that far, memories are all I’d see, you sitting with a mason jar, at the kitchen table coloring, when I wish upon a star, I don’t wish for anything”

Hecht pairs perfectly with Andrews in this one as their melodies seamlessly intertwine throughout.

Just enjoy the beauty of this song!

That’s today’s intention. Go out and actively search for beauty in the little things!

BGDG

A pair of solid remixes in a row for ya! Billie has such a gorgeously venomous voice and it’s on full display in the remix. Love that they turn this one on its head a little bit!

“My, my boy’s being sus, and he don’t know how to cuss, he just sounds like he’s tryna be his father, my boy’s an ugly crier but he’s such a pretty liar, and by that I mean, he said he’d change, my boy, my boy, my boy, don’t love me like he promised, my boy, my boy, my boy, he ain’t a man sure as hell ain’t honest”

A scathing review if nothing else. Shake your hips to this one today!

Thanks for reading! BGDG

Unsure why the Remix get’s the umlaut and not the band name, but it’s not my bailiwick. There’s your ten-dollar word of the day. Maybe two of ’em if you count umlaut.

“We’re only young and naive still, we require certain skills, the mood it changes like the wind, hard to control when it begins, the bittersweet between my teeth, trying to find the in-betweens, fall back in love eventually, yeah yeah yeah yeah, can’t help myself but count the flaws, claw my way out through these walls, one temporary escape, feel it start to permeate, we lie beanthe the stars at night, our hands gripping each other tight, you keep my secrets hope to die, promises, swear them to the sky”

A remix of a song isn’t some crazy invention, but there’s something about this version that I felt really did justice to the original song, and explored some other parts of it. I am beginning to think I’m a sucker for synth pop. Born in ’81, so I guess it was ordained!

Enjoy this one today, and maybe start that book you’ve been meaning to read. Be good, do good.

This song is such a great bro song. Right? Bros don’t tell other bros how they feel about them enough, which is bullshit. Too many of us (myself formerly included) just pack all that emotion shit down into our deepest of insides. It’s poison. I absolutely love that this song promotes telling people you love how you feel about them.

“Your parents weren’t around, but we had the internet (wow), spent our money on CDs, weed and cigarettes, Paul’s in the garage under that Nissan, and you and me write songs, on a guitar with three strings on it, ooh, never thought I’d ever let go, there’s pieces of me only you know, and you know I love you, that ain’t going nowhere“

So, in that spirit of not letting go, this one goes out to the number one fan of this blog and my brother/teacher/comrade-in-arms/partner-in-crime/bartender of the Midnight Cafe, Michael Hollis. We may not have gone through the same shit as the guys in this song have, but we have our own way better version. Thanks for setting that bar so high.

So use this post as a reminder to reach out to someone you love and tell them you love them. Check in on your friends! Might be just the thing they need today. Could be the one thing they’ve been hoping for. Extend that hand.

Be good, do good.

It’s Weezy baby! Can’t get enough of it. His lyrics are incredible. First we had Mr. Carter, now we have Dr. Carter!

All you need is a bass guitar and a drum set (and some horns!) and you have a fantastic song for Wayne to rap over. This song sees him drop this track in an attempt to save other rappers who are struggling in the game, and even save the game itself. This song samples David Axelrod’s “Holy Thursday” from 1968 and it is a fantastic track.

My particular favorite is the second verse where he talks about respect in the game.

“Respect is in the the heart, so that’s where I’mma start, and a lot of heart patients don’t make it, no hey kids, plural, I graduated, ’cause you could live through anything if Magic made it, and that was called recycling, or rereciting, something ’cause you just like it, some say its biting, but I say it’s enlightening, besides Dr. Kanye West is one of the brightest, and Dr. Swizz can stitch your track up the tightest, and Dr. Jeezy can fix your back up the nicest, arthritis in my hand from writing, but I’m a doctor they don’t understand my writing, so I stop writing, now I’m lightning, and you ain’t Vince Young so don’t clash with the Titans, fast and exciting, my passion is frightening, now let me put some more Vocab in your I.V., Here take this Vicodin, like it and love it, and confidence has no budget so pay me no mind, I don’t walk it like I talk it cause I’m running, I don’t do it cause I don it and I’m in the emergency un-it, I’ve done it, I’ve lost another one”

The part where he talks about re-using a Kanye lyric is perfection.

Enjoy the song in it’s brilliance! Be good, do good!

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.