#8 of 366: Bonfire, Childish Gambino

Our first Hip-Hop entry!

I am a complete sucker for amazing samples and incredible lyrics in my Hip Hop. Childish Gambino, aka Donald Glover, has them in spades. I am pretty sure every Hip Hop song we’ll see on this last shares those two traits.

The alarm siren at the beginning of this song is some of the best foreshadowing I’ve heard in a Hip Hop song in a long long time. We are warned from the beginning that this song is gonna go HARD. It’s a personal hype song. Y’all better evacuate because a storm is coming. Need a boost, put it on and perform it. Come back and let me know how badass you feel. It’s three minutes of FULL SEND.

Since this is somewhat a family blog, I’ll forgo sharing full lyrics, but, I’ll share parts so you’ll know what some of my favorite wordy double meanings in Gambino’s lyrics.

“…I should be runnin’ PETA”

“Hot like a parked car…”

“…brand new whip…”

“You know these rapper dudes…”

“Rap’s stepfather…”

“PUT MY SOUL ON THE TRACK LIKE SHOES DID”

“…Casey Anthony”

This song is a roller-coaster ride. The sample used here with the guitar wails throughout just sound like a continuation of that beginning alarm sound. Perfect work-out/pregame music. Wanna feel dangerous, this song is Step 1. 

I’m definitely excited to unwrap more Gambino along with more Hip-Hop entries incoming. There really are some incredibly creative and innovative artists out there mixing genres too! So much good music to share coming this year!

I actually laughed out loud when I saw what the next song was because it’s…a complete 180 from this. HAHA.

Enjoy! As always, thank you for reading. Let me know what you think!

#7a/b of 366: Silver Springs, Angie McMahon, Fleetwood Mac

I listened to the Angie version of this song at least 100 times before I found out it was a Fleetwood Mac cover. In fact, this song was my most listened to for 2023, and I’m pretty sure I only discovered it in June. 

I love how slow this song begins on Angie’s version. It makes me want to buy whatever guitar she has and learn how to play honestly because that sound is just butter.

“You can be my silver spring, blue-green colors flashing, I will be your only dream, shining Autumn, ocean crashing in”

This song is more in what I’d call Angie’s melancholy/longing-stage in and around her Salt album work. She channels a relationship in this song honestly and it feels so authentic to me. 

The standout part of this song begins at 2:16 when we hit this verse:

“Time casts a spell on you, that you won’t forget me, and I know that I could have loved you, but you would not let me…”

…and from there the song builds, getting more and more emotional and peaking with raw hurt. I love that this song ends up being a curse on a cheating boyfriend/girlfriend/spouse/whatever. I’m hurt now but you’ll hurt more later.

Fleetwood Mac’s version, instrumentally completely different from Angie’s cover. Almost sounds like lighter, right? Yet, we still feel that same central tension! 

Then we hit that same 2:16 range and immediately you feel the exact same emotions from Stevie that you felt from Angie. I think it’s because both performances are completely authentic. Both of these women experienced the same pain and torment. 

Angie’s version: Building rage built from sorrow. A dam breaks finally. In becomes out…and then relief.

Stevie’s take: I’m foot stomping angry. Bitter. Sharp. Prickly fucking edges.

My overarching love is that in both performances the jilted lover is vindicated, stronger for the experience, and ready to blossom. It’s an amazing character arc, right?

Thanks for reading! Enjoy both! Let me know what you think, but not in a “who wore it better-type” way. We aren’t yum yuckers here!

#6 of 366: First Class, Rainbow Kitten Surprise

From the very beginning of this song, the first few chords, you can tell we’re going on a journey. Almost seems like a winding path melody to me. 

I kick myself in the ass daily almost because Nic asked me if I wanted to see Rainbow Kitten Surprise and I was like nah..so we didn’t end up going. Though I hadn’t discovered them yet, it was truly a missed opportunity. I really shouldn’t ever say no to new music. 

Instead of me trying to describe who they are, I’m going to post the most hilarious Spotify description I’ve ever seen:

“…where genres simply don’t exist” made me laugh out loud because that’s the most amazing thing about RKS. Are they rock? folk? country? but they’re also kind of alt? why did I start typing in lowercase?

The stew that comprises RKS allows for a myriad of experiences if you listen to the record Seven and Mary. For me, one of most moving ones comes over this lyric:

“Say you love me like you used to, and we’ll vacation first class, I’m breaking your fall, you’re breaking my ass, you’re working all day, hating on all the bitches at work, you say you’re ok, you’re faking, fucked up, drinking all day, you give me a cup, and I’ll be damned if we can make it out of this alive, baby”

One of the themes in these top songs for me is that they are relatable. You, me, and anyone else can absolutely insert ourselves into these songs because they really are authentic. We’ve ALL faked it. We’ve ALL been fucked up.

Some really amazing songwriting highlighted here, and on this list in general.

“Say you didn’t see it, that I saw right through you, say you didn’t mean it that I mean nothing to you, like you said, do you believe me?, that I’ll be right for you, say you love me like you used to”

We’re all on our own journey, sure. As I mentioned in the I Hate Myself, Florence Pugh post though, there is absolutely a shared experience though, and a shared suffering of sorts, so it’s always sad to me that we don’t talk about that with one-another more. We’re all going through the same shit in so many cases. We could easily help one-another through it.

Thanks so much for reading! Enjoy! Let me know what you think of the song!

#5 of 366: Green Eyes, by JOSEPH

JOSEPH leads a bunch of badass all-female indie rock bands on my list, including The Last Dinner Party, boygenius, and The Beaches. It really seemed like a banner year for that on my playlists. There are some incredible, incredible songs that I really look forward to diving into with you all!

The beginning of this song is like lighting a fuse. We slowly follow it’s sparking as the wire winds this way and that, until we finally explode.

Or it’s like we’re tip-toeing up behind someone to scare them, and there’s that hushed anticipation before we finally spring on our prey!

This song is both explosive and “prowly”.  I made that word up, but somehow I think the meaning will make sense. 

“Those green eyes are my green light, I’m giving up on control, you see red lights, I see me blowing straight through to you…If we’re headed for the cliffside, I’m ready for the fall, if you know me at all, you know I don’t need lights to decide, I’m not changing my mind“

The three-part harmonies these women hit are so powerful and I just love how all the instruments work so seamlessly together. There’s such a steady rhythm throughout to guide us on the ups and downs and some really hard-hitting percussion at some perfect spots.

The best part of this song I think is just the energy it instills. We’re very often driving to a peak in this song, and when we go over it we’re surfing a tidal wave of emotion. To me it’s a “soul song”. A soul song is just one that hits you so deep you can’t help but move with it and feel it.

That’s that stuff we have to pay attention to in life. That stuff that feels a little bit like lightning for us. We’ve been trained by all the stimuli in our life so well that we miss that lightning feeling and forget we can create it. Start paying closer attention. I promise you won’t be sorry.

This particular four-lyric group is such a roller-coaster, but the sequence of lyrics and melody is just a dream.

“Thought I could read you, but I lost my place, now we’re on different pages, I need you“

How amazing is that description of a relationship dissolving? That juxtaposition and irrational feeling of “we’re not right for one-another anymore,” and “I still can’t imagine life without you.” The dichotomy of thought that we’ve all known intimately at one point or another.

I think this song does a great job of recreating that dichotomy to what being in a relationship like that feels like. Moments of slow sweetness. Maybe this can work? Building tension to an eventual blowout. Things unsaid for too long come spilling out.

I might be a dirty and painful cycle, but we’re all in for it on this song. Thank you ladies!

Shout out to the tambourine on this song. I hear you lil’ guy!

Thanks for reading. Enjoy! Let me know what you think of the song!

#4 of 366: I Hate Myself, Florence Pugh

If you are a self-reflector like me…you may want to skip this song. I mean it’s an incredible song but dear me does it hit HARD. The movie though, you can’t skip that…so I guess just get ready?

I couldn’t listen to this song more than twice in a row without needing a break. Pugh’s voice is…and I don’t know how to explain what I just felt, other than her voice is all of us? Like we’ve all been in this much pain before. When I hear it therefore…I get very emotional.

That’s a great testament to the quality of a song though, right? It’s job is to create emotion through sound. This one does it’s job with efficiency. It has me very deep in my feels whenever I hear it.

The song and the movie really make me think about how little we as a society actively let emotions out of ourselves. It reminds me of my own mental health journey and really drives home the fact that we need to be more patient with one-another. Sometimes getting out of bed is the mountain we summit. Sometimes eating. Sometimes taking a shower. The thing this song reminds me of though, is that sometimes we’re weak. Sometimes we’re fragile. Sometimes our self-talk is SHIT.

There are also times where we can’t get out of our own head. We can’t stop thinking about that person. That thing we did. How everything bad is going to happen because of something we did or said. It’s so easy to catastrophize things, and then it spirals.

Here’s what I think though. Muscle is broken down before it becomes stronger right? Iron sharpens iron, right? (Had no idea that was from a Bible verse. Huh. Proverbs 27:17. ”As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.”)

Now, this is not to say in this way you’re sharpening yourself in some way by being more and more depressed. 

I think it’s important to talk about pain and the fact that we all carry it around with us. Why do we pretend we don’t have it? I wrote about this back in February of 2020 before COVID hit. We are all living a collectively shared experience. Same pains. It connects us. Humanity.

Regeneration: https://wordpress.com/post/everything-etc.com/1160

Food for thought. Enjoy Pugh’s beautifully painful performance. Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think of the song!

#3 off 366: I Remember Everything, Zach Bryan feat. Kacey Musgraves

Guys, gals, and non-binary pals, we have the first non-Angie McMahon song on the list!

My relationship with country music started with my parents. They were big into Alabama, Garth Brooks, Tracy Lawrence, George Strait, but also Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Charley Pride, and many other legends. Dad will still bust out into some gospel too from time to time. 

I remember really enjoying “Ghostriders in the Sky” which was the ultimate collaboration of Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, and Kris Kristofferson. A country super-group. There’s so much character in those artists, their art, and the stories they tell. 

There’s a popular sect of country music now that does not hold to those tenets, and I am not here for it. 

This song though…there’s something about it that harkens back to that time for me…even though it’s two contemporary artists.

I first stumbled upon Zach Bryan on the track Something in the Orange (also appears on this list!). Zach just sounds AUTHENTIC to me…which harkens back to those country artists above. He seems like he’s cut from the same cloth with what I’ve heard of his catalog. 

“Do you remember that beat down basement couch? I’d sing you my love songs and you’d tell me about, how your Mama ran off and pawned her ring, I remember, I remember everything…”

Zach Bryan

Bryan is great and a lot of the names I mention above would give him a respectful nod because he has The Sound. We’ll run into him a couple more times in the future.

Musgraves, though, is the star of the song.

This year’s list will have at least this song and her collaboration with Noah Kahan on it. Her voice turned my head when I heard it in this song. Stopped me in my tracks. 

“You’re drinkin’ everything to ease your mind, but when the Hell are you gonna ease mine? You’re like concrete feet in the summer heat, that burns like hell when two soles meet, no you’ll never be the man that you always swore, but I’ll remember you singing in that ’88 Ford…”

For me it’s that beautiful purring coo you can hear in her voice when she sings her version of this upcoming lyric that makes me fall in love with her. Mourning dove vibes.

“Pictures and passin’ time, you only smile like that when you’re drinkin’, I wish I didn’t but I do, remember every moment on the nights with you…”

Kacey Musgraves

When they come together and harmonize it is audio magic. So smooth and nice. That’s as simple as I can describe it. Take his rough hewn timber voice and pour her honeyed one over it and they become one. I don’t know what that makes but bees would fucking love it.

Obviously, a song is not just its lyrics. The weaving of the rhythm guitar, strings, and that steady, subdued drum here are so beautifully done that it really makes for an amazing 3 minute, 47 second snapshot into someone’s past relationship complete with nostalgic longing!

This song cannot be the standard that I judge the rest of current country music right? It can’t all be like this. This feels special.

Enjoy, and thanks for reading! Let me know what you think of the song!

#2 of 366: Fireball Whiskey, Angie McMahon

Oh hai, Angie! Long time no see!

Listen, let’s get this out of the way now. You’re going to hear a lot of Angie this year if you follow this blog! A trek awaits!

I’m currently doing a full listen-through of Childish Gambino’s CAMP as I write this entry and I find myself LEGIT EXCITED to dive into this song over and over. That’s the type of feeling we all need to pay attention to when we feel it, right?! That lightning in a bottle type feeling of anticipation. Is this a weird way to describe music? :D I’d like to say I’m overdoing it, but yooooooo, this sooooooonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnggggggggg…………

The melody that she creates over the first three lines of this song is some of the most beautifully descriptive prose mixed with equally beautiful music.

In the armchair over there, I can see a face in the upholstery, I can get anxiety from an inanimate object, an inanimate object, and inanimate object…

From there you’re transported to sitting next to your crush at some college house party. 

…and my backbone could have grown, but I think it’s turned to softness, I think it is a problem, like food that’s going rotten, and you might say its ok to eat it, and then it makes you vomit, I really hate to vomit, except the one time I drank too much fireball whiskey, ’cause I wanted you to kiss me, so I threw it up, washed my mouth, and sat back on the couch with you…

Punch. Me. In. The. Gut.

The part of this song that so perfectly synthesizes that angst that comes with that college crush from that house party is that deep resonate guitar riff throughout? It somehow is the sound your brain makes when you’re just yearning for someone to SEE you! Juxtapose that with that rich and honestly angelic voice of Angie’s…her music just drips authentic longing here. It’s palpable.

What’s fascinating to me, and most exciting for me during this upcoming year of amateur music blogging, is how intimately related these rankings overall are to the types of things I’ve been going through over these ninety-thousand (90,00) minutes of listening I’ve done this year.

I’m not sure there’s a more intimate way to experience someone else’s life. It’s one of the most exciting parts of this ideas for me!

Please don’t take this as me professing that I know anything more about music than any of you who didn’t have a life soundtrack that would play for two months straight. I’m just sharing my journey because I find it interesting to talk about this, and if I do, chances are someone else does too! 

I wish Spotify would provide us with graphical information about our entire listening history. Can you imagine how PROFOUNDLY interesting that would be?! #spotifyreleasethedata

It says something about these songs that ranked in the top end of this list though, right? In all the time I spent with music this past year, these songs HIT the hardest. 

There are mysteries of my psyche to be unearthed and explored through so many lines of lyrics! Such rich data for the psychologists out there! 

Thank you for reading. Enjoy. Let me know what you think of the song!

#1 of 366: Mother Nature, by Angie McMahon

You are soon to find out why, but I can without a doubt say that Angie is my all-time favorite artist now. I feel so much when I listen to her music and I’m excited to dig into all that during this project.

As you can see, we’ve hung out a bit this year. She appears 27 times in this playlist!

She has such a distinctive voice and vocal range. Her voice is simultaneously ethereal paired with the most beautiful coarseness. She wields both seamlessly at times and the result is magic and such an authentic vehicle for the lyrics to visit us in.

I DM’d Angie on IG to tell her that she is what happens when the universe marries soul with sound. Her songwriting and vocals have had such a positive and profound impact on my mental health and overall emotional perspective and maturity this year. Give her a listen, you will not be sorry. Bring the tissues. Also prepare for feelings of euphoria, massive amounts of self-reflection, and an all-time voice that will stay with you.

She speaks relationship. She speaks depression and dark places in the album Salt. She speaks redemption, self-reliance and discovery, and so much more in her latest album, Light, Dark, Light Again. The more you listen to her the more you’ll love her.

She looks like she’d be your best friend, right? Yeah. Her songs are JUST AS RELATABLE!

So, what is it about this specific song that makes it, out of 366 songs, my top choice?

I think it’s how deep and foreboding that guitar is in the beginning for sure that hooks me, but not far behind it is Angie’s wordplay.

“There’s a quaking in my body and I swear if I could, that I would shake every muscle until you understood, that the heart has to beat like a drum, the plan has to come undone, the pulse of the future is in Mother Nature, the pulse of the future is in Mother Nature…”

Just how good of a songwriter she is will become apparent as you dive into her catalog but honestly, the first few lyrics of this song are so so good.

“I’m the dirt on the ground at your property line, mouth wide open, waiting for a drop of the sky, and I give what I have while you’re here, and I’m trying to stay hydrated, ’cause I’m crying all the time…”

I feel how ignored she is. I feel her begging for attention. It’s relatable, right? We’ve all been there with someone. Pining.

The driving rhythm backbone of this song can’t be ignored. It honestly sets the entire tone for the song and we’re immediately transported into this deep pit of feeling.

Flocks of birds changing form, from a wave, to a fist, to a storm…

It’s a beautiful arc because we’ve all been in that shitty relationship that one day we finally realize we just don’t need anymore. We come out of it stronger and having a much better understanding of our worth.

Enjoy it! Thank you for joining me on Day 1 of 366! Let me know what you think of the song! Did it stir anything up? Let’s talk!

366 for 366-A Song a Day for 2024!

I went on a very musical journey in 2023…filled with ups and downs, this ways and that ways, ins and outs, the whole shebang. It has changed who I am for the better, and so much of me said “share it with others” so that they may be bettered too! Music really is magic. 

This journey started out being a Top-100 of my discovered songs throughout 2023. As I slow watched the playlist begin to trickle over 100, I realized that it was unfeasible for me to think with three months of new music to go that I’d be able to thin the list down to 100.

We’ll be featuring a lot of Angie McMahon’s songs through this playlist! She’ll blow you away.

Expansion was the only answer. I’ve listened to a metric shit-ton of music this year, and as I currently write this it’s August 28th. I’m aquiver waiting for my Spotify summary. (From the future….IT WAS DOPE!)

WELCOME

If you’re here…that means you love music, and shockingly, might care about what I think of it! I love the idea of striving to experience something new everyday, and now I’ve given you a one-stop shop for it! Let me share my 366 favorite new musical discoveries of 2023! (The playlist ended up at 522…that’s a lot of bonus music for you to explore!)

A note about the list itself. Remember, it started out as a Top 100. So numbers 1-100 really are ordered in the order that I loved them. After that though, is pure discovery.

Get ready to dive into some insane wordplay from this man, Lil Wayne

After the Top 100 the order doesn’t matter at all. I manually ordered them all so there would be a nice space between hearing the same artists.

I’ll say up front here that I own no rights to any of the music or images (unless stated otherwise) in this series of blog posts.  Hopefully that will save me from having to put that in every post. 

ENJOY!

Initially I didn’t plan on writing a post for every single song. I guess I was thinking I’d just post the Spotify link or something? Well it turns out I have commentary! Some of these songs might feature a memory or funny story attached, or be especially meaningful, or I just really fucking loved the song.

This man is a vibe. Such a real person. Wish him the biggest of 2024!

Every one of them though helped me in a positive way in 2023, though. That’s why I want to share. Please don’t hesitate to share your discoveries and comments with me! I’d love to have some give and take with everyone!

Before I send you on your way, thanks for reading! It honors me that you’d even take a few minutes out of your day to read what I think of anything. If anything in this blog resonates with you, let’s talk more! Let’s go get coffee!

With that, I really hope you find something you love and it’s brand new to you. I wish that for you everyday.

Happy New Year my loves. See you tomorrow! 

Making Plans for Growth

This summer was a very creative one for me; I’m happy to report as we enter into Fall. A couple months back, I conceived an idea to restart my blog in 2024. I’ve been listening to an absolute ton of music this summer, and it has completely revamped and evolved how I view my mental health and I can absolutely report that I feel a lot more fulfilled overall! I can’t stress enough the importance of being selfish sometimes when it comes to taking time for yourself but whenever you do, fill it with song!

I shit you not, it’s changed my life.

I’m looking forward to 2024, because I am planning to do a blog post a day sharing a song that I discovered this year (2023). A sort of look-back on my discoveries and my thoughts on them, but simultaneously being a daily discovery possibility for you!

Discovery-ception! (I debated cutting that the moment I wrote it, but screw it, you’re stuck with it. As I am. We are bound in this.)

Anyway, music has become such a huge part of my mental health, I can’t help but share the strategy. There is so much importance, I think, in pushing your boundaries in all things. What I mean is, constantly be stretching who you are. Reach. Grasp. INHALE new things. New music leads so seamlessly into new books, and new movies, and new games, and new experiences….and so on.

We are never the best version of ourselves, always growing, always learning from lessons….some really, really hard ones, right? I know you all have you’re own hard stories. I’ve seen some of my darkest times, but I can absolutely tell you if you’re going through yours, there is light at the end. The secret to life, I think, is to actively seek discovery.

Actively seek discovery

This can take shape in so many easy ways every day.

Not only in the ways I mentioned above, but even in something as small as a passing conversation.

Think of this interaction.

Walking past a coworker in the hallway/parking-lot/coffee-machine, whatever. You get it, simple moment.

Just ask the question…, “doing anything fun after (work, school, class, yoga, whatever)?

The amount of possibilities springing from this is huge! By asking this question, we’re creating a tiny little bond between the two of us. You could share something and it might be something I’m curious about! If we know another well enough, you might share a somewhat negative thing going on in their life to that question, either sarcastically or genuinely.

Innocent, pure, positive…even if something negative is shared, that person gains an outlet, and that’s a net positive in my book any day of the week!

Looking forward to sharing

I am super-stoked to commit to this! I mean…I listened to every song on the playlist at least once… Can’t wait to see my Spotify Wrapped at the end of the year!

I’ll try to drop a post or two in the meantime. I have a draft going introducing the “Project” or whatever we wanna call it. I don’t know. 🙂