Mixtapemotions

  • “Bad Habits” by Ed Sheeran, Friday, June 10, 2022 (Updated Repost)

    If you make a list of the most iconic singer-songwriters, the list would include all of Ed Sheeran‘s influences. In fact, many would have had no problem putting Ed Sheeran on that list, if it weren’t for his huge mainstream pop hit “Shape of You.” If it weren’t for the 2017 song, Ed Sheeran would still have been a driving force in the music industry, penning verses for pop artists and singing semi-acoustic ballads and rapping a few bars here and there. Some listeners are still scarred from the repetitive chorus with its contrived masculine rhyme, so much so that they would prefer not to hear the song’s follow up. It’s unfortunate enough that I couldn’t take songs like “Perfect” or “Castle on the Hill” seriously. And when Ed Sheeran announced that he was back in June of last year, I was less than thrilled. But in September, thanks to musical algorithms, AppleMusic played “Shivers” when playing similar songs to Jax Jones ft. Years & Years‘ “Play.” Time heals all wounds, I guess. 

    EVERY TIME YOU COME AROUND, YOU KNOW I CAN’T SAY NO. Between projects, Ed Sheeran has been known to go on social media breaks. In December 2019, he announced that he would be taking a year off to write his next album and spend time with his family and welcome his new daughter into the world. The timing of his hiatus was perfect, not only because the singer had come off of his most successful album cycle but also because of the pandemic which paralyzed the music industry. Starting at the end of June, listeners have a taste of the next Sheeran project with the three singles the singer has dropped. The lead single, “Bad Habits” quickly rose to number 1 for 11 weeks in the UK. Sheeran told James Cordon that he originally wanted to release a slow song as the lead single, but decided on the upbeat “Bad Habits.” He said, “I don’t know if the world needs a depressing sad, slow acoustic song when it’s all opening up.” The second single “Visiting Hours” is a throwback to the singer’s roots on  + and X. The third single “Shivers,” written at the end of the singer’s Divide tour, sounds dancey, like “Bad Habits.” “Shivers” replaced “Bad Habits” atop the UK charts upon its release. 

    MY BAD HABITS LEAD TO WIDE EYES STARE INTO SPACE. Everyone has a bad habit. When Sheeran talked with Mario Lopez, the singer didn’t get explicit about wild drug addictions or alcohol binges. Instead, the thirty-year-old singer said that he wanted to adjust to becoming a father. “I don’t want anyone else to drive [my wife] to the hospital,” he said. The single cryptically alludes to addiction. The listener can assume that a pop star like Ed Sheeran has had some experiences, but ultimately, listeners are left staring into the maws of their own beastly habit. Is it that one too many drinks you take when out with your friends? Is it sleeping with that person you shouldn’t? Is it staying up all night watching something when you really should get a good night of sleep? Is it saying, “I really shouldn’t, but what if I just eat this block of cheese?” Sheeran and Lopez talked about the compounding effect of bad habits and how they can get out of control with friends. The song’s music video explores bad habits with the metaphor of vampires. Sheeran said that his love for old episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer inspired the video. Like vampires, bad habits come out at night and they disappear when the sun rises. The “bad crew” whom Sheeran hangs with in the video disappear when the sun comes up. One runs into the shadows, another runs into a building, another jumps under a parked car, and one is dissolved by the light. Sheeran, however, transforms into his usual less-than-kempt persona. The face paint fades; the fangs disappear; the pink suit turns into a casual sweatshirt and jeans. The singer ends the video playing an acoustic guitar, seemingly unaffected by his nightlife. But as anyone with a bad habit knows, he only appears normal in the light. “Bad Habits” is a fun shame anthem, whether you’re trying to quit or shamelessly indulging. 
    Music video:

    Lyric Videos: 

    Performance video:

    With Bring Me the Horizon: 

  • “Babylon” by Lady Gaga, Thursday, June 9, 2022

    In a true Pride month fashion, we return to Chromatica, Lady Gaga‘s 2020 master class in Dance Pop, this time to the epic closer, “Babylon.” Recall, last month, we talked about how Chromatica is actually a concept record that needs to be experienced in one listen, despite how much you might find yourself re-listening to the tracks. If we make it to “Babylon,” we’ve already been propelled through a “Wonderland” of ’80s and ’90s-inspired keyboard dance music that seems to emit the metallic pinks, greens, and blues seen in fashions from, say 1992. In a surreal way, we’ve gotten a better sense of who Lady Gaga is–a tragic pop star craving “Stupid Love” and dealing with her inner demons on “911.”

    WE CAN PARTY LIKE IT’S B.C. Then we’ve come to the end of Chromatica, and yet by the time we get to the saxophone on “Babylon” we feel like the party is only getting started and that we’re in it for another spin. The track opens with a loon call. Our friends at Switched On Pop, in their analysis of the track tell us that the loon call appears on many ’90s house tracks because it was a recorded sound on a popular ’90s keyboard. “Babylon” is a heavily coded track with historical, religious, and queer references. One aspect that is often talked about with this track is Madonna‘s “Vogue,” particularly in reference to the Lady Gaga-robot voice heard throughout the album, but most clearly on “Babylon.” The critics on the Switched On Pop podcast point out that “voguing” Madonna appropriating queer culture, particularly gay men imitating the way that drag queens talk. When Lady Gaga imitates Madonna and gay men sing along to Lady Gaga or Madonna, there’s a sort of mirror-within-a-mirror effect, amplifying the significance of the original culture. 

    via GIPHY from Madonna’s “Vogue” music video.

    “The Tower of Babel” painting by
    Alexander Mikhalchyk. From Wikipedia
    Commons.

    WE ARE CLIMBING UP TO HEAVEN. On Gaga’s sophomore record, Born This Way, the singer had a controversial single, “Judas,” a song that, in retrospect, seems more nuanced than I received it back when it came out. Nope. Lady Gaga’s gone too far, and I wouldn’t revisit her work until A Star Is Born. But in 2020, Lady Gaga releases an infectious dance track “Babylon,” which references building the Tower of Babel, and I have to listen to it again? Sermons about the wicked sexual practices of heathen cities in the Bible and human sacrifices come to mind. The preaching that society is heading to that “B.C.” style and that the world is trying to drag us into it with drugs and dark night clubs also come to mind. And yet, I think about the most upset I’ve ever seen my Bible students, back when I was a missionary, was when we talked about the Tower of Babel, which according to Adventist theology, God sabotaged by creating a language barrier in order to halt construction of a tower to reach heaven. “Why would God do such a thing?” One of my students asked and couldn’t accept the answer that the church gives: “because people would be too powerful if they worked together like they did before the flood.” In the staff room, after that lesson, I asked why we were here teaching English, when God had scrambled the languages so that we couldn’t band together. This greatly offended a coworker who stormed out of the room. My question maybe came off as racist, but I was starting to question the programming of Adventist theology. The problem was the world seemed like such a more friendly place than the elitist church. You just need a can of bug spray to scare away the scarabs.

     

  • "Fire and Rain" by Acceptance, Wednesday, June 8, 2022

    Acceptance‘s story about the band that called it quits before they realized made the band a legend. In 2014, Jesusfreakhideout posted their top “One Album Wonders,” and Acceptance’s Phantoms topped the list. According to lead singer Jason Vena, when he sat down with Billy Power on Urban Achiever Podcast in 2015, the lead singer recounted about how he had no idea the cult status the band then had in the scene. In various other interviews, Vena talked about how other bands, namely A Loss for Words and All Time Low inspired him to consider an Acceptance reunion. 

    LAST SEASON OF THIS MASQUERADE. In 2005, Acceptance after their failed attempt at major label stardom, Vena took a job in Seattle outside of music. The band dissolved, some forming side projects with other musicians. Lead guitarist Christian McAlhaney talked with Josh Coats on Your PUSH Coach Podcast in 2020, talking about what made him successful in three bands and other projects. These projects includ Acceptance, Anberlin, and Loose Talk, a band he started with Anberlin’s bassist Deon Rexroat. McAlhaney talks about working with two of the other musicians from Acceptance and working as a touring musicians for the runner-up of a musical reality show, Rockstar: Supernova, Dilana, before receiving a call to tour with Anberlin and ultimately become the band’s integral fifth member. Once Anberlin broke up at the end of 2014, McAlhaney and Rexroat formed Loose Talk and he sent the boys in Acceptance an email putting the band members back into contact after ten years. The band met and slowly started to write new music which would become Colliding By Design, released in February of 2017.


    WILL YOU LOOK IN MY EYES AS I STARE AT THE SUN? So did Colliding By Design cure the itch that Phantoms left fans? Was Jesusfreakhideout.com right to rank the band as the #1 One Album Wonder? Signing to Rise Records, the band received a lot of promotion–billboards, online marketing–anything to show that the band was back. Pop singers Nick Jonas and Demi Lovato even tweeted about the band’s new album. The production team was the same: Acceptance and Aaron Sprinkle, this time in Nashville, not Seattle. But Colliding By Design was not Phantoms. It was a much more current-sounding pop-rock album. For me, it’s taken a few years to sit with Acceptance’s sophomore record. I realized that whatever they did would be the wrong record. They could write Phantoms II, and it wouldn’t show any growth. They released Colliding which sounded like where the band would be had they stayed in the scene for twelve years. Listening to the two records back to back is a bit jarring. But in the five years since Colliding’s release, I’ve come to appreciate the dark Acceptance, post-Cities Anberlin effects on the album. It’s that dark, humid Northwest sound that make Phantoms so mysteriously beautiful and that sound is present on tracks like “Come Closer,” “Goodbye,” “Fire and Rain,” and other places on the record as well. And seriously, how could we have gone twelve years (except for a few guest vocalist spots) without hearing Jason’s vocals?

     

  • "Counting Stars" by OneRepublic, Tuesday, June 7, 2022

    Three and a half years after releasing Waking Up, OneRepublic returned with their third album, Native. The opening track, today’s song, “Counting Stars” picks up where Waking Up left off–rhythmic pop-rock–but adds more elements of gospel otherwise absent on the first two OneRepublic records. The album quickly veers into electronic and anthemic ’10s pop but continues to make some interesting twists and turns along its course to the end, on a bonus track even recording with Aaron Sprinkle. Native may not be the most interesting album of 2013 and may sound like the equivalent of white toast in the morning, but there’s a reason why we sometimes like to have white toast and dare I say, Iced Americano.

    TAKE THAT MONEY, WATCH IT BURN. It’s interesting to watch Ryan Tedder and OneRepublic navigate the world of pop music for several reasons. The band is talented, mixing genres, albeit in a very subtle/commercially viable way. Tedder is a go-to songwriter and producer for other artists and won Grammy’s for his contributions to Adele‘s 21 and 25 and Taylor Swift‘s 1989. But before the pop stardom, the respect of the music business, and the money that goes with production and songwriting massive pop hits, Tedder was raised by his grandfather, a “Preacher,” whom Tedder sings about on Native. Playing music in church and faith was very important to Tedder growing up, and he even graduated from Oral Roberts University, an Evangelical college. Tedder, however, decided not to sign a record deal and become a Christian recording artist. He talks about how he knew many Christian artists in Nashville who were “miserable with the fact that they were ‘Christian’ recording artists,” he told the Houston Chronicle in 2008, between promoting Dreaming Out Loud and recording Waking Up.
    EVERYTHING THAT KILLS ME MAKES ME FEEL ALIVE. But coming into OneRepublic’s third album, Tedder again digs into his religious roots. He told Billboard when talking about the success of “Counting Stars” that he has been a fan of U2, particularly for their positivity throughout their career. Tedder says, “If everyone else sings about sex and love and lust and money, then somebody’s gotta be singing about life and faith and hope and things of that nature. I have to say that 2013, was a bit of a low spot for me musically. I was in Korea, turning a bit too conservative–missionary-style. I was exposed to a lot of new Korean music, but really had no care about a new OneRepublic album, despite it being their biggest record. American pop was turning into ImagineColdplayRepublic, Anberlin‘s career was slowing down. I’m only now just going back and discovering things weren’t that bad. In fact, Native is quite listenable. And while Tedder may have not signed a CCM record deal, his music has certainly influenced worship music in the ’10s and ’20s. So many of the worship songs today sound like cheap pop knockoffs. So, thanks?


  • “If It Makes You Happy” by Sheryl Crow, Monday, June 6, 2022

     

    Sheryl Crow’s eponymous second album was released in 1996. The singer-songwriter grew up in Missouri, was engaged to a Christian man, and was about to settle into a small-town life as an elementary school English teacher until she started recording commercial jingles in her friend’s recording studio. When the jingles proved to pay the bills much better than her main job, she decided to move to California and pursue her dream of making her own music.

    YOU LISTEN TO COLTRANE, DERAIL YOUR OWN TRAIN. After paying her dues in the music business, in Crow’s case singing back-up for Michael Jackson for his Bad tour and recording backing vocals for Stevie Wonder, Don Henley, Jimmy Buffett, and others, Crow released her first record in 1994. Her first hit “All I Wanna Do” made Crow a star. The song tells the story about the singer meeting a not particularly attractive man named William at a dive bar on weekday afternoon as she’s going through an existential crisis. She thinks that like her, this man too wants to have fun before she dies. It was her second album, though, that was Crow’s breakthrough.

    SCRAPE THE MOLD OFF THE BREAD/ AND SERVE YOU FRENCH TOAST AGAIN. The lead single from her second record was today’s song, “If It Makes You Happy.” The song continues on the theme of “All I Wanna Do,” this time tackling self-destructive behavior. The song won a Grammy for Best Female Rock Performance and helped Crow win Best New Artist in 1997. Crow continues to make music today as well as raising kids. She continued to score hits into the ‘00s and has influenced many, particularly young female rockers and singer-songwriters. Speaking of songwriting, you’ll be hard pressed to find quirky Americana lyrics in pop music today, like the opening line of “Every Day Is  a Winding Road,” “A Change Would Be Good,” or today’s song. “If It Makes You Happy” has probably been in a few youth pastor’s sermons to say, “You might say, ‘If it makes you happy, it can’t be that bad,’ but ask yourself, ‘why . . . are you so sad?’” I’ve asked myself this very question a few times. A few times I was right to ask that question. I’ve written about those regrets last year. Other times when I asked that question, I just had to chill out. For more ‘90s  nostalgia and more Crow, check out her new documentary Sheryl.

    Read the lyrics on Genius.


  • “Too Much” by Carly Rae Jepsen, Sunday, June 5, 2022 + Pride Playlist

    Following up E-MO-TION nearly four years later, Dedicated sees Carly Rae Jepsen evolving as a singer and artist. The tracks on Dedicated are meant for dancing, perhaps even more than the singers two previous blockbuster albums, E-MO-TION and Kiss.  Maturing into often more sexual lyrics, Jepsen sings about adult topics in a mature way on Dedicated. The album spawn five singles, including today’s song “Too Much,” which Jepsen wrote about a girl at a party whose boyfriend criticized her for getting into dancing “too much.”Jespsen writes “Too Much” as almost an anthem of pride, disclosing before she takes on a new boyfriend that she has an excessive streak and that if he should enter a relationship with her, he should know that.


    A FIRE IN RAINY SEASON. With Jepsen’s song about full disclosure, “Too Much” leads the beginning of our Pride Playlist 2022, a playlist of 30 songs celebrating LGBTQ+ Pride month. The songs on this playlist are by advocates, like Jepsen, and queer artists. Of course, there are so many others that I could have included from artists who haven’t made it to my playlist yet from Jennifer Knapp, Macklemore, Donna Summer, or Semler, the first openly LGBTQ+ artist to top the Billboard Christian Charts or advocates from my playlists who have voiced support for the community from Christians who suffered financial loss, such as  Jars of Clay‘s Dan Haseltine who defended the community on Twitter to Switchfoot‘s Jon Foreman who said that their music was for everyone to Relient K who invited Semler to open for them on their latest tour. And no Kacey Musgraves? Thirty songs is certainly too short. Anyway, here’s what made the first round of this list. It will probably be updated as the month goes on.

    1. “Too Much” by Carly Rae Jepsen. She’s a headliner at Pride festivals and parades. She loves us, and we love her. Even if the “Call Me Maybe” hottie turned out to be a dick, Jepsen has always been a great advocate. Let’s kick this party off!                     2. “Sometimes” by MUNA. Yesterday’s song of the day.                                                                    3. “Monsters” by All Time Low ft. Demi Lovato & blackbear.                                                   4. “Sine from Above” by Lady Gaga ft. Elton John

    5. “Dead Weight” by Pvris                                      6. “What’s It Gonna Be?” by Shura                     7. “Cold Heart” (PNAU Remix) by Elton John ft. Dua Lipa. More Elton on the playlist, even if it’s not a great song.                 8. “Visions of Gideon” by Sufjan Stevens. We can find lots of Christian and queer themes in Stevens’ music, but his most overt work has to be the Call Me By Your Name Soundtrack.                                                      9. “Lucky Strike” by Troye Sivan. While I don’t condone smoking, this is a sweet song about queer love.

    10. “Blinding Lights” by Kurt Hugo Schneider ft. Sam Tsui.  When YouTuber Sam Tsui came out, his friend and Kurt Hugo Schneider offered his support. They keep working together today.                                       11. “Glory Days” by Betty Who. There’s not too much queer about this song, but Who has become a bit of queer icon, and she identifies as bisexual.                                           12. “Watermelon Sugar” by Harry Styles. Harry Styles has been known to question his sexuality from time to time. While most of his songs straight, his celebration of sexuality and sexual openness earns this drippy song a spot on my playlist.          
     

      13. “Silver Horizon” by Trey Pearson. Former singer of Christian Rock band Everyday Sunday came out around the same time as Sam Tsui.                                                   14. “Impatience” by Sam Tsui.                         15. “Play” by Jax Jones ft. Years & Years. This song uses the double meaning of the word play to create an infectious dance song.                                                                           16. “Closer” by Tegan and Sara. The duo has been out for most of their career. They turned to activism, donating all the money they made from merch in 2016 to protest the draconian North Carolina “bathroom bill.”
    17. “Fast Car” by Tracy Chapman   

      18. “Diamonds” by Josef Salvat. A bi-sexual artist offers a beautiful cover of Rihanna‘s 2012 hit.                                                                          
    19. “childhood bedroom” by Ben Platt            20. “How Do You Sleep?” by Sam Smith          21. “Summertime Sadness” by Lana Del Rey. A music video that depicts a tragic lesbian romance, “Summertime Sadness” was helping to normalize queer relationships in the early 2010s. It’s not the best representation, but it certainly fits within Del Rey’s ’60s romantic image, harkening back to the works of Tennessee Williams and Elizabeth Taylor.

    22. “Careless Whisper” by George Michael. They say that there’s no such thing as a guilty pleasure. George Michael’s masterpiece is both loved and hated.  Skip this track unless you love it ironically or just love it.                                                                      23. “Me to You” by Tim Be Told. Now the solo project of Timothy Ouyang, Tim Be Told started as a worship band until lead singer Ouyang realized that he was gay. “Me to You” is a cute song about feeling attraction for another person.

    24. “Living in Another World” by Neon Trees. The band’s third album was released just as lead singer Tyler Glenn publicly came out as gay. Many of the songs on the record come from conversations with Glenn’s therapist.                                                 25. “So Sick” by Max ft. Sam Tsui (produced by Kurt Hugo Schneider). This is the third song with Sam Tsui featured on vocals. Just as the Ne-Yo version is a song about regret, I think about what if I were younger, making music with a couple of sweet boys in cardigans? Oh well.
    26. “Titanium” by David Guetta ft. Sia. Still relatively unknown when “Titanium” became a hit, the bisexual singer rose in popularity on her own right in 2014 with her album 1000 Forms of Fear.                       27. “Foundation” by Years & Years               28. “True Faith” by New Order. Synth-rock groups such as New Order were very popular in gay clubs in the ’80s and ’90s. “True Faith,” a song about drug addiction, also resonated with queer listeners, who “when [they] were . . . very small boy[s], very small boys talked to [them], but now that [they’ve] grown up together they’re afraid of what they see.”

    29. “Way It Goes” by Hippo Campus
    30. “Cold Air” by Acceptance



    Today’s song’s Music video:

    Performance on James Corbin 


     

  • “Sometimes” by MUNA (Britney Spears Cover), Saturday, June 4, 2022

    MUNA’s third and self-titled album is due on June 24th. Their album gives their single from last September, “Silk Chiffon,” a home. The band has also released three other singles from the 11-track album. Yesterday, MUNA released a non-album track, a cover of Britney Spears’ 1999 bubblegum ballad “Sometimes” for the Hulu original film Fire Island, also released yesterday. The film was written by and stars comedian Joel Kim Booster and co-stars the Saturday Night Live‘s openly gay comedian Bowan Yang in a modern queer re-telling of Jane Austin’s Pride and Prejudice set in New York’s legendary LGBTQ+ haven.

    BABY, ALL I NEED IS TIME.  “Sometimes” is Britney Spears’ second single from her debut record, …baby one more time. Following her smash #1 hit “…Baby One More Time,” “Sometimes” takes a more laidback adult contemporary sound. Like many of the songs on Britney’s debut record, “Sometimes” was produced by Max Martin and written by another Swedish songwriter, Jörgen Elofsson and recorded the track at Cheiron Studios in Stockholm.     MUNA’s cover plays into the ’90s but takes an alternative girl-rock take on the Britney classic. As a band of LGBTQ+ musicians, Fire Island isn’t the first film to which MUNA has contributed. The band also contributed to the 2018 Netflix film Alex Strangelove, a film about a high school student who comes to terms with his sexuality. The band performs the song “I Know a Place” in the film. In Fire Island, MUNA’s version of “Sometimes” reprises the song, which the cast sang along to in an earlier scene.

    ALL I REALLY WANT TO DO IS TO HOLD YOU TIGHT.  I’ve still yet to watch Fire Island, but I’ve been a fan of Joel Kim Booster since he appeared on a 2019 episode of Good Christian Fun. When he talked about the intersection of his Christian upbringing and his coming to terms with his sexuality in a strict evangelical home, I felt that I had met a kindred spirit. Plus his knowledge of ’00s CCM which he looks back wistfully with a conflicted feeling about was quite relatable. Since then I’ve followed his work as a writer for The Other Two, late night appearances on Conan, and a dramatic podcast called Moonface (왕따). I even tried his short-lived sitcom Sunny Side, which was, well, cancelled for a reason. I usually don’t expect much when it comes to queer films, as many of them feel like Christian films–an overtly preachy message, lower production quality, and a storyline that doesn’t appeal beyond the limited demographic the film was written for–however, Bowen Yang, Margaret Cho, and How to Get Away with Murder‘s Conrad Ricamora have me a little more hyped. The film’s director, Andrew Ahn, is another reason I have a little higher expectations for Fire Island. Ahn’s work includes two seasons of This Close, a television drama that explores the relationship between best friends who are deaf, a gay man and a straight woman. Ahn also wrote and directed the film Spa Night, a story about a gay Korean-American teen who struggles with familial pressures to achieve the American dream while working at his family-owned Korean-style spa in Las Angeles. I hope that Fire Island is the kind of pride month film that doesn’t fall too much into clichés. 
    Muna version:

    Britney Spears version:

  • “Licht” (Light) by Nena, Friday, June 3, 2022

    In 1985, a German song reached #2 on the Billboard Hot 100. While the song was also recorded in English, the German version of Nena’s “99 Luftballoons” (“99 Red Balloons”) was preferred by American radio stations, though the English version was preferred in the UK. The New German Wave, or Neue Deutsche Welle, band formed after lead singer Gabrielle Kerner, nicknamed Nena during family trips to Spain during her childhood, and her boyfriend, drummer Rolf Brendel, moved to West Berlin. Kerner and Brendel had played in a German English-language band. But under the moniker Nena, the band reached international fame.

    A FRIDAY FOR THE FUTURE / IT’S NOT TOO LATE. The band’s success was said to be marred by a hairy incident. While on tour in the UK, tabloids exposed Kerner for not shaving her armpits. At the time women in The UK and the US shaved their armpits, but women from continental Europe did not. Some fans say that exposure was the reason for Nina’s decline. In 1987, Nina, the band split up. As well as the band splitting up, Kerner and Brendel also ended their romantic relationship that year. In 1989, Kerner assumed the moniker as a solo artist, releasing albums since the ’90s, most recently 2020’s album Licht. Nena continued to have an international presence after going solo, but her yearly tours mostly consisted of her home country of Germany its surrounding countries. Today Nena is one of the top selling German pop stars of all time, selling more than 25 million records. Nena’s 2020 record feels contemporary to the current pop music scene. The ’80s European punk rock guitars are absent, but the synth sound underlying on tracks like “99 Luftballoons” become more prominent.

    WE COME FROM LOVE/ WE COME FROM NOTHING. Today’s song, the album’s opening track “Licht” is an exuberant anthem of honesty. From the album cover we see Nena dressed in a costume made of iridescent material. The lyrics fight against the nay-sayers who try to dissuade Nena’s optimism. The quotes from her autobiography Willst du mit mir gehn paint her an optimist about her career, even at the low points. The singer started out as a fan of The Rolling Stones and from that fandom was inspired to write a major hit song about red balloons that floated away from the concert in West Germany. She clings to her Christian, possibly New Age faith. She advocates vegetarianism and never did drugs, according Brendel. She claims that she never liked the English version of “99 Red Balloons” because the song sounded too overtly political. However, last year she controversially advocated for everyone to be able to attend her concerts, vaccinated or not. She admonished the German government’s Covid regulations for being too strict. It seems, though, that the singers’ focus was on people rather than policy, however misplaced that sentiment may be. Today’s song is that little bit of optimism we may need to get us through to the next step. However, my German is quite poor. Entschuldigen.

    “Licht” is one of the songs released in 2020 that joins my 2022+ playlist, a loosely made list of songs I’ve blogged about that were released (or enjoyed an increased popularity) in the last two years. Check out my updated 2022+ playlist!



     

  • “As It Was” by Harry Styles, Thursday, June 2, 2022

    Harry’s House, the third full length record from Harry Styles, was one of the most anticipated records of the year, and it dropped late last month. In an interview with Zane Lowe, Styles talked about how the writing process for his third record was a continuation from his writing process for Fine Line. Styles’ former record had been a surprising take on psychedelic pop akin to the ’60s and ’70s, and listeners and critics wondered what he would offer on his third record. It turns out that, so far, Harry’s House holds a high Meta-critic rating than either his self-titled debut or Fine Line with a score of 83%.


    LEAVE AMERICA, TWO KIDS FOLLOW HER. The similarity between Fine Line and Harry’s House,  though, can’t be pointed out from the lead single, “As It Was,” alone, though. Many critics have pointed out the similarity between “As It Was” and A-Ha‘s “Take On Me“; often with the argument that Styles’ “As It Was” is inferior to the 1985 hit. While I’d agree that if we had to choose one synth-pop classic, “Take On Me” would win; however, I think that’s more of a valid pre-album comparison. While Harry’s House does have its fair share of synthesizers scattered throughout the record, “As It Was” is a bit of an outsider compared to the rest of the album tracks which feature prominent acoustic or electric guitars. “As It Was” is the album’s clearest homage to the ’80s, with most of the songs sticking in the sweet spot of ’60s and ’70s folk/disco influence. Furthermore, “As It Was” is a bit of an anti-“Take On Me.” Styles’ sad-boy post-punk melody and bittersweet lyrics on “As It Was” contrasts with the exuberant “Take On Me.” With “As It Was,” Styles picks an emotionally complex track to lead an emotionally complex album. While some of us were at home reading up on zymurgy since we were too scared to go to the liquor store, Styles was at home writing a new record. Many of the lyrical themes on Harry’s House deal with fractured relationships, death, and the pandemic, and how the pandemic made fractured relationships and death even more devastating.  Today’s song is a reminder that the world is a different place from 2019, and it will never go back to “As It Was.”

    IN THIS WORLD, IT’S JUST US. But I didn’t get this song at first. When I watched the Zane Lowe interview a few days before the album dropped, I started to respect what Styles was doing. Harry hints at dealing with a break up, the loss of a loved one–perhaps his step-father who died during the writing process of Fine Line–and being locked down in America, Japan, and the UK. But it was something much more personal that made this song connect. I’ve talked about being a bad music critic in that I don’t always listen to the new albums as soon as they drop; however, I did happen to listen to Harry’s House on Friday afternoon on the way to meet my friend and co-worker of six years and his wife. Having been very close for years, I finally decided to come out to them. It’s part of my journey toward honesty with meaningful friendships, rather than suffering the burden of keeping my life sub-rosa. Everything went well, but as I took the bus home and listened to the album, I thought about all those moments in life that you can’t take back. I can’t go back into the closet to the people I know. Then I think about the people who I still need to have that conversation with. Once we have that conversation, things will never be the same, for better or worse.

     

    Check out my updated 2022+ playlist!

  • “Monsters” by All Time Low ft. blackbear & Demi Lovato, Wednesday, June 1, 2022

    While the rock music was falling out of favor in the 2010s, All Time Low‘s career continued to gain momentum. Formed in 2003 and heavily influenced by NoFx and Blink -182 the band became a force in the emo phase of the Warped Tour scene. The band became famous for their jocular onstage banter and their mock-turned serious feud with Metro Station. And in that jocular nature, the skinny, nerdy bandmates clad in only their tighty-whities appeared on MySpace’s home page the week before their sophomore album So Wrong, It’s Right dropped in 2007.


    I DON’T MIND IF YOU FUCK UP (RUIN) MY LIFE. Fast forward thirteen years. I deleted a lot of music I acquired in college if I didn’t like the songs. I enjoyed laughing at Blink- 182 videos in middle and high school just as much as any lower-middle class American white boy, but joke pop-punk got old when emo bands dug into deeper subjects. It turns out that All Time Low was digging a bit deeper in the 2010s, flying under my radar of rock music. Moreover, lead singer and primary lyricist for the band Alex Gaskarth began writing for pop acts while performing in a more  commercially-viable version of All Time Low. In April of 2020, the band released their album Wake Up Sunshine, featuring a version of today’s song “Monsters.” The original version only had guest vocals by emo-rapper blackbear; however, a remixed version was later released as a single featuring Demi Lovato. I first heard this song when Rick Beato was complaining his way through the top ten songs on the iTunes store last year, and I couldn’t believe that All Time Low was still together and producing great music, even by Beato’s standards. Even without the hip-hop and pop diva elements that blackbear and Lovato bring to the track, it’s clear that the band has learned how to write a song in their 20+ years together. But the icing of Lovato’s powerful vocals in the second half of the track that helped to take the song to #1 on the Alternative Airplay chart. 

    WHY DO THE MONSTERS COME OUT AT NIGHT? Demi Lovato has been a pop friend to emo and punk music, even posting an “Emo Night Takeover” Spotify playlist with tracks from Acceptance, Fall Out Boy (Demi is also featured on one of the band’s tracks), Underoath, Dashboard Confessional, Flyleaf, Paramore and others. At first, “Monsters” seems like a childish ditty, reminding listeners of when they were kids, scared of what was under the bed or in the closet. On a closer listen, the lyrics of “Monsters” deals with toxic relationships. Everything seems fine in the daylight when friends are around, but at night true colors are shown and abuse turns a loved one into a monster. Rapper blackbear’s struggle with sobriety is the them of his verse. And while the singer didn’t contribute to the lyrics, Demi Lovato has had a well-documented struggle with addiction, mental health, and abuse which the singer talks about extensively on their 2021 record Dancing with the Devil…The Art of Starting Over. “Monsters” hits during lucid moments when the speaker starts to think, why do I stay in a bad situation? Beginning to acknowledge that it is a problem is a good first step. The trick is not to fall into the same pattern with a different person.

    Happy June everyone! New month, new playlists. Check them out on YouTube, AppleMusic and Spotify. And also look for my upcoming Pride Playlist featuring LGBTQ+ musicians and maybe a few allies! Let’s have a great summer together!

    Read the lyrics on Genius.