Mixtapemotions

  • “Until It Happens to You” by Sasha Alex Sloan, Wednesday, August 31, 2022

    The lyrics on Sasha Alex Sloan‘s 2020 record Only Child will leave you emotionally wrecked upon first listen. But by no means let that stop you. Sloan is one of the most poingnat songwriters today, which is why she has been called upon to write for other pop stars including Camilla Cabello, Juice WRLD, Lecrae, LANY, Charli XCX, Katy Perry, P!nk, Oh Wonder, and tons more. Only Child is a perfect Sad Girl  album, with its lyrical honesty–not necessarily telling the whole truth, but holding nothing back about the unpleasantness of reality. However, despite the heavy topics of homelessness, conflicts with parents when growing up, divorce, and loss, Sloan seems to leave the listener with hope, showing a different perspective on the speaker’s thoughts as a child and as an adult. 

    YOU WON’T BE THE ONE HAVING TROUBLE SLEEPING. “Until It Happens to You” is the penultimate track on Only Child and it serves as an emotional climax for the album. Sloan explains the lyrical and musical themes on an episode of the Song Exploder podcast. She explains how the songs on Only Child were produced collaboratively with her boyfriend Henry Allen, known professionally as King Henry. With Sloan’s songs, the lyrics immediately hit the listener, but it’s the music that delivers those lyrics almost subliminally. Song Exploder helps us unpack “Until It Happens to You,” showing how the music and the lyrics meet to deliver an emotional punch. With guitar tones inspired by Explosions in the Sky and deliberate drumming at the end of the track mimicking a rain shower, building up to catharsis, “Until It Happens to You” is a singer-songwriter Alternative rock song. Sloan also explains that the guitars in the song were outtakes from when the band LANY  was recording with King Henry around the same time as Sloan was recording Only Child. If Sloan were writing songs in the late ’90s, she certainly would be heard on Alternative and Pop radio with the likes of Natalie Imbruglia, Meredith Brooks, and Courtney Love.  

    YOU NEVER REALLY KNOW WHAT IT’S LIKE / ‘TIL YOU WAKE UP TO SOME REAL BAD NEWS. Anne Lamott writes in her book on writing Bird by Bird: 
       
            The problem [with writing well] is acceptance, which is something we’re taught
            not to do. We’re taught to improve uncomfortable situations, to change things,
            alleviate unpleasant feelings. But if you accept the reality that you have been
            given- that you are not in a productive creative period- you free yourself to begin 
            filling up again.

    That nubbin on your back turned out to be your worst fears. There’s been an accident. She loved you, but she couldn’t take the pressure anymore. There was one string that was holding your whole world and suddenly it unraveled. That’s the world that great writers, whether novelists or songwriters live. The uncomfortable is from where Sasha Alex Sloan writes. “Until It Happens to You” reminds us that, even if a friend experiences something tragic, we can’t truly understand it unless, or in the case of the song, until it happens to you. The song also gives listeners a global perspective with the line: “Somebody loses their somebody every day,” meaning that loss, as devastating for the individual as it is, is a common, daily occurrence. And yet the cosmic overview, one’s  knowing that tragedies happen every day offers no comfort to the one who loses a parent, a grandparent, a friend, husband, child, or a dog. And to a much, much lesser extent, someone telling you to look on the bright side on a crappy day is infuriating. But on a rainy day when nothing seems to be working, it feels fitting to sympathize with today’s song. It makes us realize that someday that rainy day will come for us if it hasn’t already. Nobody lives forever. Nothing is really on the up and up with out a nosedive here and there. 

     

  • “Part of It” and "(Outro)*" by Relient K, Tuesday, August 30, 2022 (reworked repost)

    Forget and Not Slow Down is Relient K‘s sixth album. The band had shifted away from “tongue-in-cheek” lyrics in previous albums and had enjoyed mainstream pop radio success as well as topping the Christian charts. Forget and Not Slow Down, however, starts to see a shift away from the safety of the youth group, as vocalist and songwriter Matt Thiessen‘s writes about the dissolving of a  relationship with radio DJ Shannon Murphy, the details of which Murphy shared haven’t been confirmed by the Relient K frontman, but the lyrics become clearer in the context of this interview.

    IT’S NOT THE END OF THE WORLD, JUST YOU AND ME. Forget and Not Slow Down is a breakup masterpiece, and one of the most cohesive and listenable, yet under-rated Relient K records, particularly if you don’t like Relient K. Musically, the band is joined by The O.C. Supertones and Project 86 guitarist Ethan Luck, playing on the drums for this record. The band is also joined by their friends Tim Skipper (House of Heroes), Matt MacDonald (The Classic Crime), Adam Young (Owl City), Aaron Gillespie (The Almost, Underoath), and Brian McSweeney (Seven Days Jesus). The East Nashville production, the American rock ‘n’ roll before it gets processed into country music make the album more Springsteen and less Blink-182. Lyrically, on Forget and Not Slow Down, the speaker is often in denial about his infidelity, yet comes close to admitting it several times throughout the tracks. He moves from being repentant to accusatory, from self-righteous to self-deprecating. Forget and Not Slow Down has a very Tennessee feel to it–not twangy country music, but the album artwork describes it all. Painted by Thiessen’s uncle Linden Frederick, the cover art tells a story about the album. The flat fields of Southern Tennessee in Franklin County where Thiessen hid away, writing, processing his break up.

    IF A NIGHTMARE EVER DOES UNFOLD, PERSPECTIVE IS A LOVELY HAND TO HOLD. “Part of It” (see below) is the fifth track and the fourth full-length song on the record. The first song, the title track, sets a tone about moving on from mistakes. The second, the break up hits Thiessen, but he feels slightly numb realizing that he doesn’t need someone else to define him. By the third track, “Candlelight,” Thiessen is only remembering the good parts of the relationship. By “Part of It,” Thiessen has released that all the “adhesives” in the world couldn’t repair their relationship. However, the outro to this song, which should be listened right after “Part of It,” Thiessen is begging his ex not to believe the rumors. Following the outro, Thiessen has a chance to process his breakup in the songs “Therapy” and “Over It,” the former which sees him “driving in the country just to drive.” I imagine a man who hasn’t slept much for awhile, un-showered and greasy-haired, in his sweatpants, driving through the backwoods of Tennessee. The album mostly plays on similar themes until the closers “This is the End” and “(If You Want It),” which use the same melody, making the latter just a continuation of the same song.

    Here are the tracks unseparated for your listening pleasure:
    *Unfortunately, Forget and Not Slow Down is not available on AppleMusic, so I am substituting their live version of “Forget and Not Slow Down” as it “I Don’t Need a Soul,” and “Sahara” are the only tracks available from the album.

  • "Heaven" by Troye Sivan ft. Betty Who, Monday, August 29, 2022 (updated repost)

    On December 4, 2015, Troye Sivan released his wildly successful first LP, Blue Neighbourhood.  Building a large Internet fanbase, Blue Neighbourhood peaked at #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts. The standard edition of Blue Neighbourhood  contained 3 of the 10 songs from the previously released Wild EP. The LP, though, gave Sivan his first US Top 40 single, “Youth.” Four of the ten songs on Blue were singles, starting with “Wild,” a remix of which was rereleased with guest vocals by Alessia Cara as Sivan’s fourth single from the album, which was a major hit in South Korea.   

    TRUTH RUNS WILD. The final single, “Heaven,” was released on October 17, 2016. The Jack Antonoff-produced single features a second verse from fellow Australian pop star, Betty Who. After Sivan came out in a YouTube video in August of 2013, he became an LGBTQ+ icon, as he processed his sexuality in the lyrics of his music. Part of the promotion for Blue Neighbourhood was a trilogy of videos imagining the themes of two young gay lovers as they deal with the social and relational implications of their love. For the album’s final single, though, Sivan digs into his religious background. Raised Orthodox Jewish, Sivan had an early crisis of faith when he thought he might be gay. He revealed to We the Unicorns that he began to ask “really, really terrifying questions. Am I ever going to find someone? Am I ever going to be able to have a family? If there is a God, does that God hate? If there is a heaven, am I ever going to make it to heaven?” Taking these thoughts into the studio with co-writers Antonoff, Alex Hope, and Clair Boucher, Sivan comes to a conclusion: “If I’m losing a piece of me/ Maybe I don’t want heaven.” 

    WITHOUT LOSING A PIECE OF ME. The lyrics of “Heaven” deal with a personal crisis, but the video shows historic pride marches and video footage of LGBTQ+ Rights activist, Harvey Milk. The queer-themed music video was meant to be released on January 20, 2016, the day that Donald Trump was inaugurated as the 45th president of the United States, but the video was released on the 19th because of fans’ responses to the video’s teaser. When I first heard “Heaven” back in 2015, my Adventist-raised brain was triggered. In many Protestant denominations, there’s this delicate dance between grace and works. Adventists preached against more permissive denominations that didn’t take the rules from the Old Testament seriously. In order to become an Adventist, it meant giving up a list of things the world thinks is normal: 1) unclean meats 2) jewelry 3) smoking 4) alcohol 5) working on Saturdays, and that was just the beginning. I remember manipulative sermons that analyzed why ______ was sinful, and if you loved _____ more than God, you’d be sure to be left out of heaven. Adventists claimed to be more biblical than other Christians, and that grace leads to a reformed life. Of course, ask any denomination, they would draw a line on something. And all denominations  that I knew of when I was growing up,  the very basic thing was, don’t be gay. Sivan’s response that if he has to change, he doesn’t want heaven. To an Adventist, this could be just as much for someone who doesn’t want to give up bacon as someone who is gay. They would say it’s all sin and a war with the flesh. Growing up in that religion it made perfect sense, until I realized I couldn’t not be gay.


    Read the lyrics on Genius.


  • “I’ve Got Friends” by Manchester Orchestra, Sunday, August 28, 2022

    Manchester Orchestra began as a project when lead singer Andy Hull dropped out of his Christian high school in Atlanta to study at home during his senior year. Hull grew up in a religious household; his father and grandfather both ministers. Hull went on to form a band with musicians who had a similar faith background. But on the band’s sophomore release, Mean Everything to Nothing, Hull assesses his spiritual trauma, critiquing  mainstream Christianity in the album’s twelve songs. Similar to the work of David Bazan and Pedro the Lion, Manchester Orchestra’s Mean Everything to Nothing is a classic in Ex-Evangelical deconstruction.


    DIRTY ON THE GROUND IS WHAT I NEED. The standard evangelical teaching is that Christians and the non-Christian forces in the world are at war. There are constant temptations that try to distract Christians from their main duty in life: to worship God. Though definitions of sin vary, from a list of actions and thoughts one can do or have to an ethereal essence impossible to avoid completely, certain actions and abstinences are believed to reduce son’s power. Activities like church attendance, fellowship with other godly people (if from one’s correct denomination, it’s better), reading the Bible, attending supporting activities (such as youth group, prayer meeting, church camps, church socials), and partaking of godly entertainment (anything from a Christian bookstore for some; for others only a select part of those stores) were all great ways to avoid sin and build up immunity against it. But inevitably living in the world, some of its influences would take hold. In the case of Hull and his friends, Manchester Orchestra was influenced by the ‘80s music scene in Manchester; Hull took influence from The Smiths and their lead singer Morrissey.
     

    I KNOW THEY DON’T WANT ME TO STAY. So far the Atlanta-based band sounds in line with every Tooth & Nail band’s origin story: a Christian background but a healthy distrust of organized religion and a taste for the forbidden fruit of secular music—New Order and The Smiths being popular influences. But Mean Everything to Nothing opens up with the confessional lyrics to the song “The Only One,” which questions, “Am I the only only son of a pastor I know / Who does the things I do?” With Manchester Orchestra there’s a level of trauma to Hull’s Christian upbringing that places the band a decade ahead of where Tooth & Nail artists and the space created in the the deconstructing Christian Rock sphere. Mean Everything to Nothing is an album about feeling like an outsider to everyone the speaker is supposed to be close to. That includes the family and Christian school friends who cannot accept Hull’s differing opinions, and this theme is particularly examined on “I’ve Got Friends.” The speaker unpacks his trauma in this song, recalling that he wasn’t allowed to play with the other boys when he was growing up out of fear that they would corrupt him. He then grows up with social issues, and his friends “don’t want him to stay.” Manchester Orchestra has some interesting thoughts on modern Christianity, but these thoughts aren’t unique; they’re as old religion itself. And trying to fit into a specific mold can be damaging. By fitting into the mold, you can have the right friends in the right places, but is it worth it?

  • “Hard Love” by NEEDTOBREATHE ft. Andra Day, Saturday, August 27, 2022

    I’ve written about the parallels between Christian Rock band NEEDTOBREATHE and Alternative Rock band Kings of Leon. But despite the bands’ similar origin stories, members growing up to ministers in very conservative backgrounds, Kings of Leon left their Christian upbringing and NEEDTOBREATHE embraced it. While NEEDTOBREATHE has had general market success, their fan base is mostly from Christian Hit Radio, to which the band does their duty to push the limits on songs like “Let’s Stay Home Tonight” and “Clear” but ultimately keep the fires of sexiness under control.

    TRADIG PUNCHES WITH THE HEART OF DARKNESS. “Hard Love” is a sequel to the band’s hit “Brother.” The song “Brother” was birthed out of a family conflict between founding members, brothers Bear and Bo Reinhart. The sibling rivalry came to a head during the recording of NEEDTOBREATHE’s record Rivers in the Wasteland. Like the Rolling Stone interview with Kings of Leon, the conflict between the brothers in NEEDTOBREATHE also became violent. Reconciliation from the event that threatened to rip the band apart helped the band produce their biggest hit. Returning to the theme of that song and the difficulty surrounding the band’s 2014 hit record, NEEDTOBREATHE recorded their sixth studio record H A R D L O V E. But the titular song would be released as a single in 2017, remixed and featuring Grammy-nominated R&B singer-songwriter Andra Day. The band also released a B-sides EP titled HARD CUTS: Songs from the H A R D L O V E  Sessions. Not only did the EP feature the Andra Day version but also another remix featuring Serena Ryder as well as three songs not featured on the record. Yet another version of “Hard Love” appears on the soundtrack to the 2017 film The Shack featuring multi-platinum CCM singer Lauren Daigle.

    WHEN THE WOLVES COME AND HUNT ME DOWN. “Hard Love” is based on Proverbs 17:3, and furthers the theme of reconciliation from immediate family to all people. The inspirational track with a “down-home feel” is an interesting piece of Christian media in its context of the so-called culture wars between the world and the evangelicals in the late ‘10s. My connection to mainstream CCM is quite limited these days, so I don’t know how typical a song like “Hard Love” is, but it seems that the sentiments raised in this song appeal to Christians and non-Christians alike, acknowledging that it is hard to love some people, but we have a Christian (or a human) duty to do so. But with such a duty comes a lot of stipulations from all sides: what about sinners, what about our fears of socialism, what about trauma, what about if the other person doesn’t accept me? Hard love isn’t about seeing eye to eye or being able to agree on anything. Sometimes it means, like in the case of NEEDTOBREATHE in 2021, that brothers even have to go their separate ways. Sometimes you can’t be around the ones you love and it’s healthy to take a break. But as Christ’s sacrosanct principle reminds us that the whole law and the prophets is summed up as “Love the Lord your God with all your heart . . . . and love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22: 26-40; Mark 12:30-31 NIV). The meme goes on with the Pharisees asking what about this person’s situation, and Jesus answers, “Did I stutter?”

    Read the lyrics.

    Andra Day version music video:

    Original version:

    Lauren Daigle version:

    Serena Ryder version:

  • "Sex on Fire" by Kings of Leon, Friday, August 26, 2022

    There was something about the music scene in the early ’00s when a rock band had to first make it the UK before making it in the US. Some music fans were confused when The Killers gained popularity in America after first breaking in the UK. But after releasing three successful records in the UK, no one would mistake Kings of Leon as a British group. The band’s lead singer, Caleb Followill and his southern drawl placed the band solidly in a lineage of southern rock. It’s not the particular type of music normally associated with British Rock, but that didn’t stop “Sex on Fire” from becoming the second most downloaded single ever in the UK.
     

    I KNOW THEY’RE WATCHIN’. The song that brought Kings of Leon to the top of the American Rock charts was “Sex on Fire” from the band’s fourth record, Only By the Night. As the song blew up, a lot of interest formed around the band. “Sex on Fire” was at home in naughties rock, a time when rock bands introduced a shocking song about sex, even if the band didn’t write about the topic very often. From the title “Sex on Fire,” the band alludes to an over-the-top sexual encounter. Hidden within the lyrics, though, are some rather depraved ideas: exhibitionism/voyeurism and receiving oral sex on while driving. The album didn’t have a Parental Advisory sticker, though, as the lyrics didn’t contain any profanity. As the band’s fame ascended, the Kings of Leon origin story was revealed in all of the major rock publications. That origin story sounded something akin to characters out of a Flannery O’Connor story, including a strict tent-revival preacher who eventually lost his faith, abandoning his family. Three brothers raised by the preacher’s ex-wife. Joining with their cousin, the family band is encouraged by a collaborator to be named like a gospel group as the “Kings of Zion,” but rather named themselves after the band’s patriarch, the band’s grandfather, Leon.

    CONSUMED WITH WHAT’S JUST TRANSPIRED. “Sex on Fire” is the kind of rock ‘n’ roll decadence the Followills would have been denied growing up in a conservative Christian context. The religious fervor of the Followills’ preacher father exhorting those who adhere to keep pure until marriage contrasts with lyrics implying irrumation, when Caleb sings “head while I’m driving.” Years after removing themselves from a religious context that wouldn’t even allow members of the opposite sex to swim together, Caleb wrote a song about his girlfriend (later wife) model Lily Aldridge. The song started out a bit more innocent, but the misheard lyrics during recording “Set us on fire” sounded like “your sex is on fire,” and so the lyrics too took on a more sexual nature, referring to being driven wild by a member of the opposite sex. The song was everywhere in 2008, propelling Kings of Leon to rock superstardom. The song is easily parodied. I remember being in the car and my friend Nate telling my friend Caleb, “Caleb, your sex is on fire!” The song always made me think about an STD, but it was also a song I would sing when I was stressed out, when my “stress is on fire!” Stress on fire actually makes more sense. It’s when stress gets so out of control, it catches fire. I mean, if something catches on fire, it’s pretty stressful. But what happens if the actual stress catches on fire?

  • “My Universe” by Coldplay ft. BTS, Thursday, August 25, 2022 (updated post)

    I’ve written a bit last year about how I’m a Coldplay apologist. I believe that the London-based band is very good at what they do. Though so many artists accomplish their sound, both musically and lyrically, better, there’s something uplifting about a new Coldplay album. Early last year, I talked about the band’s first single from their ninth studio record, Music of the Spheres, “Higher Power.” The album was released on October 15 last year. Before the release of the record and after releasing “Higher Power,” the band released the promotional single, the 10:17 track “Coloratura,” which was praised by critics for its composition and production. Then they released the second radio single “My Universe,” featuring the South Korean boy band, BTS. The song shot straight to number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the second Coldplay single to top the Hot 100, the first being “Viva la Vida.”

    I JUST WANT TO PUT YOU FIRST.  The reviews for Music of the Spheres were quite low. Metacritic, a database that averages the scores by major publications, scores the album as 55/100. Most critics agreed that Coldplay’s venture into Max Martin-produced pop music was shameless, even for a band that was instrumental for inventing the late ’00/’10 pop-rock sound. “My Universe” in particular is viewed as a “cash-grab.” Recently, due to BTS’s enormous ARMY of fans, every recent single the boy band has released has headed straight to the top of the Billboard Hot 100. Music of the Spheres aimed to be a comeback album for the British pop-rockers. In 2017, Coldplay was a band with a large fan-base. Only Linkin Park had more YouTube subscribers, and Coldplay was the most streamed “rock band.” However, being the top rock band, even if your definition is loose enough to call Coldplay a rock band, made Coldplay a “big fish in a little pond.” The pond of rock music continues to dry up, and the 100 Million+ selling band would be competing with streams and sales by pop and R&B acts like Drake and The Weeknd. A collaboration with one of the highest selling groups of recent years would promote the now middle-aged rock band as cool and hip. Maybe the kids would dig back into their earlier discography and maybe Music of the Spheres would sell well.

    THAT BRIGHT INFINITY INSIDE YOUR EYES. Cynicism about the “cash-grab” aside, the Coldplay-BTS collaboration may have come from a place of sincerity. Originally, Coldplay wrote the song for BTS, as many non-Korean composers have written for K-pop. Coldplay performed in South Korea in 2017 during their Head Full of Dreams Tour. The band has been evolving into a pop act steadily over the course of their career. Their 2011 Mylo Xyloto included a collaboration with Rihanna and much less guitar focus. Head Full of Dreams included backing vocals by Beyoncé; however, “Hymn for the Weekend” wasn’t marketed as Coldplay ft. Beyoncé, thus the song ran on the momentum of Coldplay fans, not Beyoncé fans. The message of “My Universe” is that love transcends distance, language, and misunderstandings. Produced in and out of quarantine, Music of the Spheres aims to bridge fans around the world together. The band began touring again, after swearing off touring during the release of their 2019 record Everyday Life until they could find a way to tour more eco-friendly. Recently, the band has embarked on a carbon-neutral tour, which aims to revolutionize the music industry. The musical concept album Music of the Spheres, may have been inspired by Star Wars in “a galaxy far, far away,” but the themes of connection, love, and the human experience are truly not out of this world.
     

    Lyric Video:




     

  • “Holding Onto You” by Jonezetta, Wednesday, August 24, 2022 (repost)

     

    Cruel to Be Young was one of my college albums. I wrote a bit about the two Jonezetta albums back in January.  Rather than being an ’80s/Killers sounding album, the band went ’70s/laid back, hippy sounding music. According to Randy Torres episode of Labeled, the inspiration behind this album was The Shins, which was another college favorite of mine. While Aaron Sprinkle and Randy Torres may have had a great time making this record, it may have been the demise of Jonezetta as fans were expecting something catchy and dancy. Interestingly my college friends liked this album, but not their debut, but my hometown friends, loved Popularity and couldn’t get into Cruel to Be Young. Jonezetta’s follow up album reminds me of my youth–being 21 years old at its release, and how cruel it was to be a young Seventh-day Adventist.

    ALL THE DIFFERENT REASONS WHY YOU SLEEP ALONE. I’ve railed on purity culture so much without giving any person anecdotes. I speak from experience when I speak about how dangerous the teaching is. The opening line of this song when I heard it back in 2008 made me think about “all the different reasons why [I slept] alone. I was 21, in a Christian college, and trying to take my faith very seriously. I was pretty introverted and didn’t know a lot of people. I had insecurities about being a transfer student, about not being Adventist or too Adventist. I found myself studying in a major that was about 70% women. I saw my friends dating, and I thought I wanted that too. But every time I asked a girl out…it was like she would say that i was more like a friend. Or we would go out and the chemistry was nonexistent. I imagined myself 30 with a beautiful wife and 2.5 kids, but i never tell you HOW I got there. How we would have “Christian dated” and fulfilled God’s plan for our lives. The closer I got to it, the more frightening it seemed. The solution until 2014 was keep faithful and wait for God to keep working on my heart.

    EVERYONE IS CATCHING ON, I’M BEARLY HANGING ON. Purity culture tells us to examine our hearts and look for the broken pieces within ourselves. If we find those broken pieces, that is obviously the flaw. For so long I blamed my loneliness on those broken pieces. I would hear teaching, like “if you aren’t meeting the right person, take time to work on your relationship with God. Then he will send the right person.” How many times I tried that. It only led to bitterness. At those times I could lay my broken pieces on my dorm room bunkbed. There was the trauma of my parents marriage. The yelling, the coldness, the being away for weeks on end, the toxic bickering. Then there was the fact that all the girls God had in mind were not attractive to me, and the ones that were were out of my league. There was the fact that I would be in serious debt for ten years after graduating college. But of course there was the fact that I had been ruining God’s plan for my life with pornography. I had perverted my taste, I thought. Then there was the one piece I was afraid to admit. Ultimately, I believed, I was in control of my destiny–follow God’s plan for my life or follow my own desires. The problem with “God’s plan” (as interpreted by Evangelical, True Love Waits, Adventist, add any flavor to the mix) was that it made no account for sexual urges. So you’ve got young men either 1) getting married far too early or 2) living in constant shame, barely hanging on. Barely hanging on.

  • “Let’s Get Lost” by Carly Rae Jepsen, Tuesday, August 23, 2022

    An understated track on Carly Rae Jepsen‘s seminal record E-MO-TION, “Let’s Get Lost” comes to life in Jepsen’s concerts. While most solo artists work with a revolving set of musicians, Jepsen’s core band has stayed fairly consistent, with guitarist and fellow songwriter Tavish Crowe, drummer Nik Pesut, and keyboardist Jarod Manierka remaining in her band since 2010 and bassist Adam Siska staying in the band for ten years until 2020. 

    I WAS NEVER ONE TO PUT MY TRUST IN SOMEONE ELSE COMPLETELY. In June when I was writing about Carly Rae Jepsen as the foundation of my Pride playlist, I listened to the B-Side Chicks podcast that described one of her concerts. Before going to the concert, he wondered who would be attending a Carly Rae Jepsen concert. Would it be tweens? The mostly clean bubblegum lyrics of the “Call Me Maybe” singer could warrant a younger audience. Instead, the podcaster discovers a venue filled with incredibly “hot dudes.” Even though Jepsen hasn’t replicated the success of her first hit, it’s niche markets in which she thrives. Whether it’s headlining pride festivals, playing a set for Pitchfork, of embracing her extremely dedicated fans in Japan where her music seems to be even more mainstream than any other market, Jepsen certainly has carved out a unique career trajectory. After watching several Carly Rae Jepsen concerts on YouTube, it seems that today’s song, “Let’s Get Lost,” is a concert highlight. Despite the song’s understated place on E-M0-TION, it’s keyboardist Jarod Manierka who steals the show in concert, not with the keyboard but with a saxophone. It’s the kind of pay off a retro record has been waiting for.

    YOU COULD BE THE ONE. “Let’s Get Lost” is a beautiful song about wanting to spend more time with someone. Some nights you don’t want to end, and you just want to be lost with a special someone. The speaker of the song hopes her love will “take the long way home.” But the feelings this song evokes for me aren’t about dating. Since I didn’t start dating until I came to Korea, without the daily use of a car and relying on taxis and public transportation, “taking the long way home” would mean, if anything, a longer walk, which is almost always not private like being in a car. Instead, this song brings me back to growing up in the backwoods of central New York. Getting in the car was always an adventure, in many ways. Not counting the many times our old cars and trucks broke down or the road washed out after a heavy snow melt, I loved riding in the car when I was young, just looking out the window at the overgrown forests. Some Saturdays after church, my family would drive around the county just to see where different roads went and how things changed. In high school, I was reminded of these drives when reading Robert Frost’s “Stopping by Woods on a Snowing Evening,” when the poet says: “The woods are lovely, dark and deep.” There was something scary and exciting at the same time about being far away from home on a deserted dirt road. Not so fun, though in the winter when the car broke down.



    Live:

  • “Good Thing” by Jake Miller, Monday, August 22, 2022

    In 2016, Jake Miller released a style-changing EP titled Overnight. The south- Florida-based singer started his musical career while he was a student at the University of Miami, posting videos of his music online. Miller cut his teeth in Hip-Hop, opening for Snoop Dogg and releasing several Hip-Hop EPs and a full length record in 2013. Miller’s music always featured a tropical house melodic elements, but in 2016, Miller shifted more to singing, releasing Overnight without any rapping. The seven-track EP of feel-good electronic vibes, are brimming with youth, vitality, and sexuality. 

    YOU DON’T HAVE TO GO NOWHERE BABY. With only two minor pop radio hits, 2014’s “First Flight Home” and 2019’s “Wait for You,” Jake Miller certainly isn’t a household name. But the late summer sounds of Overnight were refreshing in a year of turmoil. In an interview with Zach Sang, Miller discusses his change in sound and his new life in Los Angeles. While explaining his change in style, Miller talks about his musical history, starting with listening to *NSYNC then growing into Eminem and John Mayer. He even mentions listening to The Starting Line and The Almost in high school. Overnight was the first project Miller released on a major label, Warner Music. After working as an independent artist and songwriter, Overnight features Miller just on vocal duty with other producers and doing the lifting. In 2022 the EP sounds a little generic. Looking at the production and songwriting team that also produced Justin Bieber, Dua Lipa, Fifth Harmony, Olly Murs, and Years & Years, these acts somewhat superior to Overnight, Jake Miller is set up as a promising talent, nonetheless. “Good Thing,” is a highlight, and it has seriously infectious hooks; the harmonies on the final chorus bring the song over the top. Other than “Good Thing,” other songs have hooks, but don’t quite reach that level of catchiness.


    I JUST WANT TO FEEL YOUR LIPS AND GET TO KNOW EACH OTHER.  I could probably write a book about 2016 and the parallels between how my faith started to disappear, the struggles in my relationship as my boyfriend had begun conscription, struggles with major adjustments at work, and the toxic political climate evolving around the world. Plus, that summer I visited home and there was a lot of disconnection within my family after the passing of my grandfather. I was stressed and tired, and after my 29th birthday, aging, at least in my mind. My musical palette was evolving through all of these changes. Electronic pop music still seemed fresh in 2016, like an auto-voice could express a suave feeling whereas rock felt antiquated. I was a different person. I was shedding my puritanical views on sex and gender roles. I was susceptible to saccharine electronic pop music, particularly if it was sung by a handsome bro–seriously, it seems like a big part of Miller’s career is based on his looks. But it has to be the love of my life who introduced me to this song that’s the reason it hold’s today’s title as song of the day.  In the second year of our relationship, this song meant something, even if it’s a fading memory on our seven-year anniversary. And despite the overuse of autotune on the chorus, I’d argue that the memories are pretty good.