Mixtapemotions

  • “Wild” by Troye Sivan, Tuesday, February 28, 2023

    In 2015, Troye Sivan released Wild, an EP of six songs. Three of those songs would be released on Sivan’s debut full-length, Blue Neighbourhoods, while the other three would be included on the deluxe edition of the album. Wild was Sivan’s second EP signed on a major label, though the then-teenager had been singing, writing his own songs, and producing his own music since he was 12 years old. As a YouTube generation musician, Sivan had grown followers on the platform, his viewers watching his journey discovering his sexuality. Sivan came out in 2013 just before his career took off.

    LEAVE THESE BLUE NEIGHBORHOODS. The eponymous lead single from Wild alludes to the upcoming album with the line “blue neighbourhoods,” which Sivan has discussed to mean the mundane life in suburbia. In Sivan’s case, the city of Perth, Australia is where the singer was raised. Perth is a major city in Australia, with over 2 million people, yet the city is separated from the other major cities by the Outback. 
    Sivan also discussed being raised Orthodox Jewish in the relatively small city, which along with his sexual orientation was an isolating factor for the singer. However, despite the isolation, Sivan sings about love. The singer intentionally set out to create a love song for queer youth. He told The Advocate: “I feel like gay relationships are sexualized in the media and I just wanted to show a romantic, adorable, puppy love situation between two little boys because that’s something we never ever see.” Sivan’s sophomore record, Bloom, would get more sexual, the titular track talking about anal sex. And  Wild and Blue Neighbourhoods bear an Explicit label. Still, Wild is youthful and pure.

    KISSING UP ON FENCES AND UP ON WALLS. “Wild” is the first part of a trilogy of music videos depicting a gay love story between two teenage boys, with “Fools” and “Talk You Down” following the storyline. But the song “Wild” itself isn’t obviously queer. Sivan even did a remixed version of the track with Alessia Cara, adding an illusion of straight love. The original version was massively popular in Korea, and even when Korean found out the sexual identity of the singer, they didn’t seem to care. The song speaks beautifully about young love, a universal feeling for teenagers and young people regardless of their sexual orientation. It’s the feeling of longing to see someone you love, waiting for the weekend to come when there’s nothing but time to spend together. In America, though, “Wild” and Sivan were only popular among the LGBTQ community. Sivan’s highest charting single also comes from Blue Neighbourhoods, “Youth.” So, on a Tuesday concluding my “love month,” we can await the weekend. Spring is just around the corner, or Fall if you’re in Perth, Australia. 
     

    lyric video:

    Blue Neighbourhoods pt. 1 version:

    Blue Neighbourhoods director’s cut (complete): 

  • “Kiss Me” by Sixpence None the Richer, Monday, February 27, 2023

    In 1997 Christian Rock band Sixpence None the Richer released their third, self-titled record. Founded by singer Leigh Nash and guitarist/songwriter Matt Slocum, the band took their name from C.S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity from an anecdote in which a child buys his mother a gift from his allowance. Lewis said that the mother was sixpence none the richer. The band signed with Christian Rock legend Steve Taylor‘s record label Squint Entertainment to release the band’s runaway successful third record. The record two inescapable singles, “Kiss Me” and a cover of The La’s‘ “There She Goes.” 

    KISS ME UNDER THE BEARDED BARLEY. Last year, Good Christian Fun talked about the legacy of Steve Taylor. In the ’80s Taylor was for his radical songwriting that occasionally got him banned from both mainstream and Christian retailers. His songs often call out the hypocrisies in evangelical culture, using satire on songs like “I Blew Up the Clinic Real Good” pointing out the irony of pro-life Christian terrorists preventing abortions by killing the doctors who provide them but also the mothers and unborn children he was believes the government has the right to save. Of course, Taylor was no hero of the left. Songs like “Whatever Happened to Sin?” and his song and video for “Meltdown” featuring The Facts of Life’s actress Lisa Welchel, show that Taylor is unflinching in his traditional theology. The latter song is a not-so-subtle theological statement of how everyone is condemned to hell unless saved by Jesus Christ. In the ’90s, Taylor wasn’t concerned about updating his personal musical styles to stay relevant. Rather, he began investing in other artists. He wrote some of the more bizarre Newsboys tracks on Take Me to Your Leader. Squint Entertainment kickstarted some big names in Christian music including Waterdeep and Burlap to Cashmere. 

    LEAD ME OUT ON THE MOONLIT FLOOR. But Christian music wasn’t the biggest thing to come out of Squint Entertainment. In 1999 two morbid music videos aired on TVU by a band called Chevelle. After signing with Sony, the band lost their connection with the Christian Rock scene. However, the label’s other success story, Sixpence None the Richer put the band in the spotlight as a faith-based pop group. “Kiss Me” reached #2 on Billboard’s Hot 100 in 1999 partly due to its inclusion on the film She’s All That. And while you couldn’t hear the song on most Christian radio stations, Sixpence None the Richer appeared on many CCM compilation albums, singing original songs which charted on Christian radio. The band’s impact on Christian radio continued even after mainstream success dried up. “Kiss Me” is a timeless acoustic ballad in the style of a French Riviera tune. There’s nothing particularly risqué about the lyrics, but certainly non-church kids were shocked when youth group hipsters informed them that they were in fact listening to a Christian band. If only they would just listen to their other songs on the Streams compilation or City on the Hill records! You might get that spirituality from the parent album, but I haven’t been able to make it through. It’s one of those turn of the millennium records that feel like they were constructed to pad the single and have little purpose on its own. Anyway, spring is just around the corner. Romance is in the air. How about a spring walk?
     

     

    She’s All That scene:

  • "Sugar" by Paper Route, Sunday, February 26, 2023 + The Peace of Wild Things Track by Track

     

    As we wind down on “love month,” I thought I’d share one of my favorite albums  filled with love songs, Paper Route’s sophomore record The Peace of Wild Things. I’ve written about many of the tracks before, but here I’d like to give a home for future posts as well as give a brief reflection on each song. As I’ve discussed, The Peace of Wild Things takes its name from a poem by poet, farmer, and conservationist Wendell Barry whose themes discuss the importance of people returning to nature and reducing reliance on the industrialized world. However, Barry’s more radical themes do not seem to impact the record. The songs that I’ve written about before will have a link. 

    1. “Love Letters” starts the record with the imagery of Adam waiting for Eve in the Garden of Eden. The song isn’t quite a straight-forward love song, with singer JT Daly claiming, “This time I’m different.” The rhythmic drums also distract listeners from thinking in terms of genre—is it rock or is it pop? 

    2. “Two Hearts” is a beautiful love song with much less nuance than the previous track. While The Peace of Wild Things is a complex album telling a love story from beginning to end, “Two Hearts” is one of the tracks that makes the record seem simple as a boy meeting a girl.

    3. “Better Life” was the first single from the album. I think the single came out at least a year before The Peace of Wild Things. “Better Life” is about a break up when one partner still loves the other. Despite the end of a love story, the hope of a “Better Life” rings through the chorus. The ‘80s new wave pop sound make the song both sad and uplifting at the same time. This song is probably the most impactful Paper Route song as it helped me see that a better life could come even after everything I had put my hope in had failed my senior year in college. I’ve written about this time before, but I’m sure that “Better Life” will have its own post one day.  


    4. “Glass Heart Hymn” Track 4 takes the album even in a darker direction. Returning to the Genesis allusions, the song evokes biblical story of Cain and Abel, in which the older brother kills his brother. The sorrow in the song is at its pinnacle when Daly asks, “Lord, have you walked away from me?” He is answered by a choir singing “Hallelujah . . . Let it rain, let it pour down on you.” 

     5. “Sugar” brings the album back to optimism with a beautiful love song. First released on Noisetrade’s 25 Love Songs in February 2012, “Sugar” is one of the most uncomplicated love songs that Paper Route has written. This is not to say that it’s fluff. 
    6. “You and I” was the single released along with the album. It was the only track on the album to get an official music video. The song is about two lovers who never seem to mesh. Their love is ill-fated and ultimately both continue to hurt each other, though the speaker of the song takes the blame. He tells her, “Run for your life” when there’s an opening.

    7. “Letting You Let Go.” While the speaker may have given his lover an out in the previous track, “Letting You Let Go” turns to accusation. It’s a faster track than most of the songs on the album, though it doesn’t come off as angry. It’s a lamentation while moving quickly. 

    8. “Tamed” is a haunting track. It’s the shortest track, 2:48 and features uncredited vocals from Cacie Dalager, lead singer of indie rock band Now, Now. The track also features harpist Timbre. The band preformed the track on BYUtv’s Audio Files and the artistic performance can still be found on YouTube. 


     9. “Rabbit Holes.” One of the most mysterious tracks on The Peace of Wild Things, “Rabbit Holes” constantly looks for peace but fails to find it. This song is also the basis of my Year of the Rabbit Playlist.                                                                     10. “Calm My Soul.” The last song on the record gives the album gospel finish in the way that all three of the Paper Route albums do. The band has brought its listeners on a journey and it ends with a message of hope. 


  • “A Melody, the Memory” by Mae, Saturday, February 25, 2023

     

    In 2009, Mae embarked upon an novel musical project for the time. After being dropped by Capitol Records, the band decided to make music independently, releasing a new song every month on their website. Fans could donate as little as a dollar to receive each song with the profits from the songs going to a different charity each month. In addition, Mae compiled the songs in three EPs, (m)orning, (a)fternoon, and (e)vening. 

    WHEN YOU SING, DO YOU SLIP AWAY? The EPs (m)orning, (a)fternoon, and (e)vening cleverly created an acrostic with the band’s name with the three main divisions of a day’s time. All of Mae’s records have been conceptual in their pursuit of a multi-sensory aesthetic experience. Songs and records themselves evoke connections between phenomena. In terms of (m)orning, the band posted on the message board of their website:

            Morning represents the beginning to the day, the beginning of the year, the 

            beginning of life . . . [January – April] This is the season to focus on youth and help

            instill appreciation for music and the arts . . .  These are the issues of Morning: 

            (M)usic (A)rt (E)ducation.

    The series of EPs for Mae was bigger than one record. The concept was a slice of life encapsulated in a few hours in a day. But the concept was even bigger. Rather than making music under the model of a label, the band set out to make a difference with their music by giving to charities; in the case of (m)orning, the band set out support music and arts education for youth.

    LET IT TAKE YOUR THERE. The music on (m)orning is all about beginning. It’s a beautiful spring record. It’s not yet spring, but there seems to be a spring like energy that comes at the beginning of the year. We hope to do better than we did last year as we make plans for our future. Next week, the school year starts in South Korea. Also, Korea has a different recognition of the seasons. In the southern parts of Korea the trees start blooming in late February and you can see spring shopping promotions already starting. “A Melody, the Memory” is the 6th of 8 tracks on the EP and one of the most spring-like along with “Two Birds.” “A Melody” compares falling in love to the elements of a song coming together. Unfortunately, those of us who listen to music only through streaming cannot hear the EPs as originally intended unless we piece them together on YouTube as in 2017 the band released a compilation of the three EPs as (M)(A)(E), losing some of the tracks from (m)orning. I’ve not always been a fan of everything Mae has done artistically; I have a deep appreciation for their concepts, but yet I sometimes fail to appreciate them. However, I think (m)orning is one of the band’s best pieces of music after The Everglow. The band doesn’t shy away from long tracks with “The Fisherman’s Song” (We All Need Love) and “The House the Fire Built.” Their instrumentals capture the mood of the title. And ultimately, we feel that it is morning, from the sacred peaceful hours to when the world wakes up just before noon. I only wish that (a)fternoon made me feel like afternoon or that (e)vening didn’t make me so sleepy.

    Read the lyrics on Genius.

  • “Heading Up High" by Armin van Buuren ft. Kensington, Friday, February 24, 2023 (repost)

    Dutch DJ Armin van Buuren‘s sixth studio album Embrace was released in 2015. The album topped the Dutch charts and reached number 4 on the Billboard US Dance/ Electronica charts. “Heading Up High” was released as a single in February 2016. The song featured Dutch rock band Kensington. The band had formed in 2005 and had modest success in the Netherlands and Belgium. Like groups like A-ha, Scorpions, and Blindside, Kensington prefers to record songs in English rather than their native tongue. “Heading Up High” reached number 40 on the Dutch charts. It’s a pop song, but it also has clear rock origins. These days, EDM has mostly ignores rock, yet ‘rock bands’ such as Imagine Dragons and Coldplay have incorporated more and more electronic elements to stay relevant. The smokey, rock-vocal style of Eloi Youssef  makes for an interesting dance track along with the the synthetic sounding electric guitar. 

    WHEN YOU’RE HOLDING ONTO ALL THAT YOU CAN’T BE. “Heading Up High” was one of the songs they played at the gym I went to back in 2016. I was stressed and my body was stressed. I had turned 29 in June and by the fall, I started experiencing neck pain frequently, and I think a lot of it was from sitting much longer in the office with poor posture and stress from the worst coworker in all of my teaching years. On top of that, my boyfriend had started his military service, and I was unsure when he would have time to call or meet. After trying to manage the pain with a combination of ibuprofen and alcohol and a Thai massage by sleeping in a nice hotel for the night, I decided to give the gym a try. I went to several gyms in town, but Van Buuren Gym was the closest and the trainers were the friendliest. The membership fee seemed high, but that only caused me to be more committed to the gym. I started going three nights a week, but gradually increased to every day the gym was open. They were always closed on Sundays, which was frustrating. As I was becoming a gym bro, I really didn’t know what I was doing. I was pretty scared of the machines–killing myself or throwing out my back for the rest of my life, so I played it safe. Then one of the trainers, Adam, approached me one day. 

    IT’S A LONG WAY DOWN. Adam stood in front of me in all of his muscular glory and asked me in a round-about way how I was enjoying the gym and what my goals were. I coyly mentioned health and wanting to feel better before stating that I wanted to have a good body. Then came the sales pitch: “I can help you with your goals. We have a special program at our gym where we monitor your progress and design a program for you.” It turns out that many gyms have a similar program, but it’s never advertised because personal training sessions are much more expensive and the trainer makes tons of money. YouTube videos couldn’t give me the muscle memory I needed, so I signed up and devoted even more of my paycheck to the gym. So I started spending more time at the gym. I memorized the limited playlist: Korean Hip-Hop, forgettable American pop songs, and a few rock songs like today’s song. Set after rep after set. I was fully embracing gym life and my body was looking better, and my taste in music suffered.

    Read the lyrics on Genius.

     

  • "Space Age Love Song" by Flock of Seagulls, Thursday, February 23, 2022 (updated repost)

    I’m not a fanatic about space, like many children, I was fascinated with the prospect of traveling to other worlds when I looked out at the sky. From learning about the  nine eight planets from The Magic School Bus to watching Hale-Bopp in the late ’90s night sky, the universe seemed like such an interesting place. After school it was Star Trek: The Next Generation  reruns then to PBS for Bill Nye the Science Guy and Arthur. Fast forward to February 1, 2003 (20 years ago). The space shuttle Columbia disintegrated upon re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere. This grounded America’s space program for two years. 


    YOU MADE ME CRY. This is my memory of the attitude towards the ’80s. I talked a little about this when I covered New Order‘s “World (The Price of Love),” but my memories of the views of the ’80s in the late ’90s and ’00s (what a time warp!) were of awkwardness, terrible hair, men in shorty shorts with hairy legs, girls in tight pink leotards and leg warmers. Tight jeans, porn star ‘staches, and aviators. Farrah Fewcett hair. If you watch Dirty Dancing or Top Gun too much you might get a hair in the back of your throat from someone’s mullet in the back of your throat and if you try to wash it down with Root Beer, you’d taste the ’80s. I immediately turned off music that took “’80s chord progressions.” But then in 2004, there was a shift. Falling Up released their second single from their album Dawn Escapes, “Moonlit.” The guitar riff sounded like ’80s metal. Of course Falling Up was probably not the first musical act to bring back the ’80s, but I started to realize that the ’80s were going to dethrone the ’70s hold on pop culture. Just as long as nobody’s getting Flock of Seagulls’ haircuts, we should be alright.

    YOU TOUCHED MY MIND. Music ran towards the ’80s sound. The Killers debuted around this time. Their first album drawing influence from The Cure. Little by little the “2000s” orchestra-hit laden Britney Spears/Backstreet Boys tracks gave way to new-wave sounding synth pop. Nowadays, if you look at a pop chart you will definitely hear ’80s influence. But what brought back the ’80s? Was it some sort of reaction to the conservative policies of George W. Bush mirroring Ronald Reagan? When I think of movies, television, and music of the ’80s I think of a time that was much more conservative than now. Television shows tried to instill morality, but yet tried to be edgy by introducing “issue” episodes. In the ’80s seemed like a counterreformation of the ’60 movements.  I’m writing a lot about a time before I was even born or have no memory of. Last year I enjoyed the Netflix documentary Challenger, which told the story about how NASA went from cutting edge to cutting corners. After America went to the moon, what was next? Mars? Venus? It seemed like nothing was in the way of human innovation. NASA introduced the space shuttle, a powerful rocket that was going to make going to space easy and common. Pop culture was space-obsessed.
    You don’t have to look far to find an ’80s song about space. It was the space age and everything was reading for the stars. Until the Challenger explosion. Upon closer inspection, it cost too much money to go to the moon, so NASA’s budget was slashed and with it our prospects manned explorations of the solar system. Of course we’ve made incredible breakthroughs in the field of astronomy since. It’s been mostly on the ground or in our back yard in the International Space Station. To tie everything together, much like the Space Age is still around in much less grand version of itself, so we have ’80s-styled dance hits without the hairspray. Or applied in different ways. America seems to be addicted to 1) conservative governments and 2) liberal entertainment. That doesn’t seem to be going away as Biden is probably one of the most conservative Democrats. SpaceX might take us to the moon. Let’s hope they don’t terraform Mars. Climate change may force us again to look to space, but really, though, is there enough time? Until, let’s enjoy some ’80s synth pop.
    ’80s aesthetic explained:

    Music video:

     

  • "Blind" by Lifehouse, Wednesday, February 22, 2023 (repost)

    It’s been 21 years since the post-grunge “Hanging By a Moment” was the number 1 song of the year. Although the Christian Rock band Lifehouse never actually topped the weekly charts, the song had so much statistical force via radio play and record sales that the song became one of the rare cases when a single that peaked at number 2 could actually claim the number 1 position for the year. No Name Face featured three singles, but none were as big as “Hanging By a Moment.” For the band’s follow-up, Lifehouse signed a Christian music marketing deal with Sparrow Records. Stanley Climbfall was nowhere near as successful as the No Name Face, but a sophomore slump didn’t plunge the band into obscurity. In 2005, the band released their self-titled album which boasted their number one hit which was appearing in every TV show that year, the prom/wedding favorite, “You and Me.” 


    I WAS YOUNG BUT I WASN’T NAIVE. “Blind,” the band’s second single, was overshadowed by the album’s first massive hit, “You and Me,” just as the other singles from No Name Face. But while the wedding and prom industry needs new songs every year and “You and Me” is a rather fine choice, the brooding “Blind” delves into lead singer Jason Wade‘s childhood and his parent’s divorce. The music video stars actress Tina Majorino, best known for her role as Deb in Napoleon Dynamite, who acts as a goth chick browbeaten by her womanizing father. Majorino’s character seems to act as a foil to Wade. When the band is playing in the goth chick’s room, Wade and the girl make knowing eye contact for a moment. Interestingly, the normally no-frills Jason Wade is seen in this video wearing eyeliner, sometimes called guy-liner, a trend that punk and emo groups rocked at this time. Some examples were Green Day and My Chemical Romance. Lifehouse was far from being a dark emo band, but “Blind” was one of their darker songs. Furthermore, Lifehouse in the video seems to represent the role that music plays in escaping childhood/teenage trauma. For one of their biggest Christian Rock hits, Lifehouse didn’t make a moralizing video, but rather when the father is out on his infidelity escapades, the daughter throws a party where everyone dances to Lifehouse and she kisses a boy. And from this party, she comes to the clarity that it’s time to leave her father’s house. 

    I WOULD FALL ASLEEP ONLY IN HOPES OF DREAMING THAT EVERYTHING WOULD BE LIKE IT WAS BEFORE. My mom always scolded me for watching music videos, so as soon as she went out, I’d watch TVU, Fuse, and whatever other music channel wasn’t playing reality TV. Every time this video came on my sister and I would yell “It’s Deb!” When I was growing up my parents fought constantly. I remember going to bed to the sound of their fighting some nights. My parents told us that they made a commitment to marriage so they would not get a divorce. My mom’s parents had divorced, and it probably left a lot of emotional scars. But I secretly wanted my parents to divorce. Maybe it would solve the bitter arguments. For years I blamed my parents for distorting my ideas on marriage. I told myself, if this is marriage, I don’t want it. My parents are still married but live very separate lives. They live in the same house but on opposite sides. They work different schedules. They spend time together, but too much time sets them off on each other. I’ve let a lot of it go since I’ve been away from my family. I think that my parents let go of their childhood trauma in a similar way once they moved away from it. Maybe we’re not really over it, but at least there was the music to help me through it.

  • “Lovers in Japan / Reign of Love” by Coldplay, Tuesday, February 21, 2023

    In college, one of my literature professors made the argument that people either tend to subscribe to classicism or romanticism. After taking several classes for my major with that professor, one of my classmates analyzed the aging professor based on his own claims, and that classmate said that Dr. Sylvan was a Romantic at heart repressing his romanticism with stoic classical form. And at the time that I was in college, one of the biggest records was Coldplay‘s Viva La Vida or Death and All of His Friends, an album that I would argue is “The Scientist” trying to experiment with romanticism and yet only being no more than 75% convincing. 

    DREAMING OF THE OSAKA SUN. “Lovers in Japan” is the fifth track on Viva La Vida, sharing a track with the shorter song “Reign of Love.” Coldplay’s lead singer, Chris Martin, said of the song in 2008 to Entertainment Weekly:  “No one associates romance with Japan…Everyone thinks Japan is just about Hitachi and neon signs, but every time we’re there, we see these amazing sunrises. It’s very sexy.” The player-piano/harpsichord tones outlining the song give it a classical sound, though not an East-Asian sound as the title may suggest. The song feels like a romantic getaway rather than interaction with locals, in much the way that 19th century travelogue may read, evoking the backdrop of some place new and sensational, but with the familiarity of the writer’s companions. For me, the song also evokes the Romantic era in how Europeans were looking to far off destinations as the economy globalized. The ultimate expression of capitalism is to travel to a place so far away and live as comfortably as accustomed to in the traveler’s home country. And then there’s Giacomo Puccini’s Madame Butterfly, as it was described to me in my music appreciation class in college: “it’s set in Japan, but there is nothing Japanese about it.” Puccini’s libretto cares nothing for historical or cultural accuracy. It’s a misnomer in that Japan is a signifies something exotic.  

    SOLDIERS, YOU’VE GOT TO SOLDIER ON. However, this is not the nineteenth century, and Japan is now a popular tourist destination. I’ve been twice, three times if you count a layover in Tokyo Haneda, and will probably go again if I stay in Korea. I’ve done the Osaka/Kyoto trip twice, once with a group of friends and once with my boyfriend. It’s a fairly cheap hop-over flight from Incheon or Gimhae if you shop around. A trip anywhere can be romantic if there’s a nice hotel and a nice itinerary. The images of Japan capture the mind– eating Pacific saury or seeing Irezumi tattoos at certain places, anime, Pokemon, castles, geisha–all the while witnessing starched greetings to blowsy American tourists as I exchange a wry smile with my partner to express that I am better that.  I last went to Japan in February 2018 with my boyfriend. On the Korean Air flight back to Incheon, the flight attendant talked with my partner, curious about how a two men–Korean and American–could be close friends, traveling together. My boyfriend and I may look like an odd pair in Asia. There are certainly a lot of interracial straight couples. There are also a few international gay couples, but less noticeable. Thinking back on that memory, I wonder where we will go next?

    Read the lyrics on Genius.

    studio version:

    Osaka Sun Remix: 

     

  • “Godspeed” by Anberlin, Monday, February 20, 2023 + Cities Track by Track

     

    I’m working on a new system for my blog so that I stop saying the same thing over and over again. I don’t always have time to research an album cycle or the artist around the time of the album cycle, but I have written considerably about certain albums and artists. I want to provide links to those posts in album posts, like today’s. I haven’t written a lot about the tracks on Anberlin‘s seminal record Cities, but it still is one of my favorite albums. In the future, this post can be a jumping-off point for other tracks on the record. I could write books on each track and my experiences with them, but today you’ll just get a few sentences about each. Enjoy the album as it turns sixteen today.


    1. (Début). For about a minute and a half, Anberlin introduces us to a dark world in an instrumental composed of city sound effects and noisy guitars. The song reminds me of Jerry Martin‘s Sim City 4 soundtrack. (Début) leads into “Godspeed.”

    2. “Godspeed.” I wrote about “Godspeed” in November. It’s a pretty jarring song to follow any track, but following yesterday’s sleepy song is especially going to give my listeners a slap in the face. “Godspeed” is a cautionary tale about the rock star lifestyle that has claimed the lives of the band’s heroes. 

    3. “Adelaide.” The transition from “Godspeed” to “Adelaide” is also a strange one. The song reminds me of the pop-punk choruses of bands like The All-American Rejects, whom Anberlin toured with from time to time. Cities was released in late February, and “Adelaide” always reminded me of a spring break anthem. The lyrics, singer Stephen Christian wrote about a tendency he had to become self-absorbed. The band also had a deep love for Australia, so “Adelaide” was a kind of tribute to the city.

    4. “A Whisper & a Clamour” is one of my favorite Anberlin songs. Lyrically, it’s not the most original on the record, but it seems to encapsulate the theme of the record–alienation during the most connected time in history–most succinctly. 

    5. “The Unwinding Cable Car.” While acoustic guitars could be heard on (Début) and brilliantly on “A Whisper & a Clamour,” “The Unwinding Cable Car” is the first time Anberlin wrote an acoustic ballad. It’s kind of a bulky song lyrically, but I believe it was the track that returned the band to Air1 because of the Christian themes in the song. 

    6. “There Is No Mathematics to Love and Loss.” This was the first storytelling song Anberlin attempted. They never played it live until their first farewell tour due to Stephen Christian’s dislike for the song.

    7. “Hello Alone” was one of Anberlin’s heaviest songs up until that point. Mixing the sound of sirens with a guitar, “Hello Alone” builds on the theme of being alone in a heavily populated place. It’s a dark song, but the last line tells us: “For the lesser known / I’m here and there’s hope.”

    8. “Alexithymia” is another slow point in the album. It’s an existential crisis in a song, and a bit anti-climactic after “Hello Alone,” though it serves as the hope of the album, “There’s more to living than being alive,” also the theme to Stephen Christian’s debut novel: Orphan Anything’s Memoirs of a Lesser Known.

    9. “Reclusion” was at one point my least favorite track on the record, but there’s still a lot to like about it. The reference to Eleven Minutes by Paulo Coelho, the shredding guitar solo, and the unapologetic introversion and frustration with other people make this song one of the most relatable tracks on the record.

    10. “Inevitable.” This is Anberlin’s prom/wedding song. It’s simple. It’s romantic. It features uncredited vocals by Copeland‘s Aaron Marsh. The drums at the end are pretty cool, particularly watching them being recorded on the bonus DVD.

    11. “Dismantle.Repair.” is one of Stephen Christian’s best-written songs. It details falling in love with someone and parting ways. I always thought of it as a spring song and a heavier Goo Goo Dolls song. I thought it could have been on Top 40 stations, except for the guitars which go hard, blaring as if it’s a competition. But that’s what I love about Cities is that it could be a pop record, but the band and producer Aaron Sprinkle make it as heavy as possible for the band in their genre. 

    12. (*Fin). Cities ends with the 8-minute epic (*Fin), a song in which Stephen Christian wrestles with his faith, making sense of stories in his past. I often feel that every song on the record has a city. “Godspeed” is New York, and “Adelaide” is the city in Australia. I think of “A Whisper & a Clamour” being in Paris. (*Fin) is the Dublin. Stephen channels Bono. Bono struggles with his faith throughout U2’s music, and (*Fin) is the song of doubt for Anberlin.”













  • “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” by Cary Brothers, Sunday, February 19, 2023

    Like most of the NoiseTrade music that I’ve talked about, you may not know who Cary Brothers is. However, since 2003, the singer-songwriter’s music could be heard in the background of some of the biggest TV shows and movies, including Grey’s Anatomy and its spin-off, Private Practice, The Vampire Diaries, Smallville, and One Tree Hill to name a few of the shows Brothers’ music has appeared in. His song “Blue Eyes” was featured on the Garden State soundtrack, which was the highest-selling record Brothers’ had contributed music to. In 2010, Brothers released Under Control, the album’s final track “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” is an intensely romantic song fit for intensely romantic television scenes. 


    MY ARMS WILL GROW, CHEST EXPANDING. “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” was not only a part of NoiseTrade’s 25 Love Songs collection but also part of the overwrought end of Smallville. After ten seasons with many missteps, and a longer-than-it-should-have-lasted relationship between Clark and Lana, Lana finally leaves Smallville for good, and Clark turns his full attention to Lois. In episode 6 of season 10, Clark decides to trust Lois with his secret identity, that he is the blur–what Superman is referred to before the Man of Steel is given his super title. This disclosure of truth comes from hundreds of episodes of the young and handsome Clark Kent agonizing over the pros and cons of telling the secret he keeps to himself for his own safety. This secret identity in the show so often felt like it was a metaphor for coming out as gay so much so that the show made me feel uncomfortable at a time I was denying my own sexuality. The soundtrack for Clark being completely honest with the beautiful Lois Lane is Cary Brothers’ “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You.”

    OF ALL THE BOYS YOU COULD HAVE LANDED.  “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” sounds both intimate and desperate. The song describes the moment when two parties admit that what they are feeling is infatuation with the other. And when infatuation is mutual, love blossoms. However, love, at this phase is still fragile. It spooks easily. It flickers in a slight breeze. There had been many false starts before, long pauses that lead to knowing stares before a distraction causes one to say, “Good night.” But at a moment of vulnerability, when one party admits to the other affection, if the other does not reciprocate, the one who admitted may feel shame, lose face, and may never be able to face the other again. All of those possibilities play out in the subconscious of the song’s instrumentation. But love is accepted and tenderness ensues. In the case of Clark and Lois, the two make love tenderly, perhaps forgetting their Pride and Prejudice meeting in which they seemed to hate each other–of course, Clark was possessed by a confusing version of Jor-El never really explained in Smallville, but I digress. Or maybe that tension turned into love. 


    Scene referenced in Smallville Season 10, Ep. 6: