Two years before her debut album Nothing’s Real was released, Shura‘s debut single, “Touch,” began generating acclaim across the Internet. Working with guitarist and vocalist of the indie rock band Athlete, Joel Pott, Shura began co-producing her album. Shura played the keyboards and synthesizers on the record and co-directed the music video for “Touch,” which features her twin brother, Nicholas. The single was re-released along with a remix of the track in 2016 before the release of Nothing’s Real. Today, “Touch” is Shura’s most streamed song on Spotify.
I ONLY NEED YOU TO BE FRENCH WITH ME. Born to an English father and a Russian mother, Aleksandra Lilah Yakunina-Denton and her brother Nicholas were raised in Manchester, UK. Aleksandra, better known by her stage name, Shura, started playing guitar at the age of 13. By 26, she was gaining popularity in the UK. The video for “Touch,” which features lots of kissing between people of different genders and sexualities, prompted a Manchester journalist to ask the singer to define her sexuality. The singer told Vice, although the headline read “Shura comes out before Manchester” [concert], she says, “I didn’t come out! [The journalist] just asked me if I was gay and I said yes.” While Shura identifies as a lesbian, she told Mancunian Mattersthat there is a “massive spectrum for everyone” and that “there are many kinds of love.” She goes on to say that the video “didn’t feel like a political statement at the time” because she was simply filming the sexuality as she experienced from being part of the LGBTQ+ community. On a small budget with only some actors and a video camera, Shura’s music video tells the complication of love and break ups as a human experience. And that human experience helped to spread the video around the Internet, especially among the LGBTQ+ community.
THERE’S A LOVE BETWEEN US STILL. While Nothing’s Real holds a high Meta-critic score of 79 percent, Joe Levy’s Rolling Stone review knocks the album for the ambiguity of gender in the songs, calling it “a map to a treasure that’s never there.” It seems that homophobia was a big factor in this album not fully becoming the “Madonna for millennials” that Vicepraised her as, as far as her success in America. Shura’s UK popularity didn’t spread to the US other than the Dance chart. Her UK fame, though, sparked the attention of Mumford & Sons, who covered Shura’s track “2Shy.” “Touch” appears in the second season of Sex Education in a make-out scene between Otis and Ola. Just as the song’s music video shows how fluid sexuality is, the Netflix original series explores the complex sexualities of British teenagers. Sex, attraction, and relationships can be as complicated as this song’s subject–trying to be friends with an ex. Shura’s music reflects that complication, mostly avoiding pronouns–with the exception of “Indecision,” talking about a boy. All we need is for her to come out with a catchy third album. She’s due at any time to follow up her 2019 forevher.
Last year, I caught up on episodes of Slate’s Hit Parade. While the series can bring a single artist’s story alive, my favorite episodes of the series show broad connections in music. One of my favorites has to be “Turn Around, Bright Eyes,” the story of producer Jim Steinman. Casual music listeners don’t think about the song’s producer or the techniques and inspiration that go into recording a song, but I would like to think that my readers have started as casual listeners and are thinking more deeply about music. And this is the story of a musical hero.
HE’S GOTTA BE FRESH FROM THE FIGHT. Gaynor Hopkins was the daughter of a Welsh coal miner. After finishing school, Hopkins began her musical career, changing her name to Sherene Davis because a Welsh folk singer, Mary Hopkin, had a similar name. After singing in Wales, she was scouted by RCA Records in London, which offered her a record contract and recommended that Davis change her name. This time the singer settled on Bonnie Tyler. The first singles from Tyler’s 1977 debut record, The World Starts Tonight, took time to impact the charts in Europe, but her first single from her sophomore record, “It’s a Heartache,” reached number 3 on Billboard’s Hot 100. Tyler released more records, fulfilling her contract with RCA Records, and in 1982 she signed with CBS/Columbia Records and began a new era. With this era came a collaboration with maximalist producer Jim Steinman, who was at the time most famous for producing Meat Loaf’s albums. Besides the famed Bat Out of Hellrecord, Steinman wrote and produced his own rock music, inspired by German opera composer Richard Wagner with melodramatic scenes and over-the-top vocal performances, all accompanied by a blaring rock band. Steinman brought all of this to singer Bonnie Tyler’s fifth record, Faster than the Speed of Night, encapsulated in the album’s lead single, “Total Eclipse of the Heart.”
IT’S GONNA TAKE A SUPERMAN TO SWEEP ME OFF MY FEET. Today’s song is Bonnie Tyler’s other big hit. “Holding Out for a Hero” was recorded for the 1984’s Footloose. In the single, Steinman brings even more theatrics to Tyler’s vocals. In 1986, the single was included on the follow-up to Faster than the Speed of Night, Secret Dreams and Forbidden Fire. The nine-track record builds on the template laid by Faster, but whereas the previous album relies heavily on pianos and balladry, Dreams fills out the production with more guitars and synthesizers. The star of the song, though, is Bonnie Tyler’s gravelly delivery. The song is, well, ridiculous. It seems to take itself quite seriously, but that’s the campy charm of it. It’s been played to death and covered by everyone from Emery to most recently Adam Lambert. It’s heard on every classic rock station and played in movies. Songs that have permeated culture this much often lose their meaning for me. But listening to Hit Parade and learning about the vision of producer Jim Steinman and learning about a girl from a small town in Wales who wanted to become a singer brings a more authentic experience with the song than I’ve ever had before.
Paramore‘s 2017 album After Laughternot only took the band in a new direction musically, the lyrics of the band’s latest album started a conversation about mental health. Lead singer Haley Williams transcends the emo genre in this mature discussion about the depression that followed her divorce, band mate controversies, and media scrutiny. The album’s opening track and first single, “Hard Times,” sets the tone for the album along with calling on the motif of weather, all the while disguising itself as an upbeat, positive track musically. It’s not, though.
YOU HIT ME WITH LIGHTNING. I just realized the other day that March is Women’s History month, so today, I decided to make a playlist titled Women Rock: A Playlist Celebrating Women in Music Pt. I. This is a compilation of songs from my blog featuring female artists who have made a difference in the genre that they play. Enjoy!
In 2015 when marriage equality was signed into law across the nation, Americans reacted in several ways. There was overt homophobia and blatant hatred often disguised as religion. One of the last Adventist sermons I listened to was Dwight Nelson arguing that just because a nation can say something is legal doesn’t make it moral. There wereexamples of civil disobedience in the courtrooms by the likes of Kim Davis refusing to perform same-sex weddings. There were businesses that refused service to same-sex couples getting married. Many took the law as a win for human rights. Statistics showed in 2015 that support for marriage equality was largely bi-partisan, meaning that people of all backgrounds, liberal or conservative, supported the right to marry.
support for the victims following the Pulse shooting in Orlando
YOU TRIED TO SHRUG IT OFF WHEN I ASKED WHY SOMEBODY HURT YOU. Then came June 12, 2016. When I heard the news, it was my 29th birthday-Korean Standard Time June 13th. There had been many mass shootings before Pulse, and many since, targeting schools, churches, concerts, shopping centers, and other places where unsuspecting people go on the last day of their lives. But something felt different
about this attack. In the middle of a hellish election cycle in which Republican candidates had been lambasting the Supreme Court ruling on marriage equality, Donald Trump had just become the Republican nominee. While the most conservative former candidates were mostly silent about this attack, future president Donald Trump hoped to use this tragedy as an opportunity to spread Islamophobia, calling for more stringent immigration policies which would later be implemented in his “Muslim ban.” He pledged to: “do everything in [his] power to protect our LGBT citizens from the violence and oppression of a hateful foreign ideology.” Like with most of Trump’s campaign promises, though, he did not protect the LGBTQ+ community. Instead he pushed policies that targeted the Trans community and appointed conservative Supreme Court justices who are making it easier and easier to erode LGBTQ+ protections under the law.
DON’T BE AFRAID OF LOVE AND AFFECTION. Inspired by the tragedy of the Orlando Pulse night club shooting, MUNA released “I Know a Place” on their debut LP, About U. You can hear MUNA performing “I Know a Place” in the 2018 Netflix original film,Alex Strangelove, a coming-of-age comedy about a high school senior realizing his sexuality. Sounding like a forgotten ’90s female-fronted rock anthem, “I Know a Place” is a message of hope for all people, particularly the disenfranchised. In concerts, lead singer Katie Gavin sings additional lyrics in the bridge:
Even if our skin or our gods look different, I believe all human life is significant. I throw my arms open wide in resistance, He’s not my leader even if he’s my president. No!
MUNA performed this song with the alternate lyrics and “Crying on the Bathroom Floor” on Jimmy Kimmel as a statement against how the former president fueled homophobia. “I Know a Place” is still a staple LGBTQ+ anthem of acceptance, though the band continues to release inclusive anthems.
Sometimes when I write about music I like, I hear the whiny voice of a younger millennial or Gen Z-er saying the band’s name and, “Are they even relevant anymore?” That’s what I thought about when I wrote about The Fray and other pop rock bands from when I was in high school. When I wrote about OneRepublic in early 2021, the band hadn’t released an album since 2016, and momentum for the band seemed to be waning. But then in August, they released their record Human.
THEY GOT SUN IN L.A. AND SOME STARS SHININ’. In 2017, OneRepublic’s lead singer Ryan Tedder decided to forego the typical album cycle the band had followed. The band started releasing singles that year. Two years later, the band started releasing singles for the album they would release in 2021. But shortly after Human came out, OneRepublic seemed to be almost over the album cycle. The band had released five singles from the record before its arrival starting in 2019, which is a much longer album cycle than the typical release. The band did, however, celebrate the release of Human with a live-streamed acoustic concert which would be later released as One Night in Malibu. The album included seventeen tracks, several of the new songs from Human and also some interesting arrangements of the band’s greatest hits. But rather taking a year or two to promote and celebrate the band’s fifth album, they announced a new record in February of 2022 with its lead single “West Coast,” though fans are still waiting on a release date.
I NEED THE SUN FOR JUST A YEAR. Evoking a spirit of ’50s and ’60s R&B and subtle hints of The Beach Boys, “West Coast,” is an ode to the American spirit that is drawn to California. The groove of the song is signature OneRepublic and the core of the song sounds in line with the pop music produced today. However, the backing vocals give the song a nostalgic golden age appeal. In the time when a song needs multiple hooks, “West Coast” has shown up in few of my Instagram reels, which attests to the catchiness of the song and of course the continued fascination with California. For me, I’m trying to remember when my dreams of California stopped. Like many kids, I had fantasies about becoming a star. I wanted to write movies and act in them. I wanted to see the world, and California felt like the key to that. In high school, I had dreams about being in a rock band, touring America. I was more LA style than Nashville. But somewhere in college, I realized that you don’t get to live out your dreams if you don’t put in the work. I realized that I would be a teacher, probably in public school because Adventist school was all about having the right connections. So before I committed to a life of public service, I looked into teaching abroad. And I just never came home. Thanks to teaching abroad, I have been able to go to L.A., but it was just the airport. Maybe someday.
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.
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 Christianityfrom 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 Funtalked 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 Streamscompilation or City on the Hillrecords! 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?
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 Songsin 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 Filesand 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.
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 theirwebsite:
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.
Dutch DJ Armin van Buuren‘s sixth studio album Embracewas 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.
Mixtapemotions 