Songs of the Week Volume XXVIII
Even while the contributor showcases come in, Songs of the Week powers on, bringing you a variety of recommendations every single week. Submit here and listen here (Article Playlist) and here (Archive and Top Contributors).
Edgar Castro:
Lewis Motisher - Life is Flashing (Before Your Eyes)
I don't remember exactly how I first stumbled upon this song, but I do remember tearing up a bit during it, and that's something to be said about a song that you've never even heard before or were anticipating. It's an intensely ambivalent song, juxtaposing the abundance of wondrous things to do and see in life with the scarcity of life itself, the message being, "Time won't wait / It always flies ... So live it up / Idealize." The words of the famed philosopher Shia LaBeouf come to mind: just do it!
The lyrics and structure of the song are about as simple as those previously quoted lines; there's just not really a lot going for it in terms of complexity. However, this simplicity is not necessarily detrimental and greatly contributes to the childlike, adventurous, and nostalgic mood it hopes to create. The low quality of the recording and simplistic acoustics and lyrics help to contribute to the song's nostalgic feeling, something that's strange to even exist in the first place given a lack of prior experiences attached to the song. It's different, yet very familiar, a quality shared by lots of simple, lo-fi recordings. Life is Flashing (Before Your Eyes) is a rare find: it's not every day that you will randomly stumble upon such an immediately arresting and emotive piece.
Hanging Coffins - Haunted Hives
A more complex lo-fi track, Hanging Coffins is a lot closer to the post-punk genre than to any variant of pop. In this case, the lo-fi nature of the recording contributes to the song's overall cavernous and claustrophobic feel. All of the instruments are heavily distorted, especially the lead singer's voice, which is essentially unintelligible for the most part. In this respect, Hanging Coffins takes a similar approach to the krautrock band CAN, who purposely desired an unintelligible lead singer (Damo Suzuki) so that their voice would act more as a supporting instrument to the track rather than its feature, as is the case with the vast majority of music featuring sang lyrics.
Steve Reich - Music for 18 Musicians
Like the first part of Boris's Flood, Music for 18 Musicians is a long, hypnotic piece. It's far from drone, though; the piece is actually very active, featuring a plethora of instruments playing at any given time. Like drone music, though, Music for 18 Musicians embraces repetition, featuring 11 sections, referred to as pulses, that each feature an arrangement that continues to repeat itself again and again until the next segment, albeit with minor changes or the occasional chiming in of a metallophone which also serves the purpose of signaling changes in the melody. Instruments and different melodies come and go as the piece goes on: sometimes there are maracas, and sometimes there are voices; sometimes it's very upbeat, and sometimes it's very slow-paced. The constant changing of mood keeps Music for 18 Musicians from sounding boring for the entirety of its length of almost an hour. The live performances are quite interesting and captivating, too, being true feats of patience and concentration on the part of the performers.
Meeghan Bresnahan:
Rosalie Craig - Darkest Hour from The Light Princess
This is another musical that I am starting to love. It's so whimsical. I seriously love everything about this song, especially Rosalie Craig's voice and the instruments. So pretty.
Adam Pascal - One Song Glory from Rent
It has been so long since I saw this movie, but I have this song on my phone and it popped up a few times when I was listening to my music and I really like it. I think it's really funny how this guy (Roger) is complaining through a solo song about how he can't compose a song. Like Roger. You just came up with this song on the spot, but okay.
Yorktown from Hamilton
I just really love this song. Especially Hercules Mulligan's rap. Like yes.
Evan Murphy:
Eric Hutchinson - Food Chain This is a song that I have very recently discovered, although I have been familiar with the artist for a while. It is a very good song.
Daft Punk - Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger I heard this song while on a roller coaster over vacation and was reminded of it. This is also a good song.
Connor Murphy:
Gorillaz - Demon Days
This is a relatively self explanatory song, and kind of similar to Ted Leo's Biomusicology. The lyrics, paraphrased, essentially say "The world is in a kind of sucky way sometimes, but you can't let that keep you down." The listener is urged to look "to the sun" by a gospel choir. It's a short and sweet song about overcoming atrocity.
Elbow - lucky with disease
This gem was on their b-sides album Dead Boot. He doesn't say much, and acknowledges that with the final line "that's not saying much, but I'm not saying much today." The song is sort of a short complaint about the current state of things, which doesn't get much more specific than "I'm in a bad way," but also acknowledges that despite all of what's going on or the lack thereof, life goes on. He's healthy and alive, "lucky with disease."