I'm three weeks away from finishing grad school - aaaah!
I firmly believe mental work only gets done with the help of dancing. And I've been dancing a lot - out with my friends when I can, but also in my room and in my car constantly!
I have a whole playlist of dance-y music, including some really moody synth-pop I've been into lately. Thought I'd share a few with you...
First up? Troye Sivan. Oh my word, Troye Sivan. I'm not sure I would have made it through the last several months without Troye! I feel guilty for even picking a song--the whole album is incredible!!--but I think this is one of his objectively "best" songs. It's a collab he did with the imitable Jack Antonoff [of fun., Bleachers, Taylor Swift, etc. fame].
Other stand outs from the album include Bite, Fools, Talk Me Down, and Lost Boy [and the rest of the album!]
Next up? Halsey. I know I'm about a year late [shout out to Miss Daydreamer for nudging me over the edge]. Castle is the aural representation of how I felt writing my thesis :) If you need to tackle something difficult, this is how you do it:
A softer sound... Lights. She has some peppier songs, but I can't get away from "Portal"!
Of Monsters and Men released a fantastic sophomore album. This bonus remix is the song I listen to most often:
And most recently, I've added Porter Robinson. Here's his Divinity...
So that's me lately! These, with the interspersing of whole albums like Lemonade or Ryan Adams 1989, I'm dancing my way to the end of grad school!
Showing posts with label music monday. Show all posts
Showing posts with label music monday. Show all posts
Monday, May 23, 2016
Monday, July 27, 2015
One Wild Life: Soul
Ahead of it's release, Relevant is streaming Gungor's latest album, One Wild Life: Soul. It actually marks the beginning of a trilogy--Soul, Spirit, and Body. Gungor actually took inspiration from the format of Ryan O'neil's (aka Sleeping at Last) creative style - that of minimal touring or promotion, and spending nearly all of their energy and resources on artistic creation while also restraining themselves to a thematic project. So, inspired by Mary Oliver's "The Summer Day" and the question it raises, Gungor aims to offer an answer spanning this trilogy of upcoming albums.
Stylistically here, Gungor has opted more for contemporary synths and beats and less for their previous acoustic sound. Having emerged slowly over their last few albums as a lead vocalist, Lisa Gungor effectively takes the role even more often. She leads the album's eponymous track and the song leaves breathing space for her soft quotation of Mary Oliver: "what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?" Among others, she leads on the ethereal "Moon Song" and "At Sea" as well as duetting harmonically with Michael on "Light" and "Vapor." Her maternal presence comes through clearly in "Moon Song" and even more so on "Light," a song dedicated their daughter Lucie (meaning light) who has downs syndrome. She explains their journey beautifully here and the song reflects the delight with which they parent. In fact, their recently released music video for the track is comprised entirely of home videos.
The social activist facet of Gungor is overt here in a number of ways. On first listening to "We are Stronger," I'll admit I found the first half trite. Even now, I find the peppy "We are better together" rather childish sounding--and yet, the second half of the song is so honestly gripping that I can't skip the track. Here, they use the bridge to whisper-sing over a choral arrangement:
Their eerily beautiful "Am I"--an apparent inversion of YHWH's name, to which it finally resolves--haunts with both philosophically and personally familiar questions. It echoes many of the statement's of "I am Mountain" in obverse as questions (e.g. "am I the stars?"). He seems to constrain a scream asking "am I a dream? am I memory?" before turning falsetto to ask "am I awake? am I okay?" The song is one that could appear simple but is, in actuality, fundamental.
Although often wrestling with millenial frustrations or metaphysical questions, they also reach for the soul's true home. Many songs touch on the mythic or mystic - as the "here's to life and all it's branches" recalls Axis Mundi. In "Land of the Living," a cover of Matthew Perryman Jones' 2012 single from an album of the same name, they draw in all sort's of imagery of the Promised Land.
The album's finale, "Vapor," matches the sacred finishing touches to their previous two studio albums--"Every Breath" on 2011's Ghosts upon the Earth (which happens to be one of my iTunes Library's 25 most played) and "Upside Down" from 2013's I am Mountain. Like most of the album, this song circles the holiness of the Divine and erstwhile thinness of life this side of the veil--"the vapor of it all... the beauty of it all..."--to conclude in the marriage of Creator and creation:
Stylistically here, Gungor has opted more for contemporary synths and beats and less for their previous acoustic sound. Having emerged slowly over their last few albums as a lead vocalist, Lisa Gungor effectively takes the role even more often. She leads the album's eponymous track and the song leaves breathing space for her soft quotation of Mary Oliver: "what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?" Among others, she leads on the ethereal "Moon Song" and "At Sea" as well as duetting harmonically with Michael on "Light" and "Vapor." Her maternal presence comes through clearly in "Moon Song" and even more so on "Light," a song dedicated their daughter Lucie (meaning light) who has downs syndrome. She explains their journey beautifully here and the song reflects the delight with which they parent. In fact, their recently released music video for the track is comprised entirely of home videos.
The social activist facet of Gungor is overt here in a number of ways. On first listening to "We are Stronger," I'll admit I found the first half trite. Even now, I find the peppy "We are better together" rather childish sounding--and yet, the second half of the song is so honestly gripping that I can't skip the track. Here, they use the bridge to whisper-sing over a choral arrangement:
Every black life mattersThey finesse these ideals further on the later track "Us For Them." Both a beautiful treatise on breaking down divisions as well as a response to last year's backlash against Gungor because (gasp!) they shared they weren't convinced by Young Earth Creationism. Reminiscent of U2's "there is no them, there's only us" ("Invisible"), this unifying, anthemic piece affirms:
Every woman matters
Every soldier matters
All the unborn matter
Every gay life matters
Fundamentalists matter
Here's to life and all it's branches
We will not fight their wars,These types of moments are certainly not new for Gungor (see "God is not a White Man"), but as they've become both more artistically nuanced and more lyrically frank, they appear to echo the frustrations many younger adults have with the current state of the Evangelical Church, but they move past defiance into much broader questions.
We will not fall in line
'Cause when it's us or them,
It's us for them
We reject the either/or
They can't define us anymore
'Cause when it's us or them,
It's us for them...
Their eerily beautiful "Am I"--an apparent inversion of YHWH's name, to which it finally resolves--haunts with both philosophically and personally familiar questions. It echoes many of the statement's of "I am Mountain" in obverse as questions (e.g. "am I the stars?"). He seems to constrain a scream asking "am I a dream? am I memory?" before turning falsetto to ask "am I awake? am I okay?" The song is one that could appear simple but is, in actuality, fundamental.
Although often wrestling with millenial frustrations or metaphysical questions, they also reach for the soul's true home. Many songs touch on the mythic or mystic - as the "here's to life and all it's branches" recalls Axis Mundi. In "Land of the Living," a cover of Matthew Perryman Jones' 2012 single from an album of the same name, they draw in all sort's of imagery of the Promised Land.
The album's finale, "Vapor," matches the sacred finishing touches to their previous two studio albums--"Every Breath" on 2011's Ghosts upon the Earth (which happens to be one of my iTunes Library's 25 most played) and "Upside Down" from 2013's I am Mountain. Like most of the album, this song circles the holiness of the Divine and erstwhile thinness of life this side of the veil--"the vapor of it all... the beauty of it all..."--to conclude in the marriage of Creator and creation:
Come like dawn
like grace
like sunlight
Bring this world to life
Come like rain
like breath
like springtime
Bring this world to life...
One Wild Life: Soul will be available on August 7th.
Monday, March 9, 2015
Monday, December 23, 2013
Music Monday - Bleeding Out // The Lone Below
Came across this song and, when I think about 2014, this song joins my arsenal.
All in unison we sing, at times, been redeemed
We are all of the beauty, that has not been seen
We are full of the color, that’s never been dreamed...
We are all of the beauty, that has not been seen
We are full of the color, that’s never been dreamed...
Breathing in, breathing out, it’s all in my mouth
Gives me hope that I’ll be, something worth bleeding out
Gives me hope that I’ll be, something worth bleeding out
Monday, November 4, 2013
Music Monday: Inside Llewyn Davis
So here's a treat for Monday. NPR is streaming the soundtrack for "Inside Llewyn Davis" - the upcoming Cohen brothers film. The movie focuses on fictional folk-singer Llewyn Davis, played by Oscar Isaac, emerging in the Greenwich music scene in the 1960's. Like O Brother, Where Art Thou?, this Cohen creation has a soundtrack produced by T Bone Burnett. The album is a compilation of classic and new folk songs mostly performed by Oscar Isaac, but also featuring the talent of Justin Timberlake, Marcus Mumford, Carey Mulligan, Stark Sands, and a host of others.
The soundtrack as a whole is just delightful! But here are a few stand outs:
"Fare thee well (Dink's Song) - Oscar Isaac and Marcus Mumford. A few lines into this song, my eyes actually welled with tears. It's just an intensely sweet song and this duet is fantastic - easily my favorite from the album. Also, with the announcement of their break, this may be the last "new Mumford" we get for a while. But seriously, these two should cover something or do a whole album together or something. If for some reason, the streaming doesn't work for you, here's their cover on YouTube:
"The Last thing on My Mind" - Stark Sand. Plain ol' lovely folk music
"Five Hundred Miles" - Justin Timberlake, Carey Mulligan, Stark Sand (all three staring in the film). Lovely song - no, not The Proclaimers' "500 Miles." This offers some lovely harmonies, the first song of JT's I've actually liked, and [oh my word!] Carey Mulligan's sweet voice! "Mr. & Mrs. Mumford" need to be a thing at some point.
"The Auld Triangle" - Chris Thile, Chris Eldridge, Marcus Mumford, Justin Timberlake and Gabe Witcher. A great folk a capella that includes Mumford and JT - I think they just checked every box in one song.
Farewell - "a previously unreleased recording" of Bob Dylan's "Farewell." Love Bob Dylan; love this song!
Check out the soundtrack and let me know which were your favorites :)
The soundtrack as a whole is just delightful! But here are a few stand outs:
"Fare thee well (Dink's Song) - Oscar Isaac and Marcus Mumford. A few lines into this song, my eyes actually welled with tears. It's just an intensely sweet song and this duet is fantastic - easily my favorite from the album. Also, with the announcement of their break, this may be the last "new Mumford" we get for a while. But seriously, these two should cover something or do a whole album together or something. If for some reason, the streaming doesn't work for you, here's their cover on YouTube:
"The Last thing on My Mind" - Stark Sand. Plain ol' lovely folk music
"Five Hundred Miles" - Justin Timberlake, Carey Mulligan, Stark Sand (all three staring in the film). Lovely song - no, not The Proclaimers' "500 Miles." This offers some lovely harmonies, the first song of JT's I've actually liked, and [oh my word!] Carey Mulligan's sweet voice! "Mr. & Mrs. Mumford" need to be a thing at some point.
"The Auld Triangle" - Chris Thile, Chris Eldridge, Marcus Mumford, Justin Timberlake and Gabe Witcher. A great folk a capella that includes Mumford and JT - I think they just checked every box in one song.
Farewell - "a previously unreleased recording" of Bob Dylan's "Farewell." Love Bob Dylan; love this song!
Check out the soundtrack and let me know which were your favorites :)
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