We’re in love. Out of love. Trying to find it. Watching others find it. Wishing we had some time in a tree (this will make sense later, trust me).
As always, music has a way of taking myriad emotions, all of which swirl in and out of hearts and minds at one point or another, and sometimes, rather unhelpfully, all at once, and making some kind of sense out of them.
Ot at least enough time that they don’t feel like albatross-weight anchors around our souls.
For that we can thank countless music artists but particularly these five people, all of whom has been there and done that with life and lived, and had the talent just as importantly, to tell the tale.
Enjoy and hey, that tree? Could be just what you need.
“I’m Good” by Wafia
An Australian singer songwriter of Iraqi-Syrian origin, Wafia, or Wafia Al_Rakibi to her friends and family, has crafted a superlatively-good post-breakup song.
Experiencing something of an epiphany about her ex, which let’s face it happens to most us, just not this eloquently, she details all the reasons, to a brilliantly-insistent beat, why she’s so much better with the person who put her through hell and was no good.
Now, you don’t usually feel that great in the aftermath of a failed romance but in this instance Wafia is fairly cock-a-hoop, striding the streets of her neighbourhood with the sort of confidence that comes from having dodged a giant heart-shaped bullet.
Not at all possess this breezy joie de vivre after the end of love less-than-sweet love, and let’s be honest maybe Wafia didn’t until this therapeutic song poured from her, but if you’re stuck in the bluesy mess of romance gone wrong, especially if it was with someone who was way less than ideal, then this song is your ticket to clear-eyed 20/20 hindsight and sweet, sweet release.
Sass your way to healing people!
“Make Believe” by Kero Kero Bonito
Hailing from possibly soon-to-be Europe-less London, England, Kero Kero Bonito is a band consisting of singer Sarah Midori Perry and producers Gus Lobban & Jamie Bulled.
Their song “Make Believe” is a bright, fun confection with a fuzzily distorted sting in the tail and some loving visuals as SPIN describes ever so beautifully:
“The fuzzy electropop of “Make Believe” makes for a cheerful and bubbly track, with vocalist Sarah Midori Perry’s twee, high-pitched voice adding to the sugary charm and sweetness of the record. The James Hankins-directed video is adorably low budget and effectively works as both goofy comedy and experimental virtuosity.”
Perry’s playfully-light voice fits the song to a tee, lending it even more of a cute otherworldly air that’s perfect for the daydreamy parts of our days and nights.
“White Boi (feat. Lao Ra) by Dillon Francis
Oh my lord but this song is fun – from the alternating stripped back/lush as hell pop of the incredibly catchy melody through to the celebration of a special kind of cross-cultural love by Colombian singer Lo Ra, “White Boi” has a lot of very cool stuff going on says the singer in a statement:
“This is an ode to the white boys in my life and how exotic and endearing they are to me. Think Dillon loved the fact that he was a white boy himself. The song might be about something else tho, but that’s for you to find out.”
The Dillon she refers to is electronic musician, producer, and DJ, Dillon Francis from Los Angeles, California who is best known as a proponent of moombahton, a genre of music created by DJ Dave Mada as a fusion of house music and reggaeton, which itself originated in the late 1990s as mix of hip hop and latin American and Caribbean music.
The combination of these two very talented artists makes for an enormously-listenable song that you will be playing on repeat until your backspace finger gives out (may it be never in this case).
“Everyone Else” (feat Jaira Burns) by Demo Taped
Adam Alexander comes from Atlanta, Georgia and is better known as Denmo Taped, and in “Everyone Else” he explores that horribly bittersweet feeling of loving someone desperately but grappling with the fact they don’t love you back.
In this song the fairytale ending never quite arrives, and he and American singer Jaira Burns sing exquisitely-well about the fact that the object of their considerable affection “loves everyone else but me.”
Of course these feelings are far more amplified in our interconnected digital age as Demo Taped told Complex:
“We wake up and immediately go to our app of choice to see what our friends, crushes, lovers, etc. are doing at every moment. We’re so conditioned that we do it without thought. To me, this song is about feeling neglected and unwanted while dipping into the feelings behind what we do with these devices and how we sort of torture ourselves.”
The simple answer is to just switch off but that’s easier said than done given how addicted we are to our devices, and besides, even if you could cut the virtual cord, would the feelings magically go away?
“Time in a Tree” by Raleigh Ritchie
Ever get that feeling that you just need to get away? Somewhere far away from the madding crowd who can’t seem to leave you alone long enough to form a coherent thought?
British actor and singer Raleigh Ritchie does, and his fabulously quirky and atmospheric song “Time in a Tree” captures that sense of need to run away from life absolutely perfectly.
So well does this idiosyncratically-wonderful song do its thing that We Are: The Guard rightly argues that it “makes listeners feel a bit more comfortable with the thought of finding themselves”.
This brilliant piece of very clever catchy pop helps you understand what it feels like to try and find yourself, find your place in life and those things that makes you happy and all to a gorgeously-loping beat and melody that will capture your heart as much as your ears.
Oh, and you might even find yourself chilled enough to contemplate wearing an astronaut’s helmet. Maybe …
NOW THIS IS MUSIC EXTRA EXTRA!
Did you know there’s such a thing as the Eurovision Equinox? Well, there is now and it’s ingenious and really quite true …
HAPPY EUROVISION EQUINOX GUYS!!! ??????
We’re now at the furthest point between @Eurovision Song Contests. Today is the official hump.
The days get muuuuuuch brighter as the songs start to come in and ridiculous rumours begin to swirl ????? #eurovisionequinox pic.twitter.com/TMfJO34eym
— Rob Holley (@robholley) November 15, 2018