Love is, most of the time, at least a buoyantly fizzy and wondrously good and uplifting thing.
But as we all know, often from bitter experience, just because something is notionally wonderful doesn’t mean that’s how it’ll play out in real life; in fact, sometimes it feels like love is really making you work for any joy you’re seeking, only to pull the romantic rug out from your Cloud Nine-residing feet and leave you wondering what the hell went wrong.
All five of this post’s artists manage to capture either the euphoria or the harsh reality of love’s darker side, or both, reminding us that while falling in love is a sheer delight, it comes with more than few pitfalls that our hearts need to keep in mind next time Cupid’s arrow strikes.
“Call it Love” by Felix Jaehn & Ray Dalton
If a song can feel like joy, then it’s “Call it Love” by German DJ and music producer Felix Jaehn and American singer-songwriter Ray Dalton.
A track that is all about the heady rush of romantic love seizing with delirious happy and refusing to let go, “Call it Love” is appropriately set to music that is as euphoric as its lyrics:
Two hearts in a billion
Want to fall into you
Make me wanna shout it out
Like a hallelujah.
With Dalton’s vocal brilliance delivering all the emotional resonance you could ask for, and let’s face it a song like this has to have ALL the vocal feels, “Call it Love” is a song that reminds you how wonderful it is to be staring down the barrel of love, true love, in a state of bliss that nothing can beat.
It’s danceable joy packaged into just over 2 1/2 minutes of musical bliss and it will, IT WILL, make your day better, guaranteed.
“Did I Make You Up?” by half.alive
Hailing from Long Beach, California, Half Alive, who are routinely stylised as half•alive, are a band that delivers the emotion with every song.
That’s readily apparent in “Did I Make You Up?” where lead singer, Josh Taylor, muses on whether the ardent objection of his affection actually ever existed or whether he simply projected what he wanted to see.
It can happen to the best of us – maybe we just want to fall in love or we seize on a fraction of a person to convince ourselves that it matches their whole person, or perhaps we simply want to believe they’ll become what we dream of; whatever’s driving it, we all too often find ourselves in love with an idea of someone and not who they really are.
Set to a jaunty piece of music that melds the buoyancy of the now-displaced hope with the cruel reality of what actually is, “Did I Make You Up?” is a piece of pop full of insightful truth, honest, introspective lyrics and music to make all the regretful musing not feel quite so bad.
Well, at least while this marvellous song is playing anyway …
OOOO
“Grapefruit” by Tove Lo
Swedish singer-songwriter, actress Tove Lo, is one of those supremely talented artists who release song after superlative song, usually marrying them with impressively inventive visuals and investing them with real meaning and emotional resonance.
Case in point is “Grapefruit”, a synth-driven piece of powerful upbeat pop that the singer herself calls a “sad banger dance track [with] quite dark, intense lyrics”, which talks about her history of dealing with eating disorders.
It’s packs an emotional punch with the artist bravely and honestly baring her soul as she explains to Apple Music’s Zane Lowe via NME:
‘I think I’m touching on some subjects as a woman where I feel like a lot of it has to do with my relationship with my femininity.
‘I feel like with songs like ‘Grapefruit,’ which I talk about my body issues as a teenager, which I’ve never really touched on before, I think I needed a good amount of years to be well from it before I could discuss it publicly maybe.’
OOOO
“Dance All Over Me” by George Ezra
Possessing a husky voice that vibrates with real emotion, English singer-songwriter-guitarist George Ezra is skilled at packaging real heart into his upbeat pop gems such as “Dance All OVer Me”.
Driven by his trademark guitar sound, “Dance All OVer Me” is a highly danceable song taken from his Gold Rush Kid album which just feels like a big necessary shot of happiness which the artist says reflects the making of the album during COVID lockdowns, though with some caveats.
[The album reminds me of] really happy times, which is funny because it’s not necessarily the truth. Somehow once you finish an album you put on your rose-tinted glasses and pretend that it was all of the vibes all of the time, which just isn’t true. But in saying that, especially compared to the record that came before, it was relaxed and it was chilled. (Thomas Bleach)
Thomas Bleach says listening to this track, and indeed the whole of the Gold Rush Kid, feels a sensibility that is “breezy, upbeat and celebratory [with a] collection [of] tracks that feels like a breath of escapism” and that precisely what it serves up which proves that out of hard times, can come something delightfully bright and wonderful.
OOOO
“All That I’m Craving” by Aidan Bissett
All bouncy, pop-infused rock effusiveness, “All That I’m Craving” by TikTok luminary and crafter of irrestible songs, Aidan Bissett who hails from Tampa, Florida, is “fueled by unstoppably bouncy indie-pop grooves”. (Broadway World)
Lifted from his debut EP I’m Alright If You’re OK, the track documents one of the five stages of a troubled relationship with what Broadway World says is a “raw immediacy and illuminating perspective, demonstrating his knack for twisting heartbreak into exhilarating songs.”
As a heady mix of intensely upbeat music and lyrical incisiveness, “All That I’m Craving” is a master class in how to imbue pop with the kind of emotional truthfulness that makes you sit up and take notice.
You come for the pedal-to-the-metal danceability and stay for the lyrics that cut right to the heart, leaving you all danced up and musing on the song’s big central question – “Am I crazy for tripping over your heart?”
EUROVISION SONG CONTEST 2023 UPDATE!
We now have a host city – LIVERPOOL! – dates of 9th, 11th and 13th May and a firm focus on Ukrainian music and culture, plus 37 countries will be taking part in the contest, with 31 competing in the semi-finals for the 20 places in the grand final … we also have a representative for Cyprus, Andrew Lambrou, an Australian of Cypriot descent, making the country the second entrant to have picked a singer!
Finally Ukraine’s Eurovision song selection contest, Vidbir, will take place on Saturday 17 December from Kyiv with 400 songs by 299 participants are in the running.
There’s lot going on as you can see so check out the video below for the full details …