MUSIC MINUTE

I love music. I love the feeling it brings to me and the stress it takes from me. Lately I haven’t been listening to new stuff though, I’ll pass on the garbage the radio and mainstream media have been trying to push down our throat. It’s like I have a personal vendetta against it. That they are the government’s mechanism to dumb us down so when it comes to more important political issues like economic policies and country warfare’s, we go about them with the same burger and cheese mentality our dense music lyrical contents have equipped us with. I remember when Rihanna released her first single ‘diamonds’ from her current album ‘Unapologetic’, I was on a blog going through the readers reviews and I came across a funny one I’m gonna quote. “We’re beautiful like diamonds in the sky! Those lyrics are a masterpiece!”……. I remember feeling so bad and thinking if this is what we have been reduced to. What happened to the use of euphemism, word within words and lyrics that aroused in you, emotions that you have been trying hard to suppress? What happened to ambiguity in lyrics that you had to decipher to discover libretto gems? Katy Perry, Justine Bieber and the need for a Billboard No. 1 debut, that’s what! Anyway I could go on forever about the imaginary lawsuit I’m filing against the whole international music industry in my head so without wasting anymore of your time, here’s a list of both old and new songs I’ve been listening to a lot lately.

SIA ft THE WEEKEND – ELASTIC HEART (PRODUCED BY DIPLO)

I was on a hip-hop site about a week ago trying to download Lauryn Hill’s post-jail song ‘consumerism’ when I came across this song. Of course I didn’t doubt how good it was going to be; between The Weekend and Drake, I can’t decide who’s the best thing to come out of Canada musically since my favorite band ‘In-flight Safety’.  Of course Sia is Queen Sia for a reason and when I downloaded this song, I could be arrested for domestic abuse because abuse this song I did. Within an hour I had listened to it over a hundred times and even now when I’m sitting in a class waiting for a lecturer who is not showing up, I shove that sexy Aussie accent that belongs to the queen into my ears and reach some nasty eargasms right there and there on my classroom bench. I have been shoving this song down everyone’s throat (they should be grateful) and when someone says, “Hey Kels, what are you listening to”, I immediately shuffle to this song so they can listen to it (lol)

IN-FLIGHT SAFETY – FEAR

I will try and keep this review as short as I can because I can get a bit carried away with this Sackville band. Fear doesn’t exactly captivate you on first listen; it’s what I call a grower. It grows on you and when you are able to make meaning of the lyrics, it can be really therapeutic. It’s about taking chances on everything life has to offer, on love, on people and on yourself. I know it sounds really sentimental and romantic but really it’s not. This is no Celine Dion in your face kind of love song and the lead vocalist and guitarist John Mullane has the kind of voice that is so intimate and authentic that it makes you feel like he wrote this with you and your life in mind. At least that how it felt to me.

SNOW PATROL – NEW YORK

So Jeffery and I were having a conversation one time at the athletic oval about his entrepreneurial ideas I think and he had his phone playing songs throughout this chat (he loves rock and alternative music too so I could live by his musical choices). I was totally listening to what he was saying till this song started playing and I couldn’t concentrate anymore. It had this serious and solemn beginning that took me from start and I had to ask which band it was because I knew just one band that mostly used such musical arrangements consistently; Goo goo dolls. I was wrong and for the first time I’m glad I found who this band was before I went searching for them. The lyrics are quite deep and a bit depressing but the drumbeats don’t quite allow you to settle for mellowing down. It’s a beautiful song and at times in this week when I’ve found myself trying to listen to something meaningful, this has been the only option that kept bringing itself up.

YOUSSOU N’DOUR – MOOR NDAJE (MR EVERYWHERE)

I read this article (http://www.ameyawdebrah.com/go-huffington-post-releases-list-top-10-african-musicians-youssou-ndour-tops/) last 3 days and smiled at myself. I first discovered this man whose greatness could only be matched by either Fela Kuti or Hugh Masakela one time on school vacation when I was in a certain weird musical stage and all I wanted to listen to was pure African Afro-music. A friend sent me a song I had been searching for so fervidly and I was grateful because I didn’t know the title before and had come up with nothing. ‘Birima’ the first song I heard from this man convinced me someone who could compose a masterpiece as that should have other gems under his discography. Well Moor N’daje is the evidence of that and Mr. N’dour never disappoints on his massive and beautiful use of strings and xylophones. The drums are not studio manufactured and this song always sends me into an exploring mood. It takes me to such a different realm of music that even Michael Jackson would struggle to venture; he mixes the soul of Africa into a contemporary bottle that you wouldn’t or shouldn’t dare pass by at the music market. Like I said before concerning ‘Birima’, I still stand by my opinion that if angels do exist, Youssou N’dour must teach them to sing.

SKY SAILING – CAPTAINS OF THE SKY

Normally, my number one feel good song I always turned to, to get me pumped when I felt any form of negative emotion come up within me was ‘Stomp the roses’ by David Archuletta. Up until a year ago when Dave announced his Mormon mission as per tradition of every young person growing up in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (that’s a long name for a church) and he took along with him the happy representation I likened to this song. Not so long after that, I bought a laptop and discovered an album on the hard drive called ‘An airplane carried me to bed’ by a group called ‘Sky Sailing’. Luckily for me, that album had a song that was to be my next feel good song ‘captains of the sky’. This group is different from any band I know because of the unique perkiness and glee they bring to each song and they remind me of the kind of music to expect if the chipmunks and the smurfs ever came together to form a band. Forever cheerful and even their sad songs have this jolly feel about them. Like a fat kid crying because someone bit off a part of his chocolate though there is still a huge chunk left and he can’t quite decide whether to cry over what he lost or to rejoice over the plenty he has left.

CLAUDE KELLY – SHADOW OF ANGEL

Claude Kelly has always been my favorite RnB songwriter. The genuineness of his lyrics and his ability to actually hold a tune is what draws the respect I have for this dude and though this song has been around for quite a while, it doesn’t matter. Like I always tell people, good music is like good wine, it gets better with age and you start to appreciate the taste more. This song had been hiding somewhere in my iTunes and I came across it one time when I was clearing my memory. Couldn’t bring myself to delete and the number of times I have listened to it this week tells me I made a good decision. If you are in a dysfunctional relationship and you need someone to hear you out or rather to listen to, don’t pay bucks on some shrink who charges by the hour. Hit up Mr. Kelly on this shadow dial and there is an upside to this option; you can crawl in a room somewhere and cry to these lyrics and no one has to know.

Ps. if you download any of these songs and you don’t like them, you probably think the lyrics to Beyonce’s ‘grown woman’ is the best thing since Etta James. You should shoot yourself.