4 October 2021 - Cher Lloyd - Sirens

It's been a long time since we visited Cher Lloyd, performer of the most perfect pop song.   Fight me.  

But she actually did that twice, because with her second album, Sorry I'm Late, the 3rd place finisher on X Factor really found a new maturity and strength in her already strong voice.  It was a little weird to hear the words "Cher Lloyd" and "critical acclaim" in the same sentence, and yet, with this song.....

So, maybe I have to say she's got two perfect and very different pop songs.  

So, I was curious.  I mean, this is a great and emotional tour de force of a song - that, by the way, she co-wrote.  But, what happens if you strip all the production out - if you have Cher and a microphone and a sparser accompanyment?

You hear her emotion more.  You hear everything she threw into this song so much more.

1 October 2021 - Lucinda Williams - Changed the Locks

In 2017, I wrote a post about one of the songs that made me start the Totally Covered blog.  I wrote it from the cover perspective.   Today, I wanted to give you the other side.   

In 1988, Austin TX singer/songwriter Lucinda Williams released a self-titled album.  There were a lot of great songs you know (The Grammy-winning "Passionate Kisses", famously covered by Mary Chapin Carpenter, comes to mind). However, few songs reach the influence of this song, released as a single in 1989.  

The story of the song, with harmonica, guitar and a sharp drum backing, is simple - a woman is taking increasingly absurd measures to prevent herself from falling in love with someone.  The brilliance of this song is that the object of her affection is not assigned any fault, anywhere - it's just an internal fight she's having with herself.  It is the truest musical representation of fighting one's personal feelings I've ever heard.

I called the song "achy" and "desperate" when I wrote about it on the covers blog.  Both are accurate terms, but it's a lot more than that.  

30 September 2021 - Gil Scott-Heron - The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

This might be the first spoken word piece I've ever posted here.   

What a lot of people don't know is that this poem, written and performed by Gil Scott-Heron, was a response to someone else's poem.  Poetry group The Last Poets had released a piece called "When The Revolution Comes", in which they implied, and by implied, I mean, said right out, that most people will watch the revolution on TV.

What Gil Scott-Heron didn't realize is that he had written a rallying cry, using a phrase from the 1960's Black Power movement.  He wrote a poem that resonated far greater than Black Power, or any one movement.  He wrote and performed a piece that is used to this day to motivate crowds and drive protests, despite its dated 1970 references.  

Listen to the line repeated twice at about 1:30 and tell me this song doesn't still resonate today.

29 September 2021 - Julia Volkova - Didn't Wanna Do It

We've spoken in the past about the ladies of t.A.T.u.  We've spoken about the solo career of Lena Katina. Julia Volkova has one as well.   Unfortunately, this is where we have to jump break......

28 September 2021 - Bonjour Brumaire - Brooklyn

Let's start with the obvious reason I'm posting this.  

It's a Quebec band writing about Brooklyn.  There is no other reason. 

Youri Zaragoza is an excellent and unusual vocalist who brings a pained tone to this interesting and deep song.  The song was co-written by the four gentlemen/band members, and it's not so much about one of the four best boroughs of New York City, but more of a love song.  

Oh, their keyboardist is pretty good, too.  

Here's the band performing the song live in 2008.  From what we can tell from social media and subsequent videos, the keyboardist left soon after to do other things.  

27 September 2021 - The Easybeats - Good Times

The Easybeats were the first Australian band to have a hit outside of Australia.  

This was not that hit, but it was a minor international hit for another band.  This version, featuring a guest vocal by Steve Marriott of the group Small Faces, hit #22 in Australia in 1968.  The song itself is a lot of fun and oft-covered for that very reason.

It's also one of my favorite songs from the 1960's, and not just because of INXS and Jimmy Barnes.  

24 September 2021 - Billy Joel - A Matter of Trust

Billy Joel followed up his huge HUGE hit album An Innocent Man with a greatest hits album, which, for someone supposedly in the prime of their career, is a lame move.  But, at that time, I considered Billy Joel to be pretty lame.   

When he followed that with 1986's The Bridge, I didn't consider him quite so lame.  You see, this song came out at a time when I was starting to branch out in musical taste - and discovering new artists that were outside the mainstream.  I had already rejected Billy Joel's music as pretty boring and bland.  When I first heard this song, however, it changed my perception a little.  It was a song with a little soul - a little emotion.  Perhaps it's the fact that it's a guitar-driven and not piano-driven song - but it resonated with me.  

I'm not a Billy Joel fan to this day.  This song, however, still hits.