I love the music of British band Florence + the Machine. Fronted by singer-songwriter Florence Welch, their sound is a glorious blend of indie rock, baroque pop, folk, art rock and soul. Their gorgeous song “My Love” takes over the #1 spot on my Weekly Top 30. The third single from their new album DanceFever, Welch told Rolling Stone that she initially envisioned the song as a “sad little poem” to be performed acoustically, but later transformed it into a number she describes as “Nick Cave at the club.” In an interview with BBC Radio 1 Breakfast Show, she commented “Sometimes the biggest dance songs, I think, have a really sad core to them.” The song was co-written by Glass Animals vocalist Dave Bayley, with whom she collaborated on Dance Fever along with Jack Antonoff. The video for “My Love” was directed by Autumn de Wilde, who also directed the videos for the previous two Florence + the Machine singles “King” and “Heaven Is Here”. In the video, Welch is shown performing a concert in a pretentious nightclub, where she hypnotizes and immobilizes people, then arranges them in dances. Very baroque and cinematic.
In other chart developments, the songs at #s 3-7 remain in their same positions, while two beautiful songs – “Virginia (Wind in the Night)” by The Head and the Heart and “Seventeen Going Under” by Sam Fender – enter the top 10. Debuting this week are “Beds Are Burning”, a terrific remake of the Midnight Oil classic by AWOLNATION, featuring guest vocals by Rise Against lead singer Tim McIlrath, and “Believe” by American folk band Caamp, making their first appearance on my Weekly Top 30.
MY LOVE – Florence + the Machine (2)
WILD CHILD – The Black Keys (1)
AS IT WAS – Harry Styles (3)
SLEEP – Gooseberry (4)
CHASING TRAINS – HULLAH (5)
WILD – Spoon (6)
LOVE BRAND NEW – Bob Moses (7)
LA CIENEGA – Chief Springs (10)
VIRGINIA (WIND IN THE NIGHT) – The Head and the Heart (11)
SEVENTEEN GOING UNDER – Sam Fender (12)
ON MY KNEES – RÜFÜS DU SOL (13)
DECEPTION – Hannah Reem & Noodle Beard (8)
THE HURT WITHIN – Holy Coves (14)
DISTANCE – Mount Famine (16)
BLOODRUSH – The Amazons (17)
I LOVE YOU – Fontaines D.C. (9)
A LITTLE BIT OF LOVE – Weezer (20)
2am – Foals (21)
TELL ME THE TRUTH – Two Feet (25)
SHUT OFF THE LIGHTS – Bastille (22)
SYNCHRONIZE – Milky Chance (23)
THAT’S WHERE I AM – Maggie Rogers (24)
WHAT, ME WORRY? – Portugal. The Man (15)
BROKEN HORSES – Brandi Carlile (18)
ANIMAL – Partisan (28)
BLACK SUMMER – Red Hot Chili Peppers (19)
CLOSER – The Frontier (29)
LONELY – Sea Girls (30)
BEDS ARE BURNING – AWOLNATION feat. Tim McIlrath (N)
For my final review that I’ll be writing for the foreseeable future, I’m featuring an amazing band with a fascinating name, Onism E. The brainchild of California-born, Texas-raised and now New York City-based singer-songwriter Eline Chavez, the term “Onism” can be defined as “The awareness of how little of the world you will actually experience.” Inspired by groundbreaking female rockers like Joan Jett, Bonnie Raitt and Melissa Etheridge, Eline draws from her experiences living in vastly different places to create her own distinctive style of edgy and soulful indie rock, expressed through her honest, often biting lyrics and fierce vocals.
To help deliver her message, Eline has enlisted three talented Texas musicians – Chris ‘Lefty’ Vargas on guitar, Chris ‘CeeRod’ Rodriguez on bass, and Raj Arenas on drums. The energy and inspiration they contribute helps elevate Onism E to even greater musical heights, and together, their warm, welcoming approach and riveting live performances have enabled them to form a strong positive relationship with their fans. Since the release of their debut single “Love You More” in August 2019, they’ve dropped several more outstanding singles, as well as an album Survivors in February 2021. Now they’re back with a brilliant new single “Lin Manuel“, a song inspired by Eline’s struggles of trying to make it as a musician during the uncertainty of the pandemic.
The song is darkly beautiful and melodic, with a moody, almost progressive vibe. The arrangement and instrumentation are pretty spectacular too. CeeRod lays down a sensuous throbbing bassline, while Raj keeps pace with his flawless drumming that goes from restrained to explosive and back again. Then there’s Lefty’s gorgeous intricate guitar work, which is positively mind-blowing. Wow, this man can play, coaxing shimmery notes, wobbly psychedelic riffs and screaming distortion from his six-string, seemingly with ease. All this incredible music serves as a dramatic backdrop for Eline’s powerhouse vocals, which she delivers with an impassioned conviction that’s downright chilling. “Lin Manuel” is a magnificent track in every sense of the word.
I asked Eline why she chose to name the song after the talented singer-songwriter, composer, playwright and actor, to which she kindly responded: “I’ve always found Lin [Manuel] an inspiring individual. He’s been one of those people that just kept going and working to make his dream happen. As an indie artist, I gravitate towards people like him because his story resonates with me. It’s about the everyday struggle where I question my place in this industry – ‘What am I doing? Should I keep playing? Should I keep working towards this goal?’ I know it’s a common artist struggle but during the pandemic, that voice got louder and I started questioning my next steps. I kept thinking…what would Lin do right now, what would Tom (Petty) or Bruce (Springsteen) do? The answer was always the same. Keep going. Keep writing. Keep believing.”
Those sentiments are beautifully articulated in her poetic lyrics: “Broken glass and shattered ceilings, I’m still waiting for my season they tell me you will one day see. But darkness comes and darkness goes, and I’m still all alone here with my dreams. / Lin Manuel reminded me that freedom comes at a cost for those who believe in. But I’m so scared of failing, I rarely sleep, I rarely sleep. And we’re all just working for better days, but sometimes I wanna scream!“
Skar de Line is the solo music project of singer-songwriter, producer and composer Oskar Abrahamsson, a talented, handsome, thoughtful and creative artist born and raised in Sweden and now based in London, England. Fascinated by the concept of boundaries and the human obsession for self-understanding, he fuses his love for cinematic soundtracks by such composers as Hans Zimmer, Junkie XL and Ramin Djawadi with hip-hop, rock and electronic metal to create dark, unconventional music that takes the listener on a sonic adventure while giving us a lot to think about. He writes, performs, records and produces all his own music, as well as writing, directing and editing all his music videos.
In October 2019, Skar de Line released his debut single “In Charge”, a fascinating orchestral electronic song about the human need to understand and control our surroundings, followed a year later by “Satisfied”, which explored the concept of satisfaction, posing the question “do we get satisfaction from being right, or merely by the act of searching for what we think we want?” The intensely dramatic song ended up spending 10 weeks on my Weekly Top 30 from January through March of 2021. (I reviewed both singles, and you can check them out by clicking on the Related links at the end of this post.)
Now he’s back with another single “Reset“, a dark and cinematic song that sees him continuing to explore new musical sounds by pushing beyond his comfort zone. He explains that the song “is built on my need to be better. A wish to constantly evolve, but also a fear that nothing ever will be enough. This is a journey out of this mental prison, in order to try to find something that I believe in, something I can hold on to forever.” He further elaborated on his Instagram page “Does every circle, even the ones we’ve created ourselves, hold us back? No matter how positive they are meant to be? As I looked around the room, I knew myself well enough to know that in my search to be better, this moment was just a phase, and would not mean anything in the next moment once I’ve grown beyond it. But I didn’t know if I really could accept that and let that happen, or if I, in this moment, could be more than that… Just take what I needed from myself.“
“Reset” opens on an eerie note, with sounds of Skar de Line’s echoed breathy gasps, which are soon accompanied by a distant rumbling bass and gently ticking drums as he sings in a rather ominous voice “Every time I open my eyes I kill an old version of mine. But I’m not a murderer, no, I’m a maker./ Every time I close my eyes, I am already set to reset.” From there, the music gradually builds as the breathy gasps continue, with the addition of dark orchestral synths and sharp percussion, creating a strong aura of tension along the way. His vocals turn more menacing as the tension continues to build, finally exploding into a bombastic cinematic crescendo, highlighted by a hauntingly beautiful angelic chorus that he states serves to “lift us out of the darkness“.
The brilliant video, filmed mostly in black and white and sepia tones, pays homage to the neo-noir black-and-white art style, and reflects the claustrophobic sentiments expressed in the lyrics. Skar de Line is dressed in black amidst a dark background, representing him feeling deeply trapped in the dark mental prison from which he wants to break free. His mind’s eye envisions a setting sun in a world of color, symbolizing a sense of freedom that still eludes him, and pushing him to fulfill his wish to climb out of this cycle that holds him back.
Not a lot of changes from last week on my latest Weekly Top 30. The Black Keys hold at #1 for a second week with their raucous “Wild Child”, while Florence + the Machine‘s “My Love” closes in at #2. British five-piece Chief Springs enter the top 10 with their lovely song “La Cienega”, named after the famous boulevard that runs through West Hollywood and Los Angeles. The lone new debut this week is “Lonely” by British band Sea Girls, who’ve been around since 2015, but I sadly didn’t learn about until a few weeks ago.
WILD CHILD – The Black Keys (1)
MY LOVE – Florence + the Machine (3)
AS IT WAS – Harry Styles (2)
SLEEP – Gooseberry (6)
CHASING TRAINS – HULLAH (7)
WILD – Spoon (8)
LOVE BRAND NEW – Bob Moses (5)
DECEPTION – Hannah Reem & Noodle Beard (4)
I LOVE YOU – Fontaines D.C. (10)
LA CIENEGA – Chief Springs (13)
VIRGINIA (WIND IN THE NIGHT) – The Head and the Heart (16)
Follow No One is the collaborative music project of two highly accomplished musicians from different parts of the world, with two completely separate musical backgrounds – singer/songwriter and pianist Rich Hall, who’s originally from Nashville, Tennessee, but now based in Denver, Colorado, and guitar virtuoso Pedro Murino Almeida from Lisbon, Portugal, but with roots in Brazil. Rich began performing at a young age in theater, but found his true calling in writing and performing music. Pedro was classically trained in music composition, with a successful career involving his own musical acts, and his work has been featured in film and video.
Influenced by such rock giants as Dream Theater, Alter Bridge, Foo Fighters, Queensryche and Styx, to name but a few, they draw from the classic hard rock that defined an era, while adding a fresh approach to create their own distinctive sound. Working remotely from their respective home bases in Denver and Lisbon, the duo released their debut EP, simply titled “5“, in September 2017, featuring five hard-hitting tracks (here’s my review). They followed up with several singles over the next few years, including an excellent cover of David Bowie’s “I’m Afraid of Americans” (which especially resonates with me at the moment, but I digress). In 2019, Follow No One was named Best Rock Act at the Nashville-based Josie Music Awards, the world’s largest all-genre, privately-owned award show.
Rich Hall & Pedro Murino Almeida
Now they return with their first full-length album FATE, a monumental concept work based on Hall’s real-life and near-death experiences that tested his faith, endurance and will to live. The album is an epic rock opera of sorts, featuring 17 tracks, 11 of which are songs and the other six spoken word pieces that drive the storyline forward. FATE‘s overarching theme is predicated on the question “If you lost everything you had, would you just give up or fight like hell to get it back?” The various tracks follow Hall’s journey from the depths of despair that culminated in a life-threatening health incident, to his self-redemption and healing that followed to get him to where he is today.
The album opens with “The Beginning Is in the End“, a spoken word piece that begins with sounds of someone gasping for air making a 911 call, then hanging up. We soon realize it’s Hall in a severe state of distress, recalling some important events in his life as he stares death in the face. Those events include happy times like the birth of his first son and his early career success (to which his father comments “You’re a lucky young man. This is one helluva place you got here, son. Just keep doing what you’re doing and you’ll be fine. But, if you want my advice, enjoy your time at the top of the mountain. You may not always be here“), as well as the devastating news that his wife is leaving him and taking their two sons with her.
Next, we’re launched headlong into the hard-rocking “No Happy Ever Afters“, in which Hall bitterly laments of feeling betrayed and abandoned, his life now in tatters: “Take everything you have, and all that you hold dear, and watch it disappear. It’s just me we’re talking about, but I don’t think we’ll ever speak again.” Almeida’s guitar-playing prowess is on full display as he lays down scorching hot riffs, backed with pummeling rhythms and explosive percussion. They keep the aural onslaught going full throttle on the appropriately blistering “Drowning in Fire“, which is followed by a spoken word interlude “Adding Insult to Injury” that chronicles Hall’s life spiraling out of control from destructive behaviors, and isolating himself from others to the point where his father sends the local police to check in on him.
As the album progresses, Hall’s story unfolds with the telling of the rupturing of a major blood vessel in his throat, detailed in the song “Hanging by a Thread” and spoken word track “ICU – Can You See Me“, in which his doctor tells him of the severity of his condition. Realizing he nearly died, Hall has an epiphany “You were on a hell of a ride, but soon you may be dead. Now you’re in that moment where the memories of your life are passing by. Better hope the man pulling the strings, is pulling for your side.”
He starts coming to terms with his life as it now exists and contemplates the path he must take going forward on “Erase Me“. A year later, his sanity reaching the breaking point, he just wants to run away from his pain, which he lays out on the exhilarating rocker “Just Drive“: “Ok, take a deep breath and just remember: Every mile you go is one mile away from where you were. So fuck it, just drive!”
Now we arrive at the title track and centerpiece of the album, “Fate“, an anthemic rock ballad in the style of some of the great rock ballads of the late 80s. Almeida’s guitar work is especially magnificent here, and nicely accompanied by Hall’s beautiful piano and keyboards. His vocals are particularly moving as he plaintively ponders whether all the hardship and pain he’s going through is pre-determined or totally random “Is it fate, that makes our tomorrow? Is it me, that determines it all? Could it be, through the pain and the sorrow, there is no choice at all?”
Hall’s journey toward his recovery and self-improvement encounters a few setbacks along the way. On the very poignant “No Christmas Without You“, he’s left heartbroken at the prospect of facing another Christmas alone, without his sons. This pain is expressed on the hard-rocking “Million Miles Away“, with Hall lamenting about how he feels that, no matter how much he’s moving forward, he still feels farther away than ever. “A million miles away, is not far enough to keep my heart away. The closer I am, the further you are to me.” For this track, bass was played by Tony Franklin, and Hall’s son Reagan sang backing vocals.
Hall takes on his depression on the spoken-word “Just a Dream“, a conversation with his father who also suffered from the mental illness, and the song “This Bastard“, giving a name to the emotional foe he vows to vanquish. Once again, Almeida lays down some blistering riffs, making this a pretty good rocker. On “Never Surrender“, he sings of not giving up and letting his problems and depression defeat him. Things are finally looking up as he picks his sons up at the airport when they arrive for a Christmas visit on “Airport – Reunidos“. I like how he tells them about his new music project with Almeida when they get in the car.
FATE ends on an optimistic note with “Let Love” a beautiful, cinematic rock anthem about the healing powers of love. Reunited with his sons, Hall jubilantly sings of how love, faith and forgiveness helped him to survive and find happiness. “I forgive you, I still love you / You know that anything’s possible, as long as you learn how to survive. Keep your dreams alive, there is nothing to stop you now. Now that you’ve learned how to die.” Almeida’s guitar work is spectacular, accompanied by Hall’s gorgeous piano and soaring strings that make this song one of the highlights of the album.
With FATE, Hall and Almeida have created an epic work of musical art. It’s an impressive accomplishment, for which they should be very proud.
Though their latest album Dropout Boogie has gotten mixed reviews, I love The Black Keys‘ lead single “Wild Child”, which knocks Harry Styles’ “As It Was” from the #1 spot after a two-week run. The rousing stomper sees them going back to their blues rock roots, highlighted by Dan Auerbach’s gnarly guitars and Patrick Carney’s muscular drumbeats. Though the simple lyrics are directed to a woman the singer wants to love – “I just wanna hold you at the end of every day. Girl, I wanna please you, oh, I’m needing you to stay. The sun is gonna shine if you would just come out and play. Baby, won’t you show me your wild child ways” – the outrageous video portrays Auerbach and Carney as guys who show up for menial jobs at an out of control high school, then add to the ensuing mayhem.
In other chart news, Florence + the Machine‘s gorgeous “My Love” continues its march toward the top, climbing a notch to #3. “Sleep” by Brooklyn four-piece Gooseberry, “Chasing Trains” by British singer-songwriter HULLAH, and “Wild” by Spoon all climb three spots to #6, 7 and 8, respectively, and Fontaines D.C.’s haunting “I Love You” finally enters the top 10.
Three songs make their debut this week. The first is “Seventeen Going Under” by British singer-songwriter Sam Fender, which enters at #19. The beautiful song was released in July 2021, and I ranked it at #44 on my Top 100 Songs of 2021 list, so when it started getting a lot of airplay a few months ago, I resisted placing it on my Weekly Top 30. But now that’s it climbing up the Alternative charts, I’m compelled to add it to mine too. The other two debuts are “Tell Me The Truth” by my favorite artist Two Feet, who just dropped his fourth album Shape and Form, and “Closer” by another favorite artist of mine, singer-songwriter TheFrontier.
WILD CHILD – The Black Keys (2)
AS IT WAS – Harry Styles (1)
MY LOVE – Florence + the Machine (4)
DECEPTION – Hannah Reem & Noodle Beard (3)
LOVE BRAND NEW – Bob Moses (5)
SLEEP – Gooseberry (9)
CHASING TRAINS – HULLAH (10)
WILD – Spoon (11)
WHAT, ME WORRY? – Portugal. The Man (6)
I LOVE YOU – Fontaines D.C. (14)
BROKEN HORSES – Brandi Carlile (8)
BLACK SUMMER – Red Hot Chili Peppers (7)
LA CIENEGA – Chief Springs (15)
ON MY KNEES – RÜFÜS DU SOL (16)
THE HURT WITHIN – Holy Coves (17)
VIRGINIA (WIND IN THE NIGHT) – The Head and the Heart (18)
Soloveichik is the music project of Andrew Solway, a talented young singer-songwriter and musician based in and around Detroit, Michigan. Andrew chose his ancestral name of Soloveichik, which is Russian for “little nightingale”, as his artistic moniker because a nightingale is known for its beautiful and powerful song. As Soloveichik, Andrew has recorded and released numerous singles and EPs over the past two years, as well as his debut album At the Close this past January. His music is a pleasing and somewhat eclectic mix of alternative indie rock, emo and pop, and his relevant, often poignant lyrics are delivered with soft, whispery vocals that remind me a bit of Owl City (aka Adam Young). In addition to his solo music project, Andrew’s also works as a session musician and live pianist in the Detroit area, supporting live acts such as Jacob Sigman, Olivia Dear, Au Gres (who’s music I’ve also reviewed), Little Visits and Aaron Benjamin.
Soloveichik is on a mission to release a new single each month for the next year, and his latest is “Could It Possibly Be Me“, which dropped May 13 (a very busy day for new music releases). The song was recorded at Eureka Records in suburban Detroit with the assistance of longtime collaborator Austin William Stawowczyk, who produced the track, and features Andrew’s hauntingly beautiful repetitive piano riff, accompanied by a stirring cello arrangement by Juliano Bitoni Stewart. Andrew calls it “anunusually personal song, at times blatantly self-critical and blunt“. The lyrics that seem to speak to a lost love or relationship that didn’t work out, and his breathy vocals convey a sad resignation as he reminisces: “I’m alone again. And I still see our cat, but she’s elusive now. I think that I’m next. I just can’t forget easily. You asked me oh so honestly ‘could it possibly be me?’” Though melancholy, it’s a lovely song nevertheless.
Morgendust is a Dutch alt-rock band based in Zwolle, Netherlands. Formed in 2018, the engaging quintet is comprised of Marco de Haan (lead vocals, guitars), Ron van Kruistum (guitars, backing vocals), Iwan Blokzijl (keyboards, backing vocals), Dario Pozderski (bass, backing vocals) and Andre Swinkels (drums & percussion). All are talented and accomplished musicians with years of collective experience playing in other bands and as session musicians, giving their music a maturity and worldliness that comes from having lived on this earth for a while. Through intelligent, thoughtful lyrics, they tell stories that everyone can relate to, and package them with exquisite rock melodies and beautiful instrumentation.
They released their stunning debut EP Storm Will Come in September 2019, and since then have dropped a string of excellent singles, several of which I’ve featured on this blog. You can read those reviews, as well as the one I wrote of their EP, by clicking on the links under “Related” at the end of this post. Now they’re back with an ambitious and unique new album 14, in which they reimagine eight iconic songs from the 70s, 80s, and early 90s that had a major impact on each of the band members when they were 14 years old. The band elaborates on their inspiration for making this album:
“Fourteen. The age at which you discover, learn, fall and get up again. The period in your life when you experiment, do your homework, get pimples, fall in love and are really moved by music for the first time. During the various lockdowns, we were thrown back to our own environment. And just like you during this period, we rummaged through our memories in attics and cellars. That gave us the idea to pay tribute to the music we played when we were 14. No 1 on 1 covers… but mashups of our own music with our sources of inspiration. We call it a re-dis-cover.
We grew up in the 80s. The time of the Cold War, squatters, roller skates, on land, at sea and in the air and the first computers. And after years of vinyl and cassette tapes: the CD. The 80s brought bad and of course also very good music, the music from our youth. Recent research shows that the age at which you are musically formed is, you guessed it, 14. ’14’ is about songs that were very dear to us and still influence the music we make today.”
The eight songs they’ve chosen to reimagine for 14 (all of which I love too) are “Spirits in the Material World” by The Police, “This is Not America” by David Bowie & Pat Metheny, “Alive and Kicking” by Simple Minds, “Don’t Give Up” by Peter Gabriel & Kate Bush, “Walk On the Wild Side” by Lou Reed, “BigLove” by Fleetwood Mac, “Land of Confusion” by Genesis, and “Enjoy the Silence” by Depeche Mode. For the recording of the songs, they had help from two female vocalists, Cindy Oudshoorn and Judith Elders. Cindy sang co-lead vocals with Marco on “Don’t Give Up” and “Big Love”, and Judith sang lead on “Land of Confusion”. Both ladies sing back-up on most other songs.
I’m not going to go into the specifics of their interpretations of each track, but suffice it to say I think they do great justice to them all. The songs are flawlessly produced and masterfully arranged, with lush instrumental treatments, resulting in really wonderful interpretations that are distinctly their own, while still respectful of the original recordings. Marco’s warm, resonant vocals, as well as those of Cindy and Judith, are marvelous. That said, I think my favorites are “Spirits in the Material World”, “This is Not America”, “Alive and Kicking”, “Don’t Give Up” and “Enjoy the Silence”. Here are two great videos Morgendust produced for “Spirits in the Material World” and “Don’t Give Up”, which I think is the best and most powerful of the eight performances, thanks to it’s stunning arrangement and Marco and Cindy’s gorgeous vocals.
It’s also interesting that some of the songs, most notably “Spirits in the Material World”, “This is Not America”, “Land of Confusion” and “Don’t Give Up”, speak to issues that are sadly still relevant 35-40 years later.
Here’s a 14-minute long video of the band members discussing their own musical awakenings and why they chose the songs they wanted to include on 14.
JEEN (Jeen O’Brien) is a talented, successful and established singer-songwriter and musician from Toronto, Canada with quite an impressive resume. According to her bio, her songs have been used in commercials for such companies as Google, Panasonic, Estée Lauder, Kraft, BlackBerry, KIA, Rogers, MasterCard and Molson, as well as various movies and television programs, including Cook Off, Republic of Doyle, Instant Star, Ruby Gloom, Degrassi, Killjoys, Hockey Wives, Workin’ Moms, MTV Catfish, and MTV Are You the One. Though we’ve followed each other on Twitter for a while, she somehow slipped under my radar until a few days ago, when she reached out to me about her latest single “On and On“. I liked it at first listen, and agreed to feature it on this blog.
Before I’m able to properly review music by an artist I’ve not written about before, I check out their website and various social media accounts to learn as much as I can about them (alas, I’ll never be able to shake the research methods I learned in grad school), and try to listen to at least some of their music catalog to better familiarize myself with their sound. In searching through JEEN’s, I was amazed by her tremendous music output over the past eight years. After starting out as a member of Toronto alternative pop-rock band Cookie Duster (who released a fine album When Flying Was Easy in 2012), she went solo and released her debut album Tourist in 2014. Since then, she’s put out scores of singles and four more albums, most recently Dog Bite last October (2021). Her music is so good, I found myself going down a rabbit hole of binge-listening to her back catalog. Her alternative pop-rock music style and sound are somewhat similar to a few other female artists I’ve heard, yet also distinctly her own.
Photo by Laura Hermiston
“On and On” is the first single off JEEN’s forthcoming sixth album Tracer, due for release in October. For the recording of the single and album, which were co-produced by JEEN and her frequent collaborator Ian Blurton, JEEN played rhythm guitar, bass and synths, Ian played lead guitar and Stephan Szczesniak played drums. The song was also engineered and mixed by Ian, and mastered by Brad Boatright. JEEN says the song is “about breaking points and falling down more times than you’re willing to get back up. I wrote this song last year when everything was grinding me down and nothing seemed worth it.”
The song is a lively banger with a hint of punk undercurrent, driven by Stephan’s urgent thumping drumbeats and JEEN’s throbbing bass. Ian and JEEN lay down a colorful mix of grungy and chiming guitars, accompanied by exuberant sparkling synths, creating a rousing backdrop for her echoed, somewhat mumbled vocals, which are backed by her own soaring harmonies as she laments “Everything got so complicated. Every day’s so intoxicating. Anyway I tried a hundred times (and on and on and on). And I think you must be blind, when you say everything’s fine (and on and on and on).Hey I’m sorry that I lost my place, started running but I fell on my face.” I like the gnarly instrumental fade out at the end, as if to signify someone becoming emotionally deflated like a tire losing air.
For the rather trippy video, JEEN’s chosen a fascinating way to show her lyrics, including written in lipstick on a bathroom mirror, in ink on her hand and arm, crumpled scraps of paper, mylar balloons, an old sneaker and concrete walls, and typed out on a computer screen.
Some have asked me how I come up with my Weekly Top 30 lists – i.e., what my song rankings are based on, and how and why I include the songs that I do. Well, it’s simple: it’s basically a list of my 30 current favorite songs for each week. If I had my own radio station, these are the songs I’d play most, along with favorite older songs, of course. I’m a big fan of alternative rock, dream rock, pop-rock and synthpop, so my lists are strongly influenced by the Billboard Alternative and Adult Alternative Airplay charts. I also write about and like to promote indie artists as much as possible, many of whom are putting out outstanding music, so each week I try to include at least 10 songs I really like by indie artists and bands.
It’s not often that a song that reaches #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 also tops my chart, as a lot of them are crap, but every once in a while a great pop song comes along that I also love, such as last year’s “Drivers License”, “Levitating” and “Leave the Door Open”. Harry Styles‘ “As It Was” is another such hit song, now in its third week at #1 on the Hot 100, and #1 for a second week on my chart. TheBlack Keys‘ “Wild Child” closes in at #2, while Florence + the Machine‘s gorgeous “My Love” rises to #4. Entering the top 10 are songs by two indie artists I’ve come to really like: “Sleep” by Brooklyn four-piece Gooseberry, who just released their wonderful EP Broken Dance, and the achingly beautiful “Chasing Trains” by British singer-songwriter HULLAH. The lone debut this week is “Animal” by British rock group Partisan, a long-time favorite band of mine.
AS IT WAS – Harry Styles (1)
WILD CHILD – The Black Keys (3)
DECEPTION – Hannah Reem & Noodle Beard (2)
MY LOVE – Florence + the Machine (6)
LOVE BRAND NEW – Bob Moses (5)
WHAT, ME WORRY? – Portugal. The Man (4)
BLACK SUMMER – Red Hot Chili Peppers (7)
BROKEN HORSES – Brandi Carlile (8)
SLEEP – Gooseberry (11)
CHASING TRAINS – HULLAH (12)
WILD – Spoon (13)
BROKEN HEARTS – Ships Have Sailed (9)
GIVE A LITTLE LOVIN’ – Jamie Alimorad (10)
I LOVE YOU – Fontaines D.C. (17)
LA CIENEGA – Chief Springs (18)
ON MY KNEES – RÜFÜS DU SOL (19)
THE HURT WITHIN – Holy Coves (20)
VIRGINIA (WIND IN THE NIGHT) – The Head and the Heart (21)
DISTANCE – Mount Famine (22)
BLOODRUSH – The Amazons (23)
A LITTLE BIT OF LOVE – Weezer (24)
2am – Foals (25)
JUST LIKE ALWAYS – Oli Barton & the Movement with Maella (14)
ECLECTIC MUSIC LOVER 