Jon Bellion. The name may sound familiar if you've heard the hit All Time Low or know of the album The Human Condition.
I recently stumbled across Bellion's work, first hearing All Time Low, then admiring the album art, which led to admiring the art used for each singular song from The Human Condition.
Though he may have recently landed on everyone's radar, he's got at least two more albums out from his "early days" called The Definition and The Separation. And they're both lovely.
So if you're over The Human Condition, or love Bellion's work but need to listen to something other than The Human Condition and can't find his other work, here's some of his older work, which is just as good as his new/recent stuff.
Carry Your Throne
"If you're lost in this darkness/I'll carry your throne/No I won't let it swallow you whole"
"Carry Your Throne" is wonderfully done. It's the sense of protection, of promise, of partnership that Bellion marries in the lyrics and the imagery that makes one of this my favorites. There's quiet moments as well as epic escalation in the music. You can see the story that the lyrics are telling in the video. The most beautiful parts of the video (in my opinion) are the scenes with the stained glass window.
One More Time
"One more time (I need you, I need you, I need you!)"
"One More Time" is like a little rollercoaster for your ears. And the music video is just as much of a roller coaster for your eyes. But it matches the swiftness of the song. The best part is the sequence with "Screw your pops let's get some IHOP." It's wonderfully quirky.
Simple and Sweet
"No need to mess with God's design, you're just so simple and sweet."
"Simple and Sweet" is true to its title. It's a wonderful song that gets even better when the music changes and it becomes more than just that. When he hits, "But if things get complicated..." and the beat changes it adds another lay to such a simple song. Because, really, we're all not just "simple and sweet" in real life, people have so many layers, such complicated lives, there's so much detail to each and every one of us even if we seem "simple and sweet."
To My Future Wife
"Walk towards love"
"To My Future Wife" is lovely, absolutely lovely. It's such a soft song compared to his other work. It's a lot more piano-driven and this is something you can actually walk down the aisle to. It's so gorgeous.
Paper Planes
"One last flight trying make it right/But love came like a hurricane and we were just a paper plane"
"Paper Planes" speaks to the failed relationships, the trying the make things work, the storms in life. Everything starts out just fine and then, as he says "we started to fall." And sometimes those things can't be salvaged, storms come and we're unprepared, and it'll lead us down paths we weren't expecting.
Want To Be Loved
"See we just want to be loved, is that so much to ask?"
"Want To Be Loved" puts into words what a lot of people are feeling. They just want to be loved. He gets all the points like, being self-conscious, the feelings that go with it, trying to push it down and save face and such. We just want to be loved as humans, we just want our work, our creations, to be loved and accepted. But we're scared to put it out there because we're afraid it won't [be accepted].
LIFE
"22 and confused/On what to do and how to set it up"
"LIFE" is exactly where my life is right now. No, I'm not writing on the bathroom wall with lipstick. But, yeah, gotta start figuring out life and how to make it to the next step. There's only so long that you're in school before going out into the real world. Before figuring out how to "make it" on your own. But the thing is- the only person that should be deciding if you've "made it" is yourself because it's YOUR life. And YOU'RE the one in control of your LIFE.
Bullion's got some more neat music, so check out his YouTube Channel as well as Visionary Music Group's YouTube Channel.
