The end of high school has opened the gates of time for me to spend hours and hours listening and discovering new music! Hope you enjoy my new and rediscovered findings!
The Less I Know The Better - Tame Impala
I had the pleasure of watching Tame Impala's set at Firefly Music Festival in Dover, Delaware in the middle of June. It was hands-down one of my favorite sets of this weekend. Everything about this band screams, "I'M WHAT THE KIDS THAT ARE COOLER THAN YOU IN EVERY WAY ARE LISTENING TO!" It's the type of music that you listen to when you're imagining lying on a beautiful Australian (the band hails from Perth, Australia) beach with your long-haired surfer boyfriend, wearing minimal clothing and sipping some type of kale drink.
Anything - Catfish and the Bottlemen
Catfish and the Bottlemen’s sophomore album, The Ride, has not stayed out of my ears for long as of late. However, there is something about “Anything” that is truly special. As someone who constantly overthinks and prepares for the worst (usually irrationally), the lyrics could have been plucked from my own brain. The song starts out with, “It gets difficult to talk when you nearly deafen me ‘cause you start laughing”. The words reflect the good bits of a relationship, the parts that you have trouble telling anyone about because you just can’t convey the feeling that you got in your stomach after the moment has passed. The song advances into one of my favorite lyrics of all time (it’s one of my Instagram captions, if you know me, this is a very big deal), “I don’t wanna picture our first born, if you’ve stopped discussing names with me.” It perfectly encapsulates the anxiety of a relationship that has moved past the budding stages, but is stuck in limbo because of fear of commitment. It’s says, “You want to be with me right now, but what about later? I don’t want to love you if there’s a chance that one day, you won’t love me anymore,” but in a more poetic way.
Paper Planes - M.I.A.
I listen to "Paper Planes" when I need to be empowered. While I do not have a desire to go into the music industry, I appreciate and respect M.I.A.’s ability to simultaneously produce quality music and advocate for causes that are close to her heart (these causes include: the oppression of Tamils in Sri Lanka, Palestinians and African-Americans). This song in particular reminds me of a feminist club that I was involved in in high school. The girls (and sprinkling of boys) that are/were part of the club are awe-inspiring with the amount that they care about issues that concern our country and the rest of our world. I once caught myself thinking in my head, “Hell yeah, we ARE going to change the world and we ARE going to take your money!” (I mean “take your money” in a metaphorical sense as in take the world by storm, not in a bank robbing or Ponzi scheme scenario).
Silly Love Songs - Wings
My dad is one of the reasons that I am as obsessed with music as I am (my current bedroom was the CD room before I moved into it). He and my mom made sure I was exposed to a wide range of music as early as possible. No artist or band stuck with me as much as the Beatles. At the age of 6, I was convinced that Paul McCartney and I were going to get married because we were both left handed despite our 58 year age difference. While listening to the Beatles, I tend to gravitate towards the more somber songs (“For No One”, “Yesterday”, “Blackbird” and “Eleanor Rigby” are among my favorites). “Silly Love Songs” is the antithesis of somber from the title onward. The instrumentals are cheery and catchy, almost forcing you to start snapping as soon as you recognize the tune. As a self-proclaimed realist who is not usually moved by large displays of love and affection, I am surprised that I love the song so much. The song was originally written by McCartney as a sassy response to his critics, including former bandmate John Lennon, who said that his songs were all soppy, lightweight songs about being in love. McCartney’s retort? “Some people want to fill the world with silly love songs? And what’s wrong with that, I’d like to know?”
The Sound - The 1975
"The Sound" is what you would get if you mixed an indie club tune with an infectious beat and a teenager's journal entry about a tumultuous casual relationship where both parties are unhappy. Matty Healy, the lead singer, illustrates the argument: "She said "I've got a problem with your shoes and your tunes, but I might move in" and "I thought that you were straight, now I'm wondering". The protagonist doesn't really seem bothered with what his significant other has to say about him, more than willing to let the relationship go than put in any effort to fix it. Whether Matty Healy is singing from personal experience or not, you can automatically imagine him smirking at the person who is hurling insults at him (for example, calling him "cliché") and muttering, "You don't know me at all, do you?" As an aside: Adam Hann's guitar solo is magical. So is his floral suit.
