July 13th Tunes
You Deserve Better - James Arthur (I have loved James Arthur since he showed up on the X Factor, but wow has he gotten better and better over the years. Like a damn fine wine. And everybody and their Mother has absolutely fallen in love with his song Say You Won’t Let Go, as they should, but I definitely dig a more upbeat song even if I don’t love the message. You know that if you’ve even been in love with someone when they say that you deserve better it just sort of feels like a cop out. Who gave you the right to decide what’s good for my life? Who says you get to choose who I love? It feels like a nicer way of saying they don’t feel the same way about you, which is fine, but I’d rather the song be called I Don’t Feel The Same Way About You rather than You Deserve Better, but either way it’s a straight bop and I can’t stop listening to it even though I would hate it if someone said it to me. The things you’ll let people you love get away with, I swear)
Let It Go - James Bay (so it’s on old song, I know, but I never claimed that these would be current songs. Just songs that I’m absolutely in love with and want other people to listen to, so how can I not include my actual bae James Bay? But listen, you have to listen to his original album Chaos and the Calm. I have never fallen more in love with an artist or an album than I did with James Bay and Chaos and the Calm. It was a passionate love affair completed with a sold out show at The Fillmore in Detroit, Michigan that went down in the books as one of the best days of my short life on this mortal earth. Let It Go was the first song I ever heard by him, and it was in a random dancing video that showed up in my feed on Facebook. I was blown away and bought the whole album ten seconds after finishing the video. Nobody at my work had ever heard of him and I said if he ever came to Detroit to play a show I would be there. Maybe a couple of weeks later I got a notification on my phone from his Facebook page that he was coming to Detroit and I about screamed out loud in the middle of my classroom. I bought tickets the literal second they went on sale. Seeing him live was on of the best experiences of my life. His entire album is incredible. The lyrics touched every part of my heart. I’ve always had a soft spot for folky song writer types of artists, and he was literal perfection. Now normally I would say you could listen to any song by an artist I feel that strongly about, but three years after releasing his iconic album Chaos and the Calm he released new music and I about shit myself. The thing is, he changed his entire sound. His look, his lyrics, his voice, his overall package was so completely different that I wasn’t sure I was even listening to the same person. Every artist is entitled to change themselves and their music to however it fits them. It’s their prerogative. But I fell in love with a long haired, softly crooning, writing gorgeous lyrics man and album that I bought on vinyl and listened to on repeat for weeks on end. That was such a far cry from the poppy, synthesized, generic lyric mess that was released three years later. I think if maybe somebody else had written his later songs I would like them more, because they’re not bad songs really, they are just not what I imagine at all when I imagine James Bay. So this is my very long winded way of saying please listen to 2015 James Bay and hold off on 2018 James Bay for the love of God)
Sweet Creature - Harry Styles (listen, if you haven’t listened to Harry Styles’ solo debut album yet....I don’t even know what to tell you. Don’t let your judgments of One Direction as a band hold you back from listening to Harry. I will admit that Louis, Zayn, Liam, and even Niall’s solo careers do not even touch the masterpiece that Harry created. This is not coming from a superfan of One Direction, or even a superfan of Harry himself and his incredible hair, adorable dimples, and sick tattoos. This is coming from a person that loves music and is constantly looking for new stuff that sets her soul on fire, and even she was blown away by the music that Harry released when he was no longer in a pop band. Harry Styles in on another level that I’m not sure many others can reach, and I’m not sure many others from the past are even there with him now, so please listen to the whole album, but Sweet Creature will make you cry. Kthanksbye)
Two Fux - Adam Lambert (don’t tell me that everybody in middle school didn’t have a freaking Adam Lambert phase, okay? He was what all of us over dramatic dark eyeliner wearing children of the night needed. If I Had You? Complete Bop. Whataya Want From Me? Screamed that shit locked in our bedrooms. For Your Entertainment? Watched the music video a million times. But our obsession slowly fizzled out as we reached high school and shed the fingerless gloves and cut the bangs that swept across the forehead. He became a dusty old memory locked away in a box in our closets. Then my Mom discovered this song and my love for Adam Lambert hit me like a fucking wrecking ball. The range he has is insane. The love he has for himself is something everyone should look up to. He never sold out, he never became something he wasn’t, and he just got better and better as he got older and older. Bust out that crusty stick of eyeliner and let yourself slip back into your middle school self for just a minute to appreciate his new stuff. You won’t regret it.)
