“Fill in the Blank” by Car Seat Headrest
Thanks to Jan for featuring this song on her blog. I love it so much. Lyrically, I think it has the potential to be one of the go-to songs on the days when I need to buck up. Musically, it hits a lot of pleasure centers, with the opening riff, the rough harmonies and that great double lyric part at the end. The video is fun too.
“In the Long Run” The staves
I also have Jan to thank for this song.* The Staves have lovely harmonies, and also I love the content of this song. I’m a big subscriber to the view that people will come back around. You’ll see them again.
Castle on the Hill by Ed Sheeran
This will not be a song I purchase, because I’m going to get very sick of it very soon, but this is totally a song of the month. I think right now certain stations have this in an every-other-song rotational format. It’s also being used in the trailer for Ferdinand, the animated film somewhat based on the classic children’s story. In the trailer, they do not play the parts of the song about drinking, throwing up, smoking or kissing. Mostly, they just loop the chorus.
I’m a sucker for songs that tell a story, especially a reflection-of-youth story. “Summer of ’69” by Brian Adams, “Blood on Blood” by Bon Jovi, even “Jack & Diane,” before they played that Mellencamp song to death. So this is a winner for me, even though I think it’s overly long and clunky in places, especially when he updates us as to what his friends are up to. He has a lot of friends. There are a lot of updates. For how to do this a little better, see the aforementioned “Blood on Blood” where you get two lines: Now Bobby he’s an uptown lawyer, Danny he’s a medicine man / and me, I’m just the singer, in a long-haired rock and roll band.” See? Done!
I also am confused by Ed Sheeran. While listening to many of his songs, the feeling I come away with is uncomfortable embarrassment. He seems to be trying too hard. And I often don’t love what he writes about women. Matt and I had a text message exchange about a one of his songs where one of Matt’s responses was, “That’s the song I was telling you about! She is clear with him about how she sees the relationship, and he writes a mean song because he wants to change things up and she doesn’t!”
I get the feeling that Mr. Sheeran grew up nerdy, but rejected the nerdy and now there’s this uncomfortable trying-too-be-cool vibe about him. I’m also quite curious to know what he looks like in concert. Does he dance around? Stand still? (I’m apparently not curious enough to pause what I’m doing here and google.)
*Jan. Supporting this blog not only with comments, but also with post content!
Nice picks for this month! Of course I’ve heard and jammed to the Ed Sheeran song. I like the line where he says hand rolled cigarettes because it almost just doesn’t quite flow. And I like how the different meter punctuates the line. Interesting observations about ES! I can see that.
5 comments done! But I’ve still got time on this timer. To email I go…
Happy May in August!
There is a really good article that I read, I think Tannar originally shared it on FB. http://www.playboy.com/articles/ed-sheeran-has-a-toxic-masculinity-problem
First, you have to get past the fact that it’s written for Playboy, and beyond that, it has really colored how I listen to his songs.
This looks like a great article! Thanks for the recommendation.
Since I don’t listen to much pop radio, I think this might be the first Ed Sheeran song I’ve listened to all the way through! Not really my thing, but it’s got a great hook. I read the article Heather posted. I think the author was trying to say that Sheeran is a “nice guy,” i.e. he only interacts with a woman to get into her pants, but he’s nice about it, so when he gets rejected, he feels deeply wronged. I’m not familiar enough with him or his music to have a strong opinion one way or another, but I can see it.
P.S. Glad you liked those songs enough to feature them! I recently downloaded a previous feature of yours: “Wish I Knew You” by the Revivalists.
That “deeply wronged” part totally fits with the song where he’s all whiny because he wanted to change a casual relationship into not-casual and she said no and then he whined about it.
“Wish I Knew You” is all over the radio now. It’s weird how that happens. I think that was the song that I assumed was played because the band was going to play a concert in town. But many months later it’s all over the radio.