Keeping It Fresh

Today I have some music for you that is so refreshing because it is just some good old rock and roll. This song is by a band called Splitter, a name that I would automatically think would suit a  more metal sound. But this song is what I think the Beatles would sound like if they had a little heavier rock. And I love it! This song has a lot of the older rock elements that have become classic, but the lyrics and style of guitar playing is very modern. That combination is pretty damn swell when we hear it in a song like this. I mean you take the guitar solo that is thrown in the middle, and that just screams rock and roll. And then of course we have the vocals which remind me so much of Paul McCartney. This is definitely what a modern day Beatles would sound like, and there is nothing wrong with that! Every kind of artists needs some evolution, it just so happens that a second band proves to be a bit of that evolution for the Beatles. This song opens up with a repeated guitar rhythm ...

Today I have some music for you by the artist known as VanLadyLove. The first time I heard this song, I had chills up and down my arms. This is a song that has a lot of feeling poured into it, but not the emotional kind of feeling. This is something that beckons the call of freedom and adventure and letting go and moving into the unknown. This song is something that is immersed in inspiration and makes us feel that sense of having our own wings to go forth and go on our own. But at the same time, the song addresses that we cannot live in the world of our dreams. We have to be able to bring all of those sentiments to the real world, and we cannot run away from everything that we have to face here.So when we look at this song, there are some really nice things that are going on to make this a completely feel good song. For starters, this song doesn't use guitars much, and opts for using a mandolin. I really enjoy the mandolin. It is a stringed instrument that gets used more often tha...

Today I have a song which is a very eclectic one. This song is a remixed version of a popular song from the 1950's. This was originally a swing based song, which was remixed by Bart & Baker. I have to be honest, I had never heard of Bart & Baker until hearing this song, but I really like what they did with this song! Instead of turning this song into a straight electronic remix, we get a smooth electronic swing song which is even better. Electro swing is one of the coolest and most fun genres out there. The energy and engagement that these songs have is just incredible. There is a nonstop fountain of excitement and strangeness and fun that you can't help but dance to the song. This song reflects a lot of electronic elements which I found really interesting. A lot of electro swing groups have that perfect blend of electronic and swing sounds. One normally doesn't overpower the other, and this song finds a great balance as well. This song even keeps the marimba and br...

Today I have some music for you by an incredible solo artist out of the UK. James Arthur was the winner of the X Factor a few years ago, and he has seen quite a bit of success! His second album was released in October of last year, and my oh my is it a beautiful piece of work. This album reminds me of Eminem's Recovery. This is an album about starting again and learning from the past. This is an album about making changes and becoming whole again. James Arthur is definitely a man who can understand what hardship is. His music reflects the raw emotion associated with the hardships he has been through. I have always found James Arthur's work to be wonderful and very powerful, but this album as a whole is a heart wrenching and empowering masterpiece. This stadium sized anthem is a redemptive record. It highlights the darker parts of winning one of the biggest talent shows in the world. James Arthur really does bare it all and asks us to let the music tell his story. Despite the re...

Today I have a fun and energetic song by the artist F4ST. Now I had not heard of these guys till today, and I was totally taken in by this song. It is definitely a catchy one and has so much liveliness to it. One of the things I really like about this song is that it kind of has a darker tropical sound. A lot of times tropical electronic music has a very bubbly and happy and beachy sound. But this song takes some of those tropical sounds and warps them to have a chillstep influence. I thought that was pretty cool! The Columbian electronic duo brings their own cultural flavor to this song. The entire second verse is sung in Spanish. It is not often that we get to hear something like that. I mean it is one thing to have a Spanish artist write a song that is produced as a more upbeat electronic song. But having a song that is specifically meant to be and EDM song meshed with English and Spanish? Well that is definitely something you do not hear everyday. And that is pretty cool! I like th...

Today I have some darker and more melancholy music for you by the band The 1975. Now when I think of these guys, everything I imagine is on this grey scale. There is something about their music that ranges between black and white, with the blurred lines of grey in between. Maybe it's because of their debut album, maybe it's because of their musical content. Either way, this is a band that lives for those grey lines. This is a band that is not afraid to talk about what happens in those blurred lines, what it feels like to be a shade of grey rather than black or white. I appreciate that so much. A lot of popular music today lacks depth and emotional capacity. But The 1975 purposefully and thoroughly explores emotions and sensations and desires and guilty pleasures. The 1975 is a band that relishes in writing lyrics about things that are considered taboo, things that people don't really want to address. That is what makes this band so great. Musically, they are phenomenal as w...

Today I have some music for you by an artist who has completely turned things around with his music. I think we all know who Justin Bieber is and how his progression of music has changed signifcantly. He has gone from singing teenage pop songs to being one of the biggest artists in the R&B world as well as a popular EDM vocalist. I have to say, I am quite impressed by him! There is such a maturity to his voice now, one that reflects a lot of different emotions. We've seen his name in the headlines for some pretty rough situations, but I think that has helped him grow musically. As a person, I can't really say. But his entire sound has changed and I am excited to hear more of his solo work based on this new sound. Today I want to explore more of the R&B side of his music. This song is one of my favorites off his latest album. This whole album has been a really important step for Justin Bieber. After all the shenanigans we know he's been involved in, this album shows ...