Fiddle-king Ryan Shupe is back at it with the anticipated release of his new album We Rode On that is scheduled to come out in Spring. This, his 8th album, will highlight a small transformation in Shupe, as he is transforming his usual country sentiment to a more pop/rock feel. This is echoed in the track that we have featured for you below. Shupe is a master at his craft and is able to write and play effectively; he also bends genre-types and thus can be considered a true master musician.
“If I Stay,” one of the tracks off the new album, is a jaunty piece with vocal melodies and more standard instrumentation. It has a Great Big Sea feel to it considering the energy and passion. It is almost a more bluegrass version of Great Big Sea and even Carbon Leaf. The Americana passion is bleeding out of the song, which is carried through the meaty vocals and sprightly pace. It’s an excellent ditty, and one that more should listen to.
Merry Christmas everyone! You have made it to the #1 song on the Music Court’s annual countdown. So, what has found itself among the distinguished company of past top songs like “King of Spain,” “The Afterlife,” “Pompeii,” and “Got it?” We have to travel back to January 2015 and “the center of the hollow moon” for this gem.
The #1 song of 2015 is “Hollow Moon (Bad Wolf)” by the eclectic, potent, and genre-less AWOLNATION.
There are so many comments that I want to make about this song that I just don’t know where to begin. So, for the sake of chronology, I will start from the first few seconds of the song. Do you know the feeling when you listen to the first few notes of a song – in this case AWOLNATION employs a rhythmic electronic beat – and you know immediately that this song is about to be played on repeat several times. It’s a gut feeling, but most times you are correct. In this case, my hypothesis was tested and proven true.
The draw of this song is the electronic beat, the electric conductivity of the song that makes the listener feel like he/she is in the middle of a Nikola Tesla experiment. Aaron Bruno, the mastermind of AWOLNATION, possesses a unique artistic ability to make any song he creates sound perspicacious and driving. The song powers forward with Bruno’s almost reckless voice mixed with fragmented percussion. The chorus, which features the repetition of the line, “Ima make a deal with the bad wolf so the bad wolf don’t bite no more,” carries forward with a unique, toe-tapping, almost pernicious intensity; this quasi-wickedness is one of the best qualities of AWOLNATION’s music; every song sounds like there is some evil, malevolent intent behind it, and that makes the song powerful.
How about cleverness? Does the song have any cleverness. It certainly does. Bruno sings about making a deal with the bad wolf and then subtly, in his repetition of the lines, sings “Ima bad wolf” indicating that he is the entity he wishes to make a deal with, thus introducing an acute duality.
From there, the song escalates with imprecation and anger. The song is almost violent in its power, reckless and entropic. The disorder of the song is ordered. The carelessness of the song is clean. The song is an oxymoron and that is just the way the band wanted it. And, thankfully, as you see in the video above, the video reflects the song perfectly, depicting frozen dancers who eventually erupt in a wild dance party.
“Hollow Moon (Bad Wolf)” is the clear choice for song of the year. It is creative, unique, eccentric, and tremendous. The song is a melodic and visual spectacle. It is a depiction of the talent of AWOLNATION, and I, for one, cannot wait to hear more from this band.
Here is an immediate fun fact about Leon Bridges. He is not Otis Redding, Sam Cooke, or Marvin Gaye. He is, however, young enough to be any of those singers’ grandsons. That’s surprising isn’t it, especially after you listen to the following:
Let me repeat my earlier statement: Bridges is not one of those seminal soul artists; that said, he is doing his best to assure that the legacy of these individuals is not spoiled. I am going to make a proclamation; it’s bold, I’m just giving you bold morning. If Bridges had been his age in 1965, we would be talking about him in the same breath as the singers I mentioned earlier. Bold, yes. Reckless, no. Bridges is already a consummate musician and performer; he is deft and adroit, a passionate performer and baby-face smooth singer. Bridges is tremendous in every sense of the term. If he represents the future of music, music is in good hands.
For an “oldies” music lover like me who adores both Motown and STAX records, Bridges is refreshing. He is a chip off the old block. He is what music should be, what it should sound like. And the fact that Bridges’ song “Coming Home” was a Top 10 Most Viral Track on Spotfy that is a good sign for the direction of music. His debut album of the same name as the title track hit #6 on the charts depicting an insatiable urge of individuals for pure, old-fashioned, unadulterated music. There are no special effects here. It is Bridges, a keyboard, two guitars (one of bass variety), and some drums. The formula for great music is not complicated. When I wrote about this song some time ago, I also had some flattering comments about the song, which I will share below.
“Coming Home” immediately takes on the feel of “You Send Me” with tastes of “A Change is Gonna Come,” and Bridges soft croon, a smoother Hozier (to make a modern comparison), has a rich Gospel feel to it that is just the right kind of sweet, not mawkish and not overpowering – it’s a voice that you can sink into, like silky gelato. The song itself is classic early Motown. It is carried by a bluesy piano and guitar mixed with traditional percussion. It is not difficult to imagine Sam Cooke or Otis Redding singing this song, and Bridges’ voice is not really a step down; heck, I am almost willing to go so far to exclaim that Bridges parallels the singers in a sense. Not too shabby.”
Here are a few interesting facts about X Ambassadors: the band is from Ithaca, NY, it was discovered by Imagine Dragons frontman Dan Reynolds, and keyboardist Casey Harris, whose brother Sam is the leadman for the group has been blind from birth. If that does not draw you into the intriguing story of the band that came out of nowhere this year to rock the charts then perhaps its most popular song “Renegades” will trigger your interest.
“All hail the underdogs
All hail the new kids
All hail the outlaws
Spielberg’s and Kubrick’s”
This bridge might very well be possess the best lyrics written in a song this year. It is simple in its message, and possesses such a wonderful message. The video above depicts several people overcoming challenges in life, much like keyboardist Casey Harris, and this lyric is a true testament to that sentiment. While the song was oddly enough initially written to be in tandem with a Jeep Renegade commercial, it has shot beyond the commercial realm with its skillful melody that combines claps, “heys,” and other melodic sounds with a potent acoustic riff, consistent percussion and great keyboard.
It’s a great song all around and well deserving of a spot on our list. X Ambassadors is not a one-hit wonder; look for the band to make a continued rise throughout the music landscape.
Matt & Kim are a deliciously weird due from Brooklyn, NY whose eccentricity is a story in and of itself; however, like all eccentric music groups, if the music doesn’t hold up, then the band won’t last. Since 2006, however, this duo has created nothing but genre-bending, effervescent music that has not changed with the release of their latest album in 2015, New Glow. We go way back to the beginning of the year for the #7 song on the countdown, “Get It,” the first single released off the new album. Those of you who have stared at a television this past year might recognize this one from the Royal Caribbean Cruise Line commercials.
If anything, this song is deliciously Matt & Kim, engaging listeners in the same zeal as songs like “Daylight” and “Let’s Go.” Matt & Kim creates such unique Indie/Dance music that it is tough to compare them with any other band; just when you start thinking they sound like somebody in the business, the band modifies its sound; for this specific song they implemented some odd synth noises that mixed with percussion spark immediate movement in the listeners; it’s inevitable; you might as well succumb to it. It’s tough to describe what the “drop” of the song is; it almost sounds like a breathless frog – and, yes, that does sound negative, but it’s pretty darn cool. The song is driven by synth sounds just like that one, and these breakdowns make the song desirable. The song, which is about partying (in case you couldn’t guess), models a party; it is driven by constant dance beats and repetition of lines like “we don’t want to go home.” One desires to be part of the crowds displayed in the music video, which is wild.
If I had to summarize this review and quickly describe why I think it deserves a spot on the top songs of the year list, I would only need one word: fun. There are not many songs that can be described as simply fun, and Matt & Kim encompass that idea in almost all of their songs, but, on their 2015 album, especially “Get It.”
The Music Court 