I have written quite a few posts about Alanna’s music over the past few years and have tried many times to state why I find it so moving and I don’t know that I have ever done a very good job at that. I would that it is beautifully tragic, in the most cathartic and uplifting kind of way. Sometimes you need to feel emotions in your life be it sadness, pain, anger or any number of other emotions in order to work through your life experiences. Alanna’s music has a unique way of getting me to feel things.

Recently within the Twitch Music community we were given another dose of Twitch Goes Emo which is certainly a favorite event of mine which cause me to rely on a few hours of sleep as I don’t want to miss any performances. The Twitch streamers who participate always put in a great deal of effort and it is obvious that are passionate about the music they are performing. These events always get me to ponder on about my own Emo music journey

I have enjoyed Luke’s music since I was first introduced to it, there is a very unique feel to his live performances on Twitch and I am always anxious to hear what new spun he will put on a track to make it feel completely different. Luke puts out an impressive amount of new music and what is equally impressive is the amount of collaboration that has been present with his music lately. You can see plainly on his face the amount of joy that’s experienced by working with other artists and I love it. The latest release 2506 Ocean Ave is no exception.

I have been on a folk music kick lately and I thought I would talk about a few of the bands that I have been enjoying the most. There is something so remarkably captivating about well executed harmonies. A song could sound beautiful sung solo but it is exquisitely so when sung by multiple artists whose voices compliment each other. This isn’t something exclusive to folk music of course but I have come across many folk bands that have this but I consider The Wailin’ Jennys & Roswell to be the best of the new discoveries while I have been on this folk journey.

Some time ago I realized that during my initial write up on this track I missed a great deal of the depth and meaning this track contains; it's like an iceberg of lyrical splendor and the first time through I only scratched the surface. I was inspired to do an additional write up when I heard an exquisite cover of “Graveyard” performed by the illustrious Tall and Small, a magnificent duo that I wrote about in length here. I don't know what it was about exactly about this performance that made things click for me but they did.

As I have previously established I do not know much about the creation of music. So I am exceptionally enamored by individuals who can create these impressive song loops by seamlessly weaving all these different parts from various instruments together into fantastic song performances. An artist that consistently surprises and amazes me away with such impressive creations is Kendra Lyssa.

So my specific narrative that I always feel a need to conjure up and flesh out aside what the essence of this track is to me is this. Sometimes in a relationship you may be the one that just isn’t feeling it or doesn’t know exactly how to express yourself etc. You just have to keep going and trying both when it comes to love and relationships but also just when it comes to existing as a human being. Ultimately you’ve got to be true to yourself and I know it sounds cliché but I believe it, nobody is better off trying to be someone they are not regardless of the reasoning.

My perspective on this track is likely to change as I continue to listen but what won’t change is the fact that these are meticulously crafted lyrics that are part of a truly exceptional piece of music.

I feel there is a depth to this album but nothing is hidden it's all there for you to discover you simply have to take the time to do so. I'm certain I still have more insights to glean as I continue to listen but here is what I've come up with thus far after spending the weekend diving into it.

I have been a big fan of The Killers and Brandon Flowers since Hot Fuss; though I have to admit I didn’t know who they were when I saw them for the first time. It was back in 2004, I was nearly 15 years old and was stoked to see one of my favorite bands Jimmy Eat World who were currently touring for their fifth studio album Futures (which I still maintain is one of the best albums they’ve released but that is a discussion for another time perhaps). I remember seeing the opening act was a band called The Killers; which judging only by the name didn’t strike me as a band that would fit with the sort of alternative emo sound that Jimmy Eat World were delivering especially with the Futures which is an emotional climb for sure. So it didn’t really know what to expect and didn’t have high expectations. But by the time this opening act had finished I remember wishing they had gone on longer.

Preparing this post has taught me a number of things. The first being that I didn’t blog nearly enough this past year and it has motivated me to be better going forward. As I was going through my posts for this past year there were songs I swore I had written about and then instead located them in my google docs just sitting there mostly finished…(I am quite angry with myself about this) Secondly I have a tendency to fixate on things. Out of the artists on this list that I wrote about last year I wrote about half of them more than once. I cannot promise I won’t continue to do that so I need to write more to balance out my craziness.

This was my favorite album of Taylor’s for quite awhile because of just how new and unique it was; any country roots that were still present within the previous album “Red” essentially disappeared. What we got was something so different in the best way possible. So needless to say I was very excited to get this re-release nearly a decade after I was initially blown away by this album.

This weeks post was brought about by a number of times over the past few weeks where I found myself; as Cerian would say “on the wrong side of the morning.” During particularly restless nights my go to is music. As I listen through various tracks I will make recordings about anything that makes an impression on me.

As I was going through tracks from this past year there were a number of them which struck me in an especially powerful way. This is just the first group of the aforementioned tracks.

This is a tremendous album with so much to unpack and discover. I am in awe. The writing is so poetic in a classical, traditional sort of way that I don’t come across very often. As I was digging through the tracks it really felt so much like analyzing poetry even more so than usual. There are occasionally moments when I come across a song that truly causes me to think deeply, look at my past and to even take a look inside myself. As I went through this album I had more of those moments than I was expecting. It was an awe-inspiring experience.

I realized on Monday that is had been forever since my last entry. I am striving to teach myself a lesson in balance. I tend to go all in with one hobby for a time and then switch to another. I am working to devise a way I can do more than one at a time it is still a work in progress.

In an effort to play a bit of catch up I am going to write about each of the three albums that have been on a steady rotation on my turntable as of late. I am hoping that I will be able to do each of them justice.

Tall and Small aka Colin and Ioana create cover songs though I would say they are much more than that. Their passion and enjoyment of music is evident as they weave together these magnificent tributes to songs they love.

I came to a realization the other day that while I often gush about the music of Chelsea Cutler I have never written about any of her songs which is a great wrong that I will make right today.

Lisa’s music always strikes a certain chord with me. There is something truly exceptional about the way she meticulously crafts her songs. It always gets me thinking and inspires me to write. It just feels so sincere; it has been said that the only truth is music. I really feel that as I listen to this album it has this magnificently genuine aire about it. I don’t feel as if Lisa is holding back and all the emotions put into this album come across unquestionably; I feel it so heavily and completely. 

Lights has released acoustic versions of most of her albums but “ded” is something different. Instead of an acoustic version she took her previous album “pep” and flipped it on its head giving it this brilliantly somber and pensive tone. For me it completely changed everything about the album in every way possible.

Songs are often written about specific experiences yet when they are superbly crafted their meanings extend far beyond the situation about which they were written and their messages are far reaching. That is the case with this track. What truly strikes me about this track is how incredibly pensive and vulnerable the lyrics are. Lowering your defenses to be so introspective is challenging. I would assume it is even more so when you are putting those feelings into a song and releasing it out into the world.

Abrams debut album is bedroom pop perfection. She owns up to past mistakes in a way that I think many of us would be afraid to do in private; she barres her soul to the world and in doing so has managed to create one of the best debut I have heard in many years.