Bottle of Love - Garland Jefferys.
Where do I even begin. The two most dominant instruments in the song are accordion and harmonica. I repeat: accordion AND harmonica. Yet even with showcasing two of the more tedious instruments in western music it still manages to be fantastic. The music is stripped down and allows Garland’s snarling vocals to come more to the center of the song. Bottle of Love comes off the 1992 album “Don’t call me buckwheat”. A concept album about race by a half black half white man from New York. Like all other songs on the album Garland vents about the power of love (bottled format) to overcome racial tension. The last verse and outro describe how slavery should have ended with Lincoln long ago, but appears to live on as he repeats at the end of the track “we got the proclamation, now where’s the real emancipation?”. On bottle of love the subtle scathing that persists through the record reaches perfect pitch.
You Think I Ain’t Worth A Dollar But I Feel Like A Millionaire - Queens Of The Stone Age
Metal doesn’t usually draw me in, but I do like this song by QOTSA a lot. A lot lot. I think it’s because I always wonder how people can take a music genre that is so over the top and hyperbolized and enjoy it seriously. I detect a hint of ironic distance in the singers voice, as if he knows it’s too much but he’s doing it anyway. I enjoyed laughing a little at the songs intensity at first, but over time I have removed my own ironic distance and embraced it wholeheartedly. Seriously, look at the guys face on the cover of the disc and listen to the song, it’s totally hilarious, and that’s why buying music is almost always better than downloading.
All You Ever Wanted - Black Keys
All you ever wanted is definitely the most melancholy of the bunch. I’m having a hard time writing about this song simply because it was “the sad song”. One thing about sad songs is this. Do they actually make you feel better when you listen to them? Remember that garbage “bad day” song from a few years ago. The one where Daniel Powter says that in order to fix a bad day you have to “sing a sad song just to turn it around”? That was a totally foreign concept to me. In order to feel better I should listen to sad music? I don’t believe Daniel Powter. Generally I try to avoid sad music when I’m not feeling well because it tends to make me way more miserable. Having said all that, I’ll still sometimes listen to a downer song just to try and find something to relate to in the lyrics. It almost never fails.
The New Pornographers - Use It
Without a doubt this is the happiest song on the list. It became my daily song on our first fire deployment of the year. It is so important to have a go to uplifting song when you are working. When the piano hits at the beginning, I am ready for work! Notable go to work songs at past jobs have included have included Lunatic Fringe by Tom Cochrane, used for fish plant night shift. Oh it was a scene, rain, slicker gear, and sweating hard under stadium style lighting. Another one was (What’s The Story) Morning Glory by Oasis. This one I used in logging camp, probably the most grungy song for the most grungy environment I have ever worked in. Only working class England could relate. All my songs for firefighting are pretty happy, that’s a good sign.
Sleep Sunshine- The Whigs
I admit, this one starts out pretty crappy, but give it a chance, and listen to that twangy lap guitar (always sounds better in rock songs rather than country). My temporary residence is in my friends basement and most mornings the “sun shines over my bed”. There is an air of satisfaction in the song that I really started relating to towards the middle of the month once I was settled back into Smithers life. I also appreciate the Whigs for falling into the “regular dudes playing rock and roll category” no crazy costumes, and no bleeding hearts.