1. Honeybee by The Head and the Heart
Honeybee was my most played song on Spotify in 2019 for good reason – there is such a sad sweetness to it that I never get tired of hearing.
As a long-time The Head and the Heart fan, the song’s style took a few listens to get used to when it was released last year: the vocals and electronic beat sound nothing like the band’s early releases (all more folk/acoustic-oriented). But once I embraced it, I was hooked.
It doesn’t happen often that female lead singer Charity Rose Thielen gets such a front-row feature in one of the band’s singles, but she completely makes the song what it is. She’s described the feeling behind it: “Honeybee really captures the idea of living the end of your life with some regret – realizing you have been living a life complacent with the familiar – maybe even taking the person closest to you for granted and regretting not expressing your love towards them until it’s too late.”
2. Blue Healer by Birdtalker
It's a wonder that Birdtalker isn't more famous in the folk world: the band has some of the most beautiful lyrics I've come across (in any genre), and for a perfect showcase I'd only need to point to their poem of a song, Blue Healer, a track that holds special significance for me.
Luckily the meditative simplicity of the music allows the lyrics to hold full focus. They paint the image of an encounter between the singer and Sadness personified, paying tribute to the experience of embracing your pain and vulnerability in order to heal. Each verse takes us through the various stages of that experience, starting from the very beginning: “Since I can remember I’ve been runnin’ from you / But this time you sat your ass down with no intent to move.”
In the second verse the singer “drops his defenses”, finally facing himself in the chorus --- “You wipe clean all of these illusions that ain’t me / Now you’ve got me lookin’ and I hate me" --- and towards the end, we see the full transition of sadness from a “self-pity dealer” to a “blue healer”, as the singer declares with a soft triumph: “Now I stand tall / Used to think my sorrow was a brick wall… / But there’s a gate here / You can only find it if you wait here.”
I’m just very impressed at the way this song captures such a profoundly meaningful message while impressively avoiding any cringe cheesiness. But admittedly (if you can't already tell) my tolerance for that kind of thing is pretty high.
3. my future by Billie Eilish
Billie’s singles never disappoint, but my future (released this past week) is especially stunning.
For the first minute and a half she stays true to her usual dark sound, supported only by some mellow electric piano and backing croons. The song remains leveled as such until a funky beat and guitar riff enter to lift the whole thing off the ground. Purely instrumentally, this song is gorgeous: laidback listening with a sentimental but lighthearted melody.
It’s then the lyrics that infuse it with an extra depth, as Billie sings about being in love with herself and her future: “I know supposedly I’m lonely now / Know I’m supposed to be unhappy without someone / But aren’t I someone?”
About the feeling behind the song, she's described: “I spent years and years relying on having someone. And as soon as I didn’t have someone, I got somebody else. And I’m not talking about relationships. I’m talking about everything... I could never be alone. I couldn’t take my own company for so long.” She talks about how self-reflection and the potential for growth relies so much on one’s ability to be alone: “Everything is about love…There’s nothing that talks about how being alone is really powerful and you grow and learn a lot.”
My takeaway: there's really nothing not to love here.
4. Young Man by The Chicks
The Chicks’ latest record Gaslighter deserves all of the praise it’s gotten and then some, and it’s the stripped-back honesty of songs like Young Man that add so much to its arc.
Divorce is the hot topic of the album, and this song finds lead singer Nat Maines reflecting on how the tumultuous experience that she's going through affects her son’s relationship with his parents: “I had no words for you that Saturday, as we both watched our entire worlds change / Your hero fell just as you came of age.”
The song is such a beautiful show of motherly empathy. After the first 9 songs of the album are all about her husband cheating and bring more of a "fuck you" energy to the mic, it’s all the more humbling and powerful to hear her sing --- “You’re of me, not mine… / Take the best parts of him as your own life begins.”
Gaslighter is full of lovable, sassy numbers – Tights On My Boat, Sleep At Night, and of course the title track – but it’s the honest integrity of songs like Young Man that complete the story.
Listen on Spotify to all 'Songs of the Week' here.
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