1. She’s My Sunshine by Celeste
I’ve recently been exploring Celeste’s music and the intensity of her vocals leaves such an impression, so let's start this week off with one of the British singer's best.
She’s My Sunshine shows off her voice in all its epic enormity. She clearly doesn't need much instrumental support to catch your ear (as you'll see in other songs like Both Sides of the Moon or Strange), so the orchestra accompanying her here brings this song to cinematic scale. If the next Bond movie is looking for a theme...
2. Runaway by The National
Runaway has one very specific line that keeps me coming back to it – “What makes you think I’m enjoying being led to the flood?”
I still get chills every time I hear it – maybe, too, because of the contained tension of the instruments throughout the song. They hold onto the energy so tightly that any change in tone hits sharply, and every time this one lyric is sung, it acts as a turning point from the song’s melody from hopeful to despairing. It never lasts long and we’re quickly brought back to a positive note, which is why that tiny moment of sadness hits so acutely.
3. Wish You Well by Emma Louise
I originally fell in love with Wish You Well because of the backstory of the artist:
Australian singer-songwriter Emma Louise sang with a clear soprano for her first two studio albums before turning her style on its head with her latest, Lilac Everything. The entire album is sung under a pitching vocal effect that she discovered while recording her debut album years earlier. She named the new range “Joseph”, and through it she sings completely pitched down to a tenor.
The result is a collection of songs that you would likely second-guess as really being Emma Louise were her face not on the cover.
In Wish You Well, the album's opener, the difference comes through not only thanks to the woozy manipulations on her voice, but also her array of masculine vocal tics – things like trailing her crooning voice off the notes a beat early.
A beautiful array of instruments joins as the song goes on – I especially love the strings – but she starts off the first verse stripped-down. We get only her vocals and piano, giving you the chance to focus on the lyrics – and it was, ultimately, the lyrics that drew me in completely.
It’s a brutally vulnerable reflection on the experience of seeing an ex move on and trying to let go, a pain that Louise's delivery hits home when the momentum the song has built quiets down for her to deliver the last few lines – “Oh even though my heart is breaking / Oh even though my heart breaks / I wish you well.”
4. Beauty In The Dark (Groove With You) by The Isley Brothers, Mos Def
Talk about a vibe -- Mos Def's Beauty In The Dark feels like a perfect place to end this week.
He samples the beat and bassline from The Isley Brothers’ Groove With You, slowing down the tempo a few paces. Nothing is rushed or propelled forward, forcing you to slow down with it as his voice lazily rides along the groove with animated backing vocals adding a vibrant bit of soul. The slow repetitiveness of the tune is hypnotic, which is why small bits of pointed rhymes really stand out – like when he opens the second verse, “It’s a beautiful thing / especially when we can rock and swing.”
Overall: an extremely smooth and sexy track.
Listen on Spotify to all 'Songs of the Week' here.
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