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2021 Annual Music Countdown
I am starting the process of figuring out my favorite music of 2021. If you have an album that you think I absolutely must listen to, please leave a comment with artist, song, or album.
Album of the Week:
The new CHVRCHES album, Screen Violence, is fantastic and I super dig it. Its great 80s dream pop synths mixed with classic indie rock. The whole album is excellent and full of contemplative lyrics. Its certainly making a run for a top five album of the year for me. Check it out.
Best Song Ever
“Gonna stand where Custard last stood. Makin’ my peace while knockin’ on wood.”
Where my fans of The Nadas at? Did you go to a college in a small town in the upper middle midwest (Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas) circa the mid-late nineties? You certainly know of the Nada’s. You probably sang along to “Dancing Lucinda” at some point and it was probably a really awesome memory you have from your college experience. If you went to the Iowa State University in the mid to late nineties and you didn’t end up seeing the Nada’s live at People’s Bar and Grill then I am truly, truly sorry. You missed awesomeness in the moment.
This post isn’t about Dancing Lucinda as awesome of a song as it is. It’s about a new solo song by one of the lead singers / writers of the Nadas. It’s crazy catchy for sure. It’s a great folksy/Americana song for sure. But it’s also a great song about self discovery and a clearly meaningful trip for the protagonist. It’s a great road trip song. It’s a totally new twist on that classic of rock genres: the driving on the open road song. It’s dad rock for sure. But, awesome dad rock. And really, I’d argue that Jason Walsmith and the Nadas have been making awesome dad rock for a while (be sure to check out Henry James). But, man, it captures that open road feeling so well.
As I said, its crazy catchy. And thats because the music and lyrics just flow together so nicely. The chorus is super duper catchy.
“We’re gonna drive our camper van. We’re gonna cruise across the land. On the road less traveled than. We’re gonna drive our camper van.”
Thats just super fun to sing along to. Go ahead - try it.
The lyrics themselves are just fantastic, with lots of great imagery of the great American road trip. Check out the beginning.
“8 Hours to the Black Hills mountains. Past the Turtle Buttes and we're still countin'. The signs to the Wall Drug store. Playing stone face with Crazy Horse. 7 Hours to Yellowstone. Oh give me a home where the buffalo roam.”
Throughout the pandemic I saw so many friends on road trips with either a rented RV or their newly purchased RV. It was so fun to follow their adventures. And I bet they were once in a lifetime memories they made on their amazing road trips (cc: Adam, Paula). I feel like I get to live vicariously through these lyrics on all the cross country road trips that occurred over the past 18 months.
And how about all these great road trip call outs. Fans of Craig Finn and the Hold Steady will be proud.
“Blue Highways, Scenic Roads and Byways. Elliott Bay to 30A, Slow. Head South on the 101. Stop in Forest Grove gonna come undone. Head back east to the Great Salt Lake. Taking our time while there's time to take. 8 More hours to the Great Divide, Now it's all downhill gonna let it slide. A couple days home just wash our clothes. Load it up again and we hit the road”
I just love all the great specific imagery here. And, while its specific and probably pretty specific to his experience, the feeling is universal. I have no experience with Elliott Bay and 30A. But, I still get the feeling of driving to that next change in course. I’m sure you do too. Check it out and enjoy this driving music.
“It's better if I don't dwell, but if I do. I won't call on you again”
I love a good drinking and thinking song. And this is a great one. I am totally digging this CHVRCHES album right now. It’s full of some pretty deep lyrics with an 80s synth vibe. And this song highlights that. It starts off with a nice a little acoustic bit and then moves into the groove after the first verse.
The highlight though is the lyrics. They are just so great.
“Drinking to the things I can't take back. Thinking of the friends and faith I lack. And no one broke my heart quite like that man.”
What we’ve got here is a stream of conscious group of thoughts. She's drinking and thinking. And, what we're going to get here, is a string of thoughts as she drinks. I imagine her sitting at a hotel bar while on break on tour drinking and thinking deeply and what we get are her string of thoughts. Likely thinking of former lovers and friends.
But, always going back to the same theme:
"It's better if you don't care but if you do. I won't follow you again"
She is saying to her formers that she's not going to go back to them. She might be thinking about them, but she is not going to fall in the trap of going back to them.
More stream of conscious in Verse 2 and the refrain:
"TV's on but facing at the wall. Can they tell I don't like me at all? I'm never as alone as I am back home. Pulling every thread. Seemed like a thing to do. Now I can't give it back. My favourite kind of blue."
The final refrain sends it off perfectly.
"It's better if I don't think too much of you. I've been on my own. So I should see it through."
"I mumble when I speak. But I mean it when I do."
"I carry what I keep. I don't miss a lot of you."
"I drink and I think too much. I should quit one of the two"
"But I won't wish for luck. And I won't bother you
"It's better if you don't care, but if you do. I won't follow you again"
I love that last line, sort of a goodbye to a former lover.
Anyway, the song is great. check it out.
I totally saw The Nadas in Grinnell Iowa in 1996 or 97. I have CD I had them all sign and they thought I was messing with them by asking them to sign it (I wasn't). I LOVE Dancing Lucinda.