Here’s an off the beaten path song suggestion for a wedding reception parent dance. What’s refreshing about it is that it doesn’t give the suspicion that it was cynically written to be a parent dance perennial, unlike many songs which will remain nameless here.
The downside, which is perhaps subtle enough not to matter, is that since it wasn’t written to neatly fit the parent dance constraints there may be a line or two that don’t perfectly jive, i.e. one line in particular sounds like it is being sung by a man to his son. But as I said, it’s fairly subtle and probably would go unnoticed by most guests.
It’s also refreshingly realistic and un-sappy (“oh, it’s a hard world, my child”…”hearts will break, one will be yours”).
Rather than another insipid litany of platitudes this is a song of some actual substance. Bracing. Real. Like the kind of thing a parent would actually say.
Célèste Brott writes: “I’m trying to pick a father-daughter dance song for my wedding, but most of the suggestions I come across make me gag. They fall mostly into the category of ‘What an angel she is’-type songs, or are too sentimental about ‘What a great dad he was.’ I want it to be something we both love, and that we can dance to. Something that hits the right sentimental note, sure, but isn’t sappy or impersonal. Any ideas?”
Picking any music for a wedding is weirdly fraught, particularly if you’re the sort of person whose taste in love songs — or taste in love, for that matter — runs toward the complex and compromised. Weddings are about absolutes, and love songs that express absolute emotions (permanence, certainty) have a tendency to come off as mawkish or excessively sentimental. Throw in the unconditional love between a parent and a child, and … hoo boy, that narrows down the options. I’ve been taking my daughter to “daddy daughter dances” since she was barely old enough to run around, and have yet to hear anything there that conjures up images of her future wedding day. (THANK GOD.)
That said, since before she was born, I’ve had the exact right song picked out for this very occasion, should it arise — a song that has been laying waste to my defenses since I first heard it almost exactly 10 years ago. I’ve been playing it for my kids since way before they can remember, and my 8-year-old daughter still listens to it as part of our bedtime ritual virtually every night.
“Find Love”
With apologies to those who’ve heard me prattle about this song before, Clem Snide’s “Find Love” is, in all seriousness, perfect; I have listened to it hundreds if not thousands of times, and if anything, it’s only grown on me. Heard in the context of a parent’s love — of deeply humane advice and wishes for a child, regardless of his or her age — it says everything. Take chances. Put yourself out there. Face the world with a generous heart. Live your life. Make the world your own. “Find love, and then give it all away.”
We’ve previously extolled Guster’s penchant for cheerful melody and their 2015 release, Evermotion, overflows with more feel-good tunefulness.
At times the band also demonstrates an ability to reach a deeper place with a lyric, as is the case with the poignant “Kid Dreams”:
So there I was, fifteen, stuck in High school was no prom king Zoned out in a daydream of a Pretty girl, my own beauty queen I was too shy to talk I was round and soft All the kids would drawl, “You got some beady eyes, boy”
Then I’d start to shrink Became too hard to see They got what they need I got the beady eyes You can get what you want Make a plea to the dark Not as hard as it seems, kid dreams
What did I want? What did I need? I got three squares a day, I got a bed for sleep I couldn’t shake a deep belief in a Pretty girl who would save me And then sure enough, they would call my bluff They’d jab and trip me up Hit right between the eyes, boy
Fill my cuts with salt Slowly I’d dissolve That was all they saw, the boy with beady eyes You can get what you want Make a plea to the dark Not as hard as it seems, kid dreams
Oh God now here she comes My perfect lady luck I never did give up, I never did give up The once and future king The best it’s ever been If only they could see, see with my beady eyes, boy
At 21 years of age, Ásgeir Trausti Einarsson released his resoundingly popular debut, an album now owned by an estimated 10% of the population of his native Iceland.
With American songwriter John Grant assisting in the translation of lyrics mostly penned by Ásgeir’s 72-year-old retired school principal father, these gorgeous harmonies and ethereal melodies receive wider release in the English-language version of that debut, titled In the Silence.
The record features mostly soulful vocals and a combination of acoustic and electronic instruments which alternately evoke bands like Kings of Convenience or Midlake (with whom Grant also collaborated) but “King and Cross” stands out with its gentle faux-disco vibe.
Desperate to get their music on the radio at all costs, record labels are employing powerful software to artificially sweeten it, polish it, make it louder— squeezing out the last drops of its individuality
(via Cuepoint)
There was once a little-watched video on Maroon 5’s YouTube channel which documents the tortuous, tedious process of crafting an instantly-forgettable mainstream radio hit.
It’s fourteen minutes of elegantly dishevelled chaps sitting in leather sofas, playing $15,000 vintage guitars next to $200,000 studio consoles, staring at notepads and endlessly discussing how little they like the track (called “Makes Me Wonder”), and how it doesn’t have a chorus. Even edited down, the tedium is mind-boggling as they play the same lame riff over and over and over again. At one point, singer Adam Levine says: “I’m sick of trying to engineer songs to be hits.” But that’s exactly what he proceeds to do.
Every Moment Has A Song 