Songs You May Have Missed #277

rogue

Rogue Wave: “Good Morning (The Future)” (2010)

The making of the Permalight album was, for Zach Rogue, a story of his own personal triumph over physical infirmity. Quoting from Amazon.com’s editorial review:

In September 2008, after the band returned to Oakland following a summer tour, Rogue played a solo show opening for Nada Surf. Two days later, the singer woke up and couldn’t move. There was some concern that he might be having an aneurysm or heart attack, so doctors wheeled an X-ray machine into his living room to check his heart and lungs. It turns out Rogue had slipped two discs in his neck, which were pressing on his spinal cord.

“It was the worst pain I had experienced,” he says.

Over the next few months, his condition grew worse until he eventually lost feeling in his right hand. Confined to his bed, there was nothing doctors could do for him, no medications that could relieve his pain. “I just felt like I was being tortured,” Rogue says. “I felt like I was dying.” In January, the pain began to gradually lift, giving him just enough sensation to pick up the guitar and strum it. He celebrated the recovery the best way he knew, by pouring his relief into new material. “When I started writing I wanted to make a record that was a little more up, a record you could move your body to because I couldn’t move for so long,” Rogue says. “I told Pat I wanted to make a total dance album.”

It’s also a joyful and uplifting one, full of cheerful tunes like “Good Morning (The Future)”.

Songs You May Have Missed #276

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Mason Jennings: “Be Here Now” (2006)

Born in Honolulu, Mason Jennings moved to Pittsburgh with his family a short time later. Soon after that Minneapolis became his home. He wrote songs and made demo tapes, but eschewed record label offers in favor of self-releasing his first record in order to keep creative control. That first record, featuring only Jennings and his guitar, was recorded and re-recorded four times before he was satisfied enough to release it. Although his debut brought more interest from labels and led to a local performance residency, he remained an independent artist for several years.

“Be Here Now” is from his sixth album, Boneclouds, for which he finally moved to a major label (Epic). Although the arrangements are more filled out than on previous records, for the most part it represents a smooth transition from his earlier, more organic and stripped-down sound to one more suited for radio airplay–at least independent radio airplay.

See also: https://edcyphers.com/2013/08/04/songs-you-may-have-missed-454/

See also: https://edcyphers.com/2016/11/04/songs-you-may-have-missed-596/

Songs You May Have Missed #275

tilbrook

Glenn Tilbrook: “Untouchable” (2004)

A typically tasty confection from the ex-Squeeze Tilbrook’s 2004 solo effort. The Difford-Tilbrook songwriting team is frequently compared by critics to Lennon-McCartney, but in America at least they never found the audience they deserved.

Songs You May Have Missed #274

rice

Chris Rice: “Lemonade” (2005)

I resisted this song for a long time as too saccharine, too cheerful, too recorded-by-an-overtly-Christian-artist. You see, I have a complicated relationship with “Christian” artists, and with “Christian artists”. But not with Christian artists per se. I hope the placement of the quotation marks makes the distinction clear.

You see, despite being a Christian, I approach my pop music fandom–ok, obsession–from enough of a purist’s perspective that there is no inside track for those who share my religious bent. If you want to sing about your God, even if it sounds like you’re singing about my God too, you’d better do so artfully, cleverly, melodically or movingly and pass the test of good pop music. Otherwise I’ll be skeptical that you’re merely plying a limited musical talent in the relatively shallow artistic pool of “Christian” music, or perhaps just happen to be a devout Christian who is also a musical hack.

Chris Rice is one Christian artist who has the talent to rise above some of the genre’s lyrical banality and melodic blandness. In fact, “Lemonade” is one of two tracks from his Amusing LP that were hits on the Adult Contemporary chart. His vocals and melodies bring to mind acoustic folk singer-songwriter David Wilcox more than they do any overtly Christian performer.

“Lemonade”, in fact, was not introduced to me as so-called Christian music, but as a wedding couple’s first dance song. Not only was it a fresh choice compared to other overused choices, but it just seemed to be–and is–a nice pop song. Which I think is the best compliment you can pay a piece of Christian music.

Songs You May Have Missed #273

argus

Wishbone Ash: “Leaf and Stream” (1972)

Although it only peaked at #169 on the album charts in America, 1972’s Argus by Wishbone Ash has come to be considered the British rock band’s quintessential record.

Wishbone Ash were known primarily as a twin-lead guitar hard rock and boogie band, but one which dabbled in various styles. Then on Argus, their third record, they went full-on Prog with long solos, complex, suite-like songs, mellotrons, and medieval themes (song titles included “Warrior”, “Throw Down the Sword” and “The King Will Come”).

While “Leaf and Stream” is actually the album’s shortest track, as well as one of its mellower offerings, it certainly captures the atmosphere and reflective mood of what is a classic early 70’s album.

Songs You May Have Missed #272

modern skirts

Modern Skirts: “Yugo” (2009)

This won’t be the last you hear of this Athens, Georgia band on this site. Their debut album deserved much wider recognition than it received and I hope to give it some here. This tune is from their second album, which contained some earworms as well.

See also: https://edcyphers.com/2013/08/14/songs-you-may-have-missed-463/

See also: https://edcyphers.com/2013/07/08/recommended-albums-51/

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