The Green Mixtape: 2 Oh hey, current events in music?

Welcome back to the Green Mixtape!

This week a number of our songs unintentionally reflected current events. It wasn't a planned theme, so 2 of mine are a bit more random, but I like the idea of doing occasional themes in the future, so that's something to think about.

Green Mixtape

Sofia's Picks:

Role Models by AJR
I love the simple guitar backing to the acoustic-then-layered sounding vocals. AJR also has a bit of a spacier sound- like when we watched that youtube video about gated reverb and how to make your music sound like it’s being performed in a big place. Plus they have a trumpet pretty often in their sounds, which I adore. And, speaking of the hearings, Role Models is totally relevant: you can tell from the line "my role models are on tv for the wrong reasons" and the mention of Louis CK.

What It Do by E-Dubble
This kinda reminds me of Travie McCoy (Do you remember him? he did Billionaire). Also, since we’ve talked about how we’re finding rap that we actually like now- this song is fun and I like the lyrics, especially “I try to look for goodness even when I see bad.”

Without You by Oh Wonder
I kinda knew a couple songs by this duo and I think they’ve been pretty popular at some point (I think Drive was their hit). This is from their first album, which I think was more popular than their second album. I came across this song and I really liked the interweaving of their two voices with the bouncy keyboard and the vibrate-y backing sound that reminds me of Sylvan Esso.

Wayne's Picks:

Sincere by Doe

Heard of this band on All Songs Considered, checked 'em out. They remind me of several bands that I liked in the 80s and 90s. I thought the lyrics of this one were timely after the Kavanaugh hearings. I like the 2nd level/ overlapping lyrics in the 2nd verse.

Despite Repeated Warnings by Paul McCartney

On first listen I thought "okay, cool ship metaphor...Trump, brexit i dig it." Then it kept going and he wasn't letting up on the metaphor. And I started to think "is it going to carry thru the whole song?!" And by God, it does, but it effin works.  You go, Paul. Grab the keys and lock him up! Mini-suite style is classic mccartney. It's not the best song on the album (that's probably Dominoes... which I'll put on outtakes) but this line from rolling stone's review sums up the song nicely: "Even when he’s pissed off about political apocalypse, Paul gonna Paul. As he always should."

St. by Restorations

I'll stick with the theme of songs that riff on current events. Love the drums on this song, which sounds like it was crafted to be played in a stadium. I dont know much about the band, but I dig their sound. Also has flavors of bands I liked in the 80s and 90s.

Our Notes:

Sofia: I totally want to headband to sincere! lol. Reading the lyrics, even though the song came out in 2016, it is still completely relevant, which is unfortunate but true.

WOW I love the melodic change at 2:35 for DRW. It is such a Paul vibe throughout. I love the ship metaphor and I love the fact that it is political, because I feel like I haven't been caught by the meanings within a Paul song for a while. I remember New and Queenie Eye from the last album, but I don't remember much about them, and I don't remember anything from Kisses On The Bottom (still the worst album title). A ship metaphor seems especially fitting for a Brit. But yeah, I'm liking DRW so far. Dominoes is good too.

I like St. the most of your choices this week. The lyrics are just great, and I'm totally into this sound. The drums are so enthusiastic, I just approve of this song overall. Are they using gated reverb? Now that I know about gated reverb, I can't tell if I'm just imagining it everywhere or if I'm legitimately finding it everywhere.

Wayne: Role models...I love this one. Love the chord progressions on the guitar, especially that chord that leads from the chorus into the verses. Timely lyrics fitting nicely into that current events theme.

What it Do...I always prefer rap songs that have some singing and rapping. I guess I'm just biased towards singing in that regard. This is a catchy song. Not sure if it's sampling something else, but it feels mostly original. Something else I lean towards.

Without You... kinda feels like a current pop trend to have male and female vocalists singing the same melody instead of harmonizing. Not sure I love it, but it's okay. It works in this song.

Sofia: Yeah I like AJR a lot. I also prefer more melodic rap! Idk if there's a sample used or not but I liked the song. Lol, I hadn't thought about how that's a trend to have male and female on the same melody. I wonder why that's become a trend.

Wayne: I'm not sure it's a trend. It just reminded me of stuff I've heard on more poppy stations. But I could be wrong.

Sofia: Hm yeah idk. It's definitely a good example of current popular pop though.