Green Mixtape 10: April
This month I finished and presented my thesis "Real Life or Fantasy? Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody and it's Popularity" so my life was completely taken over by musicology this April, but I have successfully defended my thesis and I will be graduating from New College of Florida with a Bachelor's of Arts in the concentration of Humanities on May 17th!
Green Mixtape
Green Mixtape Outtakes
Sofia:
Wayne:
I love Shook! Cool start, reminds me of starting up a record player with the needle already on it. Great voice. The song has a Flamingos Only Have Eyes for You vibe. Love the vintage sound. Kinda Phil Spector wall of sound vibe. Love how her vocals start more chill then evolve where she's really belting it out.
Sofia:
That's so cool that they score movies! Lol it is very airy fairy dreamy. Also it almost sounds like he just has a lisp, there's enough done to the vocals that you can basically listen to the song without listening to anything he says. It's funny how much this feels to me as exactly like a song you would send me. You love the atmospheric plus instruments on top type of music. Oh yeah, 2:15 has that great errrree sound, Idk either which instrument it is.
Wayne:
Funny, when I first heard Hold On in Starbucks, I thought "is that smashing pumpkins?" which is a band I respect but never really got into. The vocals sound similar, but without the growl that Billy Corgan always eventually ads.
Sofia:
Wayne:
Cool cover! Definitely in the same family of covers as lo-fang' s. I actually kinda like the original, but I'd listen to this more often.
Sofia:
I don't hate the original, it has a great melody and is super catchy. The backing on the original kinda dates it as "old" pop music though. Kinda feels like a musicological time capsule.
Wayne:
Sofia:
I saw Sheryl Crow at Bonnaroo last year lol
Wayne:
She may have done this song. Its amazing the influence the Beatles have had, that almost 50 years after they broke up, we still used them in conversations about music style and influences.
Sofia:
No idea, I'm sure we could look it up and see if she did. I don't recognize it, but I also never listen to her. It is quite Beatlesy, I like it. haha it's so true, I was just listening to them yesterday. It's funny, even when I don't feel like I listen to them that much, it always turns out that it's more than I thought. They were in my top 5 most played artists on spotify, which I was surprised by, because I hadn't thought that I listened to them that often
Wayne:
I also like that she can be a little imperfect...pitchy, in her songs, including this one. Its refreshing, with so much music today over-produced to perfection.
Sofia:
Yeah I do tend to like imperfections.
Wayne:
Yeah, cool sound. You do typically write really long write-ups. Puts the pressure on, since I often don't have much to say about the songs I pick. Making it into a blog also ups the ante. I've decided to stop overthinking my selections too much. Too often I don't place a song because I know its not your style, or i think its too chill for your tastes. But the point of this exercise is not just to give songs that we're sure the other will like. It's just to share songs we like as a means for possibly exposing the other to songs they could like that they hadn't heard or wouldn't otherwise hear.
Sofia:
Yeah exactly. It just happens that I have a lot of songs that I feel intensely that I want to share with you so that I can talk to someone about the song, but it's totally okay to just put on a song because you felt like it. And sometimes I don't have a lot to say about your songs because they're not necessarily my style or something I can talk a lot about but it doesn't mean that I don't like them. Sometimes I'm just like "yeah this is good, I like your choice and I agree with what you've said about."
Wayne:
Sofia:
I didn't see him at Bonnaroo, but that's cool that he was there! Oh yes, he's totally in the range of automatically-will-like-this-voice for me. And I love that he did a year album. That's so cool. This song is great, I need to listen to the whole album now!
Wayne:
It's all about the same level of chill. Great album to have on in the background when you've got guests over. Lol. Nice ambiance.
Sofia:
Oh yeaaah, I can totally imagine it playing in the house with guests. Also, speaking of you not putting on songs because you think they might be too chill, this is a perfect example of a chill artist that I totally would listen to. So you never know! I LOVE his song Home.
Wayne:
Yeah, that's a good one. On Our Own is powerful. Personal about spirituality (or lack of) without being preachy. He's a great writer.
I'm a big John Barry fan (film composer, mostly from 60's-80's), and there's a Goldfrapp song that reminds me of John Barry type compositions. Since I already have a goldfrapp song on green, I put it on outtakes. Oh, and, uh, don't worry about the lyrics. They're very processed, garbled, and often unintelligible.
Sofia:
Lol yeah I've been listening and haven't paid any attention to what has been said.
Wayne:
Just think of her voice as an instrument. Lol
Sofia:
Oh yeah totally. It's a really interesting song. The title feels so weird with the song.
Wayne:
It's gorgeous. Yeah, she's weird. Lol. She has another song with super processed vocals that I love for its weirdness. It's called Deer Stop (also very John Barry influenced). If you want to get right to maximum weirdness, skip forward to 2:45.
Sofia:
This whole song is definitely weird too. Wow you're totally right about this section.
Wayne: Happy Man...cool sound. I especially like the chorus. The falsetto processed voice gives the song a different sound. The video is weird but also original in a confounding way. Feels almost David Lynch-esque
Sofia:
Yeah, I like Hippo Campus. Pretty sure they're gonna be at Bonnaroo this year. I hadn't listened to this album though. A very different vibe than Buttercup, a lot more chill and with slower builds. This is a weird love song. Though it's also very poetic in its lyrics. Also this song is just sooo long.
Green Mixtape
Green Mixtape Outtakes
Sofia:
Shook by Haley Reinhart
To continue with the funk! I know you’ve seen a video of her before because we watched PMJ’s version of Creep with her singing a fabulously chilling cover of the song, but have you listened to any of her stuff? I was a fan of her first two album, and never got into her third album, but she’s just come out with a forth, and I really like it so far. I’ve always kinda associated with her being along the same lines as Duffy (who I hope will actually come out with new stuff someday, because she’s super talented). She tends to vary the type of “vintage sounds” her music uses, and I think it’s fascinating to see her relationship between what she does with PMJ and what her solo stuff sounds like. So out of all the songs on her album, I think this one may be my favorite because the range of emotional intensity throughout the song and its atmospheric soul vibes. Of her earlier stuff, my favorite song was Better, so I’ll add that to outtakes along with a couple other of her new ones.Wayne:
I love Shook! Cool start, reminds me of starting up a record player with the needle already on it. Great voice. The song has a Flamingos Only Have Eyes for You vibe. Love the vintage sound. Kinda Phil Spector wall of sound vibe. Love how her vocals start more chill then evolve where she's really belting it out.
Hold On by JB Dunckel
Dunckel is the half of the group Air that has developed an offshoot career scoring movies. I heard this song in a Starbucks in LA last week. It was one of those rare moments where I hear a song playing in public and I can tell I really like it during first listen so I scramble to get Soundhound open before the song ends. I love the chord progressions, the crisp beat, the dreamy vocals (just like Air, duh). When I looked up the lyrics, they're kinda weak, but he's French, so we'll cut him some slack. I like the warped synths (or guitars) that start up at 2:15.Sofia:
That's so cool that they score movies! Lol it is very airy fairy dreamy. Also it almost sounds like he just has a lisp, there's enough done to the vocals that you can basically listen to the song without listening to anything he says. It's funny how much this feels to me as exactly like a song you would send me. You love the atmospheric plus instruments on top type of music. Oh yeah, 2:15 has that great errrree sound, Idk either which instrument it is.
Wayne:
Funny, when I first heard Hold On in Starbucks, I thought "is that smashing pumpkins?" which is a band I respect but never really got into. The vocals sound similar, but without the growl that Billy Corgan always eventually ads.
Sofia:
Toxic (Cover) by Degree
As you well know, I grew up completely indifferent to Britney Spears. She’s interesting to me in ethnomusicology type of way, but I’ve never listened to here except when I used to watch Glee in high school and they did liked to put some Britney Spears songs in. Well now, I’m the kind of music nerd, now that I’m trying to take about Britney Spears, I had to google Toxic to find out what album it is in (which I don’t recognize at all). So, In The Zone has 13 songs, 5 of which don’t include Britney Spears in the writing credit. So, I don’t have Britney Spears to thank for in the writing of the song, but as the first version of it, I’m thankful she did this song because I love this cover. I was listening to AllttA, because I’m obsessed with them (I was so surprised they were my most-listened to artist of last year when Spotify told me) and I realized they had this other artist listed on their song I Got One, and this was the first song I listened to of just him, and I instantly thought that it needed to be on the mixtape. Reminiscent of Lo-Fang’s cover of You’re The One That I Want, I love the atmospheric twinkly super slow build that occurs over the length of the song. I had to actually listen to the original, which has got to be the first time that this song has been played from my spotify account, to be able to get a proper comparison to the two, because I was curious as to how all the backing sounded. Anyways, I now love Degree, and this song currently has < 1000 listens according to Spotify, so I think that’s gonna change, because I’ve already listened to it 4 times in the process of discover and deciding to write about it.Wayne:
Cool cover! Definitely in the same family of covers as lo-fang' s. I actually kinda like the original, but I'd listen to this more often.
Sofia:
I don't hate the original, it has a great melody and is super catchy. The backing on the original kinda dates it as "old" pop music though. Kinda feels like a musicological time capsule.
Wayne:
Rest of Me by Sheryl Crow
Another "found" song, this time at Burlington Coat Factory. You may have heard this one before. I'm pretty sure it's gotten some radio play. Just a solid acoustic pop song with vocal harmonies that have a very Beatlesy sensibility; this song could easily have been on Rubber Soul or Revolver. I'm not a big Sheryl Crow fan, but she's definitely carved out a distinctive sound and is still making good music. This song came out 2 years ago.Sofia:
I saw Sheryl Crow at Bonnaroo last year lol
Wayne:
She may have done this song. Its amazing the influence the Beatles have had, that almost 50 years after they broke up, we still used them in conversations about music style and influences.
Sofia:
No idea, I'm sure we could look it up and see if she did. I don't recognize it, but I also never listen to her. It is quite Beatlesy, I like it. haha it's so true, I was just listening to them yesterday. It's funny, even when I don't feel like I listen to them that much, it always turns out that it's more than I thought. They were in my top 5 most played artists on spotify, which I was surprised by, because I hadn't thought that I listened to them that often
Wayne:
I also like that she can be a little imperfect...pitchy, in her songs, including this one. Its refreshing, with so much music today over-produced to perfection.
Sofia:
Yeah I do tend to like imperfections.
Mango Love by Shawn Wasabi ft Satica
A lot of the time I have really long explanations as to why I’m putting a song on our list, but this song is just fun. I love the percussive sounds they use, and I think its cool that the vocalist just has this smooth breathy way of singing over the bouncy percussion.Wayne:
Yeah, cool sound. You do typically write really long write-ups. Puts the pressure on, since I often don't have much to say about the songs I pick. Making it into a blog also ups the ante. I've decided to stop overthinking my selections too much. Too often I don't place a song because I know its not your style, or i think its too chill for your tastes. But the point of this exercise is not just to give songs that we're sure the other will like. It's just to share songs we like as a means for possibly exposing the other to songs they could like that they hadn't heard or wouldn't otherwise hear.
Sofia:
Yeah exactly. It just happens that I have a lot of songs that I feel intensely that I want to share with you so that I can talk to someone about the song, but it's totally okay to just put on a song because you felt like it. And sometimes I don't have a lot to say about your songs because they're not necessarily my style or something I can talk a lot about but it doesn't mean that I don't like them. Sometimes I'm just like "yeah this is good, I like your choice and I agree with what you've said about."
Wayne:
Easily by Bruno Major
I think you'll like this guy's voice. Cool story about his album. He set the goal of writing one song every month for a year. At the end, the 12 songs became his album. This song is from that. He played bonaroo last summer, so maybe you saw him.Sofia:
I didn't see him at Bonnaroo, but that's cool that he was there! Oh yes, he's totally in the range of automatically-will-like-this-voice for me. And I love that he did a year album. That's so cool. This song is great, I need to listen to the whole album now!
Wayne:
It's all about the same level of chill. Great album to have on in the background when you've got guests over. Lol. Nice ambiance.
Sofia:
Oh yeaaah, I can totally imagine it playing in the house with guests. Also, speaking of you not putting on songs because you think they might be too chill, this is a perfect example of a chill artist that I totally would listen to. So you never know! I LOVE his song Home.
Wayne:
Yeah, that's a good one. On Our Own is powerful. Personal about spirituality (or lack of) without being preachy. He's a great writer.
I'm a big John Barry fan (film composer, mostly from 60's-80's), and there's a Goldfrapp song that reminds me of John Barry type compositions. Since I already have a goldfrapp song on green, I put it on outtakes. Oh, and, uh, don't worry about the lyrics. They're very processed, garbled, and often unintelligible.
Sofia:
Lol yeah I've been listening and haven't paid any attention to what has been said.
Wayne:
Just think of her voice as an instrument. Lol
Sofia:
Oh yeah totally. It's a really interesting song. The title feels so weird with the song.
Wayne:
It's gorgeous. Yeah, she's weird. Lol. She has another song with super processed vocals that I love for its weirdness. It's called Deer Stop (also very John Barry influenced). If you want to get right to maximum weirdness, skip forward to 2:45.
Sofia:
This whole song is definitely weird too. Wow you're totally right about this section.
Happy Man by Jungle
Okay, do you know Good Mythical Morning on youtube? The youtubers are Rhett and Link and they had an employee named John Warder who left and moved back to Texas to be closer to family, and his youtube videos are actually so well done, I really really enjoy the videos he creates because they interact with video making and music in a really fun way. He created an unpacking video and in it, he recommends this band. I don’t have much to say about the song itself except that I found it and that it has a great sound that I thought you would appreciate.Wayne: Happy Man...cool sound. I especially like the chorus. The falsetto processed voice gives the song a different sound. The video is weird but also original in a confounding way. Feels almost David Lynch-esque
Passenger by Hippo Campus
If Hold On was all style without much in the way of carefully crafted lyrics, Passenger makes up for that. The lyrics are intriguing, which is not the norm for love songs.Sofia:
Yeah, I like Hippo Campus. Pretty sure they're gonna be at Bonnaroo this year. I hadn't listened to this album though. A very different vibe than Buttercup, a lot more chill and with slower builds. This is a weird love song. Though it's also very poetic in its lyrics. Also this song is just sooo long.
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