Grace Potter and the Nocturnals

Last Saturday, not having an idea what I wanted to listen to next, I perused the top 10 albums on iTunes. I noticed that #8 was someone I had never heard of, Grace Potter & the Nocturals. Intrigued and a little bothered (because I should at least recognize everyone in the top 10), I read a couple of the reviews and took the plunge. This all coincided nicely with my first “long” run for my marathon training. My plan is to listen to new music each week for my long runs, which will distract me to the point that I hardly even notice I’m running. I have to admit that I did pay more attention to the music itself than I normally do on a first listen when I’m usually reading the paper on the train or working in the kitchen. The downside is that when I’ve listened to the album since then, I can literally picture where I was on my run when I first heard each song. No!!!! I’ve taken perfectly good music and now associate it with exercise- it’s had the wrong effect!

Anyway, on to Grace Potter and the Nocturals. As I mentioned, I have never heard of them and know nothing about them, but one of the reviews I read quickly described the sound as Janis Joplin meets Norah Jones. What??? I don’t think it’s necessary to take the opposite ends of the female vocal spectrum to describe something in the middle. I would say she sounds like an energized Norah Jones, although I guess the Janis Joplin comes from her ability to hold a note indefinitely. I would compare her most closely to Joss Stone, although she’s a notch calmer. Some of her songs have a hint of country (not good enough at country to tell you who she sounds like) and many have a kind of bluesy feel. She ranges from quite loud to very mellow, a nice mix. I keep saying “she” because I do not hear any vocals from the Nocturals (must investigate).

Again, without knowing anything about her, I would say she’s a single gal who is experiencing (and signing about) all kinds of single gal issues: being excited by new love, not answering the phone when her ex calls, not having enough money, the usual stuff, but the lyrics are a bit unexpected in places, which keeps things interesting, and she’s obviously more mature than a Taylor Swift. I am really enjoying this album. It’s a good mix of upbeat and soulful, and seriously it’s only $7.99 and has 14 songs- you can hardly find a better deal than that! Apparently the group was on Good Morning America this morning, so I can hardly get credit for discovering something new, I guess.

Now that I’ve visited the offical Grace Potter & the Nocturnals website, I’ve learned that Grace herself is 26, is from Vermont, and The Nocturals comprise the band: three hippie-looking dudes and one other girl. When I pay attention, I can hear them backing up on vocals, but it’s subtle- nice. I’m including what seems to be the only “real” video below, although I am hesitant because it gets a little screamy toward the end, which isn’t representative of all their songs whatsoever. Here are my recommendations from the album (although I am thoroughly enjoying the whole thing). I probably should have mentioned earlier that the album is self titled.

· Paris (also the most popular song on iTunes from the album)
· Tiny Light (video below)
· Colors (really pretty song)
· Fooling Myself (second most popular song, also the quietest song)

R&B Favorites

Before I was a suburban music mom, I was a suburban music girl and teenager, comfortably protected in relatively homogenous surroundings, happily listening to Bruce Springsteen day and night. That changed when I was shipped off to the large public state university, which contained both people of other religions and (gasp) minorities. At some point early during my freshman year, I was brushing my teeth in the large communal bathroom on my dorm floor and at the same time there was an unseen girl singing in the shower (yes, singing loudly in the shower!), belting out Anita Baker’s Sweet Love. She was singing with such power and emotion that I literally got chills. I am certain no one at my Catholic high school could sing like that! Thus began a love of R&B music and a slight deviation from all Bruce all the time.

Over the years since, I have grown to love Mary J. Blige and John Legend in particular, but there is something about all R&B music that is comforting to me. I recently picked up a free song card at Starbucks and it happened to be a song by Leela James. The song is pretty good but got me thinking in general about some of my favorite R&B songs. I compiled a playlist and have been listening to it for the past couple days, tweaking it as needed.

This morning my teenage daughters and I left for a little road trip to visit some prospective colleges and had to leave at the ungodly hour of 4:00 a.m. Being the good teenagers that they are, they promptly got bored of entertaining their driver and fell asleep, at which point I turned on my new playlist (the girls would never have tolerated that while conscious) and let my inner Anita Baker come out. It was while singing along that I nearly dropped my favorite Alicia Keys song because I discovered that it’s sung at a pitch that is unmanageable for most humans, but I kept it in because Alicia seems to manage it fine and likely didn’t intend for it to be sung by suburban moms. While we might all have a little R&B in us, mine will probably be limited to the car- turns out I sing better in my mind than in real life.

As I write this, my student driver is behind the wheel and we are heading from Indiana to Kentucky, both relatively far from R&B, I believe. Anyway, the girls are awake and we actually have a country station on, which the car radio probably feels more comfortable with in this area. Here is my list (*Mary J. and John Legend songs are simply representing all songs by those artists):

· Family Affair (Sly & The Family Stone)
· Let’s Stay Together (Al Green)
· Sweet Love (Anita Baker)
· Better Things (Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings)
· Just Fine (Mary J. Blige)
· Mercy Mercy Me (Marvin Gaye)
· She Don’t Have to Know (John Legend)
· If I Ain’t Got U (Alicia Keys)
· Killing Me Softly With His Song (The Fugees)
· A Change is Gonna Come (Leela James)

Groovy playlist!

Misc. Singles III

Here are some new singles (including one from Jack Johnson, as you can see), which were obviously chosen fairly randomly- it’s all about what I’m interested in and from there I recommend what I think everyone should listen to. Read on…

· OMG (Usher) – I’ve liked Usher in the past and this song has been #1 on iTunes recently. It is pretty catchy and you’ll find yourself singing to yourself. I call artists like Usher hip hop lite, not too hardcore.

· Rill Rill (Sleigh Bells) – I had never heard of Sleigh Bells, but I read two reviews of their album in two days earlier this week. They’re a pretty new male/female due from New York and have a cool, kind of quirky sound. The actual vocals belong to a female with a really pretty voice, and the lyrics are clever and unexpected. I’ve read that this song is actually their least “alternative”, but I like it and might try the whole thing.

· You and Your Heart (Jack Johnson) – If you are a Jack Johnson fan, you are really never going to be disappointed with a new song because one of his greatest strengths is his predictable mellowness. He is a Hawaiian surfer dude, not a rocker, so he has perfect music to relax to and you don’t have to work very hard to like his songs. The downside is that you’re never really going to be surprised by what you get. That being said, this song is actually a bit livelier than his usual, meaning there is some electric guitar action and he sings a decibel or so louder than usual.

· Southern Pacifica (Josh Ritter) – I have seen this name around and was elated when I saw that the song was being offered free at Starbucks since those songs are often by artists I’ve never heard of. What luck that it was one I’ve wanted to try anyway! He has a cool mellow song but with a bit more of an edge to it than a Jack Johnson, for instance. I’d definitely try other songs by him, although I have to stop thinking that he used to be on Three’s Company.

· Not Afraid (Eminem) – One thing you can say about rappers is that they should never need therapy because absolutely every thought and emotion comes straight out their mouths- and beware of the “explicit” versions (I have no idea how they make a song like this “clean”). This song is no exception, but one thing about Eminem is that he has really interesting lyrics if you’re not offended by them. This song is basically about Em getting his life together, cleaning up and coming back to his fans after a hiatus. It has a good message but requires some concentration to sort through it (I’m always distracted by the complexity of his rhymes!). I tend to like Eminen because I think he’s actually really talented, but he’s never for the faint of heart.

· You’ve Got a Friend (James Taylor and Carole King) – due to absolutely no forethought about the sequence of my playlist, this song followed Eminem. James’ voice always feels like being wrapped in a really comfy blanket, especially after being emotionally exhausted by the previous song. This album is from a 2007 live show he and Carole King did at the same theatre where they first performed in 1970, the Troubadour in West Holleywood, California. This album contains some of his songs and some of hers. They sound great together, just as they always did, so you can’t really go wrong if you like either of them. One thing that’s always fun about live albums is the bits of chatter that’s included, which this has.

· My First Kiss (3Oh!3 with Ke$ha) – I’ve been reading about this 3Oh!3 guy (I think he chose to do the duet with Ke$ha because he was drawn to the special characters in her name- kindred spirits) and discovered that his “name” refers to his area code (303 in case you are having trouble interpreting it) as he’s from one of my favorite places: Boulder! I don’t really picture Boulder as producing sounds like this, but it’s pretty lively and will be a temporary chart topper but doubtful on a long-term presence. Good to dance to (if I was about 20 years younger).

· Rock That Body (Black Eyed Peas) – I think the Black Eyed Peas are just systematically going through every song on this album and when one starts to dry up they release another, so this is the latest, although none are ever going to beat I Gotta Feeling. Not crazy about what sounds like The Chipmunks singing on this song, but all Black Eyed Peas songs are clever, memorable and different- they can’t be accused of doing the same song over and over.

Recommendations? None that I really disliked from this group, but the ones I particularly liked are:

· OMG (Usher)
· Rill Rill (Sleigh Bells)
· Southern Pacifica (Josh Ritter)

Here is the song Rill Rill, although there’s no video. At least you’ll hear the song.

Glee vs. American Idol

I was startled last week to glance at the Top 10 singles on iTunes and see that five of the ten songs were either American Idol finalists or Glee songs. Therein was hatched my idea to listen, ponder and compare a few songs from those two shows. The premise of both shows is that they do covers and add their own touch to them. To some extent the American Idol contestants are at an immediate disadvantage because they need to take a song that was likely done well the first time and make it their own- but not so much that they literally change the song. Doing covers of U2, Paul McCartney and Frank Sinatra is a tough job and the last thing they probably want is for people to be wishing they were listening to the real version. Glee, on the other hand, has more liberty to mix things up a bit and some of the songs they’ve done on the show are pretty fun, especially if there is a good association to the choreography and scene from the show.

We are a Glee family and I’ve watched enough American Idol this season to keep up, even if I don’t want to commit to hours a week of watching it (we can get through the results show in about 10 minutes). I’m a little surprised that Lee won the whole thing- I think he’s good but not “special” enough that I thought people would vote for him more than anyone else. He’s a bit of a chameleon and adapted to whatever song he chose, not generally making it much of a standout, in my opinion. It will be interesting to hear what he does with his own stuff. In the paper this morning, I read a quick interview with him and he named Dave Matthews as someone he tries to emulate, which isn’t much of a surprise, but I was surprised to learn that his favorite artist is Sufjan Stevens, a bit of an obscure indie singer, which is encouraging. Maybe when Lee has the freedom to do his own thing he’ll stand out a bit more.

Crystal, however, has a pretty distinct style and looked really uncomfortable when she had to break out of her comfort zone on the show. Hopefully she’ll also have the liberty to customize her sound a bit, even though it might not have the same broad audience commercial appeal that someone like Lee probably will. She is definitely talented! I also bought one Michael Lynche song because I really liked him on American Idol and I think he’ll go on to some success if he can channel his sound properly (which I don’t think he did in the song I chose- my bad).

Now, Glee… The actors on this show generally have some pretty impressive credentials, so it’s not totally surprising that they can turn out some good songs. If you watch the show, you not only can picture what they were doing while singing a given song but also the reason they were singing that particular song, which is kind of cool. Isn’t there a song for every mood or situation? Based on Glee there sure is. It’s interesting that a byproduct of the show is a bunch of songs that end up being popular. How could you not love an episode where the glee club’s assignment was to take a “bad” song and make it modern and relevant (take note, American Idol- great theme)! Who would have thought Total Eclipse of the Heart and Safety Dance would end up being popular again?

Here are a handful of songs I’ve chosen based partly on iTunes popularity and partly on personal choice. Hopefully it’s a good enough mix for me to report my very scientific results.

American Idol
· Beautiful Day (U2) – Lee DeWyze – Nothing special about this version, definitely better sung by U2.
· Hallelujah (various) – Lee DeWyze – I read criticism for choosing this song because Simon Cowell apparently owns the rights to it, but it’s a really pretty song. Lee did okay with it- still don’t know if it’s worth listening to his version over another (we got hooked on it in our house from the original Shrek soundtrack).
· Falling Slowly (Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova) – Lee DeWyze and Crystal Bowersox – I fell in love with this song when it was sung at the Oscars a year or so back- it is a really pretty song, slow and quiet. In my opinion Lee and Crystal jazzed it up a little too much and took away from why it was such a great song to begin with.
· Maybe I’m Amazed (Paul McCartney) – Crystal Bowersox – It would be intimidating to sing a song originally done by one of the Beatles, but in this case I think it’s easier not to draw comparisons than it would have been if a male had sung it. She stayed pretty true to the original version and sounded good.
· Me and Bobby McGee (Janis Joplin) – Crystal Bowersox – Now this is a version I like better than the original. To me, Crystal’s voice softens the song a little from the brassy original version (I know that was Janis’ style, I just don’t love it). Crystal rocks it toward the end and sounds great!
· The Way You Look Tonight (Frank Sinatra) – Michael Lynche – I do love Michael and if I could sit down and have a chat with him about his future, I would steer him more toward John Legend or Al Green than Frank (although that was the challenge that week, so not really his fault, I guess). This particular song is great, and he put kind of a big band sound to it, which unfortunately resulted in kind of a lounge vibe. This didn’t work for me, but I am looking forward to what we hear from him when it’s his own work.

Glee
· Poker Face (Lady Gaga) – Until the chorus, it’s hard to even recognize this song no matter how many times you’ve heard the original because it’s quite a bit slower and accompanied only by piano. When I heard this song on the show I didn’t really like, but it’s definitely growing on me.
· Gives You Hell (All American Rejects) – This version is sung by a female, which immediately makes it different from the original, and it’s sung with a lot of feeling (kind of an angry song anyway, not that you can tell from the title), which is cool. I like it!
· Beautiful (Christina Aguilera) – On the show this song was sung by a Jennifer Hudson type girl and I wish she had belted it out a bit more, but it was pretty controlled, even though it was pleasant enough. She got into it a little at the end, but I think it could have been a lot more.

And the winner is: Glee! My reasons: Glee isn’t afraid to REALLY change up the songs, which gives the songs a completely new sound, and they match the songs to a particular situation, making them more heartfelt. I am, however, looking forward to some new songs by the AI crew. Picks from this group:

· Me and Bobby McGee – Crystal Bowersox
· Poker Face – Glee Cast
· Gives You Hell – Glee Cast

Okay, I will use this post as an opportunity to expose people to Sufjan Stevens. A couple of his songs were featured in the movie Little Miss Sunshine. Since he doesn’t seem to do actual videos, use this as more of a way to become acquainted with his work, not necessarily to be entertained by the video. This song is called Chicago and is from his Album Illinoise (yes, Illinoise). If Lee uses Sufjan as his model he’ll be in good shape!