Gavin DeGraw

I love love love Gavin Degraw. He doesn't have too many songs, but the songs that I do know, I love. I like that the songs that I've heard each have a unique thing and cool sound about them. My favorites by him are "Sweeter", "Not Over You", and "Soldier". "Sweeter" and "Soldier" both have a really cool background beat to them. "Soldier" has a really interesting chorus with a lot of different sounds going on including his wonderful singing. I love how "Soldier" is basically saying how he'll be there for someone whenever they need it and be a "soldier" for them. So cute. I love cute songs like that. He also has a really pretty voice which I love. I like how in "Soldier" the beginning and end of the song are the same which the lyrics (singing la's basically). Well, I bet by now you can pretty much see what type of music I'm into. Chill, relaxing, guys with pretty voices. If there are any suggestions then seriously let me know!

"Sweeter"


"Soldier"



"Not Over You"



Overall, I love Gavin DeGraw! Check him out.

 

The Rolling Stones- Second Album

I really just cannot listen to the Rolling Stones. Every time we listen to it in class I am honestly just waiting for it to be over. Like, I look forward to listening to an album by them that I haven't heard yet, and then it just disappoints me. Hopefully, their later stuff will interest me more, but at the moment, I just can't take it. 12X5 was definitely an improvement from their first album, don't get me wrong. But even just a couple songs that I don't like just ruin the whole album for me. A couple of examples of songs I didn't like were "Under the Boardwalk", "212 South Michigan Avenue", and "Congratulations".

"Under the Boardwalk" (don't look at the video, it might give you a headache...)


I mean....seriously this song is dumb. I started laughing while listening. It's not that bad I guess until Jagger starts hitting those high notes and then they harmonize (grossly) when they say boardwalk and then you're just like....wait what. That was really bad. Anyways, that just was a part of me not liking this album.

"212 South Michigan Avenue"



I don't like this song because I don't like that it's an instrumental. Whenever I hear an instrumental for the first time and don't know it, I'm always like...so when's the singing going to start. I don't feel like an instrumental is something you would want to listen to in your free time. That's just my opinion. There's nothing to sing along to and there's no meaning to the song. I guess some people would disagree but that's how I see it.

"Congratulations"



This song is so slow and boring I almost fell asleep. Plus the lyrics are just dumb. I think that when you first hear a song, you want the beginning to like grab you and get your attention and make you want to keep listening but this makes me want to turn it off right away and go to sleep. Like, if you want to get people listening, come up with better lyrics! Or atleast pay someone else to...

Another reason I don't like a lot of their songs in this album is because of the harmonica. I feel like it sounds out of place in a lot of their songs. Whenever I think of harmonica, I think of either folk or country. Rock is different than both of those and I feel like harmonica just doesn't belong in it.

I don't want to bag on the Rolling Stones this entire time, because every song on their album was not bad. I do like a couple, for example, "Time is on My Side" and "Suzie Q" (a cover).

"Time is on My Side"



"Suzie Q"

Bob Schneider

I saw Bob Schneider this summer at an Express baseball game and just fell in love. His voice is so pretty and all of his music is really calming (I'm into chill music if you couldn't tell from my previous posts). My favorites by him are "40 Dogs" and "Honeypot". I could listen to his voice all day, it is just so relaxed and just helps me release stress. I really like the harmonies in the chorus and  the guitar in the back of "Honeypot". He kind of reminds me of Jack Johnson in his style of music, who I love. I like that there's no heavy stuff and the songs are light, happy, and relaxed. I strongly recommend it if you need some relaxing music, which I do all the time.

"40 Dogs"

"Honeypot"

I love Bob Schneider or any type of music like this, for example Jack Johnson, so if there's any suggestions for anything like this then definitely let me know!

The Rolling Stones

I don't like them. I don't like them at all. I maybe think that listening to the Rolling Stones after the Beatles was a bad idea, because now all I want to do is listen to more and more Beatles. I have seriously turned into one of those megafans, who if it was 1960, would be like freaking out in the crowd. The Beatles are always so cute and more safe, and the Stones sound dirty and not as experienced. I think the thing that makes me really not like them is Mick Jagger's voice. It is such a drastic change from the Beatles beautiful harmonies. One of the things I liked most about the Beatles was how well they sang together and how well thought out and perfect their harmonies were. It made all the lyrics sound incredible. But, Mick Jagger on the other hand just sounds gross and I could not even compare him to Paul McCartny (mostly because Paul is my love). I haven't really gotten to see the personality of the Stones, but I'm interested to find out, because after I saw the Beatle's documentary I loved them so much more. Maybe that will happen with the Stones. Some people say either Beatle's or Stones. I don't really agree with this because they sound completely different. It's not that I like the Beatle's when they are vs. the Stones , it's just that I like the Beatles and dislike the Stones, but not really comparing one to the other.

Here is a video of the Stones playing Tell Me:


All of them look so unhappy and serious it really bothers me. I just think they're kinda sketchy and think they're all that and "bad". Just a complete change from the Beatles, which is not good in my opinion.

John Mayer

John Mayer is one of my absolute favorites ever. His songs are always so sweet and his voice is literally TO DIE FOR. Some may argue that all his songs sound the same, and sometimes I could agree, but seriously, it never gets old to me. I guess I'm one of those people who doesn't really care if someone's songs sound the same because I believe in the saying "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". My favorites of his are "Shadow Days" and "Half of My Heart". He sounds like the most adorable guy ever, besides Paul McCartney of course.
Here is "Shadow Days":



I like this song because it's basically just saying he's realizing he's a good guy, and he's going to have a fresh start and listening to it just makes me relaxed, content, and happy.

Here is "Half of My Heart"




This song just has the most catchy melody like it gets stuck in my head all the time. I really like the guitar part after the chorus too. Another thing I really like is the acoustic guitar in all of his songs, because it sets the tone as being chill and relaxing.

Overall I love John Mayer and would totally recommend him even if you're not a person who likes songs that sound the same, just listen to a couple because all of his songs are really great.

In Love With the Beatles

I seriously caught the Beatles fever. At first, I thought their album was really good, but then I watched them in their documentary and thought they were AMAZING. I think most of it is that when you see them perform, they have so much energy and are so cute that you just fall in love. They shake their heads and make the crowd go wild. Off-stage, the have the best personalities. The faces they make and just how goofy they are just makes me like them more. "I Saw Her Standing There" is definitely one of my favorites because it just kicks off the album and gets everybody hyped. My personal favorite person out of the band is Paul McCartney. He is SO CUTE. He has the best voice and I guess the singer always sticks out in my mind, and it for sure helps that he was super attractive back in the 60's.  I think it's so crazy how well Paul, George, and John harmonize together. They know the exact distance from the microphone they should be and always get the pitches right. It just shows how different it was back in the 60's performing music. Now a days you have tech people back stage doing everything for you (sometimes making the fake singing), but the Beatles just did everything perfectly without the help of the technology we have now. One song where you can for sure see this was on their first American tour on their first visit to the Ed Sullivan Show. The song "She Loves You" starts at around 5 minutes into the video and their harmonizing is great.



But seriously, if you haven't seen the Beatles documentary I strongly reccomend it because if you aren't already in love with the Beatle's you totally will be after you watch it. Oh gosh I feel like one of those crazy fan girls in the crowd. I love them.

Ellie Goulding

I have recently started listening to an artist named Ellie Goulding. Her songs are really mellow and nice to listen to when you're relaxing. She has a sound kind of like a mix of Adele and Flourence and the Machine I think. I like one song in particular called "The Writer" because the lyrics are really interesting. The chorus sticks out to me just because it is so different and the words are really thought out well.

This is the chorus:

Why don't you be the artist

And make me out of clay

Why don't you be the writer And decide the words I say
'Cause I'd rather pretend

I'll still be there at the end

Only it's too hard to ask

Won't you try to help me

I like this because it's a really different way of putting what she is trying to say into words. What I get from this is that she is trying to be the right person for someone that she is growing apart from and she feels that the relationship will end soon if she doesn't become the person that her partner wants. I just thought that that was a really cool way to put it and it stuck out to me.

Here are some songs I like from Ellie Goulding's album "Lights":

The Writer

Under the Sheets

There is also an "Under the Sheets" remix by Chiddy Bang, and many other remix's of this song because it can be done so many different ways. I really love this album!

The Beatles

I now want to talk about, in my opinion, one of the best rock bands ever. Their first album, "Please please me" was pretty good but definitely not as good as their later stuff. My personal favorites from the album were "Love me do" were "I saw her standing there" and "Twist and Shout".

Here is a video of "I saw her standing there". I personally like this video because Paul McCartney is just so dang cute.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxMlmZqcoN4

The beat of this song is fast and light and when I hear the song, it just makes me want to dance.

The songs on this album that were my favorite were mostly the songs that were originally written by the Beatles. I didn't like their covers as much because they didn't sound as interesting and different as the songs that they actually wrote. One cover that I did like though, was "Twist and Shout". John Lenon's scratchy voice actually adds to the intensity of the song, and makes it more fun and interesting to listen to. This version of "Twist and Shout" just makes me think of a giant party because every time I hear it I think of the parade scene in "Farris Buelers Day Off".

Here's that scene showing basically how the song makes the parade a huge party:

The Beatle's were such a huge inspiration for so many future bands and a huge part of pop culture. I personally love them and plan to listen to them lots in the future.