(THIS POST ORIGINALLY APPEARS ON THE TWIN CITIES BLOG NEWEST INDUSTRY)
Aura, Herman Jones, Mind & Matter, Walter Lewis & The Blue Stars, & The Style Band...
Well hello again, MP3 junkies! Welcome to Songs Of The Week #67!
For those of you who are new to the SOTW column, here's the story: TCDroogsma and MinneSarah are both fans of The Current's Song Of The Day podcast. They're also both opinionated and have access to computers. Seeing an opportunity to let them indulge in their MP3 habit and put them to work writing reviews we created the Songs Of The Week column. Over a year later later and here we are.
As always, we strongly suggest that you follow this link and subscribe to the podcast yourself. It's free and it's fun for the whole family!
This week provide two unique challenges. First (and most importantly), MinneSarah took the week off. Unfortunately that means all you're left with is the ramblings of TCDroogsma. Again, we apologize.
Once you've given each song a spin or two feel free to cast a vote for your favorite song of the week in the poll to the right side of the page. The artist who accrues the most votes wins the validation that comes from winning an anonymous internet poll, arguably the loftiest height to which a modern musician can aspire.
So... Droogsy... thoughts?
01. Aura - Taste Of Love
TCDroogsma:
Alright, first things first: As I've mentioned just about every time I've been asked to review a funk and/or soul song here for SOTW I've prefaced my review by stating that I almost never listen to this style of music in my free time. As such, I think almost all of the songs are great. Imagine if you'd never been on a rollercoaster before and then rode the coaster at Mall Of America. You'd think it was the greatest rollercoaster ever, right? Well, that's how I feel about funk & soul tunes. So take just about everything I write this week with a grain of salt.
Now that that's out of the way, let's get into this.
"Taste Of Love" was probably my favorite of these songs. It's an ode to those first few weeks (months?) of being genuinely, obsessively in love. Despite it's alluring title, the song has a pure, sexuality-free innocence to it. While the bass & chka-chka guitar definitely give this song a funky flavor, at its core "Taste Of Love" is a pop song (complete with a horn-based hook in the chorus that sounds like it would fit right at home as a jingle for a car commercial). With group vocals ending the song singing, "the more I taste it, the more I love it..." the song sounds like it could soundtrack a montage of a young, hip couple playing with dogs and trying on hats.
Final Score: 4/5
02. Herman Jones - I Love You
TCDroogsma:
"I Love You" continues along the same innocent lines as "Taste Of Love." The songs reflects on a love that dates all the way back "from childhood to high school." The backing vocalists play off the innocene of the song with some "do-do-dooo's" that, were this a slicked up record, would likely have been mixed much more smoothly. As such, they have a ragged, charmingly amateur-ish sound, making "I Love You" sound less like a song for the masses and more like a demo recorded by Herman Jones specifically for the ears of his life-long love.
Final Score: 3/5
03. Mind & Matter - Sunshine Lady
TCDroogsma:
"Sunshine Lady" opens with a rumble of thunder that makes it wound like something Tim Meadows would have played when he was hosting The Quiet Storm. The song quickly takes a turn toward the more pleasant, bouncing along until we reach the chorus in which we're informed that the titular lady was given her name because, "You're the one who made me grow..." With that bit of knowledge the song almost seems like a sequel to "I Love You," the innocence of youth has passed, the complications of the twenties were faced hand in hand (symbolized by the opening thunder clap), and our couple is standing at the precipice of the next chapter with a love stronger than
Final Score: 3/5
04 Walter Lewis & The Blue Stars - I Have Love At Home
TCDroogsma:
At this point in the narrative arc or our couple the first moments of new love from "Taste Of Love" have passed, the mutual affection of "I Love You" has been established, and that love has pushed through the trials and tribulations of early adulthood during "Sunshine Lady."
So now, as the couple ages, it's time to slow things down a little bit. The Blue Stars find a nice, easy groove while Walter Lewis, with his warm, weathered voice addresses nobody in particular (a friend, an easy-going bartender, a flirtatious bar patron) that he has love at home. The song's easy groove suggests an uncluttered mind as he echo Mind & Matter singing, "She is my sunshine when I'm down in the dark..."
Lewis cedes a verse to his female counterpart who tells Lewis, "When other people talk about me, spread my name up and down the street, you make me feel like I'm a queen all over the world..." Lewis returns one last time, validation in hand, to remind us all that he has love at home. With his story told, Lewis gives the impression that he's leaving his audience (again, in my mind, a bartender) and hailing a cab with the line, "Take me home..."
Final Score: 4/5
05. The Style Band - If You Love Me
TCDroogsma:
The Style Band ends our narrative, but that's OK considering my narrative is completely made up and entirely dependent on the sequencing of these tracks within the podcast.
Where the rest of the songs sounded like artifacts from a Minneapolis I've never seen in person, The Style Band rides a wobbly synth line that actually brings to mind some of Prince's better work. That gives "If You Love Me" a more modern sound that my brain is not going to romanticize by constructing a fake narrative. Rather, "If You Love Me" abandons the innocence of the songs above for a hook of, "If you love me give me your love all night..."
An unfortunate side effect of the song being somewhat recognizable is that, rather than calling to mind a fictionalized 70's, it takes me back to the roots of a sound that we've all seen develop into the "Minneapolis Sound" that defined the 80's. In much the same way that listening to early hip-hop and early rock n roll seems incredibly simplistic and basic compared to what we've grown accustomed to, "If You Love Me" sounds like a nice building block, but not much more.
Final Score: 2/5
Well there you have it, MP3 junkies! Another week's worth of songs downloaded, reviewed, & filed away!
As always, please keep in mind that neither Newest Industry nor our contributors are in any way affiliated with the artists above, The Current, or MPR. We're just music fans with laptops and a bit too much time on our hands.
For more TCDroogsma be sure to give him a follow on Twitter (@TCDroogsma). He can also be found right here on Newest Industry hosting our free weekly podcast Flatbasset Radio
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