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Khushrenada's Song of the Day.

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BeautifulShy:
I am more familar with Virtual Insanity and that amazing music video but I am listening to Canned Heat and yeah it is an ear worm and it gets stuck in your head. I probably should listen to more of his recent stuff. Recent being since the early 2000s. 

ThePerm:
I hadn't heard Canned Heat in a long time. Great song. Jay Kay has a pretty interesting youtube channel. I've been checking up  on his updates during quarantine. There was some artist on Masked singer a few months ago that sounded like Jamiroquai. I thought it might have been him. It wasn't.

Khushrenada:
Wow. I didn't realize how quickly I flamed out on this goal of a song a day. Perhaps if I didn't feel like I had to post so much talking about why I liked a song and just quickly linked something then it would have been easier.  :-[ Looking back at some of the posts, I would want to try and convey reasons as to why I thought it was good or someone should listen to it and it would take awhile to gather my thoughts into words so it made it tougher. At the same time, there were times I kind of wanted to talk about some albums because there were a bunch of songs on them that I thought were great or the album was worth listening to rather than just randomly selecting a song from it here and there.

So, on that note, I'll try relaunching this thread for the rest of February and kick it off by recommending the album Hunting High and Low by A-ha.

Like me, you might only be familiar with their big hit Take On Me which was a famous top music video of the 80s. Plus, the song itself is a great bit of 80s Pop music. The only thing I really knew about A-ha was the Bond Theme song they did for The Living Daylights" which I think is also an underrated and top theme song but that might be a song for a later date.

I've also mentioned that I've come upon a lot of music in the past decade from using the book "1,001 Albums to Hear Before You Die" as a bit of a guide and source for what to try when looking for something new to listen to or enrich my musical knowledge. This album was listed in that book and having liked those two songs, I thought there was a good possibility that maybe there'd be some other music I'd like and eventually I got a copy of it from the library and gave it a whirl. And let me tell you, I've never regretted that decision.  8)

"Take On Me" is the first track on this album. However, it isn't what causes me to come back to it over and over and get a sort of craving to hear it again. In fact, at this point, I've kind of heard "Take On Me" so much over the years that it has lost some of the impact and fun I used to get from listening to it. The power of it seems to have dulled a bit. It also has a bit of a different sound from the majority of the album. Perhaps a bit too happy with just a bit of darkness creeping in a bit during the instrumental bit between the end of the second chorus and start of the third verse. For me, the song that gets me coming back to the album is its title track of "Hunting High and Low", a bit of a darker sound like "The Living Daylights" theme.

And it is today's Song of the Day while Hunting High and Low will be the Album of the week! If you have the means like Apple Music or some other source to listen to the whole album then I say give it a shot and listen through it a couple times. I don't know if this is necessarily the best rule but I have found that listening to an album two to three times is what you need to do to properly judge it. I might get into that theory a bit more down the road but I'm trying to make these posts a bit easier by not typing too much so I'll just leave things at that for now.  ;)

Anyways, here it is: Hunting High and Low and I'll be highlighting a few more tracks from the album during the week.

Khushrenada:
Going to keep it simple by making today’s song "The Blue Sky" by A-ha from the Hunting High and Low album I already went into yesterday.

This is the next track right after "Hunting High and Low" and the first time I listened to this album it was the song that instantly stuck out to me and I wanted to hear again. It’s a short song only about two and a half minutes and it mostly just sticks to its simple pattern form beginning to end but I do love it so because of a few elements. First of all, there’s the blue sky (blue sky) echo throughout the song. That high falsetto on the second blue sky is something I always want to join in on. I'm like a dog howling out because it hears the high pitched howl of another dog or animal. I do like the jaunty speed or pace of the song. And there’s just parts of the lyrics that stick out to me and the way they are sung that always delight when I listen to this.

Making this post inspired my to look up the lyrics on this song as I realized there’s still parts about it I’m not sure what’s being said and it’s been a bit of surprise to get a clear reading of them. One part of the lyrics that I did know was: "The lady at my table doesn't want me here; I just want to talk to her but would she laugh at my accent and make fun of me? Oh, it doesn't seem like this blue sky's here for me." I guess the accent part is true considering how I just didn't understand what was being said before. Still, this is a great summation of the lyrics for this song of just feeling unable to find one's place and lacking joy or happiness despite having blue skies (what I would associate with sunny summer days being full of life or wide open freedom) all around.

It is particularly the ending lines in which it is cried out "Oh, I used to be confused but now I just don't know" that I've always felt speak to me and feel so true about life when I first heard it to now when I listen to it again. Time hasn't cleared things up except to make me more certain that I just don't know when it comes to big decisions as well. You nailed it, A-ha!

Here's the lyrics in case you are curious to know what is supposedly being said as well.

Blue sky (blue sky)
Blue sky (blue sky)
Blue sky (blue sky)
Blue sky

I find it hard to breathe
As life just eats away
At the faces that surround me
They look tired today
The lady at my table
Doesn´t want me here
I just want to talk to her

But would she laugh at my accent
And make fun of me
Oh, it doesn´t seem like this
Blue sky´s here for me

There are no girls in here
As far as I can see
Only pin-up posters
Looking down at me
Watching papercups of coffee
Growing cold before my eyes
All the things I see
That make me realize

I´m in this big world without you
Nothing to my name
Oh, I never knew that
Blue sky meant such pain

Blue sky (blue sky)
Blue sky (blue sky)
Blue sky (blue sky)
Blue sky

I´m dying to be different
In the coffee shop
I´ve lived on borrowed strength
Now my supplies are cut
Though I´m older than my looks
And older than my years
I´m too young to take on
My deepest fears

Oh, I used to be confused
But now I just don´t know
Since you left I´ve been watching
Blue skies come and go
(Blue sky)

Since you left I´ve been watching
Blue skies come and go
(Blue sky)


Song of the Day!

Khushrenada:
Let's break up the A-ha party today but stick with the 80s decade and go with a sort of one-hit wonder. I'm not sure how well known this song may be to all of you but it was another one that was made sort of a big hit by it's music video at the time with the thrilling sensation of some people talking to each other in the middle of the video/song. That dialogue was only for the music video and is not a part of the song. Such wild ideas they were coming up with for music videos back then.

The song is "Voices Carry" by Til Tuesday. I'm pretty sure I was a fan of this song the first time I heard it. The wailing synth sounds and the repeating guitar notes at the start get my attention and then Aimee Mann starts singing and blending in with a sort of vulnerable and urgent sound to her voice and it just instantly pulls me in. Ah but then it hits the chorus and that's what makes this song special. That soft and gentle explosion of "Oh shush" and "Voices carry" is just perfection.

After this pattern for the first two verses and choruses, the song has a bit of an instrumental interlude with those synth sounds wailing away and then Aimee Mann returns with a more angry tone as she shouts that "He wants me! But only part of the time! He wants me! If he can keep me in line!!!" Then the song enters its ending crescendo as the chorus repeats. Except now there's a lot more other voices and people singing and overlapping with each other. The voices are spreading and carrying. And finally Aimee Mann singly shouts over these voices that "He said shut-up! He said shut-up! Oh god, can't you keep it down?! Voices carry" and then a plaintive wail. From that point the song begins to fade down. I always dig that ending. It just somehow feels like a climax to the song has been reached and some kind of catharsis has occurred. I like when you compare the softer single voice opening to that sort-of cacophony at the end. Again, to me, it is like that idea that the secret is spreading, the word is out and people are gossiping on what they've heard or the paranoia that this is what's happening.

So, give it a listen. It may not blow you away or come off as an immediate jam. I myself wouldn't necessarily put it in like a Top 25 songs of the 80s but it's still a pretty solid song. One I do get a hankering to revisit every once in awhile and will turn up the dial on the radio if it happens to come on. I ask you, isn't that the mark of a truly successful song?

And if you are curious what the music video is like then just click here to see it.

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