October // Side B

It's not the second week in the October, but it is the second installment of my music recommendations.

You can find all of this month's songs here: Weekly Mixtape

Angela by The Lumineers
This was one of those songs I listened to where you think, "If I keep listening to it this much, I'm going to hate it forever."  We're now 11 months into that experiment, and so far it's not true.  The Lumineers are one of my go-to bands, and this easily ranks in my top 5 of their songs.  It fits the "let's go somewhere, anywhere, across the globe or across the state" vibes, so it's on my road trip playlist.  The details of the lyrics are what I love;
Favorite lyrics: "When you left this town with your windows down and the wilderness in sight", "but you held your course to some distant war in the corners of your mind", and "home, at last". 

Flicker by Niall Horan
I probably won't cover the same artist, let alone the same album in consecutive weeks, but this album just dropped and it's been the majority of what I've listened to since Thursday night at 11:02 pm EST.
Acoustic guitar fingerpicking is the way to my musical heart, but lyrics make or break the song.  You can't write a ballad for a girl and have it be a menagerie of cut-and-pasted, overused Pinterest quotes (@ too many artists to list here).  Funny story about misheard lyrics: I initially thought the line was "I think of the stars, and it echoes a spark," so I put it on a playlist envisioning an crisp autumn night, looking at stars.  As it turns out, I heard wrong.  The song is still great. 
Favorite lyrics: "Then I think of the start and it echoes a spark. . . Then I look in my heart, there's a light in the dark, still a flicker of hope that you first gave to me. . ."

Autumn Leaves by Ed Sheeran
It's Ed Sheeran.  It's all of the fall vibes.  This is not surprising in the least based on the title.  I love it when song titles say what they mean.  It's like the introduction of a paper: it's main job is to tell you what the rest is going to say.  Don't be like Fall Out Boy and make your entire thesis statement the title, (or something random to avoid a lawsuit).
Where were we? Right: Ed Sheeran.  It's an extra track off the deluxe edition of +, and it's a great addition to your October playlists.
Favorite lyrics: "Another day, another life passes by just like mine"

Poison & Wine by The Civil Wars
Just do me a favor and appreciate the simple harmonies, the beautifully paced build-up, and the soft drum cadence this song offers.  It's a work of art for your ears.  Good duets are in short supply, what with every compilation lately being a bad mix of syrupy pop vocals and autotune.  If you know of any and you're so inclined, my comments section is always open for suggestions -->
Favorite lyrics: "I wish you'd hold me when I turn my back" and "I don't have a choice, but I still choose you."

All Too Well by Taylor Swift
I'll spare you the saga that is my thoughts on Taylor Swift, but here's a summary: I listened to the new single.  I laughed.  I went back to the Red album because it screams fall with every part of its being.
To me, All Too Well song is the climax of Taylor's songwriting.  There were good songs written before it and after it, boring tracks early in her career, and some rather confusing ones recently, but this song stands alone.  It's poetic the descriptions are vivid and tell a story.  You hear it and envision "plaid shirt days" and "dancing in the refrigerator light."
Favorite lyric: 'Cause there we are again on that little town street. You almost ran the red 'cause you were looking over at me.  Wind in my hair, I was there, I remember it all too well."

My personal favorite attribute of this song is that it's five minutes long. Let me explain: In this era of music, most songs are written with the hope of being radio singles.
They are 3.5 minutes long.
Snappy intro. Verse 1. Chorus. Verse 2. Chorus. Maybe a bridge, rarely a key change. Chorus again.
Recycle.  Reuse.  Repeat.
The method works; look at 1989.  Thirteen songs, six singles: all top 20 on Billboard, three of them hit #1.  Song lengths range from 3:13 - 4:10.
Now go back to Red.  It had seven singles out of sixteen tracks. However, the song length ranges from 3:12 - {5:28 minutes}.  There are four songs that are over 4.5 minutes long.
Does this mean that short songs are bad, or the reverse?  No, it's not a measuring stick for quality, but I use it to guess the purpose of the song.  All Too Well was, so I'm told, 10 minutes long initially.  It had to be shortened into it's final form, cutting excess verses, but still coming out with a number of them.  In fact, from looking at the lyrics alone, it's hard to segregate verses from pre-choruses, bridges, and transitional lyrics.

The song is a masterpiece because it tells a story without worrying about how catchy the chorus will be.  The chorus is the heart of the song, but the verses are the rest of the story, and they aren't forgotten when the repeating lyrics come back around.

Honestly, I don't think some of my friends imagined a day when I praised a song by Taylor Swift, but here it is.  You know who you are.

- Grace