Episode 47 – “Do not bore me with talk of kindness…”

Welcome to Songs That Don’t Suck with your host, Mark Bradbourne.

Welcome to episode 47 of Songs That Don’t Suck. Thank you for checking out the episode.

I was on a work trip this week and I was sitting in the back of a Lyft and came to a realization or an epiphany, if you will, and I figured it’d be worth talking about.

I was in the back of this Lyft and usually the drivers in all the cities that I’ve kind of been in the last half of this year, they always play something fairly vanilla, you know, something that’s going to appeal to the masses. This particular driver was listening to fairly hardcore hip hop, not really my thing, it’s very rare. I’m more of an old school hip hop fan. This was new stuff and it kind of brought me to this realization about music.

But let me put it in context of the podcast, right? So there’s a bit of a negative connotation with the name of the podcast, right?

Songs That Don’t Suck, basically the deductive reasoning around it would be that the songs that I find don’t suck, but everything else that I’ve listened to that week does suck. And don’t get me wrong, it does, but it sucks to me. I think it sucks.

I’m sure that every song that is released, there is somebody out there in the world that can be counted among the audience for that song. Even if it’s their own mom and dad or their best friend, they’ve got an audience and that’s great because all music should be enjoyed. And it is, I’m sure it is, even the artists, like if you’re creating art for yourself and you enjoy it, yeah, that’s awesome. Because everybody should feel the joy that music can bring into somebody’s life. And I’m not naive. If I know there are folks out there who don’t enjoy music, it doesn’t bring them any joy. And if you are one of those people that don’t find joy in music, I know you’re not listening to this podcast, but just know that I hope you find infinite amounts of joy in other art.

Now no matter what the genre, from classical to death metal, the really awesome thing about music is that it has the power to affect your mood. It’s used in my life like nearly every moment. It magnifies my emotions, it makes me happy, it brings me sorrow sometimes because it reminds me of sad things because it’s marked specific moments in time. The enjoyment of music does not require specific education levels. Please enjoy music, and doctors of philosophy enjoy music, and it’s universal, doesn’t have a language, right?

We have global music, and it’s so therapeutic, like the more you think about it, right? I’ve read studies about how music has used in therapies for dementia patients, and when they play music from their youth, the patients become lucid in it because it sparks the neurons and helps them remember things. If I think back in my own life, my daughter had surgery, there was a musical therapist who was walking the halls with her guitar, and she stopped and sang a song, and it brought a smile to her face. Being a little kid in a hospital can be scary, so even that little bit of joy was pretty amazing, and I remember that very distinctly. I personally believe that music is a divine art form, and I truly do appreciate that you are here listening to the podcasts, and I hope that some of the music I find each week does bring you a little bit of joy.

All right, last week, I got to be part of another podcast. It was the crossover event of the year.

If you are a regular listener to the podcast, you may have heard me talk about Rock and Roll Autopsy. It’s one of my favorite podcasts, and I’ve gotten to know those guys a little bit, and they invited me to come be a guest scientist on their 100th episode. It’s a huge honor for me, and if you haven’t checked out the podcast, I highly recommend you do that. In the 100th episode, we performed an autopsy on the Rolling Stones song, Brown Sugar. Did it kill Rock and Roll? You’ll have to give it a listen to find out. You can find Rock and Roll Autopsy podcast in the same place that you’re listening to this one. I was also on a recent episode of Data Plus Love with the voice of this podcast, Zach Bowders. If you want to hear me ramble on a little bit about music, as well as data and some other things, Zach and I always have a good time when we have a chat as well. That podcast is also available wherever you’re listening to this podcast.

And to back up, speaking of the Rolling Stones, it brings us to this week’s cover song. This week, I found Satisfaction, done by the one and only Dolly Parton, featuring Pink and Brandy Carlisle. I’ve mentioned it a couple of times on the podcast, but Dolly’s Rock album has finally been released. If we think back to her nomination to the Rock Hall, her not wanting to be inducted to the Rock Hall, them inducting her anyway, and then her basically saying upon her induction that she would have to put out a Rock album. Well, she’s made good on that promise. The album is called Rockstar. It contains 30 tracks and just over two-thirds of the album, I think, is covers. And she’s collaborated with, you know, all of the big names that she is covering, which is pretty awesome. I have not listened to the whole album, honestly, some of the songs as I was sampling them were kind of hit and miss. But this version of Satisfaction is really, really good. It doesn’t stray too far from the original, but honestly, like the Stones, like they have so many different influences, country among them. And I think there’s something about the song and maybe Mick Jagger’s vocal that kind of lends itself to Dolly’s voice really well. And I really like the addition of Pink and Brandy Carlisle, because it’s nice they kind of pass the lead vocal duties around and made for a really nice listen, so I hope you enjoyed that little find.

All right, let’s get into the new music for this week, shall we? If this is your first time listening to the podcast, welcome. Glad you’re here. Quick rundown. Every week I listen to hundreds of songs. I listen to every one of them for about 30 seconds. The good ones go into a list that I review. I try to boil it down to five. As we’ve been getting closer and closer to the end of the year, it’s been harder and harder to find five this week. I’ve only got three. So let’s get into them.

The first song this week is Crooked House by Alberta Cross, featuring Band of Skulls. This track from Alberta Cross starts out strong. It’s got a really good chorus, and it’s got a really strong Oasis vibe. And I was just kind of immediately hooked by it. Vocally in the verses though, I actually picked up a little bit of the vocalist from Band of Horses, if you’re familiar, at least that’s kind of what I was hearing. Anyway, I love kind of the instrumentation, there’s like this really great driving bass line that runs through the verses, and it sits on top of this very solid drum part. It’s nothing fancy, but it just serves the song so well. I went ahead because I was really curious, I checked out a couple of their other songs. Some of the more popular ones are a little bit older, and it seems like their sound has kind of evolved into what we’re hearing in this latest track. Don’t get me wrong, it was really good. So if you dig this one, check out some of the other songs from Crooked House.

The second song this week is Plant Milk by Really Good Time. From the intro, I wasn’t expecting where this was gonna go, but when the verse hit, I was honestly really intrigued by what I’m hearing as dissonance in the chord structure. I am not a guitar player by any stretch of the imagination, so I’m not quite sure what they’re doing, but that first half of the verse, like the tension that is happening with that chord just really drives the song and it works really, really well. And there’s a snarky, sarcastic part of me that loves that they’re taking a swing at Plant Milk because I agree it’s not milk. It needs its own name and classification. It honestly reminded me this time that my politeness filter fell out in public. I was in Costco and it was sample day and I was kind of wandering around the aisles doing my shopping and one of the sample ladies asked if I wanted to try vegan cheese and I spun around and I blurted out that’s not cheese and you would have thought I stabbed a kitten in front of her. I don’t know if she was vegan or she was just shocked at my response. Either way, I walked away. I walked away really quickly. It was very awkward. Anyway, back to the song. At the end of the track, there’s some really cool things happening from a rhythmic standpoint. It almost feels like it’s an odd time signature, but if you listen to the drums, the drums are playing kind of the standard 4-4 straight beat. The guitar and bass are throwing this really strong syncopation into the mix and it creates this really cool illusion that it is in some sort of odd time signature. Great track from really good time.

The third song this week is Nimihito by Sultans of String featuring Northern Cree. Now I’m a fan of world music. Have been since high school. The first world music I think I was exposed to was Mickey Hart’s Planet Drum Album and as a percussionist, I kind of got into it. Mickey Hart being the drummer from Grateful Dead and it was just exposing me to all these different ethnic rhythms, which was really cool. This one is just, I didn’t know what to expect. Sultans of String actually reached out to me on threads to let me know that their album was out. I put a call out for new music and they responded. And I found that their entire album is collaborations with different indigenous groups and this song Nimihito or dance is fantastic. I mentioned at the top of the podcast today that music is universal and it is very true. And I love when music from around the globe combined to make something just new and interesting. Sultans of String have taken their music which in moments before the Cree vocal part starts reminds me a lot of Kansas. It’s probably the electric guitar violin combination. But when they join with the Northern Cree tribe, it produces just this amazing track. And if you’ve been a long time listener of the podcast, you know that I’ve said a couple of times that I really have to understand the lyrics to connect with the song. And in most cases that does hold true. But there’s sometimes when you can just feel the joy and the energy coming through in that Cree vocalization chant, it’s really hard to deny. So I want to thank the Sultans of String for reaching out to me because this would not land on any Spotify playlist that I’ve been listening to. I had over 20 artists actually respond to my call for new music, which was really cool. And I did listen to everything that I got sent. This was the cream of the crop.

All right. That is it for episode 47. I have two more regular episodes for season one. And for episode 50, we’re going to be doing something special. I teased it last episode. I’m going to talk about it here a little bit. I will be crowning the best of the best with the 2023 Don’t Sucky Awards. I’ll be announcing nominations next week. If you have a favorite song this year that was on the podcast, go to songs at don’tsuck. net. Send me a message and let me know what songs you think should be nominated. I have an idea of who I think deserves to win, but you can have a voice in this too. So definitely look forward to the inaugural Don’t Sucky Awards. As always, spread the word of the podcast to your fellow music fans, follow the show on social media, including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and in particular, Threads. The algorithm there appears to be working really well. And I’m actually going to be leaning into Threads more for the show. I’ve stopped posting on X for a variety of reasons. And if you know, you know. Check out the website at songsthatdontsuck. net and thanks for listening. And until next week, keep searching for and listening to songs that don’t suck.