When I was younger I looked forward to new album releases from my favorite artists. With money earned from working on farms or in fast food restaurants, I would go to the store and buy the album, cassette or CD – depending on the preferred audio medium of the day. Returning home, I would listen to the album from start to finish while reading the lyrics in the liner notes. They felt like poetry in motion; lines, verses or choruses that spoke to me as if I was the only person in the world at that time. Serving as a salve for whatever wounded feelings of unrequited love, disillusionment, or injustice – I was licking at the time.
Occasionally, I’ll try to replicate that experience when a new album gets dropped on a streaming service but the feeling of reading lyrics on the screen is different then holding them in your hand. A more common experience is to stumble upon a song that the service has served me. If the melody lands, I’ll pick up my guitar, open an app with chord progressions and try to play along. Gradually moving from hapless to passable.
The power of a good lyric still moves me but is more unpredictable. In just the last week, three songs by three different artists gave me pause for different types of reflection.
The Irish trio, Amble’s, song Mary’s Pub, brought me back to love’s early days with lines like:
You smiled and braced my hand and pulled me into some old bar
And we drank a drop and we twirled and talked about our lives so far
Noah Kahan’s The Great Divide made me consider the anguish I may have missed in old friends:
You know I think about you all the time
And my deep misunderstanding of your life
And how bad it must have been for you back then
And how hard it was to keep it all inside
Cameron Whitcomb’s Call for You wistfully recalled the unconditional love of my mom:
The world is full of hands
That hold you when it’s worth it
But you gave me a chance
When they thought I was worthless
So when I fall like I do
I’ll call for you
There are over a hundred million songs on Spotify alone. It would take a thousand years to listen to them all. Yet these three different songs randomly hitting the same Spotify mix this week provided me with the gift of reflection and appreciation. Imagine how many other lyrics are out there that could do the same.
This Week’s Recommendation: If you have 49 minutes and 50 seconds. Check out Amble’s album, Reverie. It is the very definition of their name: “a walk at a slow, relaxed pace, especially for pleasure.”
Share this post (and perhaps a song) with a music lover in your life.