Credit: DREAM MERCHANT 21 ENTERTAINMENT INC.
Credit: CAPITOL RECORDS
Music has been a coping method for people dealing with issues big and small since music first showed its lovely face. One incredibly catchy or addicting song set on endless repeat can see people safely through a good or bad week.
Every week in this column, I will take three recently released singles and talk about them: how they apply to a larger theme, whether it’s an issue people face or a trend on the rise. I’ll also ask students for their input on these themes. I’m always surprised at how relevant certain songs are to things going on in my life. Hopefully, this column will help you find that one song that you can’t get out of your head.
I’ll start with New Year’s: a time for renewal, fresh starts and opportunities to make shifts in your perhaps flawed decision-making process. It’s an invigorating time for some. For others, it’s downright terrifying.
“The chance to start over again can be very scary for people,” said Alli Fritz, a first-year undeclared physical science student.
I made resolutions at New Year’s several times growing up before deeming them pointless and abandoning them. This year, I decided to give it another try.
I turned to the same source that I always turn to: music. I searched for some individual songs that would represent three or four minutes of condensed, catchy advice about self-improvement. Unfortunately, I had no idea where to begin my search for self-betterment. Freaking out ensued.
Then, The Decemberists came to the rescue. Their recent single titled “Down by the Water,” released in mid-November as a preview of their upcoming album to be released later this month, channels desperation and frustration without becoming a sad listening experience. The music itself, complete with the always soulful harmonica, sets a sort of rambling stage for the rest of the song to play off of. For some reason, there’s nothing quite like a harmonica to set the tone of “I’m doin’ some soul-searching.”
The chorus of the song contains one sentence that probably sums up a large sum of people’s opinions about the new year: “This season rubs me wrong … so knock me down, tear me up.” The song serves as a perfect way to express all your uncertainty and confusion at the start of the new year without having to scream at people.
After the anger stage of deciding to better yourself comes the much more difficult stage of actually figuring out a way to do it.
That’s where “Shell Games” by Bright Eyes, released in late December in preparation for a new album coming out in mid-February, makes its mark. The song pulses with ironclad determination, bolstered by the endlessly inspiring sound of ’80s synthesizers. Think along the same lines as “The Final Countdown” by Europe.
The song talks about many different ways to make a change: “If I could change my mind / change the paradigm / Prepare myself for another life / Forgive myself for the many times / I was cruel to something helpless and weak.”
These are big ideas to be sure, bigger than most of us need to think of when it comes to making a resolution. I found that encouraging. After all, if some people out there needed to drastically improve their treatment of others, making a small change in my lifestyle wouldn’t be so bad.
And so I did make a little resolution: Procrastinate a little bit less. Nothing big, right? I’ll see if I can get around to starting on that tomorrow or the next day.
Here’s the deal, though. I made that resolution a day after New Year’s ““ are you starting to get an idea of why that’s my resolution? Is anyone who makes a resolution a day or two after New Year’s cheating? The empress of soul says no.
“Settle,” by Gladys Knight, released in late December, is nothing short of a soulful, gospel-esque, feel-good song that encourages dorm-room dancing of the most enthusiastic variety.
“You ain’t got to settle for nothing / It ain’t ever too late, my friends,” Knight belts out in the chorus of her newest single. Thank you, Mrs. Knight, for those kind words.
These three songs combine to set the tone for individual change, covering the stages of frustration, acceptance and finally celebration in the face of the potentially scary unknown of a new year.
Got an issue you think a few songs could address? E-mail your suggestions to Bain at abain@media.ucla.edu.