Norah Jones

I'm a huge Norah Jones fan. There, I said it.

I guess I probably first heard Norah Jones in 2002 when her first album Come Away With Me came out, but I don't really remember it. I was too busy being fascinated with what other normal 7th/8th graders were fascinated with, I guess. The first time I really remember listening to her music was when I was a teacher's aide during my senior year of high school. I was an aide for a pretty cool art teacher (which does not reflect my own art ability). She would let me listen to the music on her computer while I graded papers, made coffee, or whatever. That's where I heard Norah Jones. And I've liked her music ever since.

The first song I've heard of hers was "Don't Know Why." It's the first track on her first album, and it gives a good first impression. It was fairly popular, and I think it earned her a grammy.


There's something about the blend of pop/jazz that gets me, I guess. It's a definite contrast to some of (most of) the other music I listen to. For this reason, it seems strange that I like the music so much. I guess it isn't always easy for me to relax, and her music allows me to mellow out for awhile.

One of my favorite songs is "Until the End." I feel I can relate to it. I had a friend like the one she describes, so the song just kind of resonates with me. I'm not trying to be too melodramatic and over-analyze the song. I'm sure it could have other interpretations, but it just makes me think of someone I used to know. And myself. And a lot of things. But that's okay.




Another favorite song of hers (besides like, her whole first album) is "Young Blood." This song came off her recent album The Fall. The album came out in 2009. I was very excited to have it, as I have two of her other albums (I have no explanation as to why I don't have the fourth, if I'm such a "fan"). This song became a quick favorite.



Anyway, clearly, I like Norah Jones. Whether it's the way her music mellows me out, the lyrics, or the fact that it's different from the other stuff I normally listen to, I'm a fan. Needless to say, when I received a DVD of a Norah Jones concert for my birthday just recently, I was more than pleased (though I fear I didn't make my excitement as clear as I should have). Anyway, I'd recommend the music to pretty much anyone.

My name is Christine, and I'm a Norah Jones fan.

Christmas-time is here.

They've been mixing the Christmas music in at work. I'll admit, I used to be one of those "No Christmas music before Thanksgiving!" kinds of people. There's nothing wrong with that. I'm still that way in most cases. But the new music is a nice mix up to the soundtrack.

They need to play more Elvis, though.
They should play this:


Also, this is a crazy video. It's amazing that they can make it so she can duet with him. That's Martina McBride, by the way.



They could play this too. That would be nice.



And Dean:


And Frank. That's it for now.

If I Die Young

I guess I've been kind of under a rock recently. I blame this on the fact that I rarely listen to the radio. I listen to country radio even less often. I need to start listening to the radio more often so that I can learn what kind of new music is out.

I feel like someone wrote about this song, but I can't remember.
I think I first heard this song when I was listening to Pandora with a country-loving friend. I then recently heard it on a mix CD. The song is kind of sad, but I like the idea behind it.



The band name is The Band Perry. I don't know much about the band, or any of their other songs, but from what I gather, they're pretty recent. As the title implies, the song is about dying young. It's kind of a hypothetical song, but I think it gets a point across and can get people to re-evaluate some things in their lives. Nobody plans on dying young, but unfortunately, many people do. Since a lot of people are afraid of death, nobody wants to think about what would happen if they did die. It's troubling. Death is a depressing topic. Nobody wants to lose a loved one, and nobody (hopefully) wants to die. Everyone knows it's going to happen one day, but sometimes not thinking about it is easier. I guess that's why I like this song. The band isn't afraid to talk about it. The lyrics are touching and the music is moving. Pretty good combination.

I think that this song would fall into the "Songs I listen to When I'm Sad" category.

On another note, in the video you can see that one of the band members is playing an accordion. How often do you see that happen anymore? It interested me, anyway. Also, she's holding a book of Tennyson, and the book is open to a certain page at the end of a video. This requires investigation.

Rediscovering

I found a CD I forgot I had the other day. That wouldn't be so weird if the CD itself hadn't been still sealed, in the plastic wrapping, sitting in the CD holder on my desk. I have no recollection of buying this CD, or receiving it as a gift. What was the CD? Three Days Grace's "One X." I don't have any clue where it came from. I hate forgetting stuff like that.

Finding the CD made me think about the music that I used to like, still like, but forgot I liked. So I'm going to share some music that I completely forgot about, up until now.

First up is a track off of the CD that I found. The song is "Never Too Late." It had a good deal of radio play, so I guess I stopped listening to it because it was verging on that "overplayed" category for me. I hate when songs become overplayed, and try to avoid them if they're getting close.

I used to listen to the band Yellowcard a lot a few years ago. One of my favorite songs was "Shadows and Regrets." I learned how to play it on the guitar once, but it's been so long that I've forgotten.

I used to listen to Dashboard Confessional when I was in high school. I used to listen to the "Dusk and Summer" CD a lot...like, all the time. I guess I stopped listening to it when it started getting annoying-his voice was a tad high pitched and whiney.

I listened to Jewel when I was in high school. The "Pieces of You" album was pretty good. My favorite song from the album, and probably the saddest:

I used to listen to Tom Petty. My dad had the Greatest Hits album.


There are more bands that I've rediscovered, but these are the ones I've been listening to lately. I have a tendency to listen to bands until I can hardly stand them, put them away for a few years, then find them again. It's a pattern, I think. It's nice, though, finding things that you didn't remember you liked. I wish I had a metaphor to describe it, but I'm lacking at the moment. I'm going to start rifling through my collection more often.

For the times I'm feeling down...

When I'm feeling down, I tend to listen to more depressing, emotional music. Makes sense, right? It's really hard for me to try to listen to upbeat music if I'm just not feeling that way. I saw a group on facebook (that sounds really lame, I know) that said something to the extent of "When I'm sad, I listen to emotional music." So I know I'm not alone. The people of facebook do the same thing.

I think one of the most depressing bands that inhabits my iTunes is Bright Eyes. Conor Oberst is a great song writer. His vocal skills can sometimes be limited, but overall, the lyrical content and musical quality makes up for what he can't provide vocally. Bright Eyes doesn't really bring me up when I'm feeling down, but it sort of helps, I guess.

Coldplay has a few songs that I listen to when I'm down. The song "Fix You" is definitely one of those songs. I heard it once a long time ago, and like most songs, I didn't know who it was. It took me months to figure out who sang the song. It now sits a few notches after Bright Eyes on one of my playlists.

I first heard the next song when I was pretty young. My dad had the CD. I think they were a one hit wonder, but I don't know if they actually made it very high on the Billboard Top 40. Either way they were popular in the 90's, only had one song, and were from Michigan.

I watched the movie Reign Over Me a few years ago. It has Adam Sandler, Don Cheadle, Jada Pinkett Smith, and Liv Tyler, among others. It's seriously one of my favorite movies, despite how sad it is. That's where I heard the Pearl Jam cover of "Love Reign O'er Me." It makes me sad I think because I think of the movie. I know it's a cover of the Who, but it's still pretty solid.

And then there's Elvis (I'll talk more about him in future posts. I really like Elvis). This is one of the more depressing songs he sang.


I listen to a bunch of other songs when I'm down, but this is just a small example. Everyone has their down days, and I have them no more and no less often than everyone else. I could launch into a big discussion about how listening to sad songs when you're already sad seems counter-productive, but I feel that it doesn't really matter. It doesn't have to make sense. It makes me feel better. That's all that counts, right?