You Are Goodbye

Allow me to introduce to you the talented Holly Conlan and what I think is the most inventive break up song I have heard in a very long time. The song is called "You Are Goodbye" and what caught me initially about this young woman was her voice. It was just so real and not enhanced or improved with any studio tricks but the more I listened to her I realized she's a damn good songwriter. She reminded me almost instantly of another young singer songwriter that burst on the scene only to slowly fade away, Fiona Apple. And while Fiona and Holly are both talented singer-songwriters and both play piano that's where the comparisons stop.

"You Are Goodbye" is off her 2008 EP entitled Bird is a haunting song about remembering the pain that came from a relationship that slowly just went away. It's about how one person saw how things ended and coming to grips with it. There is no percussion in this song, it's just Holly, her piano, and accompanying keyboards. There's nothing to take away from her vocals. It was lyrics like "I remember "Go"/And I remember one "maybe you can wait"/I remember arms reached out too late" that made me sit up and pay closer attention.

A simple song that's not overly produced. Great lyrics, beautiful melody, and a distinctive voice makes this one of my favorite songs. I don't know if it'll be one of yours but take a listen because you never know.

Love's In Need of Love Today

And now for something completely different. This song is a bonafide classic and the sentiment is simply beautiful. Given to us to enjoy by the maestro Stevie Wonder, this song is timeless and for someone to disagree with that just doesn't know music, that's right I said it! The song is the beautiful Love's In Need of Love Today. I was raised on this song (my mom played the hell out of this song) and I thought it was time to bring Stevie to my blog. Now really I could have picked ANY song from his seminal masterpiece Songs In The Key of Life but it's this song that makes me just feel damn good.

It starts off as a public service announcement as Stevie addresses each and everyone of us that love is in trouble. After the harmonizing vocals he sings "Good morn or evening friends/Here's your friendly announcer/I have serious news to pass on to everybody" and he goes on to tell us that his words could mean the end of the world. He explains that we've basically taken loving one another for granted and that there's more hate in the world today because of that which pretty much makes this song timeless in my opinion. Think about it, very soon there will be another Presidential election and if you thought the divisiveness and discord was bad the last time around, just you wait.

My favorite part of this song is towards the end when Stevie, our "friendly announcer" asks the song to be brought down a level because love is very peaceful. The song goes out as it comes in, harmonious and easy. It is, quite simply music at it's very best. Enjoy!

If It Isn't Love

It's time to get cheesy. High time in fact and the cheese starts with this wonderful blast from my past. Starring the five of the most or should I say four of the most talentless brothers to ever grace a stage (Johnny Gill could actually sing). The group is New Edition and the song is If It Isn't Love. For me this is a fun song and I could use as much of that right now as I can get my hands on. I fired up the old ipod and turned on the trusted playlist and when this song hit my ears, I smiled.

Produced by the legendary hit makers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis Love is a great song with a great sound. It turned out to be one of New Edition's biggest hits and a tentpole song on their 1988 album Heartbreak, the other smash hit off that album being Can You Stand The Rain. This grooving song powered Heartbreak to become a commercial success and it inspired four kids from Philadelphia to realize their dreams. They went on to form a group and named themselves after one of the songs off this album, Boys II Men.

Like I said this song makes me smile and I guess that's because it just oozes cheese. Or maybe it's because Ronny, Ricky, Mike, and Ralph basically showed me that yes even without any real singing abilities, success was possible (again Johnny Gill who replaced Bobby Brown could actually sing). Enjoy!