New songs for January 9th, 2023

 First new songs of the new year! Here they are:

"Love is the Way" by Thee Sacred Souls: Our first song of 2023 sounds a bit more like something from 1973, or perhaps even further back than that, and there's a good reason for this. "Love is the Way," the debut song from Thee Sacred Souls, was produced by Gabriel Roth, the cofounder of Daptone Records. Said record company is most famous so far for producing the songs of Sharon Jones and The Dap-Kings, a neo-soul group who rose to prominence roughly around the mid-2000's but whose sound was more reminiscent of performers like Aretha Franklin and Gladys Knight. Likewise, Thee Sacred Souls shows influence from people like Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye, and The Spinners with their silky, smooth, and soulful breakthrough song, "Love is the Way," an earnest and powerful plea for love!

"On the Radio" by Spoon: With "On the Radio," Spoon has now reached their fourth adult alt radio hit from their album, Lucifer on the Sofa. This song recalls how Spoon sounds when they debuted. Largely piano-based but with blasts of post-psychedelic blues-rock guitar punctuating the piano riffs and catchy beats with a "quirky" sound resulting from the instrumentation therein. The use of seventh chords to decorate the chorus while the verses play more traditional chords is part of the Spoon magic that permeates this fun song! The lyrics to the song are very minimalist, not really building beyond two short verses, yet still able to create a solid three-and-a-half minute song. All part of the quirky magic of Spoon!

"Pepper" by Death Cab for Cutie: Though Death Cab for Cutie were named after a song that was a spoof of "teen death" songs from the '60s, "Pepper" finds Death Cab actually contemplating the subject of death in a serious way. Their previous single, "Here to Forever," also dealt with the prospect of getting older, but more in a midlife crisis sort of way. "Pepper," a largely minor key folk-rock song that occasionally uses piano flourishes, takes the tragedy of breakups to its most extreme. The lyrics are almost Shakespearean, as though the final kiss of a relationship is the final kiss of life itself because of the importance the relationship described in the song held to Ben Gibbard. Why the song is called "Pepper" is anyone's guess, but perhaps that doesn't matter as much as the subject matter of the song does. It hits on a very personal level, as many Death Cab songs do, but this one might be their most personal yet.