New songs for the day before Valentine's Day!

 Love is in the air...and so are 8 new songs!! Here they are:

"Ghosts Again" by Depeche Mode: Depeche Mode are not known for writing love songs as much as they for writing songs that decry politics, religion, and pretty much anything central to human affairs that has the potential to both divide and unite us, but "Ghosts Again," just in time for Valentine's Day, is a love song. Well...sort of. It's an elegy of sorts to their recently departed keyboard player, Andy Fletcher, who passed away last year. It is both surprisingly upbeat and surprisingly pristine for a DM song while still maintaining the dark vibes that the now legendary pioneers of goth-rock have become known for. The song is almost U2-ish with the exception of its constant use of keyboard, but even the keyboard has a more soothing sound than the more synth-y stuff that DM usually go for. It is as mournful as it is celebratory, and this is exactly how the surviving members of the group intended for the song to be. While the group are sad for the loss of their longtime friend and collaborator, they also maintain a healthy sense of realism in "Ghosts Again" to provide a good balance!

"Love Will Get You There" by Inhaler: The third single so far from Irish alt-rockers, Inhaler, "Love Will Get You There," is obviously a love song if we are to go by its title. The song itself is also the bounciest song that Inhaler have released so far. Its sound could be described as "Walking on Sunshine" meets early Coldplay. An unlikely combo of sounds, but it manages to work here. The band use "Love Will Get You There"'s sunshiny vibe to their advantage on the silly music video it has (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWpMYRWwJp8). It is a "retraux" video made to look like it came from the early 1980's when it really isn't. There hasn't been a downer so far in Inhaler's catalog, but "Love Will Get You There" has been their most optimistic so far!

"Nervous System" by Joseph: Joseph, the all-female neo-folk-rock trio who don't have a single member actually named Joseph, have released their first big song of the 2020's with "Nervous System." They became a hit on adult alt radio systems during the mid to late 2010's with upbeat contemporary folk-rock songs like "White Flag," "SOS (Overboard)," and "Fighter." All three of those songs tend to sound like one another, the first two even both being in the key of D major. "Fighter"'s G major sound wasn't much of a game changer either. With "Nervous System," however, they go to the key of A major, with many sections punctuated by an F # minor, and their folk-rock morphs into synth-pop. "Nervous System," true to its title, has a more nervous, urgent sound than Joseph's previous material, and the song could be either about a relationship in jeopardy or troubles facing the world at large, or perhaps both. 

"New Gold" by Gorillaz (featuring Tame Impala and Bootie Brown): I don't know if I'll ever be able to figure out how Tame Impala suddenly became this go-to band for collaborations (last summer they even collaborated with legendary R & B performer, Diana Ross, for "Turn Up the Sunshine"), but for whatever reason, that's what they've become. Who better to collaborate with than Gorillaz, perhaps the kings of alt-pop/rock collaborators (Beck, Thundercat, and George Benson have all worked with the band-who's-not-really-a-band recently)? Add rapper Bootie Brown from The Pharcyde into the mix, and what do you get? A disco/techno-fied track that appears to be about drug addiction. Ummm...great?! With the amount of "featuring"s this song will likely garner in its descriptions of who does it, and esp. since it's a Gorillaz song, I would have expected something better. That being said, though, this isn't a bad one.

"No Reason" by Sunny War: Equal parts folk, rock, gospel, soul, and blues, Syndey Lyndella Ward (professionally known as "Sunny War") blends all her musical influences passionately into a musical stew that is as fierce as it is earthy. Her breakthrough song, "No Reason," is about Sunny War fighting a war with her own self. She describes an inner battle between her more restrained self and her wilder self in a genre-blending original tune that is truly daring in both its musical and lyrical approach!

"Panopticom" by Peter Gabriel: Fitting that today is Peter Gabriel's birthday, isn't it?! The now 73-year-old rock legend returns to his roots by combining prog-rock with post-punk. Producer Brian Eno has collaborated with Gabriel on many projects, and Gabriel's latest song, "Panopticom," is no exception. Eno plays synthesizer and bells on the tune, a 5-minute journey into the dark side of the human psyche as only Gabriel (and Eno) can present it! Perhaps the reason for the almost robotic darkness of this song is due to its subject matter. According to Gabriel, "Panopticom" is about the concept of an ever-expanding data globe. Such a concept could have the potential both to help and harm other people. This track is not for the faint of heart. Someone who enjoys material like "In Your Eyes" and "Solsbury Hill" but finds songs like "Games Without Frontiers" slightly unnerving might not want to look into this one, but for those with more adventurous musical taste, this might be worth a try!

"Thinking About You" by Beck: You never quite know what you're going to get with Beck, but it's generally either "weird" energetic Beck or quiet folk-y Beck. "Thinking About You" fits into the latter category, poignantly combining early acoustic Neil Young songs with a melancholy flamenco guitar sound. It's anyone's guess as to who the "you" is in this song. It could be his ex-wife, Marissa Ribisi, he is pining for in the song, whom he has been divorced from for a little over a year now, but as one YouTube commenter suggested, the "you" could be God. A strange thought to ponder at first, but he seems to be thinking in this song about how he wants to believe there is more to life than what we experience as mortals, yet he can't bring himself to do so logically. As Beck is now a little more than half a century old, he is probably pondering his own mortality more than he used to.

"Trinity River" by Charley Crockett: Nominally a country musician, but more a blues and R & B musician by sound, Charley Crockett had a surprise adult alt radio hit last fall with the Motown-esque "I'm Just a Clown." His second adult alt radio single, "Trinity River," has more a traditional blues sound while still keeping the R & B rhythm from his first big hit. The lyrics to the song have a bit of a blues-y vibe as well, dealing with "purification" of sorts from bad behavior using a river as a metaphor for cleansing the soul.