New songs for July 5th, 2023

Wanted to give myself some time off for 4th of July, so I waited 'till now, but better late than never, right? Here are this week's songs:

"Dial Drunk" by Noah Kahan: I must confess, I was never that big of a Noah Kahan fan when I first heard about him. He seemed like someone who was trying to be like Mumford and Sons or Phillip Phillips but without the charm of either act. "Dial Drunk" has made me change my mind about Noah, as he has added a bit more gritty electric guitar instrumentation into his music for the song in addition to his usual banjo stuff. The song is a breakthrough for Noah, who has earned his first spots on both the Top 40 charts and the alternative charts as a result. It was probably thanks to the social media app TikTok that the song has gotten as much attention as it has lately. The song is about a man who, as the title implies, dials his girlfriend while he's drunk after being arrested for driving under the influence. The reason he calls her is because he still needs her around even though he's trying to get over her. This ultimately results in the protagonist nearly driving himself to self-destruction because he's leaving a message he knows will not be answered. "Dial Drunk" is a catchy tune with a deep message!

"Good Time" by Grace Potter: When Grace Potter debuted with the quaint, roots-y, folks-y song, "Ah, Mary," back in 2008, I did not anticipate she'd cover so much musical ground later on. Hard rock, blues-rock, alterna-pop, straight up pop music, and a few songs that sound like the folk/country direction she started in...Grace has done it all! But it seems like what she does best is edgy blues-rock numbers. That's exactly what "Good Time" is. The song is a blues-y funky rock song slightly reminiscent of some of the songs The Rolling Stones were doing circa the early 1970's. The subject of this song is as reckless and freewheeling as its sound! What Grace means by "can't keep a good time" in the chorus of the song is that you can't live your whole life in a fantasy world. She counters this notion by throwing caution to the wind and stating that "keeping a good time" is something anyone can do anytime!

"Miles Away" by Old Crow Medicine Show (featuring Willie Watson): A song that really puts the "blue" in "bluegrass," Old Crow Medicine Show's "Miles Away" shows the "Wagon Wheel" guys at their most bittersweet. OCMS reunite with their founder, Willie Watson, in this song, and the plaintive lyrics of "never got the chance to say I love you" in the chorus add to the song's already poignant vibe. The song is about how different life has felt for the band after two and a half decades on the road. When you play music in front of a live audience in different towns for that long of a time, it's bound to change you, and you might get a little homesick after a while. It seems like that's exactly what's happened to OCMS in this song.

"Odyssey" by Beck (featuring Phoenix): An alt-rock legend meets a relatively new-ish band of alt-pop/rockers in "Odyssey." Beck can do pretty much anything, but Phoenix have never quite escaped their electro-rock sound on any of their recordings, so Beck adapts to their style in this song, and the resulting number is very Prince-esque in terms of how it sounds (albeit without near as much guitar). It is a sleek, funky, electro-pop jam that pretty much screams "summer" in both its lyrics and its sound. It mentions the ocean, the sun, and even summer itself in the lyrics. Party on, dudes!

"One Like You" by LP: LP's most successful songs to date, "Into the Wild" and "Lost on You," have both essentially been folk-rock songs. "One Like You" differs from this, combining different genre sounds into one song. Imagine a cross between The Ronettes' "Be My Baby" and Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" with a fair bit of Amy Winehouse thrown in for good measure, and you've pretty much got the sound of "One You Love." The song is a passionate declaration of love, with LP claiming during the chorus, "There will never be one like you." One more interesting thing to note about this song is how it changes key from F sharp to G sharp towards the end, as key changes in songs are not as common as they used to be. 

"Talk to Me" by The Record Company: Blues-rock outfit The Record Company, who recently performed at The Knitting Factory (where I recently performed as well, might I add), have returned both to the music world and to their original sound with their latest song, "Talk to Me." After various experiments in sound with soul and funk, The Record Company go back to basics with a straight-up blues-rock tune in this song which, as you might expect from its title, is about a lover who isn't listening to their partner's pleas for attention. Not anything musically innovative here, per se, but it's still a fun, catchy song to listen to.