Top 5 Mood-Lifting Songs

I work forty hours a week in a call center for a health insurance company.  I’m chained to my desk with a tangled phone headset for eight hours a day, listening to people whine about benefits I didn’t choose and claims that I didn’t process. Most of the time, I am not in the best of moods by the time I get home. Thank God for Youtube. I can spend so much time on that website, pulling up songs and music videos that can completely transform my mood.  There are a lot of songs I could include on this list, but the following five are ones that consistently put me in a good mood; I can’t listen to them without feeling a little better by the chorus.

1.      “Happy” by NeverShoutNever

The lyrics aren’t especially brilliant. They range from cute but clichéd to kind of stupid: for example, in the chorus, Christopher Drew sings “The grass is greener on the other side”- isn’t that kind of a negative line? Wouldn’t that mean the singer thinks that, now that he’s with the “girl he adores,” life without her seems better (“greener”)? That’s basically what the phrase means: what you don’t have seems better than what you do. I mean, I get what he’s saying- being with this girl is “being on the other side”- but …ugh, sorry. I promise I won’t analyze the crap out of this, because I really do like this song. The title is completely appropriate; it’s two minutes and forty-seven seconds of auditory happiness.

The thing about this song that makes me smile is how genuine it sounds. In text, lines like “Why, oh, why did I not see this before?/The girl I adore is right in front of me” sound like something from either a bad romantic comedy script or a high school student’s Facebook status, but the delivery makes me believe them; when they’re sung, I can’t help but go “AWWWW.”  It’s beyond the bubbly melody, the bouncy rhythm, and Drew’s saccharine voice (although they’re all contributing factors).  He just sounds so sincere. There are so many other generic love songs that seem written to cater to easily-infatuated teenagers, and while I guess this one does too, I actually believe that, at least when he recorded it, he was head over heels for whoever it was he wrote this about.

2.      “Walk” East Village Opera Company (Semele)

It’s funny that this song is on this list, because while it’s very sweet out of context, the larger piece that it comes from isn’t exactly a Disney fairy tale. It’s an adaptation of a piece from Handel’s Semele, which is based off a story in Greek mythology. Like most Greek myths, this one doesn’t have a happy ending. The cliff notes: Zeus has an affair with a mortal woman named Semele. Zeus’s wife Hera gets jealous and tricks Semele into asking Zeus to prove his love to her by revealing himself as a god. He does so by appearing to her in all of his divine, lightening-y glory. Unfortunately for Semele, no mortal can witness this without being incinerated on the spot. Whoops.

But yeah, before Semele met her untimely, extra-crispy demise, she and Zeus had a pretty good relationship- or at least Handel thought so, because one of the songs in the opera is about how Zeus loves Semele so much that he will control nature for her:  trees will crowd around her to shade her, flowers will grow wherever she walks or even looks.

The version of this song that I positively adore is an adaptation by the East Village Opera Company. Anyone who has talked about music with me for more than ten minutes has probably heard me nerd out about these guys. I won’t go into too much detail right now, because I think I’ll eventually do a separate piece just focusing on them. Anyway, EVOC takes classical songs and arias and puts a modern twist on them. The first time I heard their version of this song was that it sounded kind of boy-band-ish, but in a good way; sunny, upbeat, the kind of song. After listening to it a few more times, it sounded more like a mix between gospel and pop. The bright, exuberant tone of Tyley Ross’s voice combined with the spirited instrumentals perfectly reflects the in elation in the lyrics.

3.      “I Will” Beatles (Roma di Luna cover)

I feel like I’m committing blasphemy by choosing a Beatles cover over the original song. Don’t get me wrong-I love the original version, and there are so many Beatles songs that I could put on this list, but there’s something special about this interpretation. It was arranged as part of the Minnesota Beatles Project (volume three) and Roma di Luna did such a good job making it their own without losing the sweetness of the original. It almost sounds like they improvised it, like they just threw the arrangement together one day.

The one criticism I have is that the intro sounds a little clunky. I understand that’s part of their spin on it, and once the vocals start are added to the mix it works, giving it a casual, carefree feeling, but before that it just sounds like the musicians weren’t sure when they were supposed to start playing. It’s not awful, but it lasts just long enough to leave a less than stellar first impression. Fortunately, Channy Moon Casselle’s voice makes up for this. It’s not that she has a stunningly beautiful voice or an incredible range or anything-although it is pretty, especially in the chorus-but it makes the whole spontaneous feel of the song seem more cheerful than unrehearsed, like she’s so happy that she can’t help but sing.

4.      “Emmylou” First Aid Kit

Oh, God. I don’t know what it is about this song, but I get choked up every damn time I listen to it. As soon as the chorus hit my eyes just start welling up with tears. It’s just the combination of how pure and strong sisters Johanna and Klara’s voices are, how sweet their harmonies are, and how simple but poignant the lyrics in the chorus are: “I’ll be your Emmylou and I’ll be your June/If you’ll be my Graham and my Johnny too/No, I’m not asking much of you/Just sing, little darling, sing with me.” It’s just such a straightforward of expressing love, and it always gives me the warm fuzzies.

5.      “Cameo Lover” Kimbra

Unlike most of the songs on this list, “Cameo Lover” didn’t make the cut because the lyrics make me happy (with the exception of a few lines). Most of the lyrics are directed toward Kimbra’s “cameo lover,” who, honestly, kind of sounds like a douche. He’s noncommittal, “only here for a moment or two”; he’s a player (“You’ve got two arms, baby/They’re all tangled up in ladies”); and he’s a downer (“I’ve got high hopes, baby/But all you do is take me down to depths that I never knew”). Kimbra is determined to change all that, though. Apparently, all the guy needs to do to become less of a jerk is “open up [his] heart,” a plea Kimbra repeats throughout the chorus. It’s just one simple line, but it’s so effective when combined with the jubilant, almost celebratory instrumentals; near the end, it almost sounds like parade music, with all its glorious brass and strong rhythm.

Introduction

I should start this by saying that I am not a musician. My musical experience amounts to five and a half years of choir, four years of voice lessons, and a year and some odd months of piano lessons, and the majority of this experience was in high school-nothing worth bragging about. I should also mention that I’m not exactly a music junkie; there aren’t a lot of bands that I obsess over, I don’t go to tons of concerts, and the amount of classic songs that I’ve never even heard is kind of embarrassing.

I may not have much of a musical background, but I do love music. I love hearing a great song on the radio, cranking up the volume, and filling my car with the glorious, window-and-dashboard-vibrating sound. I love singing songs I’ve had memorized since I was a kid at the top of my lungs (as long as absolutely no one is around to hear me). I love how the right combination of well-written lyrics, gorgeous voices, and the right instruments can completely transform my mood-reduce me to tears, send the best kind of chills up my spine, make me feel like I can fly. As clichéd as it sounds, music is magical.

  I also love writing, although I haven’t done much of it in quite a while. I guess being out of school for a year has made it difficult; before, I had to write all the time for class, from research papers to screenplays, so it was easy to do it for fun because it was already a part of my routine. Lately, though, I haven’t had much time for it. Whenever I do have a chance to write, I can never think of anything to say. Inspiration hasn’t struck in a long time. I need motivation.

That’s where the music comes in. I might not be a music buff, but I still have a good amount to say on the subject. If I’m going to get back into the habit of writing on a regular basis, the best place for me to start is a topic that I can ramble about. This blog will be a mix of different types of posts. There will be a few top five lists (because I’m way too easily distracted to write anything longer), reviews of specific songs and musicians, and blurbs about shows I go to. I’m not sure how often I’ll update, but I will try really hard to have one new post up every two weeks. Yeah, I know it’s not a lot, but I do have a full time (soul-sucking) job that takes up most of my time, and I’m still getting back in the habit of writing regularly, so it’ll have to do for now. I have a couple pieces already partially written, so I might have something new sooner than two weeks from now, so keep checking back here for updates!