Sara Bareilles - King of Anything
Let the anticipation begin…Sara Bareilles
I am so fucking stoked is all I can really say. It has been three years since “Little Voice” came out and I have just about played out the cd. It is not very often that an album comes along that every song is great. The album is so good that I hate to split the songs up by putting them on my mp3 player or a mix tape.
“Little Voice” was influential and changing in my life and has earned its place on my top 10 albums of all time list. Can not wait to hear what she has for us next.
OK, enough gushing.
The new single is called “King of Anything” and it has me very excited to hear the rest of the album. It is a bit of a Fuck You song, which is always great but it also has the driving piano melody, pointed lyrics, sing-a-long, dance in your car with it blaring out the windows thing that makes Sara so phenomenal.
Check it out and enjoy!
Get more info on the upcoming record and make sure to check out the “Making of…” webisodes
As a mom and someone who loves there mom dearly, this song makes me cry every time I hear it – every time.
Mom, I love you so much.
Every year before our Memorial Day Weekend camping trip to Banks Lake in eastern Washington we make a “mix tape”. Wow, I’m old. What do you call it these days anyway? A compilation CD? Too formal. A Mix CD? Sounds dumb. Oh well, anyway…
We create this cd as a sort of time capsule, documenting the popular music of the year and it becomes my summer soundtrack, mostly because I am one of those people who never changes the cds in the car. Karli also does a lot of music discovery and comes up with stuff that I would never find but usually grow to love. I also try to include songs from several other categories. Something that was just released. Someone making a comeback. Songs that were influential this last year. And there always seems to be one old song that we just discovered or rediscovered.
Because it also has to serve as the music that lives in my car for the next year, it needs to upbeat, happy and sound good loud. No slow songs unless they are incredible or fit perfectly into one of the essential categories. I also take great care in the ordering of the cd. Making the perfect mix tape is an art form that I have been enjoying and partaking in since high school. The order of and grouping of songs as well as the transitions between songs are very important.
This was the first year that we had to take the kid’s likes and dislikes into account. We don’t listen to any children’s music really, sometimes some Barenaked ladies or Jack Johnson who both have children’s albums. But really our kids just like to listen to regular music. We mostly make them listen to what we like, but the Rhapsody Tivo interface was wonky for a few months and all we could easily get through the TV and stereo system in the house was the Rhapsody Top Tracks, which includes mostly top forty stuff. Because of this the kids have developed a definite opinion about what they like and so we gave them a nod on this cd.
Nickelback for Ian, he likes the hard stuff and for some reason Nickelback is his favorite, and Flo Rida and Lady Gaga for Ada, she likes the dance tracks.
I want to keep a record of these so i am posting this here and hey, maybe you will like it too. Every song has a reason and a place and I am really pleased with this year’s creation.
1. Make It Mine
2. Poker Face
3. Break Me Out 2.0
4. All Around Me
5. I Don’t Feel Like Dancin’
6. The Fear
7. Peacemaker
8. Burn It To The Ground
9. Right Round
10. I Kissed A Girl
11. You Found Me
12. Walking On A Dream
13. Homecoming
14. Falling Away
15. Lisztomania
16. Womanizer
17. Decode
18. Boom Boom Pow
19. Sink Into Me
20. Help I’m Alive
21. Sunshine Lady (Alternate Mix)
If you know me, then you know this is not a normal state for me, even on a good day.
I even found myself busting a move
I just feel lighter. I feel like my life is waiting and I don’t want to miss another moment.
I have been to hell and back over this last six months and I finally feel like I have turned some sort of corner.
I approach this new mood with cautious optimism and an open heart.
As if it were a sign or something, I heard the following four songs all in a row. Three on random shuffle as I climbed the last brutal hill of a 45 minute treadmill session and one happened to be on when I got in the car and hit CD on the stereo.
Dare You To Move
Unwell
Away From The Sun
Say
As I drove up the hill a tear of fullness crept from my eye, brought there by John Mayer’s Say.
”Have no fear for giving in. Have no fear for giving over. You better know that in the end it’s better to say too much that to never say what you need to say. Even if your hands are shaking and your faith is broken. Even as the eyes are closing. Do it with a heart wide open. Say what you need to say. Say what you need to say.”
Yes, I know it’s cheesy and a little over the top. But really, can you ignore this kind of day?
*Yeah, yeah, I know.
Amazon.com Widgets
This week’s selections are rather eclectic. My moods and influences have been varied and inconsistent this week and I think this is reflected here.
The list starts with one of my favorite songs by one of my favorite bands. If you haven’t seen Barenaked Ladies
I love the song Grade 9 because these guys are similar in age to me and it reminds me so much of what that time in my life was like. You can’t help but laugh out loud some of the references. I think everyone of our generation fondly remembers that conclusion of every school dance and the haunting sounds of Stairway to Heaven. Oh heck, I’ve added Stairway to Heaven just for good measure.
Back when I worked for RealNetworks, they purchased the company that originated the Rhapsody service. As a result we all received free memberships and I loved it so much I started paying for it when I left. I even upgraded to the “to go” service so I can endlessly load up my MP3 player. The point of that little ramble is to say that I have a custom radio station that I listen to all the time and in addition to bringing up some of my favorite songs from times past, it also helps me to discover new music as well. Can you tell I love this service, it is the best, really.
Anyway, this week I discovered an artist that I hadn’t listened to before that I find rather intriguing and will definitely get a good listening to from this song writer aficionado. I have included Tony Lucca’s
Another song to note on this list is Trick Daddy’s
The rest fall into old favorites that came across the wireless network to my TV and out through my stereo speakers. Did I mention you can get Rhapsody through your Tivo service (I know, I will stop with the sales pitch, old habits die hard and good products deserve promotion).
Enjoy this weeks selections and the fond memories of younger days.
Amazon.com Widgets
I was on the Amazon associate website today and found this very cool widget. How fun, to share the music I am listening to right now. My taste in music travels with my mood and therefore varies considerably from day to day and week to week.
This week I have been feeling unable to choose for myself and in need of an energy boost, so what better to serve that purpose than the top tracks play list at Rhapsody. That’s why you will find the latest in club rage on this week’s list. This is a little outside the norm for me, but I genuinely enjoy each one of them.
Also on my list is the lovely Sara Bareilles
Tonight Puff went off on Aubrey for her look and I have to say that I totally agree. I think what Puff is trying to get at is that she just needs to be Aubrey and quit trying to pose so much. She just looks like she is trying way to hard. The big hair and bigger cleavage, the fake lashes and whatever is wrong with her face. Did she have surgery or bad lip injections? I don’t know what happened, but something is just off. She doesn’t look like herself.
I get that she’s growing up and changing and still finding herself. I totally get that and I have all the love for Aubrey, but she needs to find the authenticity within herself. Maybe she needs a little break, some time by herself and some space from all the glitz and glam.
Aubrey – Do some yoga, find your center and respect yourself. You Rock! Own it, not show it. You just don’t need all that crap.
I just upgraded my Rhapsody account to Rhapsody to Go and oh my gosh, I just fell in love all over again. Within twenty minutes, my mp3 player was full of music. Just drag, drop and go. Anything you want. I am telling you, it is the coolest thing since sliced bread.
You see, Rhapsody offers the To-Go upgrade that allows you to transfer pretty much any song they have to your mp3 player. There is no individual track charge. The catch is that this is subscription content and you do not own it and it doesn’t live on your computer for you to do as you wish with it. When you delete it from your mp3 player, it is gone and if you want it again, you will need to transfer it again. The great thing about this is you can add, delete, change etc as much as you want.
Now, I am not one of those people that is all hung up on ownership. If you are, then Rhapsody in general is not the service for you, except they have a larger collection and cheaper prices for downloads than anyone else. I just don’t feel the need to own all the music I like. For those albums that I really like and want as part of my collection for years to come, I go and buy the cd. So for me, Rhapsody is just about perfect.
It is like walking into a record store and just listening to whatever you want. And now being able to take it with me is icing on the cake.
My only gripe, and it isn’t a gripe about rhapsody, is that it wouldn’t work with my iPod. This is one of the reason that it took me so long to upgrade my account. I had an iPod and it didn’t work. Well, it finally had been long enough and I could buy a new mp3 player and so I made sure to find one that is compatible with Rhapsody. I went with the Creative Zen V Plus
Now, this is not a problem with Rhapsody. Believe me, they would support the iPod if they could. The iPod does not support subscription content. Apple wants you to only be able to buy music from their store and play it in their format. It’s as simple as that.