In true social media nerd enthusiast fashion, I’ve decided to participate in Throwback Thursday (or #tbt for all you savvy people out there) in the blogosphere. I present to you Kelly Clarkson’s Behind These Hazel Eyes.
This song has been on my mind all week. Why, you ask? It’s simple. The weather forecast. It is presently mid-March and Chicago has snow in the forecast today. When I left for work yesterday morning, it was in the 20s. To those of you who are oblivious have missed previous weather ranting posts of mine or have never met me, winter and I do not mesh. We don’t even glance at each other in a friendly manner. (I promise that having the weather forecast as an explanation as to why this is the perfect throwback Thursday number is actually legitimate.)
In highschool, I was a member of our dance team. While I wouldn’t change that for the world, the outdoor summer practices from 7am-10am throughout June and July weren’t a favorite. Summer was a time to sleep in, not a time to stand in a kick line and practice high kicks on the track in 80 degree weather. For us, though, it was. And as much as I prefer a life without mornings, I was always there. And, at the end of practice, I always walked to my car quickly so I could get home, relax, and generally eat a box of white cheddar mac and cheese. (Generally? Who am I kidding? I always at a box of white cheddar mac and cheese after practice which, now that I think about it, is kind of gross.)
The drive home from school wasn’t a long one, but I couldn’t bear the thought of 5 minutes in the car with heinous music playing. And so, Kelly Clarkson’s album “Breakaway” became my life soundtrack, and Behind These Hazel Eyes became my anthem. How 16-year-old girl of me. No, I didn’t feel as though someone swallowed me and spit me out; I wasn’t torn to pieces and I’m sure someone understood what was going on behind my hazel eyes. Sure, certain lyrics spoke to me but as a whole, I think I just enjoyed putting on my sunglasses, screaming the lyrics and speeding home. I’m getting a little nauseous at how cliché I sound.
So there you have it. The weather forecast led me to Behind These Hazel Eyes. It made me crave summer more than ever, and a summer memory from a few years past (no need to count how many) came flying back to me. I’m glad it did.
Filed under: Music, Song of the Day, Throwback Thursday | 1 Comment
Tags: Behind These Hazel Eyes, Breakaway, Dance Team, Kelly Clarkson, Summer, Throwback Thursday
Based off of the sheer amount of love I’ve shown for One Republic and Sara Bareilles over the past few years (it’s a little excessive, I know), it should come as no surprise to you that one of my all-time favorite songs is a collaboration between the two. What should come as a surprise is the fact that I have yet to feature it on HauteThought. Quite frankly, I’m shocked and disappointed by my irrational behavior. It was selfish and I deprived you of something great. I apologize for keeping this to myself and I hope you can find it in your heart of hearts to forgive me. Please?
Enough self loathing.
“Come Home” finds a way to be beautiful in more ways than one. Clearly Tedder and Bareilles don’t need my support as proof that their voices are perfection. Their awards, careers and dedicated fans are a testament to that. But it’s the pairing that has me swooning. “Come Home” was a favorite of mine on One Republic’s Dreaming Out Loud album, long before the duet version. In fact, I was given the opportunity to tell Ryan Tedder that a few years ago and it’s an experience I’ll never forget. I also commended him on borrowing parts from John Lennon’s “Imagine.” We laughed and then he played it on the piano. And then I passed out. (Not really, but I easily could’ve.)
The pairing of Tedder and Bareilles shines during the harmony on the bridge. I have goosebumps as I write this and, at the very minimum, this could be the 200th time I’ve heard this song. Sometimes simplicity is striking, and in this case, that’s exactly what it is. The harmony isn’t anything groundbreaking, but the way their voices melt into each other is what makes it perfect.
The most complex part of “Come Home” is the lyric portion. The words express a difficult emotion, one where the individual is aware of both the fantasy view and realistic view of a situation. With a simple piano chord progression and strings behind it, everything is properly highlighted and the instrumentation still isn’t forgotten.
Something tells me this will remain a favorite for a long, long time.
Ps: No laughing, these are old photos.
Pps: I apologize for the janky video…there doesn’t appear to be an “official” one.
See? Back: Brent Kutzle (cellist) Front: Natali, Ryan Tedder, me, Jenny
- It’s normal to do this.
Filed under: Music, Song of the Day | Leave a Comment
Tags: Come Home, duet, Imagine, John Lennon, Music, One Republic, Ryan Tedder, Sara Bareilles, Song of the Day
Filed under: Music, Song of the Day | 1 Comment
Tags: Downton Abbey, Downton Abbey Theme Song, John Lunn, Music, PBS, Song of the Day, Sybil, The Suite
Unless you live under a rock bolted down by none other than Arnold Schwarzenegger, chances are you’ve heard about Justin Timberlake’s return to the music world. Yes, ladies and gents, it’s true. Last week, he took to Twitter to tease that he may be coming back. He then released a video announcing that he was ready.
At the very moment the video was released, past N’Sync and JT fanatics absolutely lost it. Plots to become the next Mrs. Timberlake thickened. You couldn’t sign onto a single social network without being inundated by posts about Justin in OMG ALL CAPS (some with hearts) from guys and girls alike. Excitement was at an all time high as people geared up for more information on his next album, “The 20/20 Experience.”
What we all got was a song with Jay-Z, titled “Suit and Tie.”
My thoughts on “Suit and Tie” can best be described with a quote from Gabrielle Union’s character in 10 Things I Hate About You. ”I know you can be overwhelmed, and you can be underwhelmed, but can you ever just be whelmed?” As it turns out, you can be. And as much as I hate to admit it…I’ve officially been whelmed by Justin Timberlake, something I never thought would be possible. How so? From an even pros/cons list.
We’ll start with the pros.
That falsetto: One of JT’s staples is his ability to sing in falsetto for…well, forever. I’m eternally grateful that this was a huge part of “Suit and Tie” since it’s the reason so many fans melt the second he opens his mouth.
Motown vibe: I grew up listening to oldies music stations, cursing the fact that I wasn’t born decades earlier. While fellow gradeschool classmates were having serious playground fights about who was better, N’Sync or Backstreet Boys (stop fighting, it’s clearly N’Sync), I was listening to The Temptations, The Mamas and The Papas and Michael Jackson, and creeping up to the front of a Beach Boys concert with my dad. (And I shook Mike Love’s hand. I know, you’re jealous.) The fact that the Prince of Pop chose to pull inspiration from the past makes me want to give a standing ovation.
It’s catchy: Justin Timberlake has never had a hard time coming up with a solid hook and writing something sure to be stuck in everyone’s head for days, weeks, months, years. In fact, I had “Rock Your Body” stuck in my head the other day for absolutely no reason at all. I didn’t hate it.
And now, to justify just being whelmed by discussing the cons.
The first 43 seconds: Truthfully, upon hearing the song for the first time my body froze. It froze for 43 long seconds. The sluggish intro left a sour taste in my mouth and it still upsets me each time I hear it. There is nothing sluggish about Justin Timberlake. He has more energy than a room full of sugar high first graders, but the song begins with a total drag. Thank God for fast forward.
Jay-Z: It’s important that I start out by saying that I like Jay-Z. Quite a bit, actually. However, right when Justin has me convinced that we’re skipping along at his regular pace, Jay-Z brings us back to that sluggish feeling found in the intro. He speeds up a bit with quicker triplets at the end of his piece, but I wish he had done something similar all along.
His past: Prepare yourselves for a backhanded compliment. I hate to compare this new song to everything else JT has done, but it’s hard not to when everything else has been so good. Literally, everything else. After the first time I heard “Suit and Tie” and even still after the umpteenth time, I’m left with the question…that’s it? No really, that’s…it? Is this a sad attempt at being Punk’d? It leaves me hoping there’s more to be found on his new album, so I’ll give him that. And maybe that was the intention, to release a “whelming” song so that everyone is beyond excited with an album full of overwhelming material.
So there you have it. A score of 3-3. As it turns out, it’s possible to be whelmed by Justin Timberlake. My fingers are crossed for the rest of “The 20/20 Experience,” though. He’s a master trickster and here’s hoping he has some good ones up his sleeves.
Filed under: Music | 1 Comment
Tags: 10 Things I Hate About You, Backstreet Boys, Beach Boys, FutureSex/LoveSounds, I'm Ready, Jay-Z, JT, Justin Timberlake, Michael Jackson, Motown, N'Sync, Rock Your Body, Suit and Tie, The 20/20 Experience, The Mamas and The Papas, The Temptations
Concert Review: Gotye
Hello, there. Remember me? Probably not. I haven’t seen you for 3 months some time now. (Time? What is time, really?) And for that, I apologize. It has been impeccably poor timing in terms of being a missing person, since I’ve done more musical things in the past 3 months than I had in the year leading up to my absence. So maybe that’s it. Maybe I’ve been off being oh-so-musically current that I simply had zero time to give attention to something that I used to pay attention to most: HauteThought. You’re right, that’s not it. And if that was true, it’s a pretty sorry excuse if you ask me. The truth? Work picked up and the last thing I wanted to do when I got home was sit in front of a screen again. Lame reason, I know, but it’s a true one nonetheless.
Moving on…
I really, truly have been doing music related things as the time passed. I was able to see Kenny Chesney and Tim McGraw at the Brothers of the Sun tour, go to Lollapalooza for the 2nd year, visit Nashville (Music City) with my family (a place I’ve wanted to live since 6th grade) and this past Friday, I saw Gotye in concert. See? I haven’t been a musical shut in. I’m taking my most recent musical getaway to jump back into the blogosphere. Thank you, Gotye.
I have to be honest with you. Up until I featured Gotye’s “I Feel Better” as song of the day, I only knew “Somebody That I Used to Know.” Basically, I was like everyone else. The day I stumbled across “I Feel Better,” I dug a little deeper into Gotye’s Making Mirrors album and I’m so thankful I did. What I found was an eclectic mix of sounds and styles, all under one album title. That said, when I discovered he was coming to Chicago, the question ‘should I go?’ never crossed my mind. ’What should I wear,’ however, did.
Gotye played Chicago’s Charter One Pavilion on Friday night and showed Chicago a thing or two about what he can do as a musician. Sure, I knew he had a different and slightly addicting voice (and also sounds eerily similar to Sting and Phil Collins at times). Yes, I knew he was from Australia. Yes, I was aware that everyone with a set of working ear canals knew the song “Somebody That I Used to Know.” What I didn’t know impressed me more.
I didn’t know how extremely involved Gotye would be with his performance. Half of my photos from the night show Gotye as a blurred figure because he ran from percussion set to a synthesizer back to a different percussion set throughout the entire performance. So the guy doesn’t simply have a good voice. He’s also a percussionist. Color me impressed.
Standout songs are easy for me to pinpoint. Naturally, “Somebody That I Used to Know” was performed very well. There was a bit of a surprise here, though. I assumed his opener, Missy Higgins, would sing her way through Kimbra’s portion of the song. Instead, Gotye had the audience sing this portion while he tinkered away on one of the many instruments he’s mastered. ”State of the Art” also proved to be a standout on Friday. The matching animation behind depicted a family who purchased a state of the art music machine. It has the ability to recreate sounds normally produced by standard musical instruments, much like a computer. Gotye sings through a distorted mic, “Now for an arm and a leg, We get three half-dozen beats to choose from. So now we can pretend that there’s an orchestra in the loungeroom.” Being the EDM/all things techo-hater that I am, I couldn’t help but smile as I saw the animated family become horrified by the musical machine they purchased.
Gotye’s top song was not the single, nor was it the song I purchased a ticket to hear (as it turns out, he didn’t get a chance to play it). ”Eyes Wide Open” proved to be Gotye’s strongest performance of the evening. This is a song that not only delivers musically and lyrically, but gives a strong message, as well. While I usually pay attention to lyrics, I didn’t truly hear them until the live performance. The song talks about walking the plank with our eyes wide open. This push against ignorance and choosing not to stand up for things caught my attention immediately. (I’ve since done a bit of Googling and found the song may be about global warming.) Thank you, Gotye, for using your talent to send a message.
Filed under: Music, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
Tags: Charter One Pavilion, Eyes Wide Open, Gotye, HauteThought, Music, Review, Somebody That I Used to Know, State of the Art
