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Most people who know me are aware that I fell in love for the first time to the beat of this song in the summer of 2000. My experience echoed the song's surprisngly deep lyrics of confusion, curiosity, doubt and joy that are wrapped into one energetic, four minute long package. The song bounces from one emotion to the next, one moment confused, the next hopeful, the next doubtful, the next frustrated, the next joyous. Looking back, I can think of no song that more accurately captures, at least from my own experience, what it's like to fall in love. It was an overwhelming experience that threw me to the extremes of a number of emotions and caused me to ask myself question after question to ease my confusion. I lived this song almost word for word, and it's held a special meaning for me ever since. Two years later, this song stands as my all time favorite. |
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Arguably one of the best dance songs I’ve heard, Madonna reinvigorated her career with this song but, at the same time, also brought electronica to the masses. What makes this song truly soar is the music itself, to which much credit goes to the producer, William Orbit. But beneath the pounding beats, the bleeps and crackles and string arrangements is a unique song about the speed of life and how fast it goes, written with a surprisingly poetic prose by an artist ordinarily associated with controversy over sex. Never a great singer, Madonna’s voice sounds amazing on this track, belting out high notes with such emotion and force. The song is a sum of its parts, the lyrics, the production and the performance, but that sum is truly something amazing. |
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Darren Hayes's experience in Savage Garden no doubt helped him hone his skills at writing the ultimate love songs, and Insatiable ranks as my favorite love song. A tender ode to the physical expression of young love, the song the topic of sex between lovers like no other song. Hayes's signature breathy, mutli-octave voice almost whispers a narration of a night of passion, almost dizzying in its description, while avoiding so many clichés found in conventional pop songs. The background productions are both quiet and lively and only help to serve to generate the images Hayes attempts to render through song. Anyone can sing about lust or feeling in love, but Darren Hayes has managed to show how the two relate and intertwine to form a powerful, deeply emotional experience. |
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Good To Be Alive by DJ Rap is a simple enough song but it manages to feel so good, much as the lyrics would have you imply. The song’s message of enjoying your life regardless of what people think can have a powerful resonance with a lot of people. While lyrically not spectacular, the productions that went into this song (DJ Rap writes, sings and produces her own work) take the message to a higher level. Rap’s untrained vocals manage to soar in this and the backbeats are upbeat and fun, resounding the overarching positive messages in this song. This is simply one of those songs that makes you feel good about yourself, much as the title implies. |
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By no means is this the average pop song. Completely acoustic, this song consists solely of a cello, a guitar, a piano and India.Arie’s voice. The song itself lacks discernable verses and structure, and that is just part of what makes this such a beautiful piece. The combination of Arie’s voice and the lyrics she sings give a raw and powerful performance with a great deal of emotion. It is the emotion that makes this song so powerful. Beautifully written and even more beautifully performed, this song does the title of its parent album justice by both being an acoustic masterpiece and extremely soulful. |
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With the first track from his most recent CD, Robbie Williams attempts to continue his trend of making intellectual pop music. The song’s echoing piano line reminiscent of 70’s rock ballads and tenderly sung lyrics, “Feel” invokes dark images of loneliness and longing, something that everyone faces at some time or another. In the chorus, Robbie almost painfully sings of feeling as though his fleeting youth is being wasted by his inability to find love. The song itself is beautifully performed, with a very soulful performance; quiet and dark at some moments, bursting with energy at other moments, flowing with the music and working against the backdrop it sets. |
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The echoing acoustic opening to this piece is only a small flavor of the masterpiece that Canadian singer/songwriter Matthew Good has created with the opening single of his first solo album. Good has always had a knack for vocal delivery, from the soft and pensive to the loud and passionate, he sings with a certain emotion that few other singers have been able to capture. The song combines a traditional guitar band sound with a heavy dose of symphonic strings in the background. In the beginning the strings gently play chords against the acoustic guitar, but as the song immediately picks up, the pounding guitar rhythms are immediately broken as the strings sing out a joyous counter melody alongside Good’s voice. This is one of those few moments in a song where, even after hearing it countless time, your spine still tingles as you listen to it again. Cyclical in nature, the song ends as it begins, with a soft, echoing acoustic guitar against the strings, gently put to rest by Good’s breathy vocals. |
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Breakup songs are the bread and butter of most love-song focused singer/songwriters. Most of them paint the picture of broken hearts and sadness. Not content to wallow over a love lost, Christina Aguilera's "Fighter" is an anthem to lessons learned through pain and suffering. Her trademark belting is laced with a combination of anger and confidence that only her voice would be capable of generating. Lyrically speaking, Aguilera's clever wordiness comes through. She manages to deliver insults without even trying while bolstering her own image as the victor in the end. These words might be considered theraputic to any broken hearted lover who is trying to heal from a bad breakup. Lastly, rather than putting a song like this in ballad form, it is a blistering rock anthem with hard guitars adding to the gritty feel of this song. The result is a potent piece of power pop that will likely be the breakup anthem for myself and others the world over as we lick the wounds of lost love.
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I respect Robbie Williams immensely for his ability to write songs that satyrize both himself and society and doing so in an intelligent way. In this particular song, I find that Williams and myself have similar outlooks on love, or the way people use it - namely as a crutch to compensate for their own problems. The lyrics are cleverly written, discussing people looking for love as they grow older and assuming it will solve all of their problems. Beatwise the song is reminscent of other pop acts of the turn-of-the-millennium, with an R&B-style beat. Williams adds strings to the production and makes it vaguely reminscent of Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive," complete with the synthesized string solo in the middle of the song. |
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Growing up in a family where artistic talent seems to be heriditary, I seem to have a special affection for a song that talks about passing a song along from generation to generation. Kristine W.'s expressive vocals float above a laid back yet driven electronic backbeat on this song with a great bassline. The lyrics wax poetic as she traces a song along several generations, from the mellow verse to the soaring chorus. I give this song high marks if only for its originality, for I don't think I've ever heard a song that talks about this subject matter in such a way. The beat and the vocal performance are worth the time it takes to listen to this song in and of itself. |
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