It is hardly a momentary whirlpool of musical diversity that has made us hopeful as the year has dawned and broader, greater horizons are awaited. So we have to keep our creative largesse in steady gear as for all the slim fittings and youth oriented maneuvers of mediocrity and cheap commercialism of those so called Top 100 listings, imagination and gripping musicianship are not yet sailing towards the sunset. In only the fifth month of 2018, experienced and bona fide artists have brought with them their trademark symbol of glory. Favourite names all descend with latest offerings to welcome their innings in this quarter and I will leave you with the third and final part of THE TUNEFUL EAR FOR A NEW YEAR series with brief snapshots of the songs that made me sing like a lark and uphold a good natured spirit of everything good. The cycle of musical recounting will continue but here are the parting wonders of the first half of 2018. I will keep writing about every and any song that hits the bulls eye.
************************************
YOU MUST LOVE ME by LANA DEL REY
Madonna plumbed the deepest wells of grit and glory to bring universal pathos to the classic movie soundtrack of EVITA in late - 1990s and suffice it to say, it is one of the most heartbreaking renditions of a complex figure's life and times. Also, one of my absolute favorites, hands down, almost like unguarded example of an interior monologue.
Legendary chanteuse Lana Del Rey gives it the meditation and individuality she can muster up to the very best of her restrained singing abilities to further bring this original Andrew Lloyd Webber composition to this era. It's part of the platinum collection dedicated to contemporary reworkings of stage tunes by one of the world's Numero Uno figures and producers here choose to strip it of the lush original orchestral framework to keep it minimal, almost a Capella in tone. The result is trademark Lana and a heartfelt and composed paean for starting over beyond past mistakes and initiating reparation in these times. It's a tune meant to haunt the conscience.
SKY FULL OF SONG by FLORENCE AND THE MACHINE
Florence Welch is to the manner born here on SKY FULL OF SONG and the premium is on singing and setting a gloriously sombre mood of releasing personal demons into this uneasy realm of the here and now.
She talks about sleeping, screaming at her father and enunciates the word FIRE briefly atleast twice to posit her obsession with the elements as her piety is borne out of the natural world that this generation mostly ignores. It's a mood piece, a chamber piece and another great way to illustrate the interior monologue of the soul that only female artists have the wisdom to mold with raw hands and polished sensibilities. SKY FULL OF SONG embodies so many worlds by drawing us in a trance and transitory state. It's beautiful to the core.
WHEN WE WERE US by BON JOVI
This legendary band has become a staple for over thirty years and besotted dual generations by its longevity as a musical unit. We all have its personal favorites and sing along catalogues that have come with ready reckoners from LIVING ON A PRAYER, BED OF ROSES to WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE, IN THESE ARMS and YOU GIVE LOVE A BAD NAME to millennial hits as IT'S MY LIFE and BECAUSE WE CAN among irrepressible others. I am still in the gifted process of discovering them more with each day and that is what we as musical connoisseurs should aspire to.
YOU ARE READING
A LETTERED SOUL: REFLECTIONS ON LITERATURE, CINEMA AND CULTURE .
Non-FictionI have often wondered about the very curdled natures of our opinions so much so that the perch of imagination simply becomes a bystanding abstraction and real thoughts of genuine merit slip between the fingers. That is a human tendency, to beat arou...
