Even If -- Mercy Me

I discovered this song in 2019, while Paula was sick. It expressed everything I felt then, and everything I feel now. Listen to it.

Breaking Find -- Way Less Sad -- AJR

Finally, an absolutely true breaking find, because it just came out today!

I like how this works for the last year and for COVID-19: No, I'm not quite happy yet, but I'm way less sad. I like that expression. I've had days like that this last year, and I think that's my goal for 2021: if I can't be happy on any specific day, I can at least be Way Less Sad.

Kokomo - The Beach Boys

I went looking for a winter song in my playlists, but for some odd reason, I don't have one. Instead is this hit from 1988, with the Beach Boys. The song was originally written by John Phillips (of the Mamas and Papas) and Scott McKensie, and recorded (but not released) for a new touring version of the Mamas and Papas. The Beach Boys needed a song for the movie Cocktail, and Phillips pulled this out. Mike Love and Terry Melcher get writing credits for some of the changes the Beach Boys did for their version.

As much as Brian Wilson tried to give the Beach Boys depth, most of their hits are light, airy compositions with minimal depth. This one is a flashback to those early hits. (It's appropriate, as Brian Wilson wasn't able to participate in the recording because of health issues.). It's a neat song that appears on both Best Of and Worst Of lists.

Breaking Find -- No Hole In My Head -- Tom Jones

YouTube for the win again. It decided to suggest this newly released song by Tom Jones, and it's good. First, it's impressive that he's still releasing powerful songs like this into his 80s, and has kept his voice in as good a shape as he has.

Second, this song is as appropriate as ever. It seems the world is rejecting truth and wanting to substitute their own reality, and we need to resist that push.

Your Woman -- White Town

One day, I went into Kroger after work to pick up the van and talk to Paula for a couple of minutes, and I heard this song on the in-store music channel. I put it in my favorites list quickly, but Paula refused to hear it any more. It was a neat music channel for us shoppers, but those who worked at the store were suffering. They played the same 15 to 20 songs over and over again on a loop for 2 or 3 days straight. Shoppers just thought they were neat 80s one hit wonders, but they were instruments of torture to the staff.

This is one of the first techno songs I ever liked, and I was intrigued by the androdynous nature of the person singing. Ends up that it's a guy singing, but he's not directly trying to play a gay man. (It's really a panache of lots of women singing a song where the lead character is clearly a man. In this case, it's a man singing a woman's song.)

Fair warning, the video's weirder than the song. I'm not even going to try on that one.

Overland - I'm With Her

It took us a while to realize who I'm With Her even was. It's a "superband" with Sarah Jarosz, Sara Watkins, and Aoife O'Donovan, all incredible up-and-coming bluegrass singer-songwriters in their own rights. They started playing and writing songs together as the three worked their way through the bluegrass festival circuits, and it led to putting together a band.

Overland is a neat "newgrass" folk song about a person who's decided to leave Chicago to try their fortune in San Francisco. It's an excellent song.

One and One - Robert Miles

Paula and I bought this album around the same time Bo was born, and we often listened to it when we brought him back from the hospital. I remember that either Paula or I asked her mother Myrtle (who stayed with us a while to help with Bo) if she liked the album. "It's not much."

Even so, I always loved this song. One and One still is One. It is an incredibly romantic example of "dream house" techno/dance music of the 90s. It features Robert Miles on the music, with Maria Nayler on vocals.