5 Songs You Need to Hear, Vol. 12

Hey kids! We're back!

After an extended hiatus, 5 Songs returns with a vengeance in 2016. What follows will be five (count 'em, five) examples of largely undiscovered musical brilliance to bring a ray of sunshine into your otherwise bleak and miserable lives of bland, formula radio-ready pap music you've been brainwashed into thinking you actually like. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to give each song a listen, soaking in every nuance, and once you have acknowledged that their is still hope left for decent new music in this godforsaken wasteland, you go out and purchase any or all of the songs and support the artists who are putting everything on the line for you... shedding blood, sweat, and tears for the sake of your abused and neglected ears.

OK, ok, that's enough talk. Let's get down to it. Here they are, in no particular order... 5 Songs YOU NEED to Hear...


1. Giants - Matt Nathanson. This song is so good it's ridiculous. The world don’t speak for us / They lack the confidence / Yeah, we’re only hearts and bones and blood / But we are giants, giants! I love me some stick-it-to-the-man anthems! If you have the sneaking suspicion that life is more than what you have been led to believe, and that you were meant to be more than you are and you have settled for less than real life because somebody somewhere lied to you... You might be a Giant!

2. White Knuckles - Boh Doran. "White knuckling" is when we hold onto something too tight for our own good. Relationships are fragile things that require just the right touch, as Boh Doran sings plaintively in this poignant story of a couple enduring the peaks and valleys of life together. It's a very sad and touching song but also as catchy and toe-tapping as anything you could ever hope to hear in the car with the top down on a summer's day. I really like this song a lot!

3. Cold Hard Truth - Elenowen. Wow. You wanna make lose it and start bawling like a baby all over my computer keyboard? Play me a forlorn, haunting song like this one about a lifetime of love weathering the toughest of times, enduring right up to the end. Just mesmerizing in its beauty and perfectly executed by the former Voice contestant with all the tenderness and raw honesty the lyrics demand. If you only buy one of these songs this time, get this one. Incredible.
For whatever reason, I couldn't embed the video from YouTube but here is the link.


 4. I Don't Recall - Lavender Diamond. I know what you're thinking: "Is it Chick Week on 5 Songs?! What the heck, Jerry?!?" Hey... relax. Just enjoy the music and don't over analyze. I love the smooth, sleepy groove of this tune. The finger snaps give it a bizarre, almost Twin Peaks dream-like quality.

5. Soldier, Poet, King - The Oh Hellos.  I confess I've saved my personal favorite for the last. This song gets my Celtic blood a-boiling. And because the Soldier, Poet, and King they sing about is none other than the Christ Himself, it stirs a wonderful sense of Narnian wonder and worship in my heart. There are few things in life that would actually cause me to jig... literally. But this is one of them. When He comes to "tear your city down," you may actually jig, too!