Tag: Melancholy

My Sunday Song – “Like a Stone” by Audioslave

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For My Sunday Song #339, we are going to discuss the song “Like a Stone” by Audioslave. The song is another off this debut self-titled 2002 album. The song was written by the everyone including Chris Cornell, Tim Commerford, Brad Wilk and Tom Morello (well, at least they all got credit for it). The song was the second single off the album and went to #1 on the Mainstream Rock Charts and made the Top 40 going to #31. Those chart positions helped it go Gold selling over 500,000 copies! The music video for this song has over 1 Billion Views!! That is crazy.

The song is about pondering the afterlife. How you can work so hard and be a good person and yet still go to hell anyway. Despite how well you treated others, how good you tried to be, it still wasn’t enough to save you. Because we all know what it takes to be saved, don’t we. It’s lyrics are so so sad and full of regret and really makes you wonder what was really going through Cornell’s mind when he wrote those lyrics. It was a dark place for sure.

The music matched that sadness as the guitar parts from Tom Morello had a tone that was so full of melancholy and at times it sounded like it was crying heartbreaking tears during that wicked guitar solo. That drum beat by Brad Wilk with Tim Commerford’s bass kept a groove that was as morose as it comes. All together it was as close to perfection as you can get with music matching the lyrics and vocal tone. Hauntingly beautiful I must say!

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My Sunday Song – “Nearly Forgot My Broken Heart” by Chris Cornell

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For My Sunday Song #348, we are going deep in to “Nearly Forgot My Broken Heart” by Chris Cornell. The song was written by Chris and is off his 2015 album ‘Higher Truth’. The song was the only single off the album and went to #7 US Rock Airplay Billboard Chart and #1 in Canada on their Rock Chart.

Chris has spoken on this one where he came up with the title and it immediately made him think what the song was going to be about. It is about when you find someone or maybe even something new in your life that you forget about everything else including the fact you had given up on life and that your heart was broken. It is actually a tremendously sad thing if you think about it. But when we are so broken, maybe something new in our life is really what we needed in the first place. However, this person he is talking about seems to bring him a lot of misery as it sounds so tumultuous in nature. The time spent dealing with this person and the awfulness they bring to him has consumed he forgets that the relationship is breaking his heart more than it already was.

The song starts off with a mandolin it the sounds is so full of melancholy. When Chris comes in with the first verse you can hear a sadness to the voice. Musically, there is a lot going on there and so many bits of beauty in it as well. By the second verse, the tempo picks up and it feels like a happier song despite the sorrow in those lyrics. I like that dichotomy.

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My Sunday Song – “Seasons of Wither” by Aerosmith

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For My Sunday Song #307, we are discussing the song “Seasons of Wither” by Aerosmith. The song is off their 1974 album ‘Get Your Wings’ and though not a single, was one of the great deep cuts. The album only went to #74 on the U.S. Charts but has since sold over 3,000,000 copies in the U.S. alone.

The song was written solely by Steven Tyler who was in a really bad place at the time. You see, he was doing his taxes and he owed a boatload of cash and that but him in a bad mood. He went down in to the basement of the building they were in, grabbed some drugs and Joey Kramer’s dumpster find of a guitar, lit some incense and wrote this song. No, it actually isn’t about taxes. It is about the winter season and the Massachusetts’ landscape which has that melancholy vibe which fit his mood at the time.

The band goes back to a much darker vibe with “Seasons of Wither” and opens with a blowing wind and an acoustic guitar and both sound so ominous and eerie. Not only does Tyler take on the vocals, he also handles the acoustic guitar duties and equally impressive is the bass groove set by Tom Hamilton who doesn’t get enough credit. I love the pacing and deliver of every note and Tyler might be giving his finest performance on the whole album. And Whitford’s solo is something to talk about as well as that last note goes on forever adding to the dark tone of the song. Totally brilliant track!

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Jon Fratelli – ‘Bright Night Flowers’ – Album Review

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The voice of The Fratellis is back with his second solo album, ‘Bright Night Flowers’. If you are looking for that Fratellis fun, upbeat sound, that is not here.  What you get is the unique Jon Fratelli sound with a slowed down tempo and a hauntingly beautiful album.

For those melancholy evenings, this is the perfect album.  You get 9 songs played in a way that if the lights are down low and you are alone, it is the companion you were looking for.  It will take you, wraps its arms around you and wallow in your sadness…in a good way.

Filled with songs themed around love and heartbreak, this album is actually a breath of fresh air in Jon’s songwriting and such a wonderful change of pace from The Fratellis.  When a lead singer steps away from his band, this is how it is done.

Magical songs such as “Serenade in Vain”, the piano led “After a While” and the slightly country-tinged “Evangeline”, take you on a musical journey that you never want to leave.  I would score the album a 4.0 out of 5.0 Stars.  The album is endearing and is easily an early favorite in my Top Albums of 2019.

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