So many great new songs, new albums - what an incredible time to be a music fan! There's too much good music to be contained by radio, really...
An Adult Alternative Radio Music Director makes qualitative decisions about music, judging - this is good, this isn't. Part of that judgement involves assessing a song's mass appeal - will a lot of people like this? For some reason, I hear that quality in a song. Sure, psychologically, there's probably something in my wiring about pleasing other people that's not exactly healthy in that, but - oh well - it's who I am, and makes me good at what I do.
In the first quarter of 2018, on through this month, there were so many new releases that - to my ears - sounded like amazing, mass appeal, yet quality, crafted tunes, we couldn't play them all on The Point. We have music meetings in radio - the stack of tunes I was bringing in for consideration for airplay just kept growing, and growing... and growing. There was no "room" for them all on the air, given the restrictions of rotations and all. Now, "freed" from those radio rotation concerns, I can tell you more, each day, about all this great new music!
Some of these songs are brand new - like The Record Company's latest, earlier this week. But some of these may be tunes from a little earlier this year which have not yet have been discovered by a large audience.
In fact, two songs competed in my brain to be today's song of the day - a brand-new tune, and one that's been out for a couple weeks. Was going with the brand-new one, an album track, and soooo good - will tell you about it tomorrow. Because I had to put it on pause - today's song popped onto my mental jukebox and wouldn't go away, insisting I hadn't yet told you about how good it is!
Damien Jurado isn't an unknown, but he does operate slightly below the popular music radar, often classed as a "musician's musician" or a "critics' darling" - usually that means hardcore music fans love a musician and can't understand why their catchy tunes aren't more popular.
We want to be surprised by music, taken on new adventures, but sometimes an echo of familiarity draws us in - sounding a little like something we've loved in the past isn't necessarily a drawback. As I first listened to Jurado's new single "Allocate" there came a haunting familiarity - it definitely reminded me of something else, but I couldn't quite place it.
Now, given what I've done for a living, there are so many songs in my head, I'm often reminded of other songs - but not necessarily songs I've liked. "Allocate" reminded me of... something. not a famous song, but a favorite (I've since figured it out, but I'll save that revelation for some future mix). And it's not exact - they're different tunes. There was just... an echo.
The heartbeat strum draws you in, the guitar's rhythm entraining, close as it is to your own heart's beating. Then, Jurado's lilting voice floats in over the rhythm, gliding over the top and lifting the listener into the air with him, an ethereal thing, out of body, soaring up into the sky.
I'm not quite sure what all the lyrics are, so I'm not quite sure what they mean, but it does sound like a break-up song, of sorts. The word "allocate" itself means to give out, distribute, or, more archaically, to locate. I don't think it's the latter, so it may be what Jurado is asking for here is more attention, or more love. Or, maybe, I'm reading my own experiences into the song. The best songs let you do that - it's almost two-way communication, in that sense.
The new album, coming May 4th on Secretly Canadian, is titled The Horizon Just Laughed. I'm not sure that gives us any more clues to the meaning of "Allocate", but maybe it does. Or, maybe, we should just listen to a great song and not think so much...
Enjoy!
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