Tag: tbt

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Better Than Ezra – Closer

Artist: Better Than Ezra

Song: Closer

Genres: #indierock #alternativerock

Location: New Orleans, United States

Release date: August, 2001

Comment: I think Kevin Griffin from Better Than Ezra is one of the best lyricists around. BTE are best known for their singles released during alternative rock’s heyday in the 1990s, but Closer was the album that introduced me to them. A Lifetime is one of my favorite songs ever and a great example of how talented Kevin is as a songwriter. However, the song I want to feature today is the title track from that underrated album, a song that always resonated with me even though it I couldn’t really relate to it before.

Closer is a beautiful song Griffin wrote after having his first child. In it, he wonderfully describes the excitement, pride, bewilderment and fear he felt all at once as a new dad. I hadn’t mentioned it here before but I’m about to become a dad as well in the next 24 hours or so, and I’m finally starting to understand what Kevin Griffin meant word by word. Incredibly, I can now say that Closer is even better than I thought.

Hope you enjoy this week’s #ThrowbackThursday entry, and please bear with me while I adapt to my new routine.

Featured on the following mixtapes:

  • Everything
  • Alternative

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Télépopmusik – Smile

Télépopmusik - Smile

This week’s #ThrowbackThursday song is a bit different than previous entries. To begin with, it is a “chill out” tune from Télépopmusik, a French electronic music duo that released its first album, Genetic World, back in 2001. The most popular song on that album was Breathe, which got featured in a Mitsubishi television commercial and got even a Grammy nomination. That being said, it is unlikely that people who don’t follow electronic music that closely knows who they are (they are still active).

I got nothing against Breathe, but my favorite track from that album, besides δp.δq ≥ h⁄4π “L’incertitude d’Heisenberg”, is Smile. I cannot explain why, both tracks are similar, they even feature the same guest vocalist: Angela McCluskey, but there is something about Smile that is hard to put into words. I think it was the blend of Angela’s raspy voice with the delicate unconventional sounds that composed the track. I guess the best thing I could say about this song, besides its being a musical crush of mine, is that if I told you it was released yesterday instead of 19 years ago, you could totally believe it.

Had you heard this tune before? Let me know what you think of it in the comments section below.

Featured on the following mixtapes:

  • Everything
  • Chill Out