New Good Song: Sovereign Light Cafe by Keane

Here's a new good song -- "Sovereign Light Cafe," by Keane

How I found this song -- VH1 + Wikipedia. Keane has had one of the year's better new good songs, "Silenced By The Night." I discovered that song, if memory serves, in a totally 1992 kind of way -- on VH1. I DVR their Top 20 Video Countdown and sometimes scan through it on the weekend, even though that's silly because the list is also online. Having remembered that "Silenced By The Night" was a new good song, I visited Wikipedia to learn of what else Keane may have released since, and discovered "Sovereign Light Cafe," which is newer than "Silenced" but not as good.

What makes this song good? I respect a cheerful song that sounds as if its melody was carefully written, as opposed to improvised. This song borders on being a little too "la-di-da" but may remind you of Ben Folds or the Beatles in a good way. It's cute and timeless. Nice to stroll down the streets of New York to.

Is VH1's Top 20 Video Countdown a good source for new good songs? Surprisingly, yes. I have been consistently surprised that this countdown contains songs I manage not to discover through my numerous other hunting techniques, such as "Never Go Back" by Grace Potter & The Nocturnals. It's strange that a network that exhibits poor taste in its reality programming actually exhibits good taste in its video countdown. Sometimes what's on VH1's list will surprise you because it spans genres nicely -- you'll get the Adult Top 40 music you expect (e.g., Train, Jason Mraz, Daughtry, John Mayer) plus artists you've never heard of (e.g., Ed Sheeran, Grace Potter & The Nocturnals) as well as some hand-picked mainstream head-scratchers (e.g., Nicki Minaj, Rihanna, David Guetta, Usher). Not all of this is good, but some of it is. On this week's chart, for example, "I Won't Give Up" by Jason Mraz is good, as is "Give Your Heart A Break" by Demi Lovato and "Lights" by Ellie Goulding, although frankly if you were to have followed my advice and techniques from this blog you would have discovered these songs a few months ago.