New Good Song: Distance by Christina Perri f/ Jason Mraz

Here's a new good song -- "Distance" by Christina Perri f/ Jason Mraz

"Distance" is a sadder echo of another good Jason Mraz duet, "Lucky," featuring Colbie Callait. Mraz is doing quite well with his output in general, coming off the very nice "I Won't Give Up" earlier this year.

Perri's previous work hasn't exactly aligned with my tastes. She's clearly very talented, but "Jar Of Hearts" and "A Thousand Years" were over the top in vocal delivery and production while being underwhelming in their lyrical content. If as a singer you want to shoot for wringing out emotion, the bar is higher for lyrics. They need to be mature. Perhaps this a double standard. At 25, Perri is younger than, say, Carly Rae Jepsen, who is 26. But my expectations for Jepsen are different because she sings in a more juvenile way and is shooting for a younger target audience. The production of "Call Me Maybe" is poppy and cute, but it works with the delivery, the lyrics, and even Jepsen's clothes. Perri seems to want to be taken more "seriously," which is to say appreciated by adults, so when she's practically shouting at us about a metaphorical jar of hearts, some (i.e., women who are nurturing the wounds of a breakup) may cry, but others (like me) will roll their eyes. Perri co-wrote "Jar Of Hearts" and "A Thousand Years," so perhaps she is destined to be restrained by mediocre material as long as she insists on helping compose it.

These double standards for women go back a long way. Take Britney Spears than Christina Aguilera, who are basically the same age. Spears is cute and a nice performer, but seemed perpetually 13; her vocal delivery and production make it OK to sing about liking boys and being in clubs. Aguilera, on the other hand, has a huge voice and is wildly more talented, so the bar is higher for her output -- we want her to act like a woman, since she sings like one, and to sing songs that have some meaning and impact. I do not think Aguilera's body of work has risen to people's expectations, given her talent. Expectations for Spears, meanwhile, are low. We're just happy when she is not going insane before our eyes.

On "Distance," Perri seems to have elevated the content of the lyrics and relaxed a little with the production and delivery, and the result is emotional impact that to me was missing in her previous songs. She seems more comfortable here and, thus, mature. Mraz's harmonies are a nice addition. If Perri can channel her talent into work that seems more sincere, I think she can be the engine behind many future good songs.

Enjoy!

New Good Song: Bitter by Midian

Here's a new good song -- "Bitter" by Midian

One of the most popular pop and soul chord progressions is I vi IV V7, most famously called "Heart and Soul" and familiar to all pianists, or wannabe pianists. Examples are endless. Offhand I can think of a few: "Bleeding Love" by Leona Lewis, "Lucky" by Britney Spears and even a song a few posts down on this blog, "Secondhand" by Cassadee Pope. I believe this is referred to as an earworm.

Obviously this is a winning formula, and yet not all songs that follow this chord progression are good. Examples: "Friday" by Rebecca Black "Baby" by Justin Bieber.

Anyway, here's another, "Bitter" by Midian. It's the same chord progression, and with a production and instrumental arrangement that I believe is '60s. On both counts, it's quite similar to "Forever" by Mariah Carey. And the singing style is borrowed too. But the lyrics and melody here are good enough to stand the song up on its own. Quite a nice effort, with a few surprises to keep it interesting.

New Good Song: Wide Awake by Katy Perry

Here's a new good song -- "Wide Awake" by Katy Perry

How I found this song -- Most new good songs require effort to find; that's a main purpose and theme of this blog. But it's worth noting that not every new good song is hiding. Sometimes one gets pushed to you, like in the olden days before the Internet. "Wide Awake" will make its way to your radar through one channel or another. In my case, I first found it on Wikipedia, looking at Katy Perry's discography.

That this is the case suggests I am a fan, but as I've mentioned, I'm not really a "fan" of anyone per se. I'm song loyal. And I truly believe that through all the fashion, gossip and nonsense people discuss when they talk about artists, music careers are built on good songs. Yes, Madonna had innovative and provocative videos and built a captivating persona, but she also released good song after good song after good song. She would not be famous had she, in the early '80s, released awful songs like "4 Minutes" (named such, I believe, because that is how long it took to write the melody, then make a sandwich). And she is no longer as popular in part because nothing she has released in the past 10 years has been as good as "Don't Tell Me" in 2001. However, sometimes the audience will miss out on a good song because they have tired of an artist. For example, one of Janet Jackson's best songs (and possibly videos) ever was "Feedback" in 2008, but many people missed or ignored this good song when it was new because, perhaps, people had had their fill of Janet Jackson. Mariah Carey has enjoyed a little more consistent success than her contemporaries, but has also suffered from this phenomenon of having her new good songs ignored. She released, for example, a new good song in 2010 called "Up Out My Face," but it stalled on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart at No. 100. And one of her best songs is 2002's "Through The Rain," ignored in the wake of the harshly reviewed "Glitter."

The point is that you can miss some new good songs if you aren't willing to keep an open mind to popular (or previously popular) artists. They can have the very best new good songs. After all, they certainly have access to the best songwriters and producers. Similarly, don't tune out Katy Perry just because she's popular. I'm not a "fan" -- I'm not going to see her movie -- but this young woman has new good songs. "Teenage Dream," for example, is one of the best new good songs of the past few years.

What makes this song good? "Wide Awake," like "E.T.," uses synths, arrangements and production to create an atmosphere that fits and supports the melody and lyrics, a technique actively violated by, say, Rihanna, Britney Spears and David Guetta.* "Wide Awake" gets a little repetitive, since it's the same four chords over and over. But the melody holds enough interest to compensate, with a beautiful verse line closure ("so wrong" at 00:24 and "so long" at 00:36) and chorus lyrics that put a fresh twist on its cliches. And "Wide Awake" has a key ingredient to goodness that "E.T." lacks -- the absence of Kanye West.

*While one shouldn't discount an artist like Katy Perry just because she's famous, so too shouldn't one discount any artist whose body of work is mostly bad. For example, Coldplay's output of songs is a relentless embarrassment, but, lo and behold, "Paradise" has proved to be one of the best new good songs of 2012. Similarly, Rihanna will occasionally win with songs such as "Umbrella," and even the recent "We Found Love." Britney Spears has released nothing good since 2004, but surely the woman who brought us "Toxic" and "Everytime" is capable of goodness again. I'm still waiting on David Guetta.

New Good Song: Is This Love by Aiden Grimshaw

Here's a new good song -- "Is This Love" by Aiden Grimshaw (although it turns into a terrible song from 2:42 to 3:10).

In my previous post, I mentioned this song. Let's discuss it.

How I found this song -- YouTube, oddly. Often, when I'm listening to previews on iTunes, I'll go to YouTube to try to hear an entire song. This can be risky because sometimes the version on YouTube is slowed down or sped up, or re-pitched, so that the clip isn't removed for copyright violation. You have to be careful with this because tempo and pitch are important in determining whether a song is good. However, you will often notice some marketing and slick publicity around a video clip -- it can look "official" through clues such as background imagery and copyright signs. Also, next to a legitimate music clip there will often be references to other songs by new or emerging artists that you might like. These are almost always shitty, but occasionally one will surprise you, like "Is This Love." This process on YouTube is how I've discovered a couple new good songs, like "It All Belongs To Me" by Monica & Brandy, although that is no longer particularly new.

What makes this song good? It's in the dance genre, which in 2012 makes it likelier than not that it is by David Guetta and consequently is the worst song you've ever heard. But apparently other countries sometimes release dance songs that are not by David Guetta, and therefore can be good, like this one. "Is This Love" has a haunting, unexpected chord progression, and is made more legitimate by Aiden's strong British accent and emotive delivery. Almost all 2012 American dance songs are tedious, cheap, irritating and stupid, and as if all that weren't bad enough, the vocals are usually so maniupated by a computer that they are bleached of all potential emotion and idiosyncracy (see: Britney Spears). "Is This Love" is quite good with the major exception of 2:42 to 3:10, when we are subjected to a terrible bridge that sounds as if the songwriters just stopped trying.

Is YouTube a good place to find new good songs? It's not the best. I would say it's actually less efficient than iTunes because the user is often lacking some critical information, such as whether the song is available for purcahse on iTunes in the U.S., and whether the song is in fact new. But there are advantages to YouTube, such as the ability to listen to the entire song as opposed to a clip. But a disadvantage is certainly the awful ads. Also, it seems Vevo is trying to be a good place to find music, but I've found it to be clunky and annoying. Usually if I'm redirected to Vevo I know I'm in for a terrible user experience and some sort of "Oops!" error message, and I am usually correct.

I have not been able to find information about when or whether "Is This Love" will be available for purchase in the United States.