Song of the Week w/c 23rd June 2025

I've been in sort of a weird mood recently. I suppose the weather's had something to do with it. I spent a lot of the week feeling sort of overtaken by a pervading languor, leaving me hot and heavy and stupid. That's not all bad, let's be clear. It was results day on Thursday, and despite my sullen attitude towards it, I've mostly come around and accepted that they were really quite good, all considered. Saturday, too, I had a great day, and really made the sun work for me, I reckon. Enough lemonade and good company and any day's a good one. But overall, as I say, a bit of a weird week.

I've been listening to rather particular music, to go with my peculiar mood. By which I mean, a lot of Cat Clyde and Bon Iver, mostly. Actually, a good amount of English Teacher too, because I keep getting Polyawkward stuck in my head (the instrumental bit near the end!! It has me in its thrall!!). And, also, I've watched Jonathan Bailey's (sorry, sir, I keep just referring to you as "hot guy" because I forget your name) great rendition of Dancing Through Life from the Wicked movie (which I've still not seen). But, yes, mostly Cat Clyde and Bon Iver.

I don't have a lot of deep things to say about Cat Clyde, just that her songs are fun, and calming, and eminently sing-along-able, which is an important trait in a song. I struggle to sing anything particularly high, which cuts me off from singing along to many female singers, and Brendan Urie. But Cat Clyde is lovely and comfortable, as is her music itself. As we all know, I love country music very much, and along with nu metal it's really my "safe genre", which means it's good to listen to when I feel weird and bad.

The song of hers I've been listening to the most recently is The Gloom, at least partially because I really like the background sounds of insects and water. I know, I know, a shock. This is something I never mention enjoying in music. Well, nonetheless, I continue to really enjoy these sounds, and they infuse the song with that little bit extra that I'm looking for. Also, a pretty good summery song. It makes me feel like I'm on a porch, and it's late, and I've got a nice big cold pitcher of iced tea. I'm sitting out on my rocking chair, and I don't need music because the cicadas are providing it for me, and I'm completely in love with the moon, and I'm telling her so. Maybe it's the celestial body, maybe it's a metaphor. Who knows. Either way, it's gotten cool, and I'm comfortable, and everything's just right. What more could one ask for.

In terms of Bon Iver, I've mostly just been listening to For Emma, Forever Ago all the way through, on repeat. I am not sure my mother has appreciated this much, and to be honest the subtleties of the music are rather chewed up and spit out when listened to on crappy car speakers on the motorway, but this has not induced me to listen to something else. And, yes, my beloved readers, you get NO bonus points if you guessed where I got this recommendation from. It could've been anywhere.

My top favourite tracks off of this album, in no particular order, are:

• Creature Fear: I really like the sounds where it feels like a guitar string has gone astray, and the note's sort of discordant. I don't know, there's something really nice about it being a bit off and weird, but still a valuable part of the whole. Don't read into that. The other bit I really like is the build ups each time to "creature fear". I'm sure the song would not be so good without the push and pull of the quiet open music with the jubilant chorus and thumping drums, but I'd still like just that bit specifically injected into my veins.
• Team: The lead-in from Creature Fear is fantastic, but this is also a great standalone song, and I think I like it more than its predecessor. Perhaps it's my eternal inclination for instrumental music, perhaps it's the way the drums end up centred in the track, slowly falling a little off the beat and then resolving into silence. Perhaps it's the easy joy of the whistling, the fun of making sounds without an aim, to convey information through words. I'm not quite sure. I like it a lot, though, without knowing exactly why.
• The Wolves (Act I and II): Doesn't it disappoint you, just a bit, that there's no Act III? I feel like I've been cheated out of the end of my play. Ha, ha. Anyway, there's something about this track, that means everytime I'm listening to the album I go, "Oh, what's this great track?" and then everytime it's this one. To be fair, I think it's also because the first three songs on the album were already sort of familiar to me, although I'm not sure from where, so there's something exciting and exhilarating about hitting the first song on the album that is novel, relatively. Not so much now, that I've worn all the songs out. Or worn them in, I suppose. That's a nicer way to think of it.
• Re: Stacks: The last one I'll mention, so I've managed to stop short before naming quite half of the full album.... Although I got scarily close! I don't know, it's just really comforting and nice. Lovely comfortable strumming guitars (although I will note, NOT comfortable to sing along to. no falsetto for me please! no!), and the subtly layered voice that makes you feel enveloped. It's really fun, I think, the way it's not a harmony, but just a tiny little choir of two.

Anyway, my song of the week isn't from either of these artists, but it is the vibe I've been feeling, and I think it fits in with all the other tracks I've mentioned. I've picked Inside Out from Duster. It's simple, and open, and comforting --- and a little tragic and nostalgic, too. The lyrics float through the song, almost an accessory to the centred instruments. My main complaint, really, is that it should be twice this length, MINIMUM. Why on earth do people make songs so short. I just can't understand it. You're not the Ramones, and you don't need to act like it. Get out there, and start making songs 5 minutes long, at the very least. We need more Ethel Cains in this world, honestly. Tut tut. But, ok, let's pretend that it's deliberate, and part of the thing of the song, the way it ends and leaves you wanting more. That's kind of fun, too, if we choose to believe it. It does add, a little, to the effect of the nostalgia. You can grab and grasp, but the time's going to keep flowing through your hands anyway, an eternal ssshhh of sand through your fingers. The song ends, before you want it to, because sometimes that's how it is. And what a gift, to have the power to just press play again.

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