Interesting Air

Here is this Friday’s installment of five new songs worth listening to this week.

BAUM–Bad Kid

There won’t be many pop songs featured within this column most weeks. Just not what I spend time within usually. However, remember when I said the songs about regret were right in my wheelhouse? Enter this one from New York native Sabrina Teitelbaum, better known as BAUM. Add in a lyric video set in Iceland, with some recognizable locations from my trip there in July, and I’m in. Overall, it is repetitive (it has only 1 1/2 verses to go with the chorus) and it is not complicated by any means, other than the emotions it can make someone feel if they have lived through the right/wrong stuff in their lives.

I didn't care when you still were around
Why did it take 'til you were six in the ground
To say that I'm sorry for things that went down
Why did it take 'til you were six in the ground

Eilen Jewell–Hard Time

Off the newly released Gypsy album, file this one under a list of songs called Hard Times that I thoroughly enjoy. Call it the innate need to feel like we have persevered more than others and therefore are somehow more worthy of it. Or, is that just me? Eilen is a Northwestern girl writing songs that echo from the south. She normally comes across a little more folky, but broke out an electric guitar some on this album. This one has a toiling drone to it, and that is actually what makes it work.

For the record, Ryan Bingham’s Hard Times would probably crack a Top 10 Favorite songs list if I made one. And there is also the excellent Hard Times from The Wild Feathers. Tyler Childers has a Hard Times, and ya’ll know how I feel about Tyler. Go old school with John Lee Hooker’s blues Hard Times. Prefer some soul with your Hard Times, then there is Baby Huey. Or maybe even just a good old Hard Times promo from the American Dream.

Ohana Bam–All Roads Lead Home (Hobbs & Shaw Remix) ft. Token

While watching the latest installment in the Fast & Furious series, this one actually had me busting out Shazam. I’m sure the moment in the movie added some sentiment to it, but it still holds on its own as well. Born and raised in Chicago before before moving to LA, Bam has drawn comparisons to Chance The Rapper. The original version of this one was released last year.

Everybody lookin' at me like I know the path to take
I don't know it all
But I know the homies lookin' at me like I have the ways
So I tell 'em all what I've seen
Then I tell 'em all what I hope to see
Tell 'em all when I'm home
I've been bringing all that home with me

Idris Elba–Even If I Die (Hobbs & Shaw remix) ft. Cypress Hill

In the pre-broadband days, one of the best ways to collect music was the movie soundtrack. Apparently I’m feeling nostolgic for that method in this week’s column, because here is another one from the Hobbs & Shaw soundtrack. Only this one has Idris Elba pulling double duty as the big baddie in the movie and rapping on this one, with some help from Cypress Hill. At times, it feels like a British Crystal Method, which I dig. Elba wrote the song in his downtime on set, but this was not his first foray into music. He has performed at Coachella, afterall.

Sturgill Simpson–Sing Along

Sturgill Simpson the country singer is the kind of guy who would frequently show up in my music lists if he had continued to just do the country stuff he was doing. Rinse. Repeat. Excellent. He won a grammy for Best Country Album just two years ago. A lot of the music people I run with these days will probably bail on this one, as it is a complete shift from what he was doing originally. However, I was a bit of a techno/anime nerd in college, so nostalgia kicks in here and I can’t wait for this album and movie, Sound and Fury, to come out. Sturgill does not care about your preconceived notions, and I’m also all for that too. After all, if anyone was going to invent industrial samurai country, it was going to be Sturgill. The movie (on Netflix) and album come out Sep. 27.

Compromise is made out of peace
But history's made out of violence
After the war of the worlds has ceased
All that's left is the deafenin' silence

“Songs are really just interesting things to be doing with the air.” Tom Waits