Music Always Brings Me Back

Yes bitches, I'm back. Maybe a one-blog wonder this year, maybe not. The hiatus you can say was necessary.  Adjusting to married life, work has tripled in volume and my anatomy, as you have heard time and again, continuously degrading as I'm being cautious with old age. The thoughts and ideas are aplenty but the urge to hit the keyboard outside of responding to client emails hasn't been as vigorous. But there's nothing like a sudden burst of British Invasion to get me back into this outdated form of social media (is blogging even considered "social media"??)

There was nothing special that day. Just working along, complaining about the same damn things in life and sippin' on some poor man's coffee. To uplift my spirits (really more to pacify myself), I opened another tab on my Firefox browser and went to YouTube to find myself some elevator music to listen to (yeah, you heard it right!) I don't usually use my work laptop to listen to music since my personal music library is vast and adequate enough for my cravings. Therefore I'm not logged into YouTube on this particular browser so there is no history the app can reference the home page to. It just randomly suggested an array of artists and songs I've never heard of. Sombr, Raye, Ella Langley, who are these people?? Where was I when they hit mainstream?? And what year is it now?? I was too lazy to type in anything and do a search so I clicked on the closest link I saw just so I can hear something else other than the sound of a deflated me. A few songs have played and while I was about to finish my report, suddenly a really catchy single caught me off guard. My head was already swaying to the beat before I even realized that it was at the tail-end of the song. So I clicked back on the YouTube tab to see who is behind this mysteriously inspiring tune and there she was dancing in her white/black printed dress. I had to play it back over to gauge if this song is truly as perky as it sounds. And yes, she did not disappoint.

Olivia Lauryn Dean. Anyone gloomy would instantly feel a ray of sunshine come their way with her song So Easy (To Fall In Love) [https://youtu.be/3sur4BmjQt8?si=YxWKfqKGfSw4LeI8]. Even the ones in love will rekindle that giddy feeling just hearing the melody. It is a reminder that love is not supposed to be hard work and that you gotta bet on yourself first before the person in front of you. The bossa nova vibes just makes it so pleasing to the ears and as you relate to the line "I'm the perfect mix of Saturday night and the rest of your life", it immediately hoist you up to "irresistible" status. Speaking of Olivia, I want to segue to another Brit who lately is also topping my charts-- Sam Fender. His solo rendition of Rein Me In didn't go viral until he did the re-imagined duet with Olivia [https://youtu.be/3triLkS0nq4?si=UwRX_ZZrlI_v_uPi]. And these two songs are interchangeably 1 and 2 on my list and equally as rampant on my speakers (but Olivia takes the cake since she is both in it). Plus here I go again not even knowing about this until recently since its release in September 2025. It's like Die With A Smile all over again. Another really big miss on my part. Speaking of Bruno, he is in close third with Dance With Me. While everyone is obsessed with I Just Might and Risk It All, it was Dance With Me's line "maybe they'll shine a little light, help us find what we're trying to find" that got me [https://youtu.be/ff-qOcAUZ4M?si=f3UivqyxavKk5N7t]. The words feel so nostalgic, like an excerpt from a 1980s love song. Can't wait to finally see this guy live at Sofi Stadium come October. Let's go Mr. Romantic!

As I continue my hunt for new tunes, I did get entangled with Ella Langley. I am not there yet with country music but she may very well be the one to cross me over the border. As I browse on her hits one hee-haw at a time, eventually I landed to Keith Urban territory. Mind you, I never was or am a country music fan let alone a Keith Urban one, but golly, his new upcoming album entitled Flow State (which releases on June 12) is about to change all of that. It's an all cover album except for one (and that one is with Michael McDonald, which already makes it sound like a revival itself). There's already an early release of a few songs such as Summer Breeze by Seals & Crofts [https://youtu.be/ec8GlqMOyVY?si=saNYfLQ9HHzKnlw8] and Steal Away by Robbie Dupree, giving us a preview if Urban's rendition brings the oldies some justice. To be honest, it sounds awesome! The album would also include Baby Come Back by Player, Just The Two of Us by Bill Withers, On And On which I'm assuming is by Stephen Bishop, I Just Wanna Stop by Gino Vannelli, How Much I Feel by Ambrosia (can't wait to hear this one) and Guitar Man by Bread which Keith is doing with John Mayer. Yep, already pre-downloaded the album and about to get myself a cowboy hat. Looks like I'm about to go country. 

 

"I'm working myself up to a nice warm bliss..."