Sam's music was kind of pushed on me, if we're being honest here (and we are). It was another one of those instances where I wasn't exactly excited to listen. It was one of those "Hey, check out my friend," things. But you know, as usual, I obliged. I went into it huffing and rolling my eyes in protest. I really should work on my attitude, I suppose (I probably wont). You never know where you're going to find the next thing you fall in love with. That keeps getting proven to me.
After a few conversations about Mr. Brown with a mutual friend where I repeatedly said, "Send it to me and I'll give it a listen," I got a formal and kind email from Sam that contained a link to download his EP. As it was downloading, the huffing and eye-rolling occurred. To be fair, my attitude stemmed from the fact that I hate telling people I don't like what someone they care about is doing.
But when someone asks me for my opinion, I'm going to give it to them... and I won't hold back. In short, I didn't want to have to offend someone.
When the music completed its download, I opened it up in my media player and scanned through the song titles. I never just play the first track first. I always pick the song that has the most interesting title.
1. Who Cares
2. Felony
3. Miss Understanding
4. Think of You
I fought with myself for a few minutes on this one because honestly, the only title that didn't grab my attention was "Think of You." For whatever reason, I decided that "Miss Understanding" was the most interesting of them all and held my breath as I hit play. He had me in 3 seconds flat (In case you're wondering: yes, that
is before he even starts singing). I was absolutely hooked. I found myself both not wanting the song to end because I loved it so much and wishing it would hurry up and be over because I couldn't hear them all fast enough.
As that first song came to an end, I began to get a little worried that none of the other tracks would be able to measure up to how amazing that one was. I started to wish I'd just listened to them in order. Yes, I am actually that much of a music geek that things like this make me anxious. Apparently on this day I was just wrong over and over again. I'm glad I was.
Although I didn't listen to
37 Reasons in order (I know, I'm such a rebel), I'm going to tell you about it in order. Here's why: the order is perfect. It's exactly the way you should listen to it.
1.
"Who Cares"
I have never, ever, ever in my life listened to
anyone and felt the need to shout, "THAT SOUNDS LIKE QUEEN!"
Ever. Until I heard this song. I kid you not, I pointed at the computer and shouted, "THAT SOUNDS LIKE QUEEN!" ...and everyone else in the room looked at me like I had completely lost my mind. Yep, I had headphones in, otherwise they would have just nodded in agreement. No worries, everyone I spend time with is well aware of my enthusiasm for music. Anyways, that sounds like Queen; I feel like no further explanation is necessary.
2.
"Felony"
Everything about this song is wonderful... and marvelous. Yeah, I just did that, sue me.
2:35-2:45 is my favorite part of the song. Can I just tell you how odd that is? There are no lyrics in this 10 second span and it's MY favorite part. Miss obsessive compulsive lyric disorder... yeah.
But then again, there's the rest of the song. Have I ever mentioned how much of a sucker I am for the drums? It's the first thing you notice in this song... or that I noticed anyway. It actually isn't the introductory instrument. I had to start this song over just to figure out what it was even remotely about because I was so stuck on the drums. I don't know why, it's a simple beat, but that's what happened.
I'm going to just stop my rambling now and tell you that it's a fabulous upbeat love song. The instrumentals are
absolutely perfect. And the last two seconds will make you want to... um... nevermind.
3.
"Miss Understanding"
This is my new favorite song. Just in case you didn't know, that alone is saying a LOT. Currently, there are 461
artists just in the music library on my computer. Look, if you don't read all of my posts, you're not going to understand this, but this is that
rooftop/megaphone music. If I could pass out the feeling that this song gives me, I'd be handing it out to people daily.
In some instances, there are ways that a musician will sing a single word and it just absolutely makes me melt every time I hear it. Examples:
Isaac Slade, "heartless" oh God... and "all," yes, all.
Kevin Ghost, "fantasy"
Gallager, "sun"
Zac Hanson, "doll"
Yeah, well, as soon as I heard this song, one was added to that list:
Sam Brown, "sunsets"
There are a few songs I truly favor. For the longest time “Happiness,”
by The Fray has been my absolute favorite song. But it was for one reason: the
lyrics. Another one of my favorites is “Skeleton,” by Ghost Town. But that was
just for the play on words. Do you see a trend? It’s very rare that I find a
song that I love for every single element of it. But here is that once in a
blue moon.
It’s like magic. The guitar had me at the very beginning. I
mean, I was sold. I didn't care what this song was even going to be about. But
then in comes Sam singing in a way that demands you pay attention to what he’s
saying. I usually don’t like punchy vocals. Honestly, I usually despise them.
It works so well for this song that it’s not even funny.
I’m no expert, but I swear I hear hi-hat throughout this song pretty consistently, which is another thing that usually
doesn't work (excessive cymbals of any kind, actually). But
I don’t think this song would have been half of what it is minus that element, or really any of its other elements.
You don’t even want to get me started on the lyrics. You guys know I use the
term “ear oxygen” pretty consistently with just about any kind of music I love.
This surpasses that by far. I mean, I’m trying to make up some new word to
match it. The English language just does not supply terms worthy of this song. “Perfect”
is even inferior. I could literally talk about this single track for hours.
4. "Think of You"
It's very pop. I feel like that sounds like a warning but um, have you seen the list pop artists I love? It's not. This one took me just a little longer to get into than all of the others. The lyrics got me, though. Not that the music isn't up to par or anything. I don't know, I guess I just feel like this song would have sounded better if it was a little less busy. For instance, 2:52-end is my favorite part of the song. I love the song. I just think I personally would have loved it even more as an acoustic track. But you know how I love acoustic tracks. So, there may not be anyone on the face of the earth that agrees with that statement about this song.
The only real complaint I have about
37 Reasons is that it's too short. And that's just because it's so amazing. I can't wait to hear Mr. Brown's future projects! He says he's about to start posting covers, and actually already has one of those up. You can find that on his
Youtube channel along with a few lyric videos for original songs. You can find his EP on iTunes under the name DeForest... but just a heads up, he's not the only one. Yeah, I got a good laugh out of the other one. Just make sure what you're downloading on there is off of the
37 Reasons EP, unless you're looking for something that isn't quite as PG rated.
I know this post is called "37 Reasons You Should Listen to Sam Brown..." and nope, I didn't number them. Trust me though, there are more than 37 reasons in this blog post. Count them if you like. Just know that the first one is "Because you can" and the most important one is "Because
I said so."
Sam Brown's Links:
Just in case you missed it, here's the video review:
Musical Questions with Sam Brown:
And here's my review of Sam Brown's most recent work 'Breakfast in New York':
And, as usual, every Earthly way to contact me minus my cell phone number:
virtual mail: hpfansonghost@gmail.com
physical mail: P.O. Box 461 Gruetli-Laager, TN 37339
