there's a little voice that inspires me...

I’ve made a recent discovery about my personality. It always strikes me as surreal when I find out why my brain does some of the things that it does: it’s like I’m hacking myself, and it freaks me out. If I know that I’m doing something (like eating a chocolate croissant instead of a fruit salad) because of a certain reason (like my incredibly low level of self-control and inability to care about future consequences concerning my health and safety because of deep inner brokenness), does that mean I will really go through with the decision? Is my personality really something to be meddled with? Will knowing why I make certain decisions change the way I make them in the future? Isn’t the element of mystery that is so intricately wound into the way we function a sacred and better-left-alone part of how we operate as people?

(In the case of the chocolate croissant, the thoughts about meta-knowledge are usually sidelined by the chaotic blur of orgasmic sensations that come with eating said croissant. They’re freaking delicious.)

But what I’ve discovered is a previously unknown factor that plays into whether I like a certain song or not. Being a musician, or a pretend-one at least, whether I can sing along and/or find harmonies to the melodies of a song is a huge deal-breaker. When I look at my 25 Most Played automatically generated playlist in my iTunes, it’s filled with songs that I could probably arrange into 20-piece choir items at the drop of a hat.

And that’s kind of where Sara Bareilles comes in. Lately, I’ve been getting back into her album Little Voice, which I bought back in 2008 and completely fell in love with. Not surprisingly (although I learned the whole thing in order to cover it for a gig), “Love Song” is one of my least favourite tracks, partly due to it’s popularity on radio (it tends to kill things – radio, I mean) but also because it stands out so much from the rest of the album as a clearly poppy/conventional/sell-out track, a tri-category which no other song on Little Voice could possibly fit into. That’s why I like it being the title tune – it means you can just get through the pop and land up in Bareilles’ smooth, beautifully written ballads and her achingly catchy jazzy numbers. The second song of the 12 included on the original pressing is one of my all time favourites: “Vegas” is a well-structured bluesy piece in which the blurry piano chords mingle generously with relaxed electric guitar and freakishly satisfying background vocals to build slowly and perfectly to an epic karaoke piece that I’m dying to try out.

You see, the really cool thing about Bareilles is that – and look, I’m not trying to flatter myself here, but – we kind of have exactly the same vocal range. It’s probably the most quenching thing I’ve ever come across. I’d kill to be any kind of backing vocalist on a tour of hers: the expertly-placed snippets (all by the artist herself on the album) make for such good entertainment that it makes me want to become part of the First Wives Club and shoop-shoop my way into the streets New York City in a white pants-suit singing one of her songs. Tracks like “Love on the Rocks” and “Many the Miles”  (in which the backing is done by two guys – two guys! How cool would that be?) are just so… so much fun :) And they’re joined by the painfully beautiful “City” - a ballad with a cool acoustic/muted drums vibe in the beginning which reminds me of Relient K’s “Getting Into You” – and the awesomeness of the lyrics in songs like “Come Round Soon” – a balanced twist on your typical ‘woman scorned’ piece (although personally I would have cut off the held note after the bridge at least 4 beats earlier. It kind of turns into a screech!).

But on average (which this album most certainly is not), if you mix it all in with the great vocal manipulations, great production, great lyrics and great greatness, this album is one that inspires me to not only become a better pianist, but a better vocalist and song writer. I heart it! I highly recommend a listen all the way through!

Only thing I ever could need / Only one good thing worth trying to be and it's love. - "Bottle It Up"