“She won’t be waiting/ You’re lost but she’s found”? “Helpful is hurtful when life’s inside out”? “Know what you’re building will fall to the ground”?
With cryptically depressing lyrics like these, Portland, Oregon indie-folk band Weinland’s “I’m Sure It Helps” may not seem to be the most uplifting song choice, but damn if the melancholic beauty brought forth in the song’s gorgeous, woodsy twang and the hushed, plaintive delivery spewing from behind the thick beard of lead singer/ guitarist’s Adam Shearer aren’t the most soothing marriage of sounds to chill back to when hiding away from the autumn cold.
Pair those elements up with a visually stunning, and quite tender, semi-computer animated video that finds them stare down a herd of buffalo (who they eventually befriend and share a campfire with), and this 2009 break-out band triumphantly succeed in stealing away our hearts.
Just as we had finally started to come around to the seemingly bizarro reality of Pearl Jam being the cats behind this past summer’s irresistibly catchy rocker “The Fixer” (and don’t act like you didn’t have a hard time pairing the band with the feel-good single either), the grunge godfathers go and throw us another mind-jumbling curveball by including an actual LOVE BALLAD on their newest release, Backspacer. And by love ballad, we don’t mean a depressing romantic lament that would have fit in line with everything we’ve come to expect from PJ after all these years; no, with the beautifully folksy “Just Breathe”, they’ve created something that could perfectly soundtrack the walk down the aisle of your wedding!!!
Supported by a lightly orchestrated, country-tinged frame of tender acoustic guitar flickerings and cinematic strings (yes, strings!!) that prettily nail a rustic-like serenity, Eddie Vedder’s hardened growl is leavened with vulnerability as he pauses for a moment of self-reflection at the mid-life point. Realizing how fortunate he is to be able to “count on both hands the ones I love” when others have to settle for one or none at all, he’s moved to pull his lover to the side to announce his appreciation for her presence in his life.
How amazing it is to hear this mucho masculine-sounding man’s man get in touch with his sensitive side, his apologizing for any previous lack of clarity concerning his feelings for her (“Did I say that I need you?/ Did I say that I want you?/ Oh, if I didn’t I’m a fool, you see/ No one knows this more than me/ And I come clean, ah…”), touching pleas for her to “Stay with me…” and lump-in-throat-evoking final couplet of “Hold me ’til I die/ Meet me on the other side” all enough to mist up anyone’s eyes.
Find out about Backspacer’s purchasing info via the band’s website.
Perfectly capturing the wintry gloom that lurks around the calendar corner in it’s wistful, alt-country melancholy, Canadian singer-songwriter Hayden’s somber “Barely Friends” rides atop an endless roll of down-home twang, it’s steady strums and touches of harmonica and distant pedal-steel serving an effective backdrop to his internal rue.
What’s suddenly got the guy in such a miserable state of mind that he can barely utter lyrics above a shameful mumble? The sighting of a former flame the week before, which instantly shot wince-inducing memories of how their union went awry back to the surface. “The truth is you just weren’t the one”, he can admit…now. But way back when, he could only muster up a series of weak lies as explanation for why they couldn’t be; in the end, he now realizes, probably hurting her far more than if he had just confessed to her the real reason he was breaking things off in the first place.
Overwhelmed with wanting to right the past wrong (both to mend a heart he left torn and assuage his own guilty conscience), Hayden ponders over whether he should have just walked up to her and informed her of the long-held truth when he happened upon her that night, perhaps opening conversation up by oh-so-”smoothly” fibbing about how fetching she looked when fixed against the star-lit skies before dishing out a lengthy apology concerning the way he dismissed her all that time ago. Alas he didn’t, and that decision now has him facing an entire future overcast with an even weightier sense of regret.
A beautiful slice of intimate, folk-baked songcraft, “Barely Friends” proves that sometimes it’s the heartbreak-ER that can ultimately end up the bigger loser.
As nice as it is to get free music, think of how much better your soul would feel if you purchased it the old-fashioned way.
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(MP3 posts are for promotional and/ or previewing purposes only; if any artist or their representation wish to have the links removed, contact me and I will happily comply!)
“She won’t be waiting/ You’re lost but she’s found”? “Helpful is hurtful when life’s inside out”? “Know what you’re building will fall to the ground”? 
Just as we had finally started to come around to the seemingly bizarro reality of 
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