Listen To This: I Wanna Get Better/Cecilia and The Satellite

So I know it’s been a while since I posted one of these but here we go. There are two songs that make me insanely happy, especially when my local quote “alternative” radio station plays them back to back.

The first one of these songs is ‘I Wanna Get Better’ by The Bleachers. You may recognize the lead man from The Bleachers, Jack Antonoff, as he is also a member of Fun.

 

To me ‘I Wanna Get Better’  is one of those rare songs that admits how messed up and screwed up everyone is but also celebrates the act of admitting a desire to, as the song says, get better. Its in a way a high energy anthem that gives everyone a chance to scream at the top of lungs and hope for better days. Not to mention, the music itself is pretty great too.

The next song ‘Cecilia and The Satellite’ by Andrew in the Wilderness is in a word, lovely. When I first heard this song I thought it was a traditional love song, but when I watched the video I realized it was actually about Andrew’s little girl. This makes it even more beautiful.

 

I’m not sure why these songs works so well together, but my guess is this. If ‘I Wanna Get Better‘ is an honest look at our flaws and fears with a hint of hope, ‘Cecilia and the Satellite’  is a celebration of love (with its highs and lows) in its purest form. Therefore giving me some kind of weird euphoric climb of emotion.

I honestly believe that ‘Cecilia and the Satellite’ will be a sleeper hit, i.e, like Vance Joy’s Riptide last year it will become popular some time after it’s initial release and eventually it’ll make it big. Once  its had a chance to make its rounds through the ‘alternative’ charts before some hipster teenage girls go ‘ooooh I like this’ and start tweeting.

Lyrically the song is frank, poetic and enchanting. Musically it has just enough bite to make it stick in your head. I hope you take the time to listen to both, you won’t regret it.

Listen to This: Worth It by Fifth Harmony

Next up on the #listentothis series is Worth it by Fifth Harmony. Fifth Harmony is one of those girl bands that were formed during a reality competition and sort of fly under the radar, releasing EPs and nothing special albums, until one song rockets them to super stardom.

Worth It is that song. Its sassy, fun to dance to and damn catchy. It’s already playing on the radio and creeping its way into clubs and I predict within a few weeks it’ll be everywhere.

Will it be a hit?  Without a doubt, yes. Fifth Harmony has a solid fanbase from their X Factor days and their first album and this song is catchy enough that it will attract a whole new crowd of fans (at least for this song). Worth It also features that horn Mediterranean style that was made so popular by Jason Derulo’s single Talk Dirty last year so I think that will add to its appeal as well. I don’t know how high it’ll climb on the charts but I am sure it’ll have its moment in the top ten.

Listen to This: Yours by Ella Henderson

 

At the request of my big sister I’m starting my ‘Music You Should Be Listening To’ posts again, but for the sake of word count (and hashtags) I’m changing the series to #listentothis.

I will be posting songs that are, in my opinion, worthy of four minutes of your life, and also make me happy. I will post a quick overview about the song and whether I think it will be a hit or not, because I have this uncanny ability to name future hits way before they hit the radio. Of course sometimes I’m wrong, but I suppose time will only tell what my percentage is. Either way this series is meant to introduce you to some beautiful music that will hopefully inspire and make you happy.

So, the first song of the new #listentothis series is Yours by Ella Henderson

Ella Henderson is an English singer who competed on British X-Factor back in 2012. At 19 years old she is already massively successful in the U.K and her single ‘Ghost’ is gaining a lot of steam in the U.S. Her new single Yours was recently featured in an episode of The Vampire Diaries (where Caroline and Stefan kiss on a porch) which is how I discovered this song, along with a ton of teenage girls.

But this song is one of the CW songs that is actually extremely good. Musically, it’s a pretty simple song and its quite strong lyrically, but its Ella deep, Amy Winehouse-esque voice that makes it. It’s the kind of song that make you want to curl up on a Sunday morning with your significant other and never leave the bed.

Will it be a hit:  Ella has Simon Cowell’s management company behind her so I think with the right promotion and after it’s featured on a couple more shows Yours could very well be a hit. But if it’s not promoted right it will fade away and she’ll be a one hit wonder in the U.S. But overall I think yes, it will be hit.