"Christmas Lights" by Coldplay

I am in the middle of a nice relaxing day after Christmas break.  This morning I got to have breakfast with some good friends, and after breakfast we started talking about what Jamie and Chase would name their son on the way. During the discussion we went through a bunch of crazy names, and I brought up "Apple," the name that Chris Martin and Gwyneth Paltrow chose for their first child.  So, I found a little time to blog today, and "Christmas Lights" by Coldplay has been in my head since I saw it on my good friend Ben's blog @ www.benkendrew.blogspot.com.

Colplay has been my all time favorite band since 2001.  I love all different kinds of music, and while it is almost impossible for me to give you one favorite album or song, my favorite band is a pretty easy choice.  When I was a freshman in high school, I pretty much gave up on popular music.  I hated all the new stuff I was hearing on the radio, I didnt know WYEP existed yet, and I knew that somewhere out there music better than Brittney Spears and the Backstreet Boys had to exist.  So I really got into older music like the Beatles, CSNY, Clapton, Zeppelin, and a whole crew of older bands.  One night my junior year in high school after really letting current music pass me by I fell asleep watching TV and when I woke up in the middle of the night "Yellow" by Coldplay was on and instantly I dug their music.  I picked up that first album the next chance I got and I've been hooked ever since.  Coldplay is my favorite band because those first two albums had a huge impact on me, because I think they are really talented, and because they opened my eyes to a new world of music.

So I have followed Coldplay pretty closely for a long time.  They were the first concert I went to with friends and the first band that I looked up the album release date for and went to the store to get on its opening day.  Like lots of music lovers, I get a little bit nervous when a band that I love blows up in popularity, so I was kind of nervous about what would happened when they got their big break, but it has been cool to see their music develop through the years.  When you listen to the way they moved from the simple Piano driven rock with falsetto vocals featured on "Parachutes" to the distorted guitar riffs and driving vocals of "Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends" you see a band that has developed and changed over the years.

the song and video for "Christmas Lights" are both really cool (the piano is really sweet).  This is a band that has paid their dues, worked hard, and consistently made good music.  I know its a few days late, but "Christmas Lights" is my SOTD.

"Sweet Pea" by Amos Lee

Soul is something that is under appreciated in our world of music today.  I'm not talking about soul music necessarily, though I often wonder what happened to D'Angelo, but really just singers with a lot of soul and power in their music. I think we have a few solid soulful singers like Ray Lamontagne and Adele, but we can always use a little more soul in our lives I think.

Amos Lee has soul.  He is a talented singer songwriter from the Philadelphia area that has had the opportunity to tour with some great musicians like Bob Dylan, Dave Matthews, and Norah Jones to name a few.  Lee has released several album's since his self-titled debut in 2005, though none have found the same type of commercial success that his first album experienced.  This January Lee will release an album called "Mission Bell" that will feature well known musicians such as Willie Nelson, Sam Beam, and the band Calexico.

So I heard this song today that had a little soul and sounded really familiar.  I knew that I recognized the voice, and the song was on a commercial so I did a little research and i found the song "Sweat Pea" by Amos Lee.

This is a really nice simple song that features some light guitar work by Lee and some wonderful singing.  The simple lyrics put this idea and thought in my mind that the simple life is the way to go. (slight interuption, I am sitting in Starbucks, and I just looked out the window to the right for a minute to listen to the song and think about what to write, and there is a sign in the window that says "When I give gifts, I always get more in return." That sounds nice, but there is an owl or some other kind of bird winking at me underneath the saying, and I have no idea what that is suppose to be all about...but I digress from thoughts on the simple life) The song carries this idea that whatever is back at home (a girl, a child, a beloved pet, or a nice chair, who knows) is enough to keep him getting through his days and coming home at night happy.  It would be good to live life with that kind of simplicity and joy instead of letting a lot of little things in life get to you and rob you of happiness.
    

Stay classy...and simple.

This video is from a World Cafe performance, its a good listen, but the video isn't great.