Every artist that you love has that one song that made you completely obsessed with them. The same is no different for our writing staff, who are sharing some of the songs that made them fans of their favorite artists!
“Formula One” by Wednesday
A magician never reveals his secrets, and a music lover never reveals how they discovered an artist. However, today I will admit that a former WERS Blog staffer introduced me to the wickedly talented band Wednesday. In November 2023, fresh off of the release of their fifth studio album Rat Saw God, Wednesday was all the blog team could talk about. And we weren’t the only ones. The album received am 8.8 in a Pitchfork review and a ranking for best new music. One of the writers pitched “Formula One” to our playlist. The song opens with the soft strum of a guitar, before introducing the smooth, twangy, distant vocals of Karly Hartzman, almost as if sung through an old-timey radio. The dream-like guitar picks up as she sings “I like sleeping with the lights on” When she continues, “You next to me, watching Formula one” the drum kicks in, the beat drops, and the electric guitars ring out in a whimsical yet comforting nature. 10 seconds in, I was hooked. I sneakily added it to my playlist right then, and the song made an appearance in all of my monthly playlists throughout the rest of the year. I was made a Wednesday fan for life. Now, shortly after the release of their album Bleeds, I proudly spent all summer jamming to the upbeat, folky melodies of “Elderberry Wine” and have recently claimed “Townies”, an all around indie-folk rocker, as my favorite on the album. Sometimes you find your favorite songs in the places you least expect them, but hold on and never let go! Chances are if you like one song by an artist, there’s a whole world you’d love just waiting to be explored.
– Avieana Rivera, Music Coordinator
“Bless The Telephone” by Labi Siffre
I came across “Bless The Telephone” by the 1970’s poet, activist, and soul singer-songwriter Labi Siffre during my winter break away from home last year, and it became one of the most emotionally resonant songs of my young adulthood, capturing the melancholy and bittersweet loneliness of that time. The lyrics in “Bless The Telephone” sings: “It’s nice to hear your voice again/ I’ve waited all day long/ Even wrote a song for you/ It’s strange, the way you make me feel/ With just a word or two/ I’d like to do the same for you.” The song expresses a deep yearning for connection and captures the anticipation of hearing someone’s voice, the way a few words can shift your entire emotional landscape, and the desire to offer the same comfort in return. Whenever I play this song, it’s almost as if all of the loneliness I held on so stubbornly magically dissolves right away. With a simple chord progression, simple lyrics, and a simple idea of longing for a phone call, “Bless The Telephone” achieves something beautifully vulnerable and intimate, and to me, it is the perfect lovely song to warm your heart and soothe your soul.
– Kelly Cheng, Staff Writer
“Love Takes Miles” by Cameron Winter
If there is one thing that I can’t get enough of, it is Cameron Winter. Whether it be on a Geese album or his own solo project, Heavy Metal, Winter makes every song his own. His vocals never cease to amaze, and his courage to take massive leaps in his songwriting subjects are always jaw-dropping. “Love Takes Miles” is THE song that put Cameron Winter and Geese on my radar. It is a beautiful ballad in which he describes the lengths to which love will make you go. “Love will make you fit it all in the car,” is a more complex way of describing just how swept up in love you can be. He goes on to further say, “Something will take you/ By your pants, and/ Swing you over its head and kick you back and forth,” which, to me, is again a way that I would have never thought to describe love before. This song, and more specifically this album, is much more stripped down than any Geese song before it. Winter on Heavy Metal makes his music more approachable.
Another reason why this song is amazing is the shaker and the piano. As I said, it is basically a stripped-down Geese song, and these allow you to get more immersed in theWhen I first heard this song, I was walking through Boston in March, and it was the perfect song for the moment. It felt like it gave me the ability to appreciate the city more. In my opinion, if there was ever a song to introduce yourself to Cameron Winter, or to get yourself in the loving mood, “Love Takes Miles” is one that I would highly recommend.
– Fenton Wright, Web Services Coordinator
“Above the Chinese Restaurant” by Laufey
Ever since I first heard Laufey’s silky smooth voice, I have been a Lauver. Everything that she does effortlessly bewitches me and makes me want to listen to her even more! “Above the Chinese Restaurant,” from her debut album Everything I Know About Love, is the song that made me realize just how talented she is. It is not the most complex Laufey song, nor the most emotionally draining, but for me it includes everything that makes a Laufey song. She sings about this painfully beautiful relationship that unfortunately (or fortunately if you listen to some of her other songs) ended.
In “Above the Chinese Restaurant,” Laufey makes even the tiniest detail in this song seem so meaningful: “I still freeze when I look at these/ faded photographs from February last/ Twenty second or twenty third/ Shared some dumplings, whispered some words.” That first verse instantly grabs the listener and paints the picture of her looking at this picture. What stuck out to me the most on this song is the softness of the piano. It almost sounds like Laufey is barely touching it. It also includes other instruments that you would expect to hear on her other songs like the violin or cello. This song reminds me of so many different people that have come in and out of my life, and if for some reason you haven’t already fallen in love with Laufey, is where you should start.
– Fenton Wright, Web Services Coordinator
“As You Are” by Samia
I can’t quite remember the first time I heard Samia’s crooning voice as she sang the lyrics to what still remains my favorite song of hers, it was a rocky time in my life: a transitional period of the people around me and myself unknowing at how to handle it. At the time, “As You Are” was like a comforting home-cooked meal at the end of a long trip, or opening the pages to the library book you’ve borrowed time and time again. Its lyrics venture into nonsensical out of context, but all that means we the listeners can take the artist’s experiences and turn them into our own. “Almost every time the plane lands / I can see my mom latched to the nose of the aircraft / in a ray of pink light and her sweatpants” creates an image so vivid and explicit that you don’t know how to carry the weight of it all, and there are tears in your eyes as you realize that “there are no stipulations / … when somebody loves you / they take you as you are.” The sentiment held true when I first heard it at the ripe age of fifteen, and remains true even today, hundreds of miles and dozens of states away from where I first heard it.
– Goonja Basu, Staff Writer
