Playlist Swap (ft. Rebekkah @ Blue Pail Blogs)

In blogging, as in life, it's always fun to meet new people, and when a new acquaintance, Rebekkah from Blue Pail Blogs, suggested that we do a playlist swap, I said yes, and quickly found that you can learn a lot from swapping playlists with someone! We brainstormed twenty-one song categories (for the end of 2021!) and each picked a song in each category, so today I'm reacting to her choices in this post, and she's reacting to mine on her blog! Make sure you go over and check it out...

And without further ado, my reaction to the songs she chose! 

A song that you can't help but sing along with
How Far I'll Go//Alessia Cara

My Thoughts: I really like "How Far I'll Go"! It's the song of people everywhere who don't feel satisfied with the status quo, and want to change the world. This particular version isn't my favorite ever--I don't love everything that Alessia Cara does with her voice--but I do agree that it's a very sing-along-able song (even if I didn't end up singing along. :)).

A cover
Kiss the Girl//Stellar Kart

My Thoughts: This wasn't a way I'd ever heard the song--it's a rock version--but I really loved it! It felt like such a natural choice for a song to cover as a rock song, and the instrumentation was perfection. And honestly, I thought there was a certain humor to it: "yes, we are covering a weird Disney love song as a rock song" that the artists were conscious of, and it added something--almost meta-humor? 

(A) favorite Love Song 
One Call Away//Charlie Puth

My Thoughts: This one was really sweet! The boy is saying that he will be there whenever the girl needs him, no matter what, even when things get hard, and that she'll never be alone. It wasn't sappy, it was upbeat enough but not too upbeat, and the tone was just right! It did make me laugh, though, that Puth makes "me" rhyme with "day" and "away", by pronouncing it "may". XD 

Song with a color or number in the title
Blue Ain't Your Color//Keith Urban

My Thoughts: This isn't the type of thing I'd usually find myself listening to, but I like the way the singer plays with metaphor, especially around color--blue as a color and a mood, black and white as colors contrasted with blue, but also obviousness. So clever! And the music itself was laid-back and relaxing. 

A recent discovery
Promises//Matt Boswell and Matt Papa

My Thoughts: The message of this song was good--God always keeps His promises, especially through Jesus--but I did feel like it was a little too repetitive...and it didn't really touch me deeply in the same way that my favorite Christian artists--like Audrey Assad and Andrew Peterson--do. But it might just be because the theme wasn't what I needed at this moment. I did really like the lyric "You will be our God, we will be Your people", though, and how that was sung.

Favorite comedic song
Eat It//Weird Al Yankovic

My Thoughts: Weird Al is always so much fun (I actually gave Rebekkah a Weird Al song for this category, too)! I think I would have enjoyed it more if I knew the song it was based on (which I don't) but it was still funny! It definitely spoke to everyone who has ever tried to get a child to eat something they don't want to...which I have done. 

Least favorite song from your favorite group/artist
American Noise//Skillet

My Thoughts: I actually thought this one was quite profound--more so than I was expecting! The line "let Love cut through the American Noise" especially. We're surrounded by so much noise these days--social media, the news, TV, the radio, our phones, &c--and sometimes we just have to sing our own song to cut through that, or just sit in silence for a while. So, while the artists' vocal technique was not the best ever, I really enjoyed this song!

Favorite Christmas song
O Come, O Come, Emmanuel//John Berry

My Thoughts: This is a good favorite! I generally think of it more as an Advent song (Advent being the four weeks leading up to Christmas, basically, a time of prayer and preparation), but I do love it very much! This wasn't my favorite version ever, for two reasons: one, the singer pronounced Emmanuel strangely (yes, I am a little shallow, lol); two: the words to verses two and three were changed, those to verse three specifically to be "inclusive", which is one of my least favorite things that happens to Christian songs. XD 

Favorite Easter song
Christ the Lord is Risen Today//David & Noel Music

My Thoughts: This is a tune that I know, but the words have been changed, which I normally wouldn't like, except they've basically been changed completely, in a Biblical-ish way? So, I was expecting to dislike it, based on the first two lines, but I actually liked it quite a bit!

Favorite hymn
Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus//Lauren Daigle

My Thoughts: Many of my friends at the Newman Center really like Lauren Daigle, so I was interested to hear another of her songs. But for some reason, the mood of this song felt off? Maybe it was the way it was sung? So, I think I liked the lyrics, I just thought that the music itself was not quite right for the lyrics. It felt weirdly...flippant? But that might just be a me thing--Christian music is not usually my thing, with a few notable exceptions. XD

Favorite a capella song
O Holy Night//Peter Hollens

My Thoughts: I really like both this song and Peter Hollens, and I thought he did a great job with it! I had never heard an a capella version of O Holy Night, I don't think, so it was fun to hear what he did with his own voice underneath to hold up the melody.

Favorite country song
All Your Life//The Band Perry

My Thoughts: This one was kind of sad, honestly. It's about a girl who just wants to be loved by this one specific man to the point where she's obsessed with him (not healthy) but he won't notice him. The song is catchy and sounds weirdly upbeat for the lyrics...I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this one!

A song that's weird, but you love for some reason
Tear In My Heart//Twenty One Pilots

My Thoughts: I agree that it's a bit of a strange song, but I like it, too! The lyric that "Sometimes you've got to bleed to know/That you're alive and have a soul" hit deeply! And then the chorus takes that metaphor and runs with it, and it's so clever! And I love the part in the middle about her falling asleep in his car...so sweet! I would 10/10 read a short story based on this song. 

Favorite rock song
Open Wounds//Skillet

My Thoughts: Hardcore rock music isn't really my thing--I'm especially not a fan of the scream-singing. And I feel like the singer is emotionally manipulating the person he's singing to, which I'm not a fan of, either. This one is not my favorite.

A song that inspires you
Leave A Light On//Tom Walker

My Thoughts: This song was all about the singer "leaving a light on" to guide his friend home to a "house on the hill" from the dark places where he (or she?) had lost himself, and it was SO SWEET, I loved it! The singer did do a bit of borderline scream-singing, but it was spare enough that I'm not going to complain about it. I liked this song!

Favorite instrumental
Counting Stars//One Republic (cover by Alison Sparrow)

My Thoughts: This was a really nice instrumental! Somehow, it sounded a little more melancholy and introspective than the original, and I appreciated that. (I am a sucker for melancholy and introspective.)

A song that you wish was a book
Don't Hold Me//Dean Lewis

My Thoughts: I WANT THIS TO BE A BOOK, TOO! I need to know what the mistakes are that he's running from, how she found him, and how he ended up loving her so much that he can let her go like that, so she won't get hurt! This song was SO sweet! <3

Favorite sad song
I miss you//Hollyn 

My Thoughts: That was short and simple, but it hits hard--this woman is simply missing her ex-boyfriend from all the little things that they used to do together and describing her grief in brief ways that feel like little bullets...and she's trying to convince herself that she did the right thing. But did she? There's complexity below the surface.

A song you find yourself singing randomly while doing other things
Mahna Mahna...m//The Muppets

My Thoughts: Why are the Muppets so weird? XD XD That was hilarious, especially the end, but the question is...how do you sing that all by yourself? I'm now quite curious. 

A song that made you tear up
Eustace Scrubb//Sarah Sparks

My Thoughts: Why was that SO beautiful?? It perfectly captured Eustace's journey in a song, something that I was skeptical anything could do. I now want to go listen to everything else this artist has done, which, believe me, is not a common reaction that I have to music. I see why this made you tear up! It has a melancholy tiredness to it that's just perfect, but at the end there is also hope. Lovely.

Favorite song from a musical
God Help the Outcasts//Heidi Mollenhauer

My Thoughts: I really love this song--it might be my favorite in The Hunchback of Notre Dame! There's so much pathos and even irony built in, with Esmerelda wondering if Jesus was ever an outcast (hint: that's a big ol' yes) and the townspeople praying for wealth and power, while all Esmerelda wants is God's help, and the assurance that she's a child of God. <3 The music supports the words perfectly--I love the melody and the orchestration!

What's your favorite a capella song? What's your worst musical pet peeve? Have you ever done a playlist swap? Heard any of these songs?