The Head And The Heart "Lost In My Mind"

A really great pop songwriter’s gift, is creating a piece of instantly memorable ear candy. Something that lodges in your brain after one listen, and remains a pleasure to hear to over and over.

I’m thinking of songs like “I Wanna Hold Your Hand,” or “Mamma Mia” or “Mmm Bop” or “Hey Ya.”

A song that can sound simple, and sometimes even stupid, is actually incredibly hard to make. Or at least to make well.

There’s a deeper, less celebrated kind of great pop songwriting that I think is even harder to achieve, but is sometimes more rewarding.

Neil Finn of Crowded House does it. So does Glen Phillips of Toad The Wet Sprocket. Aimee Mann too.

They have this gift of being able to create these beautiful, wonderful, sturdy melodies, that don’t necessarily reveal their power on the first listen, but in the end are as (or are more) durable than the Ear Candy songs.

20 years later, you can still hear “Don’t Dream It’s Over” or “Walk On The Ocean” or “That’s Just What You Are” and the songs feel fresh and they even seem to (politely) beg you to sing along.

Their power is subtler. It doesn’t hit you over the head with its own cleverness.

That’s what I like about this song from The Head And The Heart.

I heard it a bunch of times and liked it well enough, but I can’t say the song immediately distinguished itself among the 100 or so songs I was listening to for possible adds to mvyradio.

But I liked it, and when I found out that they were on the bill for Newport Folk this year, I decided to get behind the tune, knowing that we’d likely be airing their set and/or interviewing the band.

Now that I’ve heard it on mvyradio a bunch of times, it has suddenly become one of my favorite new songs on the station.

It’s such a strong song, with a memorable melody and a nice steady build.

If you’re not familiar with the song, check it out. And if it doesn’t knock your socks off on the first listen, that’s okay. Enjoy the fact that it will reveal its beauty and power, over time.


See the video on Youtube.