Dan Wilson "Disappearing"

Sometimes it is such a relief to hear a good song.

Dan Wilson is one of those artists that I personally love.  But none of his work has ever really fit on MVY.  Or fit snugly, anyway.

His 80s and 90s bands---Trip Shakespeare and Semisonic---were a little too pop for the MVY world.

And when Semisonic's  early-2000s "All About Chemistry" album didn't really break through, commercially, the band went on hold and it seemed like maybe Wilson's considerable song-crafting talents could have slide into obscurity.

Thankfully, he developed into an incredible co-writer and producer, reaching the highest highs in the last decade while co-writing and producing Grammy winning smash hits for The Dixie Chicks and Adele.

He's also worked with Jason Mraz, Mike Doughty, Taylor Swift and Rachel Yamagata, among other artists who can deliver a strong song with a pop sheen.

But listening to a song like Adele's "Someone Like You," even if you feel like that song is too much of a "pop hit," your ears would have to be broken to miss the fact that it is an incredibly well-constructed song, with an instantly memorable melody, with lyrics that pack an emotional wallop.

He could make a song that would fit on MVY.

And he did.

I haven't even dug into what "Disappearing" might be about, or plumbed the details of the melody and the arrangement.  I have the feeling that the depth of the song will unfold for me in the coming weeks of listening.  But I didn't have to think too hard about adding it to MVY's rotation.

I only had to hear the song once, to love it.

And that, if anything, is the mark of a Dan Wilson tune.   


Hear the song on Youtube.

Mumford And Sons "Lover Of The Light"

As noted on the earlier-this-week posts, the statistics of the Top 25 are pretty interesting.

For years, the Number One album on mvy was usually by a stalwart, heritage artist.  Someone like Bob Dylan or Mark Knopfler was most likely to garner the votes to get the top spot.  And that’s because our listeners, young and old, were operating under the consensus mind that Bob Dylan is a pretty amazing artist, and so lots of different kinds of listeners were voting for his album.

But over the course of the last few years, the Top spot has gone to a young artist who can build enough consensus from the bottom up.

Instead of being an established artist, the Number One record has been by a upstart artist with a breakout record.  And maybe that record started with the younger end of the audience, but was quickly embraced by the full spectrum of listeners.

Yes, your college student kid may have brought home the record first, but even your Dad taps along to the beat when the song comes on the radio.

So it was with last year’s Number One record, from Adele.

Adele’s “21” album managed the incredible feat of receiving twice as many votes from mvyradio listeners, as the Number Two record.  (You're gonna crack up, when you realize what was Number Two, last year)

I didn’t think anyone could pull that off again.

And yet, here we are.  Mumford And Sons’ “Babel” record actually receive more than twice the votes of the Number Two record.

You can view the whole list, and draw your own conclusions about what folks were excited about this year, on our Top 25 of 2012 page.


Hear the song on Youtube.

Rolling Stones "Doom And Gloom"

Picking new songs to put into rotation, is a little like picking fruit. 

Yeah, you want to select the best of what's at market.  But what's out there is seasonal.

October is a funny month.

If you've got an established artist with an anticipated record (Avett Brothers, Mumford & Sons), you want the album out in August, at the latest, September.  This gives the album enough time to build through the fall and be lodged in folks' brains for the holiday season.

Its hard to break a record once November hits and the Christmas music starts and people have less time to pay attention or invest in something new. 

So October is filled with releases that trade in on highly recognizable names with easily identifiable projects.

Paul Simon?  Live album?  You don't need a road map to figure out what this is going to sound like.

Olivia Newton John and John Travolta?  Together for a Christmas record?  You know what that is and can buy it (if you're a fan) without ever hearing a note.

The downside of this, if you are someone in the business of promoting records, is that each week it is a foregone conclusion that the radio stations you are calling on are devoting at least one of their coveted openings to these major releases, at the expense of the young bands you are promoting.

Most of the record promoters who call mvyradio know that we only add 2 or 3 songs every week.  So I had this conversation a number of times last Friday:

Promoter:  Do you know what you are going to add on Monday?  Do you have room for (the record I'm promoting that you just said you like)?

PJ:  I'll probably only add two songs on Monday.  And one of them is going to be the new Stones track.

Promoter:  Yeah, that's what everybody is saying.  Stones this week.  Adele last week.

And actually both "Skyfall" and "Doom And Gloom" are pretty good songs.  So I don't might them hogging the real estate.

But it must be frustrating to be a promoter in October.


Hear the song on Youtube.

Adele "Skyfall"

Just in case you haven't heard it yet . . .

Adele does a nice job with the new James Bond theme, incorporating some classic Bond melodies into her own song.


Hear the song on Youtube.


See the movie trailer on Youtube.

Taylor Swift "Mean"

My favorite two moments of last night's Grammy telecast were not performances (though I enjoyed many of them), nor speeches (though the radio gods answered my prayer and gave Bon Iver a Prime Time speech).

No, my favorite moments had to do with artist/audience reaction.

I can't say that I've ever spent any time listening to Taylor Swift. But I'm not a hater, either (on good advice from a friend).

And while she is frequently teased for her "What? Me?! You're applauding for ME?" thing, it still doesn't ring false to me.

I wasn't familiar with her song "Mean" (yeah, a portion of you think I must live under a rock), but I couldn't help but be struck by her sincerity delivering the song, the audience's full embrace of her at its conclusion, and (what seemed to be) her genuine surprise by the level of reaction.

As I watched the audience give her a thunderous standing ovation, it became immediately apparent that her story (of a hometown/school loud-mouth, demeaning her dreams of being a singer) was one that was most likely very real, to every performer in that room. You don't reach the level of success that it takes to get in that room, without slogging your way though dozens, if not hundreds (and if you count the internet, thousands and thousands) of loudmouths who sit on their barstool and shout that you're not good enough.

That's true whether you're a Beatle in your 7th decade of making music, on down to that singer-songwriter in the back row who's album hasn't come out yet.

The reaction was so personal.

In a different way, I was just bowled over by the reaction to Adele's performance.

I mean, she was awesome. But watch the audience just shower her with affection, and see her be genuinely moved by it.

Her record is well made, and her songs are strong, but I think what people reacted to about "21" and about that specific Grammy performance, was just how much Adele gives of herself.

You can invest a song with a lot of emotion, but there is a certain amount of acting involved to convey those emotions.

With Adele, she just seems to have much more direct access to her emotions, and less of a filter when she tries to project them outwardly.

I don't know if the average non-performer understands the talent involved in that level of expression, or understands that no amount of talent completely accounts of the ability---the ability is simply a function of how that person is made.

And that's what was striking about the applause. It was from a group of people who understand that Adele has a technical proficiency on a level above most people in that room, but who also understood that they were not just applauding for her ability, they were applauding for her.

It was a good night, for sincerity.


Watch the videos to the end for the audience reactions to see what I mean.


See the video on Youtube.


Hear a better quality, studio version on Youtube.


See the video on Youtube.

Adele "Someone Like You"

Well, we didn't really shock the world here, announcing that mvyradio's listeners voted Adele's "21" record to be our #1 Album Of 2011. I mean, she topped about a hundred other "Best Of" lists, too, including the telling Billboard list, which isn't necessarily a mark of quality, but in this case denotes that LOTS of people loved this record.

This is the last song on the record, and leaves the door wide open for what might come next . . .

She could go in a fully Pop direction, and cement herself as an icon of Gaga proportions.

There is the rumored Country record that she has mentioned in interviews. Seems her tour bus driver introduced her to Patsy Cline and other classic twangsters.

Or, as she as also mentioned in interviews, she could more directly emulate her biggest influence and become an Etta James for a new generation.

It just another thing to look forward to for 2012.

(added bonus on this song . . . it was co-written by Dan Wilson of Semisonic. So nice to see a great songwriter find collaborators who can take his gifts for melody, and hit a home run with it)


Hear the song on Youtube.

Adele "Rumour Has It"

I, and perhaps you, are of the generation where MTV mattered, musically.

Artists made videos, and we were excited to watch them.

But MTV evolved to a lifestyle channel, and music videos have been largely irrelevant to the channel for so long, that I just don't think videos matter to the current generation.

Videos have started to matter again, though, here in the age of Youtube. Online videos have proven to be a successful way to get an artist's music out there.

So I was curious to check out Youtube's newly updated Music page, which now lists the 100 most popular music videos on Youtube. And you can play them like a "Channel," one video after the other, like you were watching MTV in 1982.

I was curious, because I kinda thought---since music videos aren't really a part of the current generation's pop culture, but are hugely a part of my generation's orientation---that there would be a pretty strong showing of mvyradio-type artists on the list.

How wrong I was. Of the Top 100 videos, the only mvyradio artist on the list of most played videos on Youtube, was Adele.

The list was predominately Pop artists like Jennifer Lopez and Rebecca Black and such.

And I wondered, now that there is this page, will my generation rediscover their passion for the music video, and bring more adult artists to the top 100?


See the video on Youtube.