"Sugar" by Paper Route, Friday, January 14, 2022 [from 25 Love Songs a Free Gift From NoiseTrade]
It's only a month until Valentine's Day, which was the most miserable holiday for a teenager trapped in the closet in a Christian school. I was quite bitter towards a day that couples showed off their affection. I grew more and more cynical towards the day with every passing year. Fourteen-year-old me would be surprised that in 20 years, I would be thinking about the holiday a month before. But somewhere on the way from teenage-angsty emo music to a Christian pre-ordained incel-hood, like the blinding light to Paul on the road to Damascus, NoiseTrade's 25 Love Songs rescued me from cynicism towards candy hearts. This album certainly wasn't the entirety of my love salvation, but it did start me on the path to thinking that love is possible and not total bullshit.
I'LL ALWAYS PROTECT YOU. Ahead of their delayed The Peace of Wild Things, Paper Route released a second track from the album. "Better Life" had helped me through a very dark time in my life, so I was eager to digest the next morsel Paper Route threw to me. Today, I'm going to revisit that playlist. Unfortunately, not all of the songs are available to stream, so I'll try to offer an alternative in the playlist as a space holder. I'll comment on the original song and about the song I chose instead. Here's the playlist:
2. "Won't Let You Down Again" by Matthew Perryman Jones. The lyrics of this one are interesting: "Dancing with the fallen angels." Also the guitar instrumental adds a melancholy, restrained emotion. This song comes from his album Land of the Living.
3. "Sugar" by Paper Route is the song of the day, and I think it may be Paper Route's best song as far as composition.4. "Over the Moon" by Rosie Thomas is the first song I have to substitute because it's not available on Spotify. It's got an interesting looped hook. The Spotify playlist substitutes another love song "The One I Love," which comes from her album These Friends of Mine.
6. "Idaho" by Down Like Silver is maybe the only song I know about Idaho. It's a beautifully delicate song.
7. "Baby Shake-em" by Brooke Waggoner, not to be confused with "Baby Shark," is a hard to find song about the presents laid out by a suitor. I substituted the song with her most streamed song on Spotify, "Fresh Pair of Eyes," popular because it was featured in the first season of Pretty Little Liars.
9. "Song for Lovers" by Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers is an existential crisis that keeps non-believers and agnostics and anyone with any amount of doubt up at night. Kellogg sings about his doubt in religion and fear of dying, unable to be with his wife anymore. From his album Gift Horse.
11. "See It for Yourself" by Sugar & the Hi Lows sounds like an old-timey rock 'n' roll song. The production sounds a little dirty, but Amy Stroup's vocals keep everything sweet.
12. "Safety" by Leagues is nowhere to be found outside of this NoiseTrade exclusive. It's a nice song that starts with the falsettos of Thad Cockrell. The production sounds like it came from the '60s. The song is available on the band's debut EP, which is now out of print. As a substitute, I added "Spotlight," though "Lost It All" would also be a nice addition.
13. "All I Got" by Tyler James is substituted for "Stay Humble." This promising young artist seems to have vanished after his debut album, It Took a Fire. Sure, there are plenty of artists named Tyler James, but I've never been able to find out what happened to this Tyler James. "Stay Humble" is the only songs easily available online.
14. "Last Fool Standing" by Derek Webb & Sandra McCracken from their Tennessee EP. Webb, of course, at the time was NoiseTrade's founder and CEO, so it makes sense that the prolific former Caedmon's Call singer-songwriter would contribute a song to the playlist.15. "In My Veins" by Andrew Belle features Erin McCarley on backup vocals. It's the singer-songwriter's most famous song and has been featured in a pretty horrific episode of Grey's Anatomy and also in Castle and Pretty Little Liars. The slow song is a little depressing, like plans that don't work out; however, the message is that love remains "in my veins," part of the speaker.
16. "Hots Full of Love" by Josh Rouse and the Long Vacations is another hard-to-find song. It's kind of a doo-wop, rock 'n' roll song. Instead, I chose "Love Vibration," one of the singer's solo songs from his album 1972. This is the only track that's an improvement on the original playlist. "Love Vibration" is quite a nice, breezy track.
17. "Going Home" by Marc Broussard is the penultimate track from his 2008 record Keep Me Coming Back. The steel guitars and the lyrics make this a good song for the road. The chorus is the most memorable part of this song. When I was listening to this song again after listening to 25 Love Songs for maybe the 100th+ time, I didn't recognize "Going Home" until the chorus.
18. "As Long as Our Hearts Are Beating" by Jenny & Tyler. This Christian husband and wife duo were pretty big on the indie singer-songwriter stage back in the early '10s. Jenny's a great singer. Tyler can keep a tune. But it's really not for me. From their 2010 album, Faint Not.
19. "Element" by Matthew Mayfield is one of the highlights of this playlist. Something about the acoustic guitar moving into the cinematic chorus seems so urgent. Just breath-taking. From his 2011 album, Now You're Free.
20. "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" by Cary Brothers. This indie singer-songwriter has been around for a while, even having a song on the Garden State soundtrack. "Can't Take" was featured in Smallville and Vampire Diaries. In terms of the playlist 25 Love Songs, "Can't Take" builds moment on the urgency from "Element."
21. "Beautifully" by Jay Brannan. I thought "what an interesting and sad concept" when I listened to the lyrics: "'It's not that you're not beautiful/ You're just not beautiful to me' She said, 'How beautiful do I have to be?'" Jay Brannan is a gay singer-songwriter from Texas, and this song kind of makes some things make sense from when I started listening to this playlist back in 2012.
22. "The Lucky One" by Jess Penner is a sweet pop song. Kind of forgettable. Not much else to say.
23. "Lions and Dragons" by Zach Williams. This is usually a skip for me. I didn't really care for his vocals. But that's just me.
24. "Wings of Desire" by Marketa Irglova. Best known for co-starring in the musical film Once (2007), the piano in Czech singer-songwriter's song "Wings of Desire" can take me to a magical place.
25. "Indiscriminate Acts of Kindness" by Foy Vance is another skip for me. There's clearly some songwriting talent from this Northern Ireland-based singer-songwriter currently signed to Ed Sheeran's label, but the vocals aren't for me.
So there's the 25 Love Songs from NoiseTrade. It took a while to write about so many songs. Also, because I did a playlist within a playlist doesn't disqualify any of these songs (with the exception of "Sugar" by Paper Route) from getting their own entry later on.
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