Bowery Boy – Wide Awake
Don’t tell your best friend all of your problems! Sure, you’re lucky if you have somebody who you can trust and who will listen to you. And, yes, it is important to be honest about where your mind and heart are at.
But if you go charging out and tell them your whole problem in great detail, you’ll be making a mistake. First of all, there will be little to say further down the line when you’ll, again, need some relief. Secondly, you might well overwhelm your friend.
Do it in the same way as the best songs of woe. The vast majority of them let you know from the uncomfortable silences of the intro that something is wrong. Next, they tell you the issue, but let you fill in the blanks. Before you know it, the problem is just as much your own, and you feel an involvement.
There’s something heartbreaking about Bowery Boy’s “Wide Awake.” But your eyes may swell up, it’ll be hard to put your finger on exactly what it is that’s so disturbing. That’s because, like the great grunge songs that have inspired Bowery Boy, the emotional depth of the material paints in between the lines, and takes a personal experience and makes it one that all listeners can understand and relate to.
Tamara Gamez – Nocturnal
Some people, like yours truly, as well as other frequent listeners of alternative music, just need to be pushed around a bit. Not by life. Not by other people. Music, on the other hand, can offer just the right amount of tension to see out a day.
Why the need for this kind of conflict? Why did grunge and alt-rock bands enjoy so much success while mining this brand of pressure? While it’s hard to find the exact answer, it probably has to do with the strain that many people feel throughout a regular day.
It’s enough to drive some folks crazy. Indeed, you’ll occasionally catch somebody getting out of their car and yelling at passing cars. You’ll see someone yelling at their boss and quitting in a rage. But what if all of these things can be avoided?
Tamara Gamez’s “Nocturnal” is the kind of well-rounded alternative-rock sound made for people in constant search of some relief from all of the tension around them. Sure, Gamez’s songwriting speaks of personal demons and individual hurdles. But when the singer brings this familiar-sounding grit to her vocals, she represents all of us. “Nocturnal” is a gentle push and a polite shove. And it’s what many listeners require in order to get by, and move on.
