
Jimmy Mallia – Had Em All
Humour is one of the elements that, fortunately, creeps into alternative music all the time. It helps the music feel as if it’s coming out of the left field as if the people responsible for making it have a greater vision than any of us listeners can understand.
Most importantly, humour usually stands in contrast with other types of popular music genres. You couldn’t have used humour to market shows by KISS or Alice Cooper. It would’ve made them extra ridiculous. You couldn’t have used jokes to sell Britney Spears records. That would’ve seemed cruel.
Nah, humour in music takes us back to the days of comics like George Carlin or, later, Bill Hicks. It makes the listener feel as if they’re part of a secret club, giggling at things that they shouldn’t.
Treating and heartache with regret might be the wisest thing a man can do, but it’s not something found in many famous except for the likes of John Prine. Jimmy Mallia’s “Had Em All” belongs to that tradition. In this classic blues-folk tune, the singer recalls his love life as if assembling a Most Wanted list for the police. All types of characters bringing all sorts of miseries have all crept into Mallia’s world. But, with the benefit of hindsight, it’s all rather hilarious, as the song will surely prove.
Tyler Ballgame – Help Me Out
The more that things go out of style, the higher the chance they have of returning to style in a way that will make ordinary men and women stand up and take notice. Musical trends, for example, never truly disappear. They are just retired by the mysterious, magical force that handles these kinds of tendencies until they can be returned for one more dance.
The other thing to remember is that we all feel entitled to be disappointed. If you’ve spent any more than $5 on purchasing music, whether through a record or a concert ticket, you’ve become a stake owner in the great experiment that is the pop music industry. And, if you care, you most likely feel cheated by the way that things have turned out.
Remember these things. Tyler Ballgame’s debut single “Help Me Out” is rooted in the past, just as much as it is tied to the record collection of all hipsters that are nearly guaranteed to like the music. But this goes beyond trends and utilising retro fascination for personal gain. The fact is that Ballgame possesses a wonderful singing voice, and “Help Me Out” is the kind of Roy Orbison-inspired song that doesn’t put one foot wrong throughout the whole thing. Groovy gravy!