This Year: 2021

"This Year" is a series of weekly posts, each about one song from one year of my life. See the introduction for more.

For 2021, I'm going to repeat myself. I posted about this song when I first heard it, as Your Bluesy Stomp of the Moment.

What I said then:

Trust me: it's awesome. Psychedelic guitar rock meets bluesy swamp-rock. I just listened to it three times in a row across two devices: that's how awesome.

This is Raven by The Living Pins, which is two women from Austin, TX. My understanding is that they've been around the music industry for a while - maybe not quite my age, since I am old, but not kiddies - but The Living Pins was a new collaboration, and you can hear both of those things in the music: they know what they're doing, and they're having a lot of fun making it new. (They've since been putting out music semi-regularly since this initial EP - also a good sign!)

Bye bye freaky little monster children

I have no idea what any of the lyrics mean, but I love that first line of the refrain, and admit to singing along with it almost every time.

This is another song that just hits me with the sound: another chugging beat, not fast but relentless, and that bluesy guitar winding in and out and around, until we get the quick solo after the second verse.

And just remember: no one here gets...uh huh yeah. Words to live by, whatever they mean. The very best songs mean whatever you need them to mean, whatever you bring to them.