We’re solidly into the new year, and here’s my first Mike’s Music Mix post of 2024. As with all the previous ones, I’m mixing it up, grabbing a variety of artists and styles from my Last.fm library to share. Here you’ll find songs from the 70s—the era of my youth—to today, with a few new releases included for those artists who have some. Let’s jump right in!
Didi Benami – Watching and Waiting
An American Idol alum, Didi Benami placed tenth during the ninth season of the show. She released a single, Gasoline, in 2012 and followed that with an album, Reverie, in 2014. All of her released songs stand up to repeat play for me. The tracks, Trouble, Release Me, and Shine are my favorites from the album. If you get a chance to hear them, I recommend taking it. I’d welcome more music from Didi, if she were to release more.
The hard thing is learning from
Lyricists: Didi Benami / Jordan Lawhead
The pain and the hurting cause
Watching and waiting
I know you’re gonna find your way
Sweet – Love is Like Oxygen / Changes
An iconic band from the 70s, Sweet is still releasing new music. Little Willie and Blockbuster are two all-time favorites, as is their 1978 release, Love is Like Oxygen. Their sound is different now as their lineup has changed since the 70s, but their new music is cool, nonetheless. I’m glad to see older people exercising their creativity… for as long as they feel it and have the means to express it. Some of these fellows are older than I am, so… you go, guys! 🙂
Love is like oxygen
Lyricists: Andy Scott / Trevor Griffin
You get too much you get too high
Not enough and you’re gonna die
Love gets you high
There’s something in the air, kill or cure
Lyricist: Andy Scott
The writing’s on the wall
And I don’t feel so good anymore
They’ll catch me if I fall
YUKI – ビスケット
I don’t speak or understand Japanese or Korean, not to any significant degree beyond a few simple phrases and what I get from Google translations. Still, I enjoy the occasional J-pop or K-pop tune. It started back in the late 90s, as I recall, when I attended an Otakon convention with my kid. They showed several J-pop videos at the convention, and my kid and I saw several of them.
Some of the videos shown at Otakon were by Judy and Mary, a Japanese band with a female lead singer simply known as YUKI. I was taken with the whimsical young woman, and kept following the band. When Judy and Mary disbanded in 2001, I was saddened, but then YUKI began releasing music as a solo artist, and then I was glad again. 🙂 Though I don’t understand her words, YUKI delivers her lyrics in a voice uniquely hers, and I adore it.
I bought a few of YUKI’s music CDs way-back-when as imports. I still have and treasure them. These days I’m able to listen to much of her music on streaming services and watch her videos on YouTube. I also use bilibili.com to watch some of her videos. You can find several Judy and Mary music videos on that site, as you’ll see if you follow the link I’ve provided.
Btw, the English name of the video embedded below is biscuit.
NSFW warning: The following video includes full frontal male nudity. You’ve been warned. 🙂
I purposely stepped on the swaying shadows
Google Translation. Lyricists: Kouichi Tsutaya / Yuki Kuramochi (pka YUKI)
As I walked down the slope.
Come closer than my body
Sweet biscuits in my pocket
I’ll give you half.
Duran Duran – All She Wants Is / Black Moonlight
Another band with a legacy from decades past, Duran Duran is also releasing new music. Some people apparently once considered them a boy band, if you can believe that, not that they ever considered themselves as such. I never did.
My all-time favorite Duran Duran hit is the ever popular track, Hungry Like the Wolf, which I still hear from time to time on my car radio. But a ton of Duran Duran songs hold up to repeated playing. These guys are a bit younger than I am, by a year or three, but they sound twenty years younger.
All she wants is
All she wants is
All she wants isMore!
Lyricists: Nick Rhodes / John Taylor / Simon Le Bon
More!
More!
We are on procession with the crucial, with the wild
Composers: Nile Rodgers / John Taylor / Simon Le Bon / Roger Andrew Taylor / Nick Rhodes
Taken in possession by the music and beguiled
Hold tight, we’re going out tonight
Under the black moonlight
Move ’til we’re outta sight
Into the black moonlight
Brandy – Afrodisiac / Christmas Party for Two
Releasing her debut album at the age of 15 in 1994, Brandy has been releasing music now for 30 years. Her voice is as sexy as ever, though her musical style has mellowed. I prefer the hip-hop and R&B progressive soul style of many of her early songs. While Brandy’s only #1 hit, The Boy is Mine, was a duet with Monica, I prefer her solo efforts, especially I Wanna Be Down, Afrodisiac, Who Is She 2 U, and Sadiddy.
As I searched YouTube for Brandy videos to embed here, I discovered I’d never seen some of them. I’d been so satisfied with listening to her music, I hadn’t sought out the video experience. Man, was I missing out. Younger Brandy had moves. Now I need to scour her YouTube channel for more enlightenment.
Being without you, its making me ill
Lyricists: I. Phillip, Kenisha Pratt, Kenneth Pratt, Tim Mosley
Stressing me out, I need to chill
Something this strong gotta be real
Nothing or no one show my skills
Help me undress, oh, yes
Lyricists: Brandy Norwood / Coleridge Tillman / David Williams II / Theron Feemster
I’ll be your present
Just give me your presence
That’s all that I’m askin’ of you
Take my body
Boy, you know you got it
Just look what you started
It’s a Christmas party for two
Barry White – Never Never Gonna Give You Up
Born in 1944, Barry White died at the relatively young age of 58 after a cardiac arrest. That’s younger than I am now. Before Barry left this world, he gave us a gift of music like no other. His bass-baritone voice and sexy love songs helped many a guy lure many a gal into bed. If you were born in the mid-70s, chances are decent you were conceived while a Barry White song softly played in the background. Think about that. 🙂
‘Cause I found what the world is searching for
Lyricist: Barry White
Here, right here, my dear
I don’t have to look no more
And all my days
I’ve hoped and I’ve prayed
For someone just like you
Make me feel the way you do
Grace VanderWaal – Moonlight / Boyfriends
In 2016, a 12-year-old female singer-songwriter / ukulele player took first place on season 11 of America’s Got Talent. Since winning, Grace VanderWaal has worked on turning that AGT success into a viable music career. Early on, Grace broke into the Billboard 200 chart at number 9 with the album Perfectly Imperfect, and placed another album, Just the Beginning, at number 22. Impressive resume for a teenager.
Grace continues to release music, but avoids the charts. An artist doesn’t need to rank on Billboard for plenty of people to like them, and some artists stick with music careers for decades without ever charting. These artists are necessary in my book, because variety reinforces tolerance of diversity in all aspects of our lives. While it’s nice for an artist to chart, whether they do or not shouldn’t define them.
I do hope Grace returns to the charts, because I love her music and I want her to keep making more. I enjoy both her early stuff where she plays the ukulele, and her later stuff where she puts the ukulele aside. Her rendition of Clearly shines brightest for me. Other favorites include Don’t Assume What You Don’t Know, Waste My Time, and Ur So Beautiful. I’m tempted to embed them all here, but I’ll refrain.
Her latest release is the single, Boyfriends. As I listen to the lyrics of many of Grace’s songs, I can’t help but think they’re cries for help. Maybe that’s just the feeling she’s trying to convey…?
A doll made out of glass
Lyricists: Grace Vanderwaal / Ido Zmishlaney
All her friends think that she’s great
But I can see through it all
And she’s about to break, oh!
I hate my summers, I hate my friends
Lyricists: Dan Gleyzer / Grace Vanderwaal / Rollo Spreckley
I bite my tongue again and again
I listen to stories, they never end, mm
Got so many boyfriends but got no damn friends
Seals & Crofts – Summer Breeze
Two guys born in the 40s, one of whom has since passed, turned out a slew of soft rock songs in the 70s, before the age of music videos, under the artist name of Seals & Crofts. While three of their singles reached #6 on Billboard, none of their songs reached #1, which I find to be a damned shame. Diamond Girl, Summer Breeze, Hummingbird, and We May Never Pass This Way Again are among my all-time top favorite tracks, by any artists.
Sweet days of summer, the jasmine’s in bloom
Lyricists: Dash Crofts / James Seals
July is dressed up and playing her tune
And I come home from a hard day’s work
And you’re waiting there
Not a care in the world
I hope you’ve enjoyed my latest romp through some of my favorite music genres, and will come back when I do it again. Happy New Year, 2024!