Remember Luxurious and Hold the Race to the Surface – Music of March 2022

It’s the end of March so you know what that means, it’s time for my five songs of this month!

Sara Kays – Remember That Night

I heard this on someone’s playlist at work and thought it sounded pretty, by a younger singer. A bit of guitar, as sad storytelling, and gives me flashbacks of what pop music used to be like: constructive lyrics in the chorus, no sex appeal in the music videos: the singers had clothes on, etc.

I miss those days, I love how some artists like Sara here are concentrating on what it’s supposed to be about, the music. This is a lovely song and reminds us that it’s not always about sex, even if that sells more, some songs can become successful when they tell more meaningful stories and make us think about life and love: like this one is recalling a special night with someone only for them to break your heart later. Feels like betrayal.

Gwen Stefani – Luxurious

Funny, the first song was about the music and story and now I am going in the opposite direction with this song, except it’s about another topic in the music industry that sells: Money.

I got this album years ago, for my birthday I think, whenever I listened to it, the songs would always get stuck in my head and I couldn’t sleep, one of them stayed the longest, it’s not this one though, I’ll feature it later if I remember! So yeah, you know what this song is about, being rich, in fact, it’s not the only song on this album about that.

I think this song is a bit underrated compared to some of the other tracks, there’s a bit of sex appeal in it too, it sounds relaxing, makes me wish I actually was rich enough to just lounge around.

Aly & AJ – Hold Out

I had to find this song the moment I heard in a play in an episode of The Good Doctor where Aly and AJ were guest-starring as a pop duo, just with different names. They’re still making music today and are one of the few pop artists out there that write their own music. In the episode, AJ’s character’s voice was damaged in a car accident so she uses a mechanical device to speak that makes her sound like a robot.

The hospital offers her a transplant surgery that will give her a new voice so she can sing again, but it is experimental. What I didn’t like was that the protagonist Shaun Murphy, has always been the type of doctor who is about saving patient lives, whatever the cost, even if it means cutting off a limb or living without a larynx. He doesn’t see a patient’s dreams (that could possibly allow them to live a better life) just their symptoms. The patient almost dies during the procedure but somehow pulls through and can speak normally again.

This lovely song plays when Aly’s character, accepts that her sister wants the surgery and that she is the one who was always the one with more talent in things like songwriting. Medical dramas like these pick just the right song to fit the mood and this one fit just right.

Sabaton – Race to the Sea

It’s been a while since I included a Sabaton song in these posts, they have a new album about I thought about which song I wanted to feature this month, so I picked this one! It sounds so powerful and I love how they’re doing more music videos, like this one. playing in the water with the pyro.

It suits the song’s story perfectly because it’s about how almost all of Belgium had become occupied by the Germans in WWI, in an effort to keep the country from being completely conquered: King Albert I made the choice to flood the remainder of Belgium so the water prevented the Germans from succeeding.

Recently, the band’s website allows you to search for discography and find specific songs with their lyrics and a short summary of what historic event the song is about. That means I don’t have to go to Wikipedia anymore!

Jessica Darrow – Surface Pressure

Last but not least, I thought why not this song, I watched Encanto this month and enjoyed it for the music and animation. However, it did have some plot holes like I still don’t understand why Mirabel doesn’t have a gift nor does she get one in the end. What was it that made her not receive one when she turned five?

Then again, it looks like Alma, the head of the family, doesn’t have one either. Maybe Mirabel will be the next family matriarch? Who knows. Anyway, this is probably my favourite song from the movie and I think it needs more love. Luisa is a cool big sister and her gift is super-strength, see women and girls can be strong too, and that’s what I like about this song.

It was also funny how the song had a Titanic reference and Cerberus in Greek Mythology, my PC’s video card is named after that creature!

That’s it for this month, I wish I had tomorrow off because tomorrow I’ll be able to obtain the Member Card in my Shining Pearl game to catch Darkrai and I don’t want to miss out. But oh well, I’ll just have to get it after work and attempt the catch when I have more free time. I’ve got the whole month of April to do it anyway.

In the meantime, I hope to finish a few books in April and I’ve got a review coming up for a beautiful indie game that some of my fellow bloggers have already written about so stay tuned.

👽Emily