Simple Times

I bought Joshua Radin's new CD last Friday and it has provided me with musical bliss all weekend (after I coaxed myself into taking John Mayer out of my CD player...)

Why do I like it?

1) The whole CD is super chill. I like relaxing music and Radin knows how to do that.

2) The whole CD is riddled with delightful harmonies and chord progressions that allude to pop musical but are hidden under the guise of folk (Radin is secretly a pop star. No question.).

3) The CD reminds me of Nickel Creek and Caedmon's Call (pre Derek Webb absconds). You can never go wrong with sounding like these groups!

4) He uses an upright bass rather than an electric in a lot of the song (Okay, my sister pointed this out to me and its brilliant).

What don't I like about it?

1) The CD is super short: only 11 tracks and it flies by. Gimme some more, Josh.

2) I could definitely use more dynamic vocals from Radin. It is really satisfying when he finally yells, "THAT'S WHY!" on track #9, but I'd rather not have to wait 8 tracks until he uses something other than that oh-so-delightful-but-not-too-dynamic little, soft, folk voice of his.

3) All this being said, I still love it.

Lyrics to my favorite song:

We Are Okay

We are grown but cannot see

Lost our world of make believe

Simple times now seem so far

Used to be in my backyard

Yeah, the world was still in my backyard

But, we are okay, we are alright

We sing very loud,

Yeah, we're singing

We are okay, we are alright

Close our eyes, close our mouth

Yeah, we shut our eyes though we're in doubt

Build me a home from a cardboard box

Many windows never locked

This is how we used to play

Shorter nights and longer days

With faith we would not fade away

But we are okay, we are alright

We sing very loud

Yeah, we're singing

We are okay, we are alright

Close our eyes, close our mouth

Yeah we shut our eyes though we're in doubt

And so it goes

We can never seem to find the time we lost

Though we try at any cost

We try, we sing

We are okay, we are alright

We sing very loud

Yeah, we're singing

We are okay, we are alright

Close our eyes, close our mouth

Yeah we shut our eyes though we're in doubt

http://www.joshuaradin.com/