5 Songs to Warm You This New Year
It’s a New Year, and it’s cold almost everywhere. As cultural attitudes have soured, it has also made us emotionally cold and distant. So I found a bunch of songs that warm me up!
Ohio Players: Fire
I like to think that few things warm us up more than dancing. The physical release of musical energy may be one of the things we need most coming into the new year. The Ohio Players are funk/dance music royalty, earning their induction into the Rhythm and Blues Hall of Fame the instant it opened.
The song starts with the sound of a firetruck engine, even if not powerful enough to stop the heat. It knows that the dancing spirit they inspire will keep everybody warm. Like every good old school funk song, every instrument lends an important part to the song. Whether it’s the horns during the verses, or the congo’s banging under a guitar riff. The bassline and percussion keep the song moving more than anything, they provide the foundation for every other instrument to experiment between bars.
The way they sing “Fire” can’t leave your head. They sing the word alone, so you know exactly what kind of energy is bringing you to dance. It’ll get you going to where you need to be, whether it’s in Ohio or elsewhere.
Fruition: Fire
We move from Ohio to my home state of Oregon. Fruition exists in between jam music and folk rock. I’ve liked them since I first saw them, and became a fan of them when I heard them perform Fire for the first time.
This song reminds me of a train robbery. The rhythm sounds like a train taking off from the station. You hear an advancing drum track underneath a piano riff that could have been lifted from a Charlie Chaplin or Buster Keaton film. It’s like they know someone is coming from behind, turning a normal train ride into a heart-stopping event. The instrumentation around it grows more grandiose to boot. One chorus ends with a mandolin solo, and an electric guitar shreds up the very next one. It’s like there’s a musical battle between those causing chaos and those keeping the peace.
Speaking of chaos…
The Crazy World of Arthur Brown: Fire
For those who thought that the 60’s psychedelia movement all about hippies, flowers, and peace on Earth, this song must have hit them like a semi truck. “I AM THE GOD OF HELLFIRE” will catch your attention if nothing else.
The follow-up of the organ playing fits in the psychedelic world it came from. The song is lifted by this organ, which at times carries the beat, at times slows down, and at times spirals down like it’s falling into…hellfire. Even at it’s slowest moment, the organ is there to speed up the song and destroy any remaining hope of normalcy. The final chorus adds a horn section as the fire takes us over.
Arthur Brown’s screaming as heard in the song don’t do justice to the ridiculous costumes he’d wear on stage, which generally had his head on fire. This would become hugely influential to musicians like Kiss and Alice Cooper, who would take these stage antics and harder rock sound far into the future.
Sleeping with Sirens: Fire
This is the only song I’d never heard of before I started writing this. Sleeping with Sirens is an alternative metal and post-punk band, a kind of modern rock I’m not familiar with. It’s delightfully loud guitars don’t cut out the power of their vocals. It’s an energetic scream that I appreciate. This is true in their song ‘Fire’.
A synth aura overcuts a quick guitar rhythm that eventually is joined by some solitary piano notes. They have seconds to add color to the song before the vocals breakthrough with the entire band burning beneath it. That guitar rhythm stays intact, with a quick kick drum and bass foundation. The lyrics verses that seem to run like poetry, only stretching out for the bridges and choruses that show the true power of their vocalist. The song slows down and speeds up as a way to emphasize the severity of the fire they describe. Such as the final bridge before the final chorus, where they pull back nearly the whole ensemble before striking right before punching the chorus harder then ever.
Out of all the songs on this list, this is the one truly sounds like the studio they record in, (or your listening environment) is surrounded by flames.
Black Pumas: Fire
We started by lighting a fire with soul, and we end with putting a fire out with soul. Black Pumas mix that soul with a modern psychedelia. Eric Burton’s singing highlights the electric blues formula as it mixes with the bands musicianship.
A two note groove lays a beat for a low-pitched string to sing over. It established the band before the soulful voice of (singer) comes in to give the song it’s direction. A horn section jumps in here and there, to either help with the beat or to contrast the vocal melody. The song has a mix between pop and soul, using the 4 chord pop pattern to advance the song, but injecting soul in the tone of voice sang, and the instrumentation that stays bluesy in its roots. The vocals deal with a different kind of fire than these other songs. This song begs for the vocalist to extend a helping hand in an emergency situation, like a fire. They don’t want to burn anything down, they want to help put out the fire that is engulfing you.
Now we could keep the fire burning, but we’re not trying to cause collateral damage yet. So we’re going to stop this for now. If none of these fit your fancy for some reason, I’ve assembled a greater playlist of similarly themed songs.
