“Drive You Home” by Billy Raffoul – A Song Feature

 

     The vocals of Billy Raffoul possess a captivating ability to both project and attract presence. On one side of that statement, the soulfulness and passion in Raffoul’s voice demonstrate his emotional investment in the lyrical subject matter of a song. Simultaneously, his vocal qualities impact listeners, inspiring them to explore their own experiences, thus making the subject matter more personally relatable. “Drive You Home” triggers thoughts of friends and family who struggle with addiction.
 
      The lyrics of “Drive You Home” are included at the bottom of this post. They describe the pain of caring about and for a person with a substance abuse issue. The lyrics explain, “I miss you, but not who you are now.” Later, the most impactful revelation occurs:

Oh, I won’t say goodbye till I know you’re alright

Oh, I won’t say goodbye but I won’t watch you die

 
     Instrumentally, “Drive You Home” features skillful guitar fingerpicking. At times, the energy of the percussion and the richness of the song contrast with the vulnerability of the message.
 
     Billy Raffoul is a native of Ontario, Canada, but has spent time in Nashville and Los Angeles. As the son of solo artist Jody Raffoul, Billy spent his childhood immersed in the finer points of rock history, watching his father perform and learning to play guitar himself. By his late teens, he began performing around his hometown of Leamington, Ontario and nearby, writing songs and honing his stagecraft. He spent the latter part of the 2010s delivering a succession of increasingly popular EPs and singles like "Acoustic" and "Dark Four Door," which were streamed in the millions.
 
     “Drive You Home” comes after Raffoul’s March 2023 EP “I Wish You Were Here” and his Spring 2023 North American tour with American Authors. The EP features the captivating, up-tempo “We Could Get High,” the lush, soothing love song “Better,” the cinematic and soft title track “I Wish You Here,” and the pop-tinged “Bliss.” These songs were created alongside long-time collaborators Justin Zuccato and Mike Crossey and introduced a new chapter highlighting his vocals and his knack for telling stories straight from the heart. “Drive You Home” is a glimpse of the future as we can continue to watch Raffoul’s journey as an artist.
 
     “Drive You Home” by Billy Raffoul

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BillyRaffoul
Website: https://billyraffoul.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/billyraffoul/

Lyrics of “Drive You Home” by Billy Raffoul
You don’t remember and so I paint the scene
Poor illustrator so I take liberties
Like half in the tank, half in the bag, what a drag
 
I miss you but not who you are now
The real you, I haven’t see ‘em round
Just have a ball and laugh it off
Sometimes
 
Sometimes I wanna kill you if that bottle doesn’t
I wish I didn’t love you but it’s not an option
I can never be the one to say “It’s time to go”
But I’ll always be the one to drive you home
I’ll always be the one to drive you home
I’ll always be the one to drive you home
 
November comes blowing through the trees
Like a reminder that everybody leaves
And you’re on your own to fend them off
But not tonight
 
Sometimes I wanna kill you if that bottle doesn’t
I wish I didn’t love you but it’s not an option
I can never be the one to say “It’s time to go”
But I’ll always be the one to drive you home
I’ll always be the one to drive you home
I’ll always be the one to drive you home
 
Oh, I won’t say goodbye till I know you’re alright
Oh, I won’t say goodbye but I won’t watch you die
 
Sometimes I wanna kill you if that bottle doesn’t
I wish I didn’t love you but it’s not an option
I can never be the one to say “It’s time to go”
But I’ll always be the one to drive
 
Sometimes I wanna kill you if that bottle doesn’t
I wish I didn’t love you but it’s not an option
I can never be the one to say “It’s time to go”
But I’ll always be the one to drive you home
I’ll always be the one to drive you home
I’ll always be the one to drive you home
 

“Silence” by Ships Have Sailed – A Song Feature

 

     It has been 10 years since Indie Obsessive first praised the television series Grey's Anatomy for its unequalled ability to select music that intensifies the emotional impact of its scenes. To be clear, we were not the first to recognize this ability, the show's strength for discovering and matching music to a scene to increase a viewer’s emotional investment is widely recognized. The show flexed that muscle again by matching “Silence” to a reunion scene during the first of a two-episode finale of season 19.
 
     The song by Ships Have Sailed is primarily used in the Grey’s Anatomy scene that is included at the bottom of this post. The match is not merely in the emotions, it is also in the timing. After the actress explains herself, she turns the scene in a more positive direction by momentarily pausing after “…but…” (at 0:52 of the video) and “Silence” guides that turn with a kick drum-driven upswing. Later, a false stop in the song (at 2:02 of the video) signals that the relationship has been repaired.
 
     Ships Have Sailed was founded by Will Carpenter, who is now joined by drummer Art Andranikyan. They are based in Los Angeles. Carpenter describes the band's moniker not as a pessimistic reference to the renowned idiom "that ship has sailed," but instead a fresh, positive perspective on the unexpected outcomes of unforeseen circumstances.
 
     In explaining the title and the meaning of “Silence,” Carpenter said:
  “As humans, one thing we have in common is the experience of loss. We begin to realize that our moments are never promised, and that can be both sad and empowering. I wrote ‘Silence’ as a reminder to find those moments of peace and calm amidst all the noise, and it is such an honor to have it used in such a powerful way to support a pivotal moment in someone else’s story.”    
 
     Carpenter has experienced loss. Events of the past several years brought a significant amount of grief. During the creation process leading to the 2022 album “Ages,” Carpenter’s mother-in-law (an early musical mentor) succumbed to cancer. This traumatic event combined with the stress of the coronavirus pandemic opened Carpenter to a new perspective on life and its consequential choices. His creative pursuits, as always, have been greatly influenced by everything happening around him, so it’s no surprise that these poignant personal losses (his mother-in-law and then his grandmother) resulted in his mind being “noisy.” Combatting that noise led to the powerful song “Silence.”
 
     The release of “Silence” was timed with the episode of Grey’s Anatomy. That partially explains why it was shared in the same month as a live album by Ships Have Sailed. “Live from Ojai” was released on May 5, 2023. It is available via most streaming platforms or can be purchased through Bandcamp – CLICK HERE.
 
     “Silence” by Ships Have Sailed

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shipshavesailed
Webpage: https://www.shipshavesailed.com/
Bandcamp” https://shipshavesailed.bandcamp.com/track/silence

Lyrics of “Silence” by Ships Have Sailed
The mirror falls
Broken shards
Find your calm and carry on
 
The house is dark
The shadows long
Whispered words to keep us strong
 
A fire burns
The candles glow
Quiet songs that give us hope
 
Close your eyes
Embrace the sound
Trust the silence when it gets too loud
 
Trust the silence when it gets too loud
 
Close your eyes
Embrace the sound
Frozen oceans of time
Trust the silence when it gets too loud
 
A final word
The curtain falls
Silence will embrace us all

“The Basement” and “Beautiful World” by Blondes – Song Features

     Blondes are sharing singles as they approach the release of the EP “In Separation” (July 14). This post features two of the six songs from the EP. “The Basement” and “Beautiful World” are fundamentally different from the perspectives of melody and personality. However, the lyrics to both are socially aware and engaging guitar riffs populate the pair.

 

     Blondes are based in Nottingham, UK. In fact, the band formed at the University of Nottingham in 2017. The members are now Will Potter (vocals), Dan Stroud (“Stroudy”) (guitar), Alex Davison (guitar), and Dave Annis (percussion).

      It is always gratifying when a band that is enjoying a surge in recognition gives a tip of the cap to music history. Almost 60 years ago, Bob Dylan released a promotional film clip (today called a “video”) with his song “Subterranean Homesick Blues.” The amazingly young Dylan (1965) flipped cue cards as the song played. The first card was the word “Basement.” In the official video of “The Basement,” the first cue card bears the same word.

 

      The intro for “The Basement” features skillfully layered relatively “clean” guitars. Then, the first verse begins, and the bass grabs the instrumental spotlight, while the vocals show that there is no backseat in a song from Blondes. The band explains that the song:
  “This is a song that started as a demo during the first lockdown, and it was written pretty much completely remotely by emailing it to each other and adding parts! Fittingly, it’s a song about feeling isolated and looking for a way out, which I imagine was a very well known feeling for everyone at that time. I love the energy of this track and the way it dials up in the choruses. We returned to work with Rich Turvey on this one, who produced the majority of our first EP. He helped take the demo we’d made and step it up into the thumping single-ready track it’s become.”

     “The Basement” by Blondes

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/blondesband/
Website: https://bio.to/blondesband

     “Beautiful World” is more melodically charming but more vocally melancholic than “The Basement.” It is a positive indication of the quality of an EP when a favorite song is difficult to select or shifts depending upon the current mood of the listener. That’s our situation with Blonde’s upcoming EP “In Separation,” even before all six songs are available.
 
     While speaking about "Beautiful World," Alex Davison said: 
  “It’s my favourite that we’ve written so far. It’s about our relationship with our environment and each other. We wrote it to speak not just for ourselves but to anyone that finds themselves looking around at our world and wondering just how we’ve become so disconnected from one another and the planet. We hope you like it.”

     “Beautiful World” by Blondes