#9 - colors
You can skip to this week’s playlist on Spotify or scroll to the end.
This playlist of 10 songs with a color in the title starts with Dijon’s Nico’s Red Truck. I love the vivid imagery and specificity of detail on this track. I generally love very specific storytelling and world-building, when the specificity becomes a pathway to relatability, somehow. Because even though I don’t remember a dark green Civic with tan seats and no A/C, and my first paycheck did not get wet on my way back from a daycare, the level of detail evokes feelings that I can then apply to my own nostalgic memories and experiences. Or just take them as they are. I don’t think you have to really see yourself in a story to appreciate it, anyway.
Dijon’s music is overflowing with emotion, and he’s garnered a reputation for his intense, moving live shows. When Dijon performs to a live audience, don’t get me wrong, he has great audience interaction. He sings and talks to and with the audience, pulling them in and amplifying back their energy. But that said, it can sometimes feel like the audience is irrelevant. Like if the room was completely empty, and he was still in the same venue, or another, or in some random street or studio, he would still be singing just as passionately. You would still hear the joy or pain or despair or longing in every note and breath (or the losing of it) just the same. Like he doesn’t know another way, a lesser way, to sing these words or feel these emotions.
Anyway, I had this entire thought process watching a performance of his. At times I felt so focused on the music and the words, but at others I almost completely lost track of what was being performed, falling in awe and reflection at just how it was being performed. If you want to check out his music, you might want to listen to The Dress, perhaps his catchiest tune. Or this live performance of Many Times. I love the part where Mk.gee runs to the piano.
That was a lot of talk about Dijon, but this playlist is packed with artists I love so much; I’ll probably talk more about most of them in other newsletters. For now, I’ll say I’m glad I finally have a Lianne La Havas song on here, so I can say that there aren’t many videos that can make me as happy as her Tiny Desk Concert. Give it a watch, it might make you smile too.
10 songs
(Spotify)
Nico’s Red Truck - Dijon
Dark Green Water - Great Grandpa
Green Light - Lorde
Green & Gold - Lianne La Havas
Two Blue Eyes - Tall Heights
Orange Skies - Love
Pink Funeral - Beach House
Pink + White - Frank Ocean
yellow is the color of her eyes - Soccer Mommy
Blue Skies - Willie Nelson