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Favorite Singers I: Sara Bareilles
Dec. 26th, 2019 06:37 pmA while back, I mentioned a number of singers and groups that I count as favorites. I intend this to be the first of a series of posts discussing why they hold that rank with me.
I first encountered Sara Bareilles when James Nicoll posted a link to the video of her "Gonna Get Over You". The song seemed to be a fairly standard love-cycle piece, but the video, especially the ending, was entertaining. A while later, he linked to the video of "Brave", and that was what hooked me. Soon after, I bought "The Blessed Unrest", which includes "Brave", and was quite taken with its contents. Later, I added "Kaleidoscope Heart" and "What's Inside: Songs from Waitress".
A fair fraction of her work consists of love-cycle songs, and are not, to my mind, exceptional - although I'm very fond of the proposal song, "I Choose You". Apart from these, though, she shows good thematic range. "Brave" is a song of encouragement, and a very good one. "Cassiopeia" cleverly casts the story of a supernova in that constellation as a love story. "Chasing the Sun" is set "in a cemetery in the center of Queens" ("My floor is someone's roof...") and carries a strong "life is to be lived" message. Just the titles of other songs from "The Blessed Unrest" point at her variety: "Hercules", "Manhattan", "Satellite Call", "Eden", "Islands"...
Bareilles has a good voice, the ability to laugh at herself, and a wide-ranging curiosity which produces clever and thought-provoking lyrics. I've mentioned before that I group Janis Ian, Judy Collins, Joni Mitchell, Laura Nyro, and Phoebe Snow together, as early-70s singers whose songs often are meatier than the usual run. Except for the timing, Sara Bareilles fits well with them.
I first encountered Sara Bareilles when James Nicoll posted a link to the video of her "Gonna Get Over You". The song seemed to be a fairly standard love-cycle piece, but the video, especially the ending, was entertaining. A while later, he linked to the video of "Brave", and that was what hooked me. Soon after, I bought "The Blessed Unrest", which includes "Brave", and was quite taken with its contents. Later, I added "Kaleidoscope Heart" and "What's Inside: Songs from Waitress".
A fair fraction of her work consists of love-cycle songs, and are not, to my mind, exceptional - although I'm very fond of the proposal song, "I Choose You". Apart from these, though, she shows good thematic range. "Brave" is a song of encouragement, and a very good one. "Cassiopeia" cleverly casts the story of a supernova in that constellation as a love story. "Chasing the Sun" is set "in a cemetery in the center of Queens" ("My floor is someone's roof...") and carries a strong "life is to be lived" message. Just the titles of other songs from "The Blessed Unrest" point at her variety: "Hercules", "Manhattan", "Satellite Call", "Eden", "Islands"...
Bareilles has a good voice, the ability to laugh at herself, and a wide-ranging curiosity which produces clever and thought-provoking lyrics. I've mentioned before that I group Janis Ian, Judy Collins, Joni Mitchell, Laura Nyro, and Phoebe Snow together, as early-70s singers whose songs often are meatier than the usual run. Except for the timing, Sara Bareilles fits well with them.
