“Easy” & “Hard” Songs, Vol. 1

A long time ago, I'm not sure exactly when, on my original blog I posted a set of "Easy" and "Hard" Songs. But since then, a) I've gotten better at finding a good variety of quality songs by people you've actually heard of; b) new songs have come out that also merit inclusion; and c) I just felt like doing this theme all over again. And there were plenty of good ones, so this is part 1 of 2. Enjoy!  ~  JH

1)  Alanis Morissette  ~  “Eight Easy Steps”

2)  Queen  ~  “It’s A Hard Life”

3)  Linda Ronstadt  ~  “It’s So Easy”

4)  98°  ~  “The Hardest Thing”

5)  MiMi & The Mad Noise Factory  ~  “Easy”

6)  The Avett Brothers  ~  “No Hard Feelings”

7)  Dragonette  ~  “Easy”

8)  Pearl Jam  ~  “Hard To Imagine”

9)  Rag’n’Bone Man  ~  “Die Easy”

10)  Donna Summer  ~  “She Works Hard For The Money”

11)  Lauv  ~  “Easy Love”

12)  Lykke Li  ~  “Hard Rain”

13)  Max Frost  ~  “Let Me Down Easy”

14)  Rihanna ft. Jeezy  ~  “Hard”

15)  Haroula Rose  ~  “So Easy”

16)  Coldplay  ~  “The Hardest Part”

17)  Phil Collins & Philip Bailey  ~  “Easy Lover”

18)  Brandi Carlile  ~  “Harder To Forgive”

19)  Oriana  ~  "Love Me Down Easy"

20)  DC Talk  ~  “The Hard Way”

21)  Clint Black ft. Lisa Hartman Black  ~  “Easy For Me To Say”

22)  The National  ~  “Hard To Find”

23)  GJan  ~  “Wasn’t Easy”

24)  Cloves  ~  “Hit Me Hard”

25)  Maxi Priest  ~  “Easy To Love”

Songs About Glowing

When you gotta glow, you gotta glow. That's just the way it glows. Glow hard or glow home. What do these bad puns have in common with the songs in this post? Absolutely nothing! This is simply a bunch of good songs with the word "Glow" (in some form or another) in their titles. So what are you waiting for? Glow ahead and take a listen. And...enjoy!  ~  JH

1)  Kylie Minogue  ~  “Glow”

2)  INXS  ~  “Afterglow”

3)  Globelamp  ~  “The Orange Glow”

4)  Rick James  ~  “Glow”

5)  Aoife O’Donovan  ~  “Glowing Heart”

6)  Matt Pond PA  ~  “The Glow”

7)  Ella Henderson  ~  “Glow"

8)  Douglas Firs  ~  “Shimmer & Glow”

9)  Shannon Saunders  ~  “The Glow”

10)  Kast Away  ~  “Glow”

11)  Bethia Beadman  ~  “Glow Baby Glow”

12)  Coldplay  ~  “Everglow”

13)  Sophie Beem ft. RedOne  ~  “Glow”

14)  Alien Ant Farm  ~  “Glow”

15)  Sylvan Esso  ~  “The Glow”

16)  Torul  ~  “Glow”  (This is not a particularly good song, but the video is captivating!)

17)  Rhi  ~  “Cherry Glow”

18)  The Smashing Pumpkins  ~  “G.L.O.W.”

19)  Ashbury Heights  ~  “Glow”

20)  The Digital Age  ~  “Glow”

21)  Anael  ~  “Glow”

22)  All Time Low  ~  “Afterglow”

23)  Brooke Annibale  ~  “Glow”

24)  Wilkinson ft. Becky Hill  ~  “Afterglow”

25)  Molly-Anne  ~  “Glow”

26)  Juliander  ~  “Afterglow”

27)  Camryn  ~  “Glow”

28)  Donavon Frankenreiter  ~  “Glow”

29)  Nikki Williams  ~  “Glowing”

30)  Madcon  ~  “Glow”

Songs About Swallowing

These songs aren’t all about the act of allowing food or drink to pass down one’s throat. Some of them are about the metaphorical swallowing of intangible things, like pride and such. Still others are about swift-flying, migratory songbirds. Just call it Triple-Meaning Friday. Which isn’t a catchy phrase at all, actually. Enjoy?  ~  JH

1)  Bush  ~  “Swallowed”

2)  Rhys  ~  “Swallow Your Pride”

3)  NewSong  ~  “Swallow The Ocean (Coming Alive)”

4)  The Hearing  ~  “Swallow”

5)  Bombay Bicycle Club  ~  “How Can You Swallow So Much Sleep?”

6)  Jewel  ~  “Jupiter (Swallow The Moon)”

7)  The National  ~  “Don’t Swallow The Cap”

8)  Yo-Yo Ma & Wu Tong  ~  “Yanzi (Swallow Song)”

9)  Wailin’ Jennys  ~  “Swallow”

10)  Coldplay  ~  “Swallowed In The Sea”

11)  Crystal Fighters  ~  “Swallow”

12)  Toni Gibson  ~  “She’s Like The Swallow”

13)  Pearl Jam  ~  “Swallowed Whole”

14)  Judy Collins & The Muppets  ~  “Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly”

15)  morgxn  ~  “Hard Pill To Swallow”

16)  Wolf Alice  ~  “Swallowtail”

17)  Ramones  ~  “Swallow My Pride”

18)  brokeMC  ~  “Swallow You Whole”

19)  The Lennon Sisters  ~  “When The Swallows Come Back To Capistrano”

20)  The Autumn Defense  ~  “The Swallows Of London”

21)  Souleen  ~  “Swallow”

22)  Hank Williams, Jr.  ~  “Pride’s Not Hard To Swallow”

23)  Teach Me Equals  ~  “Swallow The Smoke”

24)  Eve 6  ~  “Inside Out”  (Nope, the word “swallow” doesn’t appear in the title of this song. But it’s all over the place in the chorus, which is repeated multiple times, of course. So here it is…)

25)  Della Lupa   ~ “Storm Of Swallows”

26)  Brandon Flowers  ~  “Swallow It”

27)  Lorena B  ~  “Swallow My Gum”

28)  Lorena B  ~  “Swallow My Gum 2”  (Rarely if ever have I posted a “sequel” to a song, especially within the same post. But frankly, they’re fairly unusual, so I suppose it’s no real wonder after all.)

29)  Billy Bragg  ~  “Swallow My Pride”

30)  Hilary Grist  ~  “Swallow Me Up”

31)  Ólafur Arnalds  ~  “Gleypa Okkur (Swallow Us)”

32)  Shreddy Krueger  ~  “The Sky Will Swallow Us Whole”  (I don’t usually go for songs in the “screamo” genre – or whatever they’re calling it these days – but this was really well-done. Nice mix of “clean” and “unclean” vocals.)

33)  Laura Gibson  ~  “Crow/Swallow”

34)  Teenage Wrist  ~  “Swallow”

35)  Katie Melua & Gori Women’s Choir  ~  “The Little Swallow”  (You may hear the tune of this song and correctly recognize it as identical to the “Carol of the Bells.” However, this Ukrainian-language version came first. An American songwriter penned English lyrics to the tune sometime later.)

36)  Postcards From Mars  ~  “Swallow”

Popular Songs Of 2008, Vol. 2

Continuing this miniseries of songs that were popular ten years ago, here's another set that's sure to make you feel old. At least a little. Enjoy!  ~  JH

1)  Coldplay  ~  “Viva La Vida”

2)  M.I.A.  ~  “Paper Planes”

3)  Kid Rock  ~  “All Summer Long”

4)  Miley Cyrus  ~  “7 Things”

5)  Gavin Rossdale  ~  “Love Remains The Same”

6)  Keyshia Cole  ~  “I Remember”

7)  Gary Allan  ~  “Learning How To Bend”

8)  P!nk  ~  “So What”

9)  Chris Brown  ~  “With You”

10)  Jewel  ~  “Stronger Woman”

11)  Keith Urban  ~  “You Look Good In My Shirt”

12)  Rihanna ft. Ne-Yo  ~  “Hate That I Love You”

13)  John Mayer  ~  “Say”

14)  Taylor Swift  ~  “Should’ve Said No”

15)  Sean Kingston  ~  “Take You There”

16)  Carrie Underwood  ~  “All-American Girl”

17)  Lupe Fiasco ft. Matthew Santos  ~  “Superstar”

18)  Katy Perry  ~  “I Kissed A Girl”

19)  Darius Rucker  ~  “Don’t Think I Don’t Think About It”

20)  Estelle ft. Kanye West  ~  “American Boy”