Sometime last year I started keeping a list of songs that made me cry.

I tend to be a music first, lyrics second kind of listener. But it’s nearly always the lyrics that bring the waterworks.

So it’s always with headphones or.

At a show.

In a quiet car.

It doesn’t happen that often.

The other day on my way home from a doctor appointment, I pulled up my Release Radar Spotify playlist. While skipping through the AI slop [wtf] and children’s music that platform and my algorithm have become plagued with, this became the 5th song to make the list. (and it’s a reminder why I still try to go through Release Radar once a week, even though spotify and I are no longer allies; finding new music is important)

“Will I Be the Sun” - Eleri Ward

Through thumping chords on an upright piano, Eleri’s jazzy vocals emerge exploring all the different timbre’s a mouth can make. She starts exploring her upper range in a beautiful, still, falsetto. (I have a current fascination with singers who play around intentionally with and without vibrato like this) And just when you realize you already have everything you’d ever need from this song, a shimmering chorus fills the space around your head.

There’s something to the cosmological, bigger-than-all-of-us, lyrics that just went right through me.

Lighting up the world beneath me

Knowing everybody sees me

What will I see?

Here’s the rest of the songs that have got me if your curious. Of course I made a dedicated web page just for that.

https://mademecry.iamdavehawkins.com

“But dave I don’t care, what are you doing?”

I’ll be honest I haven’t felt much like *writing songs* for several months now. I haven’t introspected it much, and I don’t care to. I don’t feel driven to be productive with music. It comes and goes, I’ll figure out how to provide it a way out when it’s back.

That said, a close friend recently sent me this beautiful 80s instrumental music by Haruomi Hosono and I felt immediately inspired! That same morning I cranked out 3 ambient instrumental tracks using only my Roland S-1, and since then I’ve recorded 4 more! I’ll build this out to a full length album and release it independently, off-platform.

You all will be the first to know.

thanks again and as always for supporting independent music.

Has a song made you cry recently? Is there a song that always does it? What’s on your list? Tell me, I’d love to find out if it doe the same for me.

With Love,

-Dave