Song of the Week - February 2, 2009

This is the first of what I plan to be a regular entry on this blog. The Song of the Week entry is a chance for us to share one song that we think you should be listening to each week.

In this era of unlimited musical choice, we hear music all the time, but we rarely stop to listen anymore. We fill up our iPods in order to create a soundtrack for our daily lives, skipping from one song to the next and never taking anything in. Music has the ability to affect more than just our hearing, but in order for it to work its magic on our other senses; we have to take the time to let it really soak in.

Rather than listing off twenty great songs that you should add to your iPod, knowing that they’ll just get lost in the shuffle, my goal here is to introduce you to one great song and let you in on why I think it’s special. Don’t just turn it on while you’re folding your laundry. I encourage you to take a few minutes out of your life and let this song in. Allow yourself a musical moment.

For the very first "Song of the Week" I've chosen the Fleet Foxes tune "White Winter Hymnal" off their first full length album, which was released to critical acclaim in the summer of 2008. The music is gorgeous and creative, providing a sea of musical intrigue for any music lover. They’ve drawn comparisons to legends such as Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young and the Beach Boys as well as current “it” bands such as Band of Horses. The whole album is tremendous, but I’ve chosen this particular song for the creative journey that it provides in a mere two minutes and 27 seconds. You get a sense of the band’s beautiful harmonies in the sparse opening and the song slowly builds from there, adding layers of sound and then finally falling off to finish with the familiar vocals from the beginning of the song. At the song’s climax it sounds like a full pop orchestra with big, warm drum beats; jangly, swirling percussion and hymn-like vocals that together wrap the listener in a cozy blanket of sound.

Please click here to visit the Fleet Foxes myspace page. I hope you enjoy their music as much as I do.

Happy Listening!