Friday, March 2, 2012

Julia Nunes

Julia's latest album Settle Down came out just a few days ago. And might I say that it is exquisite? Julia is so very talented and her new album is the best thing to happen to me since . . . Well, I guess since I started listening to Imagine Dragons' new album that came out a few weeks ago.

I'm always impressed with Julia. She never ceases to amaze. One of the reasons I like her so much is the fact that she doesn't sound like some pop girl musician. Her voice is lower than most female artists. I've had plenty of friends ask, "Is this a boy?" when listening to her in the past. (I don't really get this, though. I try all the time to figure out how she sounds like a man but I never can.) Her harmonies are lovely. Every song employs some sort of great harmony. I think the best example is in her song Maybe I Will. (I've linked to the original music video version, the one on Settle Down is super cool, though.) Julia's got some major power.

I also love Julia's use of instruments. Her standards are guitar and ukulele, but on Settle Down she's basically got a full band, plus random other stuff like Snapple caps. I'm not even kidding. She uses Snapple caps as percussion. It's incredible.

Then there's Julia's lyrics. She's a great songwriter. So many times the words of her songs articulate things I think and feel. I suppose it helps that she's only about a year older than me, so we've kind of always been at the same points in life, but still. Her songs can be simultaneously inspiring and happy while remaining a little more sad and thought provoking. One of my personal favorites is First Impressions. (The version I've linked to is pretty much the song in it's original form, which makes it probably my favorite. It loses a little something when it's recorded, I think, though it's still awesome.) As Julia writes new songs, you can see how she's changed and "grown up" so to speak. You can literally see/hear her mature in her songs. But it's the good kind of maturing; she's still a little kid on the inside which is also plenty evident.

And I cannot help but love a person who writes a vignette song called Pizza. I mean, seriously. How mature can you be if you write a song like that? That's the magic of Julia Nunes. You can go from something so moving, like I Think You Know, and then you get Pizza. And it is all still brilliant. That's the mark of a great musician/singer/songwriter. 

Also, she makes me not hate Justin Bieber for all of a few moments with her mashup of The Supremes and that rando kid I usually dislike greatly. It is dang catchy. Anyone who can make me okay with Justin Bieber deserves a medal.

But back to Settle Down really quick. Did I mention she was on Conan? And she performed her amazing song Stay Awake? Because she was. And she did.

I urge you: listen to Julia Nunes. Be amazed. You can listen to the album on Spotify or on her soundcloud. I'll be completely honesty too. She is pretty much the number one reason I even wanted to play ukulele in the first place.

Last YouTube video I watched: Best Surprise Ever 

And I suppose a little bit of a life update is in order. I've been 21 for two weeks now. It's pretty cool. My life is basically just full of writing, reading and more writing. I think next week I'll have four articles in the paper. (That's a lot for one week.) So life is busy, which makes things all the worse when you get sick, like I have this past week. On Monday or Tuesday I woke up with a pretty nasty cough. At first it was just a cough but now it's a congested nose. The cough has mostly subsided but my nose is still pretty messed up. It makes enjoying normal life pretty difficult. All I want to do is go for a run or to watch the volleyball game, but instead all I'm doing is preparing my four stories for next week and watching Doctor Who on Netflix. It's kind of lonely stuff but I'm okay with that. I wouldn't mind company but I get that people don't usually want to hang out w/ the kid coughing up a storm.

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