Once upon a time, I decided I wanted to start a feature called Fave 5, and then proceeded to only do the feature twice, both times involving trips I took. But I wanted to revive it again to talk about the music I have been enjoying this year, particularly this summer.
My relationship with music is when I love it I LOOOOOVE it, but I listen to a very limited group of artists and have a particular taste that I don’t even know how to quantify. To make this list more diverse, I decided to limit my list to to songs that have been officially released as singles (not necessarily radio singles, just released singles) so they wouldn’t all just be from the forthcoming The Gray Havens album I’ve had the pleasure of obtaining early as a Kickstarter backer. Also, to keep it in the summer theme, I limited myself to music released this year, so I couldn’t put any of Echosmith’s music from their EP released last fall even though I’ve listened to it a good bit this summer. On to my choices, in no particular order.
1. Magnetic by Phillip Phillips
Hello, saxophone. Seriously, I’ve seen Phillip Phillips in concert twice now and his band is incredible, and they’re on full display in this song.
2. Over My Head by Echosmith
I really enjoy Echosmith and this is such a fun song. I’m looking forward to their new project whenever it releases.
3. Better Than I Used to Be by Mat Kearney featuring Afsheen
While he’s not what I consider one of my favorite artists, I do enjoy a lot of Mat Kearney’s songs and I just love the vibe of this particular song. I practically had it on repeat during my vacation in Destin in May.
4. Forever On Your Side by Needtobreathe featuring JohnnySwim
This is the title track of Needtobreathe’s new EP and it definitely has a fun vibe to it. I also enjoy the accompaniment on it from Johnnyswim, and look forward to seeing them perform this song live together later this month when I see them in concert!
5. Storehouse by The Gray Havens
I am 110% obsessed with this song. It’s definitely a Christian song with the theme of repentance and redemption, but even if you’re not a Christian you might still enjoy listening to it once for its cool vibe. This is exactly why I love The Gray Havens, because they write very spiritually mature lyrics and pair them with very masterful, artful music, unlike many other Christian artists I won’t name who are fond of the copy & paste functions and chord charts (which I’m not completely hating on but it does get a little old). Their new album with this song comes out in October, and if you like this song you should pre-order the album because the whole thing is AMAZING.
What have you been listening to this summer? (Chances are I haven’t heard of it because I’m oblivious to popular music but share anyway!)