Starting off 2022 with five songs that are spinning on repeat in my head, and through my earbuds, and speakers. One of my new year goals (I’m not a fan of resolutions) is to write more and to connect more. Music is always the key to me connecting. It is my muse, too. Inspiring me to create, to craft, to put down on paper, or on-screen, thoughts and words and stories. I know myself, and my habits, very well. If I’m listening and if I’m sharing here, I’m writing elsewhere – and I definitely need to get back to that writing elsewhere, as well as listening, and sharing here.

My daily five songs have taken different incarnations here at lyriquediscorde through the years, and they’ve filled many playlists. Give Me Five still feels right to me. It still fits. So, with these following five songs let’s begin another year of Give Me Five. I hope you play, and listen along with me.

As always, I’d love to hear what you have spinning in your heads, earbuds, and speakers, too.

Give Me Five…January 1, 2022

Available to listen, and follow along throughout January, on Spotify and YouTube

Song 1: “PB Jam” by Tkay Maidza

“Just a year is what I need.
I’m not good at catching up.
You got everything but me –
I need some time to breathe.”

Feels like a new year song. Feels like some of what I’m looking for in 2022, especially time to catch up, and time to breathe. I really needed this fresh start.

“PB Jam” is a recent car-tune I’ve been replaying a lot over the past few weeks. It is my current favorite track off of Tkay Maidza’s EP, Last Year Was Weird, Vol. 2, from 2020.

The last few years have been more than weird really. Ever since March of 2020, well nothing’s been like anything we knew “before”. Honestly, I don’t think we will ever get back to anything close to “before”. I’m pretty sure weird is here to stay. Most likely it will get weirder even.

It’s okay though. I’ve always been weird. We all are even if we try to mask it. Maybe 2022 is the year to throw our masks in the rubbish bin and find our way without them.

Tkay Maidza is an Australian singer-songwriter and rapper. Her EP trilogy of “weird last years” mixes pop, rap, R&B, and reggae in a way that transcends any singular genre. No boxing up Tkay’s music, sealing it and marking it with one category – which is a big part of what I enjoy about her – and about so much of my favorite music. Blurring genres, mixing categories, defying labels. Yes please.

Song 2: “Femme Fatale” by Sharon Van Etten

“Here she comes.
You better watch your step.
She’s going to break your heart in two –
it’s true.”

If memory serves, the first time I heard “Femme Fatale” was not the original by The Velvet Underground, but a cover version by Dramarama. I knew of The Velvet Underground, and was just starting to explore their music (thanks to a few discovered covers, and mentions from Duran Duran), but I’m pretty sure it was a cover of this track I heard first.

Sharon Van Etten is a favorite of mine, and I am digging this cover a lot. I’ve not dived in completely to the Velvet’s cover album. I’ll probably take it in slowly, as I tend to with cover compilations. But for now, it’s this cover track I’m into.

Song 3: “Everyday People” by Sly And The Family Stone

“There is a blue one who can’t accept,
the green one for living with,
a fat one tryin’ to be a skinny one.
Different strokes for different folks,
and so on and so on and scooby-dooby-dooby.
We got to live together.”

The song rings as true as it did when it first came out, or at least how I imagine it to have rang when it was released (I was born the year the song, and album, arrived on the airways and record stores).

The song definitely gets to me now, in 2022, with all the division that still goes on around us – even as we make strides towards acceptance.

It is also really great to dance to this morning.

Song 4: “Golden Years” by David Bowie

“I’ll stick with you, baby,
for a thousand years.
Nothing’s gonna touch you in these golden years.”

“Golden Years” always takes me back to my glittery-golden years in the late 80’s when I spent most nights dancing at underground clubs in Hollywood, my most favorite being Club 1970. The song has always meant carefree reckless abandon, dressing-up and dancing, disco ball lights, clove cigarettes, kisses from newly met strangers.

But listening to it this morning, it feels like a love song.

Song 5: “Hazy Shade of Winter” by The Bangles

“Hang on to your hopes, my friend.
That’s an easy thing to say,
but if your hopes should pass away,
simply pretend,
that you can build them again –
look around.”

A few things about this song that come to mind today:

The first time I sang karaoke was with my best friend to this song. It was harder to do then I’d thought it would be, mostly because I’m more in the key of Michael Steele, then Susanna, Vicki, and Debbie.

Yesterday I was at Vons (local grocery store) and this song was playing. I didn’t notice it until it was almost over, but then it started again. And then again. And then a fourth time. That last round was interrupted mid-chorus by a “Vons advertisement”. Not sure if their in-store music was skipping, or someone was just really needing the song – I like to think it was the latter.

I have this soundtrack on vinyl. I’ve had it since 1987. I remember going to see Less Than Zero at the Cinedome (my go-to theater growing up, and as a grown-up, until it closed down) with the same best friend I’d later sing “Hazy Shade” karaoke with.

This song (the cover version of this song – The Bangles cover version) always feels like a new year’s song to me.