You never know the power of music until a good song changes your mood for an entire day. After a mentally exhausting morning/early afternoon I knew I had to let it all out by blaring some good tunes and singing along. It doesn't always work but I'd be willing to bet that for me 90% of the time music can shift my mood. Yesterday it happened when listening to Shinedown's "If You Only Knew." A lot of you may be familiar with the song because it was a huge hit recently, crossing over onto pop and adult contemporary stations. I love when a band I've loved since day one finally gets the recognition it deserves and no one deserves it more than Shinedown.
You may recall the lyric "It's 4:03 and I can't sleep..." The hour of 4:03 will never be the same and every time I see it on the clock I remember this song that I'd long played out before most people had even heard it. Yesterday just as the last note of the song played my car's clock turned to 4:03. It might sound silly but I'd been waiting for that day to happen for years and it finally did. It picked my mood up instantly. How could you not love that? I literally whooped a little in the car.
Of course that is not the only good song on the CD or else it wouldn't have made my Top 10. It's pretty hard to narrow down my music collection to the 10 Best CDs but this one easily made the cut. The other singles on the album "Second Chance" and "The Crow & The Butterfly" are just a selection of the greatness that is the album. I'll be sharing with you my two other favorite songs and giving you a broad overview of the rest of the album.
The first of my favorite songs is called "What a Shame". It's one of those beautiful story songs that tugs at your heartstrings even if you haven't been through anything like this. When I saw Shinedown in concert a couple years ago to support this CD Brent Smith, the singer for the band, shared a little bit of the story of this song with the audience and it nearly had me in tears. It's a song about death, specifically cancer related deaths but beyond that, I think, it's a song about human acceptance, just listen to this. "What a shame, what a shame to judge a life that you can't change. The choir sings, the church bells ring so won't you give this man his wings. What a shame to have to beg you to see we are the same!" My favorite line of the whole song, possibly the album is "never knew how much the broken heart can make a sound and change the seasons. Now the leaves are falling faster, happily ever after. You gave me hope through your endeavors and now you will live on forever." How beautiful is that?
My absolute favorite song on this CD is "Call Me." This song resonates with me so deeply that it's moving every time I hear it, no matter what. At first listen it sounds like your typical breakup song but once you listen closer you may detect something a little more, divorce with a child involved perhaps. I don't know the exact story behind the song but Mr. Dudesday and I both gather the same thing from this one. This song just makes me want to be a better person, to hold onto those that I love and do everything in my power to be the best person I can be for them because only you have the power to change yourself. Also, it happens to be perfect for my Jag, You're It Novels that I'm writing, specifically the breakup between my main characters Elli and Jagger, now I think of them when I hear it.
If you've heard Shinedown on the radio you've probably only heard one side of the band. They are genuinely multi-talented and the other half of their sound is more fast paced, workoutable tracks. The singing is fast with lots of lyrics that are great for getting out your aggression and are more like their original rock single "Fly from the Inside."
If you're looking for an all around excellent album, part of my Top 10, pick up Shinedown's Sound of Madness and enjoy everything Brent and the gang have in store for you! I recommend picking up the deluxe version with 9 bonus tracks and a DVD disc.
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