Today it’s a BBBSG double-shot! You get two songs from each artist for the price of one! Stay tuned for tunes.

We’re starting the show with Birdy‘s cover of 1901 by Phoenix. I love the depth of Birdy’s voice and her ability to transform a song so it matches the depth of the lyrics. She turns 1901 into a bittersweet love song and turns Young Blood (originally by The Naked and Famous) into a nostalgic anthem. Much like the next artist, Birdy and her amazing talents come from Great Britain (and they both have songs with Blood in the title). Ellie Goulding writes composes and sings the majority of her songs. She has an airy, but emotive soprano and she uses that to full effect in her song My Blood. Her first hit in the US was a song called Lights and it’s the song of hers that made me check out the rest of her music.

Since we’re on the topic of lights, we’re going to play Yellow Light by Of Monsters and Men. I love the way Of Monsters and Men uses their male and female vocalists to both harmonize and to create a call and response type of song. If you’ve heard them before, you definitely know what I’m talking about. The band from Iceland has often been compared to Arcade Fire and The Lumineers, but they have a style all their own that has range within itself. In contrast to the large, ominous sounds of Yellow Light, King and Lionheart is bright and peppy. “I’m a lionheart” is a prominent line in the song and that connects to  Florence + The Machine’s Rabbit Heart when she says that she needs to become a lionhearted girl.

Florence + The Machine has some of the best lyrics that I’ve heard. She’s the Virginia Woolf of song-writers to Regina Spektor’s T.S. Eliot. In Rabbit Heart (Raise it up) you can hear allusions to Alice in Wonderland, the story of King Midas, and many other stories. Her music is strong and her lyrics are meaningful. Her song No Light, No Light uses metaphor and simile to full effect and creates a vivid story. Florence Wech of Florence and the Machine has vibrant red hair, just like one of the DJs in the Swedish duo Icona Pop.