Dear Ari Hest,

I think I have fallen in love with your new song "Bird Never Flies" from your most recent album, The Break-In. I heard it in a sampler CD in the 5th Anniversary issue of Paste, a cool little magazine which features awesome music, nifty movies, and fun artifacts of our present culture. It's really a publications gem.

Anyway, either last issue or the issue before, I saw an add for your 2006 project, The Green Room Sessions. I was intrigued 1) by your name and 2) by the cover, which features you, a fairly good looking man playing a guitar and sitting on a chair near a window. I was intrigued, but I'll admit I did nothing about it.

So, then I purchased the most recent issue of Paste. I put the sampler CD straight into my car's CD playing and listened. Eventually I was distracted by a deep, commanding voice. It was your song (a live recording from the Paste party back in February).

It starts with moving, driving acoustic guitar. The lower notes drive the pulse of the song, the higher notes plinking away, creating an interesting syncopation with the bass notes. Then your booming voice comes in. There's something familiar about it, but I can't quite label it. There's something comforting about it, the vibrations of it, the way your deep voice rolls and vibrates over the verses. There's something phenomenally alluring about the way your voice is so present and clear one second, but gets raspy on higher notes.

And talk about catchy-as-hell love song: "Darling, don't cry/ don't you know/ I won't give you up/ this bird never flies" and then the heartstrings-pulling repetition of the line "I won't give you up" toward the end.

Even though I haven't heard the studio recording of this song, I think I like it. The guitar, the voice, the lyrics, the emotion it evokes. It's one song definitely worth a listen.

I may have to buy the whole album. Score for the Adult Alternative Artists!

Love,
Christina

Dear Yusuf (formerly Cat Stevens),

I eat my last words from that last entry. I kinda dig your new song "Maybe There's a World." It starts out with a nice acoustic strum, and your voice is solid and deep. It has this rough feel to it, and I love it. Vibrations, right? Haha. The beat of the song is nice too. Almost like a walking beat. Parts of the song seem a little confusing as there are voices on off-beats, but actually, when you stop to think about it, it's pretty darn cool sounding. I caught myself bobbing my head along to the music. And I didn't even know that it was your song (you're lucky I'm listening to Paste Sampler 27 - the free CD inside the new issue of Paste Magazine). And then when I found out it was you, I was surprised that I kinda dug it, haha. I guess I gotta admit. Your song is pretty good.

So I'm sorry I said I would never listen to your music. That was perhaps a little hasty. I dig that one song at least. We'll see if I feel like getting your whole album ;)

Love,
Christina

Good Vibrations

By Christina R.

I was just reading Paste, a cool new magazine that I discovered back in November. On the cover of every issue, it says: “Signs of Life in Music, Film & Culture.” Now, this is my kind of magazine! I’m thinking of getting a subscription. But anyway, in the process of reading it cover to cover – as I am occasionally wont to do – I turned to an article about the recently socially reintegrated artist formally known at Cat Stevens.

Now known as Yusuf, he has just come out with a new album that seeks to bring Muslims understanding of the West, and the West understanding of Islam. This wasn’t necessarily surprising, as I already knew that this was the kind of person Cat Stevens/Yusuf is. But then he said something that blew my mind.

“The closest you can get to a person, I think, is listening to the vibrations of their voice.”

In and of itself, it is not all that astonishing a comment. And it didn’t strike me as such the first time I read it either. I nodded and said “hmm” to myself. Like “good point, Yusuf. Well done.” But then I read it again. “Wow,” I thought this time, “I agree. Those words are exactly what I’ve been thinking for the past few years.”

I always liked music; listening to cassettes and CDs was always one of my favorite pastimes. But a few years ago, my obsession began. Listening became my therapy for whatever was wrong. Depression? I have an album or song for that. Feeling anxious? I have some good calming music for that too. Over the past five or so years, Music has become my cure-all.

But trying to describe what I love about music often just brings me odd looks. I am in love with voices. Good music and good lyrics are wonderful. You can’t have a good album or song or whatever without them. But a good voice is like the end-all be-all for me. A good voice can send me to my happy place and make me forget about everything that’s wrong with my life and the world.

Emotion in a voice makes the muscles in my neck weak. The timbre of a singer’s voice can send me over the edge. Just listening to a song, the voice streaming through the air, emoting over the singer’s own laments or joys makes me almost sick to my stomach. You can kind of get the gist of what someone is feeling by the words that they write, and the music can typically add to it, but you don’t understand until you can hear their voice straining to make them understood. If you can hear the pain, you can feel it too. And there is nothing sexier than a voice ripping across lyrics, raw and honest.

So well done, Yusuf. In passing, you said something that I have been trying to put into words for years. Finally someone else gets it! And that’s awesome.

(It probably won't get me to start listening to your music though. Sorry.)