Listen to SPIRIT: https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=1phuZFCUyVk&si=oFkiPSjTvDKCHJTt
Well hello nerds. It is I, captain delirium, reporting live from the beginning of the end of a tumultuous, spine cracking, migraine inducing week. Every eye twitch and forsaken dish in my sink has brought me to this Friday moment; a moment where I can finally sit down and pretend I know what I'm talking about for 5-10 minutes worth of reading. It has been a "feeling" week, sandwiched between major upswings bursting with new love and light, and hoping the grip of my fists can help me keep "it" all together when the pendulum flies the opposite way faster than my own blink. It's the kind of week that only music and love making can save. I'm no Carrie Bradshaw, and this isn't that kind of column, but I can certainly shimmy my way into a positive reality by thinking thoughts like...
I close my eyes
I imagine a world without pain, or suffering
Somewhere to live where there's peace and understanding
Where people can be unafraid and be loved the way it's supposed to be
And all humanity works and lives in harmony
Feel the spirit
Hear the spirit
Touch the spirit of love
Know the spirit
Teach the spirit
Spread the spirit of love
Listen friends, you don't need to know church to know gospel. Gospel is the truth. This right here? This is the truth. A few weeks ago I came across an album that popped up in my research I was conducting for another article. What had me immediately? None other than the album cover. I loved everything about this cover. I love the title choices, love the setting sun that's printed into the background, the relaxed look on each of their faces, and selfishly, they're doing exactly my favorite activity: nothing.
Nothing on the beach! That's the direct translation of sieste. You're welcome. I'm not spelling that wrong by the way. I had to look into it. Siesta, which is what I was also thinking it was, is in fact "Nap" in Spanish. Sieste however, seems to be French. Voila. De rien.
Anyway, RARE TUNES in big letters at the top. My favorite. Combined with a sieste, on the beach?! I close my eyes, I imagine a world where I'm doing that right nowwwww...
I kinda do that everyday. On my lunch break at work, I always have my beach chair with me. Me and my chair we go to the park down the street from the office and plop ourselves down there in the thickest, softest grass this side of compton. Sun is almost always shining at that time and I close my eyes, I imagine a world without pain, or suffering...*COUGH* sorry that keeps happening. I just really love a sieste anywhere.
Do you guys know what a ghost kitchen is? Essentially it's an established restaurant that decides, "Hey, we already sell X, and all these items I buy that can make X, can also make Y...so I might as well also start selling Y, but, under an alias via food delivery apps." Rare Tunes Sieste on the Beach is essentially that. It's the ghost kitchen of records. Someone took all these obscure tracks, re-releases, or even repackaged/renamed recordings and threw them on a chill/ambient/jazz combo number 5. From that we got Spirit. Yayyyyy.
Where does Alex Ligertwood come in to all this? He's the singer of the tune, and guess what, you've probably heard him before. Unless you've never heard Santana, which is possible, but also, what are you doing? Alex Ligertwood was the lead vocalist for Santana, across five different stints, from 1979 to 1994. Pretty wild huh? The music world is always unfolding in ways that surprise me. There’s no clear, verifiable connection between Ligertwood and this song: no commentary, no interview or info floating around.
And you know what, I like it like that. Not everything needs to be known.
Maybe that’s what this week has been trying to teach me. Not how to control everything, not how to hold it all together so tightly...but how to let something good reach me anyway.
The world isn’t perfect, but we can still find places where it feels like it is.
Normally I get into the soft folds and the intricacies of the instrumentation. I’m going to keep it simple this time because really, the answer is simple. The mixing is perfect, the vocals are soulful and passionate. You can hear that the band and the singer are playing and singing from truth. It’s honest. It’s fun, celebratory, reflective…I view this tune with a level of importance, message wise, and sonically, like I would talk about Let it Be to a stranger. Let it Be has a nostalgic connection that I feel amplifies the level of “goodness”. You might think, “how could you compare the Beatles to this?”. It’s not about comparing. It’s about how I feel the message, the intention, and the love that went into making it.
This is a beautiful song. It takes me from my inner turmoil, back into reality. In my reality, the spirit of love is what living is all about. And that wonderful, beautiful sentiment, just happens to be wrapped up in the most groovy, rockin’, danceable package. Don’t get me started on Alex’s vocal riffs and those horns, I’ll be here forever. Bravo Alex, bravo band, bravo RARE TUNES.
Stay safe, stay in love, stay tuned —BD
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Listen to SPIRIT: https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=1phuZFCUyVk&si=oFkiPSjTvDKCHJTt
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