Emotions Run Deep

White Magic “Very Late” – Her piano notes may rise and fall throughout this song, but Mira Billotte’s voice seems eerily calm, still, and matter-of-fact. She’s carrying a great emotional weight, but she underplays it, reflecting the stoicism of a person who can’t bear to give too much away but still needs to express something, anything. “Very Late” takes place within a relatively quiet moment, but she hints at drama in the subtext of her words, and the gravity of her vocal delivery. (Click here to buy it from Drag City.)

Sarah Blasko “For You” – From the beginning to the end, “For You” is dominated by the slow hum of an exceptionally frigid synthesizer tone. Even as the song progresses, it can never quite shake off the desolation and loneliness implied by that incessant buzz, and so when Blasko sings about traveling across the ocean for someone, it’s hard not to imagine her swimming across a vast expanse of icy water, and falling still in the darkest, emptiest spot between two continents. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)