Like This Goldfish Bowl Is The Whole Sea

Atmosphere “Like The Rest Of Us” – With this song, Atmosphere begin their new album with a gentle shrug of resignation. It’s not bitter, angry, or depressed — if anything, “Like The Rest Of Us” is about the peace that comes with realizing that you can’t save a world that doesn’t want to change and that “you’ve got to let people be hypocrites.” It’s also about the comfort of stasis, the up side of inertia, and figuring out how to adjust youthful idealism into adult pragmatism. It’s not a song without hope; it’s just a song with managed expectations for happiness. (Click here to buy it from Fifth Element.)

Kathleen Edwards “The Cheapest Key (Live on Fair Game)” – Two thirds of the way through “The Cheapest Key,” Kathleen Edwards arrives at her punchline. After two verses and choruses laying into an overly familiar lover, the song slows down and her voice goes high, just outside her comfort zone, and she sings “don’t get me wrong, here comes my softer side…and there it goes.” It’s a tiny little bridge back into chorus, but it’s crucial to the tone of the piece — it doesn’t compromise her position in terms of bitching this guy out, but it does hint that this dissatisfaction is not a permanent condition. (Click here to buy it from Amazon, and here to get the full session from Fair Game.)