11 Intriguing, Totally Salty🧂Songs | Playlist 🎧

1. Mickey Guyton, “Salt” 🧂

💿 Bridges (EP) • 🏷 Capitol Nashville • 📅 2020 

“She’s got you blind, but I see it all / You think you’re getting sugar / But boy, you’re getting salt.” Oh snap!  🎵 “Salt” 🧂 appears as the penultimate number on 💿 Bridges, the debut EP by 🏆 Grammy-nominated country singer, 🎙 Mickey Guyton.

Here, on this thrilling, country-pop joint with ample crossover appeal, Guyton delivers a brief but compelling tale where this guy is involved with a girl that’s nothing but trouble. Much like on her song that earned her the Grammy nomination (🎵 “Black Like Me” ), Guyton serves up a great, well-rounded vocal performance.  Furthermore, she brings plenty of attitude and personality to this salty track.

Also appears on 🔽:

🔗 🎧 Salt 🧂: 5ive Songs No. 70

2. Jónsi & Robyn, “Salt Licorice”

💿 Shiver • 🏷 KRUNK • 📅 2020 

“Kiss my soul, oh, my salty licorice / You taste like frost and burnish leather / Ooh, my Scandinavian pain.” Yaaassss! 🎵 “Salt Licorice” appears as the seventh track on 💿 Shiver, the 2020 solo album by 🎙 Jónsi. The Icelandic musician may be best known as a member of 🎙 Sigur Rós. Also, he’s renowned for his bowed guitar playing and his unique countertenor voice. Focusing on the song at hand, “Salt Licorice,” Jónsi collaborates with Swedish standout, 🎙 Robyn. The results are pretty sweet – not salty!

If you find yourself in need of an incredibly fun, sexy, and unique, electronic pop bop, look no further “Salt Licorice.” The production is definitely colorful, courtesy of Jónsi and 🎙 A. G. Cook – gotta love the aggressive sound.  Furthermore, the lyrics aren’t deep, but incredibly fun, including the memorable chorus where both artists sing together (“Why can’t you just be led astray? / ‘Cause you’re a heartbreaker”).  Allow your feet to take over and prepare to dance your @$$ off to this one.

3. Ava Max, “Salt” 🧂

💿 Heaven & Hell • 🏷 Atlantic • 📅 2020

“I’m all out of salt, I’m not gonna cry / Won’t give you what you want / ‘Cause I look way too good tonight.” Hell yeah, 🎙 Ava Max! On 🎵 “Salt” 🧂, a highlight from Max’s 2020 debut album, 💿 Heaven & Hell, she shows incredible resilience.  She’s had her heart broken, yet, at this point, “she’s all cried out,” you might say.

Rather than continue to be downtrodden about this lame-a$$ guy, she’s on the up-and-up, feeling herself, knowing she’s better than the way she was treated.  After all, on this sleek, 🎙 Cirkut-produced bop, she’s “got her thigh-highs on, feel like Wonder Woman,” plus her “Lipstick pops and she feels like Monroe.” You go girl!

Also appears on 🔽:

🔗 🎧 Salt 🧂: 5ive Songs No. 70

4. Aesop Rock, “Salt”

💿 Spirit World Field Guide • 🏷 Rhymesayers Entertainment LLC • 📅 2020

“That’s a unique wind / Spun a whip out in the snow / Really ain’t got shit / Your condition is not a condition we know.” Despite being underrated, underground rapper 🎙 Aesop Rock (Ian Matthias Bavitz) is absolutely and utterly awesome.  I dare you to argue otherwise! If you’ve been one of many folks who’ve underrated this gem of a rapper, look no further than 🎵 “Salt” 🧂, the salty standout from his 2020 album, 💿 Spirit World Field Guide.

You definitely won’t leave salty after you hear the hard-knocking beat and kick a$$ rhymes Aesop delivers.  This isn’t merely rap, it’s poetry, with numerous top-rate one-liners.  Rarely do you hear the likes of “Dorm like a door to Hell, the doorbell plays Taps” or cleverer, “Ravens deliver him tinketry in eternal damnation / I make disturbing the stasis a game to beat when the mania boils.” Can you say, 🎤💧!!! 

Also appears on 🔽:

🔗 🎧 Salt 🧂: 5ive Songs No. 70

5. Tinashe, “Salt” 🧂

💿 Joyride • 🏷 RCA • 📅 2018

🎵 “Salt” 🧂 is a surefire contender for the crowning achievement of 💿 Joyride, the sophomore album by 🎙 Tinashe. Yep, this sodium-fueled ballad is a terrific breakup record. She shows off her full complement of vocal abilities, singing in her lower register and gradually ascending into that awesome, commanding upper register.

🎙 Soundz does a masterful job crafting a truly dark, emotional, minor-key backdrop for her to paint over as she urges, “So when you go and break my heart in two / Don’t throw SALT 🧂 on the wound.”

Also appears on 🔽:

🔗 🎧 10 Songs Associated with the Periodic Table of Elements

🔗 🎧 Salt 🧂: 5ive Songs No. 70

6. The Lumineers, “Salt and the Sea”

💿 III • 🏷 Dualtone Music Group • 📅 2019

🎵 “Salt and the Sea” appears as the fourth track on the third disc of 💿 III, the 2019 album by folk collective, 🎙 The Lumineers.  It’s the 10^th song on the album overall, followed by a trio of bonus cuts.  III is a special album, first and foremost.  It is not only the third album by the band, but it’s also a conceptual effort divided into three chapters – (I) Gloria Sparks, (II) Junior Sparks, and (III) Jimmy Sparks.  Obviously, the three Sparks are members of the same family.  “Salt and the Sea” appears on Jimmy Sparks.

“All that you suffered, all the disease / You couldn’t hide it, hide it from me.” The four-and-a-half-minute-long “Salt and the Sea” is quite beautiful from start to finish.  Sure, as the excerpted lyrics suggest, it’s dark, set in a minor key, but that doesn’t hold back the radiance. In addition to the overall sound, with acoustic guitar and piano leading the charge, the vocals by 🎙 Wesley Schultz are expressive and incredibly nuanced.  Where does the salt come into play exactly? That would be on the chorus, where Schultz sings, “I’ll be your friend in the daylight again / There we will be, like an old enemy / Like the salt and the sea.”

7. Sia, “Salted Wound”

💿 Fifty Shades of Grey • 🏷 Republic • 📅 2015

“Give your heart, and say, ‘come take it’ / And she will see that you’re a good man.” 🏆 Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter 🎙 Sia delivered one of the best songs from the 💿 Fifty Shades of Grey soundtrack in 2015.  In the context of the compilation, she definitely keeps the momentum afloat with 🎵 “Salted Wound.” As we’ve come to expect from songs written by Ms. Furler, it is indeed well-written and incredibly moving.

What contributes to the ‘moving’ vibe of this particular soundtrack cut? Well, Sia’s vocal is very intimate sounding and self-indulgent – perfect for this type of number! Interestingly, she never utters the word SALT (can you believe it?). “Oh yeah, and you can do it,” she sings compellingly on the chorus, the centerpiece of the song, continuing, “Don’t break, yeah you’ll pull through it / You’re safe, yes, you can do it.” “Salted Wound” is truly marvelous. 

8. Ying Yang Twins, “Salt Shaker”

Ft. Lil Jon

💿 Me & My Brother • 🏷 The Orchard • 📅 2003

Let’s rewind back to the aughts – specifically 2003 – when there was a southern rap gem that many of the kids today have never heard.  That gem arrived courtesy of 🎙 Ying Yang Twins with an assist from ‘The King of Crunk,’ 🎙 Lil Jon and the Eastside Boyz. In case you are totally naïve, 🎵 “Salt Shaker” is not about seasoning food.  Rather, “Salt Shaker” is about shaking – wait for it – ASS! So, if you were a teen/young adult in 2003 (I was in high school then), and you were a hip-hop enthusiast, the sound of “Salt Shaker” shouldn’t surprise you in the least.  This was the age where crunk and dirty south dominated.  “Salt Shaker” has no substance whatsoever, but the production, specifically the beat, and the aggressive sound of the rapping and rhymes, definitely stand out.

Lil Jon handles the chorus at the top, where he informs us, “She’s leaking! She’s soaking wet / Shake it like a salt shaker.” Sounds like she needs a towel… Anyways, from there, 🎙 Kaine takes the first verse, which begins unapologetically: “P-popping till you percolate / First booty on duty, no time to wait.” Later, he asserts, “Call that bitch Bojangles.” Damn.  Then there’s 🎙 D-Roc, who encourages the “Ho shake your ass till the song end.” We get more of the same the rest of the song, as well as Lil Jon adding, “Roll that ass round and round like a motherfucking wheel / Shake that shit, this ain’t no motherfuckin’ drill.” These men need to wash their mouths out with soap and water!

9. boygenius, “Salt in the Wound”

💿 boygenius (EP) • 🏷 Matador • 📅 2018

“But you take and you take / Like silks up my sleeve / Tied corner to corner, never ending…” 🎙 boygenius is comprised of 🎙 Julien Baker, 🎙 Phoebe Bridgers, and 🎙 Lucy Dacus. Can you say GIRL POWER 💪!  🎵 “Salt in the Wound” appears as the penultimate track on the collective’s 2018, self-titled EP. The four-minute-plus record was written, produced, and performed by all three ladies. If you’ve never heard this record, or them for that matter, “Salt in the Wound” is a definitely a must-hear.

This is one powerful indie-rock record.  You’ve gotta appreciate the ripeness of the guitars, which packs a mean punch.  You know who else packs a mean punch? Why, the girls of boygenius, of course! Lucy Dacus kicks things off on the first verse, delivering a strong, emotional performance (“You put salt in the wound / And a kiss on my cheek /… But you haven’t decided / about taking or leaving me”). She’s then joined in harmonious fashion by Baker and Bridgers on the chorus, the centerpiece.  Baker and Bridgers take the lead on the second verse, continuing to deliver emotional, superbly-penned lyrics (“Neck full of mockingbirds / All calling your name /… I’m gnashing my teeth / Like a child of Cain / If this is a prison, I’m willing to buy my own chain.” Now that’s a 🎤 💧 if I ever heard one!

10. Highly Suspect, “Bath Salts”

💿 Mister Asylum • 🏷 300 Entertainment • 📅 2015

🎵 “Bath Salts” appears as the fourth track off of 💿 Mister Asylum, the debut album by Grammy-nominated rock band, 🎙 Highly Suspect.  The front man of Highly Suspect is none other than 🎙 Johnny Stevens who definitely fits the role of rock star perfectly: tatted up, unapologetic, and sexy, in a bad boy sort of way.  More importantly than his looks is his voice, which is definitely powerful and chocked-full of spirit.

Obviously, with a song entitled “Bath Salts,” the connotation is expectedly negative.  This joint isn’t about some seasoning but rather dangerous synthetic cathinones – mind-altering drugs! So, clearly, Johnny Stevens is not clean (contextually) asserting on the first verse, “‘Cause lately I’ve been feeling so strange / Like I’ve been re-arranged, changed / and these voices /… These fellas are tell me that I’d be better off dead.” Yikes! He goes on to share the effects of the drugs on the second verse, asking on the bridge, “Hey / Why can’t I come down,” before expressing, “I feel like death is coming soon and, oh / All I wanna do is fucking sleep.” Wow.  Finally, he shares what went down during his overdose.  Even though this is merely a song, Stevens did, indeed, experience an overdose.

11. The National, “I Should Live in Salt”

💿 Trouble Will Find Me • 🏷 4AD • 📅 2013

“I should live in salt for leaving you behind, behind” Interesting 🎙 Matt Berninger – very interesting. Hmm, what does it even mean? Well, on 🎵 “I Should Live in Salt,” the opener from 💿 Trouble Will Find Me, 🎙 The National front man states the song is about his younger brother, per Under the Radar: “I think the song is a reflection on our relationship, and some of it is my guilt or feeling that he went in a different direction than I did.”

Notably, Berninger repeats the phrase, “You should know me better than that,” throughout song, which clearly showcases a relationship component.  Besides the theme and lyrics, “I Should Live in Salt” is a gorgeous song with a rich palette of sounds within the backdrop that feels and sounds quite organic.  As always, Berninger sounds terrific.

Also appears on 🔽:

🔗 🎧 Salt 🧂: 5ive Songs No. 70