Grape | 5ive Songs

In the 63^rd edition of 5ive Songs (2022), we select five songs that are associated with GRAPE in some form or fashion.

Welcome to 5ive Songs, where we keep things short and sweet – no extra calories or needless fluff! There’s a theme/topic, five songs, and a short blurb.  Yes, it’s a playlist, but it’s a miniature playlist that shouldn’t take much time to consume.  In the 63^rd edition of 5ive Songs (2022), we select five songs that are associated with GRAPE in some form or fashion.  Okay, let’s get into it!

1. Weyes Blood, “Grapevine”

💿 And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow • 🏷 Sub Pop • 🗓 2022

“If a man can’t see his shadow, oh / He can block your sun all day,” 🎙 Natalie Mering aka singer/songwriter 🎙 Weyes Blood sings in the first verse of 🎵 “Grapevine”, the second single from her fifth studio album, 💿 And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow.  Mering continues singing in the first verse, “He can make you small / He has the power to take his love away.” Clearly, matters of the heart are at play on “Grapevine” where Mering paints this guy in a sus light, yet, admits, “But I still think of him at night.”

“Grapevine” features superb songwriting, which continues well beyond the first verse.  The second verse, in particular, is clever, referencing the infamous fatal car crash of 🎭 James Dean and her own car break down. It contrasts the first, showing Mering’s range, but is also connected.  Likewise, the third verse, more like the verse, connects with the first two (“And it hits me for the first time / Now we’re just two cars passing by”).  Vocally, Natalie sings beautifully, never forcing things yet lacking no energy.  Musically, “Grapevine” has all the uniqueness expected from an alternative song – interesting harmonic progression, gorgeous, thoughtfully crafted instrumental ideas, and perhaps, most important, contrast. Also, worth shouting out is the utterly sublime production (Mering and 🎛 Jonathan Rado).

2. Harry Styles, “Grapejuice”

💿 Harry’s House • 🏷 Columbia • 📅 2022

“But I got over it and I said / ‘Give me something old and red’ / I pay for it more than I did back then.” 🎵 “Grapejuice” keeps 💿 Harry’s House, the third studio album by 🏆 Grammy-winning pop musician 🎙 Harry Styles, groovy.  Now groovy-ness is a major selling point!  The repeated, driving bass line, and the prominent use of piano are sweet musical features.  Also, the tone of the guitars is a selling point too 💪.

“Sittin’ in the garden, I’m a couple glasses in

I was tryna count up all the places we’vе been.”

Interestingly, in the verses of “Grapejuice,” Styles’ vocals are mixed toward the back.  While the timbre is intriguing, it’s also a bit odd.  Thankfully, Styles’ vocals arrive in full force in the chorus, the centerpiece where, “There’s just no getting through / Without you / A bottle of rouge / Just me and you.” Sweet, sweet grape juice… wine 🍷 actually.

3. Tove Lo, “Grapefruit”

💿 Dirt Femme • 🏷 Pretty Swede / mtheory • 📅 2022

“Chokin’ on my hands all night /… Counting all the calories…” Hmm, doesn’t sound positive. In fact, it sounds like an eating disorder 😬, which is never good! The record shedding light on this eating disorder is 🎵 “Grapefruit,” which appears as the fifth track off  💿 Dirt Femme, the first independently released album by Swedish pop artist, 🎙 Tove Lo. An intense, rhythmic identity is established from the onset of “Grapefruit” thanks to a prominent synth.  In addition to the driving rhythm, Tove Lo impresses with her assertive vocals.

“The swans of ballet / Their skin and their bones, that’s not me…” Once more, Tove Lo references eating disorders in the pre-chorus, citing ballet dancer’s struggles with such disorders to maintain or lose weight for their craft. One of the biggest selling points on “Grapefruit” is its incredibly tuneful chorus, which is accompanied by a colorful backdrop.  Here, Tove Lo references a toxic grapefruit diet from her past:

“One, two, grapefruit

How am I back here again

Three, four, lose more

I know my mirrors are lyin’

Five, six, hate this

Take back the body I’m in

What I see is not me

What I see is not me.”

Beyond the chorus, the verses are tuneful too. The bridge marks another selling point for the Swedish standout on this Dirt Femme gem, though the lyrics are troubling, related to the eating disorder referenced: “But I’m learnin’ every time I feel out of place / That you are all I’ve got, oh.”

4. $UICIDEBOY$ & Travis Barker, “Sour Grapes”

💿 LIVE FAST, DIE WHENEVER • 🏷 G*59 • 📅 2019

“Pull up in front the entrance screaming / ‘Someone grant my death wish!’ / I don’t get this fucking life / Bitches make my head itch.” Woo! Well, I supposed they don’t call them 🎙 $UICIDEBOY$ for nothing, right? In the first verse of 🎵 “Sour Grapes,” 🎙 Oddy Nuff da $now Leopard (Ruby da Cherry) is clearly pessimistic AF, continuing to rap, “Trying to win by losing twice,” later asserting, “Refuse advice, choose suicide / Grey*59 is you and I / We must stay unified / We’ve always been the losing side.”  WOO!

The darkness doesn’t cease there on this collaboration with 🎙 Travis Barker (💿 LIVE FAST, DIE WHENEVER, 2019). 🎙 $lick $loth ($crim) enters the mix in the second verse, dropping his fair share of sus thoughts and f-bombs. “$lickety $loth that butterfly turning back to a moth.” My, my, my! “Stay depressed suicidal / Homicidal and such,” he spits, continuing, “So fuck off and don’t ask me about no fucking drugs / Who else wouldn’t try to numb up? / Fuck rap, fuck money / Fuck all your companies / Take the strap, reload / Now death is my company.” Yeah, those grapes – well – they’re sour AF!

5. Marvin Gaye, “I Heard It Through The Grapevine”

💿 In the Groove • 🏷 Motown • 📅 1968

Sometimes, I wonder if artists get jealous after another artist or band has recorded ‘their’ song and undoubtedly claimed it for their own?  In the history of music, this has happened numerous times.  Sure, the original is great – maybe even timeless in its own right – but the cover truly ‘takes the cake.’  I would argue that after 🎙 Marvin Gaye took 🎵 “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” into his own hands, well, it was #GAME OVER for everyone else.  Maybe that’s not fair to Gladys Knight & The Pips, who totally ‘knocked it out of the park’ with the ‘original,’ but honestly, Gaye just absolutely slaughters.

“I Heard It Through the Grapevine” appears on Gaye’s 1968 album, 💿 In The Groove, though most of us these days consume early Gaye classics via greatest hits compilations.  Anyways, if we examine In The Groove, the biggest song, with little competition (opener 🎵 “You” being the biggest) is “I Heard It Through the Grapevine.”  It is the perfect record with its moderate pace, colorful palette of sounds – backing vocals, horns – and most importantly, those transcendent, once-in-a-lifetime pipes of Marvin Gaye.

The minute that THIS version kicks off, you feel moved – it just feels right, man! There aren’t really words sufficient to describe how Marvin transformed a great song into a truly game changing, unforgettable one.  Question: If there were a soul god, would he be Marvin Gaye? Totally not being sacrilegious… at least not intentionally…

Appears in 🔻:

• Gladys vs. Smokey vs. Marvin: Head 2 Head 🗣️ 16 (2021)
• 13 Ear Catching Covers, Vol. 2

Grape: 5ive Songs No. 63 (2022) [📷: Brent Faulkner, Clovis Cheminot, Columbia, G*59, Kai-Chieh Chan via Pexels, Motown, mtheory, The Musical Hype, OpenClipart-Vectors, Pixabay, Pretty Swede, Sub Pop]