A few nights ago, I was driving home from the airport. The 50-minute drive is one straight, flat highway through Oklahoma’s countryside. How does one survive a drive like that alone? Music, baby. I was all jazzed up from my trip to New Orleans (see what i did there?), where I was constantly exposed to sweet sounds throughout the city. So as I set out on the road that night, I wanted to be adventurous with my music choice. I felt in the mood for something new. I put on a random mixtape from the wondrous music paradise of the internet, and was off. A few songs down the road, I wasn’t really feeling it.. Nothing was hitting me right. My mind was wandering, and I wondered, “What is it about a song that makes me want to save it for good? To ‘like’ or ‘star’ it? To add it to my Recent Beats playlist?”
…You may be wondering what I’m getting at…
Banks’s “Before I Ever Met You” has whatever it is. It’s a head nodder that you want to keep playing. You want to save it for later; put it in that vault of feel-good music you have stored on your iPod.
Within the first 4 seconds I’m intrigued by the faint sounds slowly pulsating behind her voice. The beat kicks in and she shortly follows. Her smooth voice is my center of attention, but as the song continues, I unconsciously start tapping my foot as my head bobs to the mellow beat. It’s something that would be perfect for a solo ride in the middle of the night. The type of drive where you don’t see a soul on the road. It’s just you and the music. Your music player is the co-pilot. You’re living in the now, with only music and your thoughts for company; let them mingle.
Her lyrics aren’t just words, and I connect greatly with what she’s saying in “Before I Ever Met You.” If you haven’t experienced it, you know someone who has – a relationship that has reached the end of its course. After the break-up, haven’t we all wondered what our lives would be like without the experiences we’ve shared with that person? Maybe it’s the best for those experiences to just be memories of the past.
The thing is, this song doesn’t expose the sound of sorrow despite it’s subject matter. Its level of perceived darkness will vary depending on the mood you’re in and how closely you listen to the lyrics.
This was Banks’s first single, and she has since released several more great singles and 2 EPs. This song is featured on Fall Over, released in 2013. Her style varies, but there’s a definite mellow presence throughout. While she sticks to lower notes in “Before I Ever Met You,” many of her songs feature the other end of the pitch spectrum.
As is the case of my drive the other night, music makes a lot of situations bearable. When you find an artist like Banks, you’ll want her to stick around on your iPod for a while.