LOVE IS A GAME

ADELE

SONGWRITERS: ADELE LAURIE BLUE ADKINS & DEAN WYNTON JOSIAH COVER

COUNTRY: U. K.

ALBUM: 30

LABEL: COLUMBIA RECORDS

GENRE: POP

YEAR: 2021

 

          30 is the fourth studio album by English singer-songwriter Adele, released on 19 November 2021 by Columbia Records. As her first album since the release of her 2015 studio álbum 25 six years prior, 30 centres on Adele's divorce, motherhood, fame, heartache, acceptance, and hope. She wrote 30 between 2019 and 2021 with producers such as Greg Kurstin, Max Martin and Shellback, all of whom worked on 25 as well; new collaborators included Ludwig Göransson, and Inflo of the English band Sault.

        Musically, 30 is a pop, soul, and jazz record. It has been described as Adele's most creative work sonically, expanding on her past works by incorporating dance-pop and gospel elements. American jazz pianista Erroll Garner appears on the track "All Night Parking" as a guest act, marking the first time an artist is featured on a standard album by Adele. Upon release, 30 was met with widespread critical acclaim for its cinematic instrumentation, vocal performances, and introspective lyrics. It appeared on the 2021 year-end best-albums lists from various publications.

          The lead single, "Easy on Me", was released on 15 October 2021; it topped the charts in 27 territories. The second single, "Oh My God", charted in the top five in Europe and North America. An extensive marketing campaign was used to promote 30, including a CBS television concert special Adele One Night Only that aired in the United States on 14 November 2021, and an ITV special called An Audience with Adele in the United Kingdom on 21 November 2021. In addition, a Las Vegas concert residency titled Weekends with Adele was scheduled for 20 January–16 April 2022, and two back-to-back concerts are scheduled for 1 and 2 July 2022 at British Summer Time Hyde Park in London.

          The album reached number one in 24 countries, including the UK where it became Adele's fourth consecutive number-one album, making her the first act to debut all their albums atop the UK Albums chart; it garnered the highest first-week sales for an album by a female artist in the UK since Adele's own 25 and became 2021's best-seller in the country. In the US, it was Adele's third consecutive Billboard 200 number-one album, and the year's best-seller as well. 30 was the world's best-selling album of 2021, with over 5 million copies sold in the year. Additionally, Adele was the third best-selling artist of 2021 globally. 30 won British Album of the Year at the 42nd Brit Awards, making Adele the first solo artist in history to win the honour three times. 

All your expectations of my love are impossible

Surely, you know

That I'm not easy to hold

It's so sad how incapable

Of learning to grow I am

 

My heart speaks in puzzle and codes

I've been trying my whole life to solve

God only knows how I've cried

I can't take another defeat

A next time would be the ending of me

Now that I see

 

That love is a game for fools to play

And I ain't fooling (fooling)

What a cruel thing (cruel thing)

To self-inflict that pain

 

Love is a game for fools to play

And I ain't fooling again (fooling)

What a cruel thing (cruel thing)

To self-inflict that pain

 

How unbelievable (unbelievable)

Of me to fall for the lies that I tell? (Lies I tell)

The dream that I sell (dream I sell)

When my heartache, it's inevitable (inevitable)

But I'm no good at doing it well

Not that I care (I don't care)

Why should anything about it be fair?

 

When love is a game for fools to play

And I ain't fooling (fooling)

What a cruel thing (cruel thing)

To self-inflict that pain

 

Love is a game for fools to play

And I ain't fooling again (fooling)

What a cruel thing (cruel thing)

To self-inflict that pain

 

No amount of love

Can keep me satisfied (satisfied, satisfied)

I can't keep up (I can't keep up, I can't keep up)

When I keep changing my mind

(Change my mind, change my mind)

The feelings flood me to the heights of no compromise

 

Love is a game for fools to play

And I ain't fooling (fooling)

What a cruel thing (cruel thing)

To self-inflict that pain

 

Love is a game for fools to play

And I ain't fooling (fooling)

What a cruel thing (cruel thing)

To self-inflict that pain

 

I can love me

I can love again

I love me now like I loved him

I'm a fool for that

You know I, you know I'm gonna do it

Oh-oh-oh-oh

I'd do it all again, like I did it.

TUNNEL OF LOVE

DORIS DAY

SONGWRITERS: BOB ROBERTS & PATTI DORINE FISHER

COUNTRY: U. S. A.

ALBUM: TUNNEL OF LOVE

LABEL: PHILIPS RECORDS

GENRE: POP

YEAR: 1958

 

         Doris Day(born Doris Mary Anne Kappelhoff; April 3, 1922–May 13, 2019) was an American actress, singer, and animal welfare activist. She began her career as a big band singer in 1939, achieving commercial success in 1945 with two Nº 1 recordings, "Sentimental Journey" and "My Dreams Are Getting Better All the Time" with Les Brown & His Band of Renown. She left Brown to embark on a solo career and recorded more than 650 songs from 1947 to 1967.

         Day was one of the biggest film stars of the 1950s–1960s. Day's film career began during the Golden Age of Hollywood with the film Romance on the High Seas(1948). She starred in films of many genres, including musicals, comedies, dramas, and thrillers. She played the title role in Calamity Jane(1953) and starred in Alfred Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much(1956) with James Stewart. Her best-known films are those in which she co-starred with Rock Hudson, chief among them 1959's Pillow Talk, for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress. She also worked with James Garner on both Move Over, Darling(1963) and The Thrill of It All(1963), and starred alongside Clark Gable, Cary Grant, James Cagney, David Niven, Ginger Rogers, Jack Lemmon, Frank Sinatra, Kirk Douglas, Lauren Bacall, and Rod Taylor in various movies. After ending her film career in 1968, only briefly removed from the height of her popularity, she starred in her own sitcom The Doris Day Show(1968–1973).

          In 1989, she was awarded the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement in motion pictures. In 2004, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In 2008, she received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award as well as a Legend Award from the Society of Singers. In 2011, she was awarded the Los Angeles Film Critics Association's Career Achievement Award. The same year, she released her 29th studio album, My Heart, which contained new material and became a UK Top 10 album. As of 2020, she was one of eight record performers to have been the top box-office earner in the United States four times.

          The Tunnel of Love is a 1958 romantic comedy film directed by Gene Kelly and starring Doris Day and Richard Widmark. The film follows a married suburban couple who, for reasons unknown, are unable to conceive a child and soon endure endless red tape on a path of adopting one. It is based on the 1957 hit Broadway play of the same name by Peter De Vries and Joseph Fields, which in turn was based on De Vries' 1954 book of the same name. The Tunnel of Love is the first film directed by Kelly in which he did not also appear. Day received a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for her performance.

         The film was a box office disappointment, which Kelly attributed to audiences not accepting Widmark in a comedic role.

Getting crazy on the waltzers but it's the life that I choose

Sing about the sixblade sing about the switchback and a torture tattoo

And I been riding on a ghost train where the cars they scream and slam

And I don't know where I'll be tonight but I'd always tell you where I am

 

In a screaming ring of faces I seen her standing in the light

She had a ticket for the races just like me she was a victim of the night

I put a hand upon the lever said let it rock and let it roll

I had the one arm bandit fever there was an arrow through my heart and my soul

 

And the big wheel keep on turning neon burning up above

And I'm just high on the world

Come on and take a low ride with me girl

On the tunnel of love

 

It's just the danger when you're riding at your own risk

She said you are the perfect stranger she said baby let's keep it like this

It's just a cake walk twisting baby step right up and say

Hey mister give me two give me two cos any two can play

 

And the big wheel keep on turning neon burning up above

And I'm just high on the world

Come on and take a low ride with me girl

On the tunnel of love

 

Well it's been money for muscle another whirligig

Money for muscle and another girl I dig

Another hustle just to make it big

And rockaway rockaway

 

And girl it looks so pretty to me just like it always did

Like the spanish city to me when we were kids

Oh girl it looks so pretty to me just like it always did

Like the spanish city to me when we were kids

 

She took off a silver locket she said remember me by this

She put her hand in my pocket I got a keepsake and a kiss

And in the roar of the dust and diesel I stood and watched her walk away

I could have caught up with her easy enough but something must have made me

Stay

 

And the big wheel keep on turning neon burning up above

And I'm just high on the world

Come on and take a low ride with me girl

On the tunnel of love

 

And now I'm searching through these carousels and the carnival arcades

Searching everywhere from steeplechase to palisades

In any shooting gallery where promises are made

To rockaway rockaway from cullercoats and whitley bay out to rockaway

 

And girl it looks so pretty to me like it always did

Like the spanish city to me when we were kids

Girl it looks so pretty to me like it always did

Like the spanish city to me when we were kids.

EVERY TEARDROP IS A WATERFALL

COLDPLAY

SONGWRITERS: William Champion; Peter W. Allen; Adrienne Anderson; Brian Peter George Eno; Guy Berryman; Brian Peter Geoge Eno; Jonathan Buckland & Christopher Anthony Martin

COUNTRY: U. K.

ALBUM: MYLO XYLOTO

LABEL: PARLOPHONE RECORDS

GENRE: POP ROCK

YEAR: 2011

 

        Coldplay are a British rock band formed in London in 1996. They consist of vocalist and pianista Chris Martin, guitarist Jonny Buckland, bassist Guy Berryman, drummer Will Champion and creative director Phil Harvey. They met at University College London and began playing music together from 1996 to 1998, first calling themselves Pectoralz and then Starfish.

          After releasing Safety EP independently in 1998, the band signed with Parlophone during the next year. Their debut album, Parachutes(2000), included the breakthrough hit "Yellow" and received a Brit Award for British Album of the Year, a Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album, as well as a Mercury Prize nomination. Their second album, A Rush of Blood to the Head(2002), won the same accolades while also spawning the singles "Clocks" and "The Scientist", with the former winning a Grammy Award for Record of the Year. The band's third album, X&Y(2005), was the best-selling of the year worldwide, topping the charts of over 30 countries. On Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends (2008), Coldplay achieved the distinction once again and explored new musical territory following the completion of what they considered a trilogy. It earned them a Grammy Award for Best Rock Album and their first Album of the Year nomination, while title track "Viva la Vida" marked the first time a British group went number-one in both the United Kingdom and United States in the 21st century.

          Since then, Coldplay further diversified their sound with subsequent albums Mylo Xyloto(2011), Ghost Stories (2014), A Head Full of Dreams(2015), Everyday Life(2019) and Music of the Spheres (2021). Each one presented a specific theme and added new musical styles to the band's original repertoire, including electronica, ambient, pop, R&B, funk, classical, jazz fusion, and progressive rock. They have also been noted for dazzling, euphoric live performances, which critics have stated are when the band "come alive and make the most sense". To celebrate their 20th anniversary in 2018, they released a career-spanning documentary directed by Mat Whitecross, featuring previously unseen behind the scenes footage.

           Mylo Xyloto (pronounced/ˈmaɪloʊˈ zaɪlətoʊ/ MY-loh ZY-lə-toh) is the fifth studio album by British rock band Coldplay, released in late October 2011. The band worked closely with producer Brian Eno following their successful collaboration on Viva la Vida, the band's previous album. Mylo Xyloto is a concept album and a thematic rock opera.

         The album tells the story of a war against sound and colour on the planet Silencia, which has been overtaken by a totalitarian government led by Major Minus, who controls the population through media and propaganda. His aim is to take sound and colour off the streets in hope to draw away "feeders", creatures that use such energy to hunt its prey. The album follows Mylo Xyloto, a "silencer", a soldier in an army tasked to hunt and track down "sparkers", people who harness light and energy and use it to create sparks, comparable to graffiti in real life. He encounters Fly, the sparker most wanted by Major Minus. In interviews the band have said that the album follows a love story between Mylo and Xyloto, with them being separate characters. However, in the comics based on the album, Mylo Xyloto is the main protagonist and Fly is the sparker girl he encounters.

          The album received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised its uplifting tone and new electronic sound; however, some found its material overproduced. "Paradise" and "Every Teardrop Is a Waterfall" received a total of three Grammy Award nominations in 2012, while the album and "Charlie Brown" received two further Grammy nominations in 2013. Internationally, Mylo Xyloto charted at number one in 34 countries. In the United Kingdom, Mylo Xyloto became Coldplay's fifth album to debut at number one, selling 208,000 units in its first week, and setting a one-week digital sales record with 83,000 copies sold. Mylo Xyloto broke an iTunes record for digital downloads sales by selling over 500,000 digital copies in a week. (Beyoncé's self-tited album and Adele's 25 topped this record in 2013 and 2015 respectively). Mylo Xyloto became Coldplay's third album to debut at number one on the US Billboard 200, selling 447,000 units in its first week of sales. It was the UK's best-selling rock album of 2011, selling 908,000 copies. As of 2013, it has sold over 8 million copies worldwide.

I turn the music up

I got my records on

I shut the world outside until the lights come on

Maybe the streets alight

Maybe the trees are gone

I feel my heart start beatin' to my favorite song

 

And all the kids they dance

All the kids all night

Until Monday mornin' feels another life

I turn the music up

I'm on a roll this time

And heaven is in sight

 

I turn the music up

I got my records on

From underneath the rubble sing a rebel song

Don't want to see another generation drop

I'd rather be a comma than a full stop

 

Maybe I'm in the black

Maybe I'm on my knees

Maybe I'm in the gap between the two trapezes

But my heart is beating and my pulses start

Cathedrals in my heart

 

As we saw, woah, this light

I swear you, emerge blinking into

To tell me it's alright

As we soar walls

Every siren is a symphony

And every tear's a waterfall

 

Is a waterfall, oh

Is a waterfall, oh-oh-oh

Is a, is a waterfall

Every tear

Is a waterfall, oh-oh-oh

 

So you can hurt

Hurt me bad

But still I'll raise the flag

 

Ooh

It was a wa-wa-wa-wa-waterfall

A wa-wa-wa-wa-waterfall

 

Every tear, every tear

Every teardrop is a waterfall

Every tear, every tear

Every teardrop is a waterfall

Every tear, every tear

Every teardrop is a waterfall

Every tear, every tear

Every teardrop is a waterfall

Every tear, every tear

Every teardrop is a waterfall.

AND THEN I WAKE UP

SPRING GANG

SONGWRITERS: SEBASTIAN WINSKOG & SAME STENBECK

COUNTRY: U. K.

ALBUM: BETTER PLACE

LABEL: EPIDEMIC SOUND

GENRE: ROCK

YEAR: 2019

 

       Spring were an English progressive rock band from Leicester.

         They released only one album in their career, a self-titled LP in 1971. Spring's music is notable for the use of the mellotron with three of its five members credited with playing that instrument on the album. Songs for a second album were recorded but not released at the time. They were later released on CD together with some demos as Untitled 2, as a bonus CD on the Esoteric CD release of 2015, and as a bootleg vinyl album Spring 2(with Roger Dean cover). Three of the tracks were used as bonus on the single CD edition of the first album.

Every single day just stays the same

Wake up feel that emptiness efface

Wash away the pain and put some makeup on my face, yeah

 

Every single day just stays the same

I am giving all to you in vain

But I guess I had it coming so why should I complain?

 

Why should I

Ever stop? (Ever stop)

Why should I

Give you up? (Give you up)

And when do I

See myself, see myself?

Every day

Repeat itself, (repeat itself)

 

They say I'm out of my head

'Cause I keep telling myself

 

One day you'll find me

And one day I'll find you

And we're off

To what they call

A good start

And then I wake up

 

Every single day just stays the same

Wake up feel that emptiness efface

Wash away the pain and put some makeup on my face

 

Every single day just stays the same

I don't really care and it's a shame

I know I had it coming and I don't care to explain

 

Why should I

Ever stop? (Ever stop)

Why should I

Give you up? (Give you up)

And when do I

See myself, see myself?

Every day

Repeat itself, (repeat itself)

 

They say I'm out of my head

'Cause I keep telling myself

 

One day you'll find me

And one day I'll find you

And we're off

To what they call

A good start

And then I wake up

 

One day you'll find me

And one day I'll find you

And we're off, ooh

To what they call

(A good start)

And then I wake up.