Sunday, October 11, 2015

10/11/15



Some songs you love in a singular context - there's no connection to the artist's catalog, albums or performances, it's just this one song you hear and hear and hear and it's perfect every time. That is Ron Pope's "Drop in the Ocean" - while I'm sure he's a very talented piano player and songwriter and has a lot of good things to say, I can only come back to this perfect beautiful song.

I believe it's a Pandora discovery, but every time it winds up on a channel of mine I love it. His voice is equal parts delicate and clear, managing full-throated held notes and occasional falsetto. A quick review of his discography tells me this was on his 2008 debut - the fact I still hear it so often in 2015, though, says something about how this might be the song that winds up defining his career. And if it is, what a beautiful thing that would be - I love the wanting in this song, and how hopeful the chorus is despite this rather melancholy setting of droughts and deserts.There's heartbreak here, but it's not accepted, it's not giving in.

I should listen to more solo piano songs like this today. There's something so sophisticated and uncluttered about it, and also quite impressive. I love imaging fingers dancing across keys and finding all the right notes. I love how crisp and bright and still dramatic the sound can be, I love how it highlights words and stories layered above it. It shows how powerful one good melody can be, when you don't need any other adornments. In this little relatively unknown song, with just voice and piano, there is so much beauty and simplicity and expression, a devotion to undying love, the kind that isn't little or unknown at all, and I just love how timeless and human that is.

"It's just a drop in the ocean
A change in the weather
I was praying that you and me might end up together
It's like wishing for rain as I stand in the desert
But I'm holding you closer than most 

'Cause you are my heaven."
~Drop in the Ocean
Ron Pope, Daylight