I have a piano back in my life! It's a full-size Casio, no weighted keys but plenty of settings for weird sounds and modulation - beats, too, which are great for acoustic and timing practice.
I've come to appreciate a good keys melody over the years, and I think the best are simple ones. Obviously musicianship, style are going to make for the best, and the virtuoso jazz type will always own piano playing in my mind, but a good line backing up a lyric-focused vocal do wonders for setting.
This tune, "Daydreaming" by Dark Dark Dark. has a lot of what I like in a piano-fueled song. A little bit of minor key, a little bit of jazzy technique, and a heartfelt message, one of wandering and wondering. There's a little Tori in there, somewhere, maybe it's just the piano, but it might also be the just-off vocals, the tendency to switch registers. I very much enjoy the overall setting though - and the band is from Minneapolis, a fact I discover just days away from one of my best friend's move to the Twin Cities.
"Think of a place I would go,
I'm daydreamin',
Where the sycamore grow,
I'm daydreamin',
And oh if you knew what it meant to me,
Where the air was so clear,
Oh if you knew what it meant to me,
Anywhere but here.
Oh now look to the east,
Great mountains remember me,
Oh I wound around you for miles,
I sat down right there and stretched my bones.
And oh if you knew what it meant to me,
Oh if you knew what it meant to me,
Oh if you knew what it meant to me,
You would see, too.
Oh the unspeakable things,
It's land I can see for miles,
With only the wind whispering,
Land I can see for miles,
With only the wind whispering,
Oh land I can see for miles,
With only the wind whispering,
Oh I'd run as fast as I can
Land I can see for miles
Oh I'm searching,
With only the wind whispering,
Oh if you knew what it meant to me,
Oh if you knew what it meant to me,
Oh if you knew what it meant to me,
You would see, too.
Oh the unspeakable things,
Oh the unspeakable things,
Oh the unspeakable things,
Oh the unspeakable things."
~Daydreaming
Dark Dark Dark, Wild Go
