Aloe Blacc – Green Lights

Summer.

It’s a lot of things. It’s sunshine, it’s crashing thunderstorms (if you’re lucky), it’s cold beers in a backyard surrounded by friends. It’s some semblance of ease that just doesn’t appear during the rest of the year. Everything seems to slow down, if just a bit, and even the most frustrating days can be remedied with a good song, a warm, bright sun, and a few moments to yourself.

Aloe Blacc managed to capture that kind of ease in the song “Green Lights” off his 2010 album Good Things. His voice is soulful, slow, and full. When I hear the first few bars of this song, I take a deep breath and give myself a minute to be reminded that there is always a hustle, there’s always something to do, but for all the racing paces of the world, I can make it slow down and get there when I get there.

A friend recommended Aloe Blacc to me a couple years ago. As it turned out, the album ended up narrating six months of my life. Transitions are a funny thing. I picked “Green Lights” because of how easy it is to listen to. It doesn’t interfere with your thoughts, but somehow the lyrics make their way into your mind and you can’t help but sing along once the first chorus passes. They’re telling you not to get in your own way, don’t buy into the clamor of the day to day when you’re privileged enough to find small things stressful. Good advice.

Soul music has an ability to fill a room, even when played at a quiet volume. The tones of the vocals and instruments are rich, tangible, smooth; it has a presence, for me, in a way that some other genres of music lack. It commands attention that I’m willing to give. So when I need to get away without going anywhere, this is one of the ways I do it.

Suffice it to say, I’ll be revisiting Good Things during the coming hot-weather months and come the fall, I’ll keep an eye out for a new release, because Aloe Blacc is due to score another season.

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