The “One-track Find” theme is an expedition of sorts to unearth lost musical treasure which falls through the cracks of the beaten path and gets trampled underneath by the callous footsteps of profit-driven music merchants and an impressionable and pliant music consuming public.
One-track Find features these buried and overlooked treasures for the true
music makers and true music listeners one song at a time. It advances the radical idea that it’s the prophets in music (the artists) not the profits that can change the world, even if it’s only the small corner of the world in which you live. It couldn’t be simpler. All that’s required of you, is to listen with your ears, your heart, your soul, and your imagination, and let the music return you to a familiar place or confidently lead you away to a place you’ve never been before. As always, the interpretation of the meaning of the featured song may vary between listeners and even the artist. But no one is wrong. The only thing that matters is what the song says to you and where it takes you. This is where the true value and the resonance of music resides. If you had your music awakening and formed your musical tastes and preferences in the prime of your youth but never strayed from this generational comfort zone, then you’re missing out on many songs begging to be heard. These are songs that could speak to you in younger or older voices from the present or the past - Voices you may dismiss as irrelevant or naïve because they speak beyond the borders of where you are comfortable. Here’s the truth. Music doesn’t care how old you are. It only wants to be listened to. It wants to be given a chance to enlighten or move you, emotionally and in some cases physically. If your music comfort zone stops somewhere between the birth of rock and roll and Y2K, you might think you have all the music you need. But you never can have too much music. You might complain about the “music today” not being what it used to be. Maybe there’s some truth to this, with the music business being just that these days, a business, along with all of the studio trickery that can make singer out of anyone with a human voice. However, there’s still authentic treasure out there to be found. Sometimes you just have to listen harder and stray off the treasure map to find the real music gold.
As you started getting older, if you discontinued your discovery of music prior to 2015, then you probably haven’t heard “If I Get High” by English alternative rock band Nothing But Thieves. Sometimes the simplest songs can tell the most complex and moving stories even in their ambiguity. This bare-bones, instrumentally subdued tune explores the desire and the aching need to reconcile a loss and fill the emptiness it caused in your soul in the hopes of feeling whole again. While the instrumentation on "If I Get High” is a gentle, tender score, lead singer Conor Mason’s voice, an instrument in itself, gives the song its heart, soul, and authentic, raw emotion. It rises to a higher and higher plane as the song progresses and invites you to come along on this journey and experience your own personal reconciliation with what you’ve lost and to hopefully feel whole again, even if for only the duration of the song. “If I Get High” is a universal treasure that can be appreciated and felt across generations and beyond music comfort zones. Step away from the familiar and the comfortable and take the journey with "If I Get High."
Click on the video below to listen to If "I Get High" by Nothing But Thieves.
For more information about Nothing But Thieves and to listen to more of their music, you can visit their website here.
Click on the video below to listen to an emotional, stripped-down cover of “If I Get High” by Morgan B.
You can listen to more music by Morgan and subscribe to her YouTube channel by clicking here.