I did not expect A6 to be my second favorite Lights album.
It's still not Siberia, but it's got a similarly unique - yes, I know. Oxymoron. Stay with me here - sound. It's a great, great album, end to end.
And I really can't wait until the as-of-this-writing-not-annouced-but-history-tells-me-I-am-right A6 Acoustic album next year. I'll happily update this post with the new version of 'Clingy", the fifth single from A6 and my personal favorite song on the record.
Anyway, my sister goes to a lot of concerts. One of them she went to earlier this year is tomorrow's featured artist, and I'll talk more about that then, but this was a special one-off show in Buffalo, and Lights was one of the opening acts.
This is one of those songs and bands you've heard, but you may not have known by name.
And yet, you hear this song and you know it instantly.
Produced by George Harrison, this 1971 single was Badfinger's biggest US hit. They were far from a one hit wonder, but their popularity in the US was not as prolific as their associates, The Beatles. However, their slide guitar solo skills are a lot better. Of course, those slide guitar parts were played by George Harrison..... so, maybe not.
But six women ended up winning this show - represent South Korea, Philippines, United States and Switzerland's best... K-Pop artists.
Here is their recent single. It was co-written by Charli XCX and previously offered to Rita Ora and Anitta (who both did record demos of the song that aren't bad). For a manufactured group with not the greatest dancer, they aren't half bad. The video is quite entertaining.
The group also performed the song last month at Lollapalooza.
Notice how we didn't say they "sung". It's very much about the performance.
Adéla Jergová is a singer from Slovakia. Now, we don't talk much about Slovakia here, and that's part of the problem. You see, her singing career really started when she moved to Los Angeles in 2022, aged 18. She moved there to compete in a reality series - Dream Academy - where the prize, in a very Korean-style competition, was to be in a 6-piece group called Katseye.
The show was in 2023, about a year after she moved there to train for the academy, and she competed with twenty other young women. In the first episode, half the women sang, and half danced, and then fan voting occurred. Adéla was on the dancing side - she danced to "Pink Venom" in a group....
...and then the fans got to vote.
The voting ended up being very skewed along national borders - and, since women all over the world were competing, women from populous countries got more votes. Despite her excellent dancing - and she IS an excellent dancer. Classically trained - she literally came in 20th.
This is her dance, singled out from the group. Sorry, she was great compared to the rest of her group.
She was robbed, and if you are watching the Netflix series Pop Star Academy: Katseye, you KNOW that the producers have a lot of regrets about how the fan voting happened. Slovakia was the smallest country represented and it showed in the voting.
Plus she didn't even get to sing.
But that's OK. The first episode of Dream Academy aired August 19, 2023 and by September 2024, she ALREADY had her first solo single released to critical acclaim. This song, released in October 2024, was her second single.... and yeah, it's about her experience.
Her debut EP is coming later this year, and I can't wait, because her poppy electronic sound is super compelling... and frankly better than anything Katseye has done thus far.
You see, I am currently going through a project to listen to 1000 albums in a year, and I asked for suggestions (and, by the way, I'll take more). There are a few bands that were definitely over-recommended - Pink Floyd, Tool, and Incubus were probably the top three.
At this point, I am 1/3 of the way through my little project, and I have listened to one album by each of those bands - which, well, the over-hyping really lowered my expectations on.
The Incubus album I listened to was 8. Even though Alternative Press magazine called it their worst album, I rather enjoyed it. Four stars, guys. This song, the third single from the album, opens Side A and, frankly, it's a stand-out for me. It's a straight-ahead rock sound without being heavy for heavy's sake.
So, whoever suggested Incubus.... bravo.
The thing about solid rock bands - and I have to say, Incubus falls in that category - is that their live performances, like this one from Kuala Lumpur in 2018 - sound just like the studio, but with more crowd noise and shaky camera work.
I was really angry yesterday, because when I wrote that post, I had just listened to an album by that songwriter that I absolutely loved - and I went into it wanting to hate it because of the things she had done.
But here's the thing. The song was really chosen by Jennifer Warnes, and she chose Joe Cocker - not known for his love ballads - as her duet partner, and it was their contrast that made this a great song that I very much did not appreciate when it was new. THEY won a Grammy for this song. THEY sold the song for the Oscar.
And, given that Jennifer Warnes performed on THREE Oscar-winning songs, she knew a thing or two about successful movie songs.
Even though he was much older, and she was just a childhood fan, from this song grew a 30-year friendship. They continued to perform their song together thought the rest of Cocker's life. This was their final performance, in 2013.
I am extraordinarily angry with Buffy Sainte-Marie.
For many years, Sainte-Marie was seen as a pioneering Canadian Indigenous singer-songwriter and an outspoken advocate for Indigenous rights and culture. However, extensive investigative journalism - led notably by CBC’s Fifth Estate - revealed strong evidence that Sainte-Marie was not born into the Cree community, as she long claimed. Instead, her Massachusettsbirth certificate reportedly indicates she was born to white parents - Italian, in fact - contradicting decades of her public narrative.
She was not only not Indigenous - at all - she was also not Canadian - at all. Sainte-Marie, in fact, was a Francophone-sounding version of her birth last name - Santamaria - that her parents changed to due to anti-Italian sentiments after the Second World War.
That, in itself, is pretty bad. But it gets worse.
She spent years claiming an Indigenous identity and then leveraging it - for awards, visibility, resources, and representation, which was meant for other people. By her actions, she told the access of others, and their real First Nations stories. This isn’t just a personal failing but an act that perpetuates erasure, appropriation, and betrayal, especially given how fiercely Sainte-Marie was defended and celebrated for her supposed identity - with statements and threatened lawsuits.
And she claimed she didn't mislead anyone, but this clip from Sesame Street says otherwise.
She may be "real", but her story about her heritage certainly was NOT.
I’m angry because Buffy Sainte-Marie made a career and earned accolades by claiming an identity and heritage that evidence now shows she didn’t have. This isn’t just a personal lie; it’s a harmful act that took away opportunities and space from genuine Indigenous people, betrayed the trust of fans and communities, and undermined the ongoing fight for First Nations voices to be heard and honored.
However, the one thing I cannot take away from her is that she is a songwriter with a rich and long resume. She has won many awards for her songwriting and performing - many of which have rightly been stripped because she earned them at the expense of actual Indigenous voices. However, her Academy Award for Best Original Song - that, I can't take away from her.
She doesn't deserve her Juno Awards, but I can't say she doesn't deserve the Oscar.
This song was featured in the movie An Officer and A Gentleman, and was a huge hit for Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes. It was a huge hit, and it was co-written by Buffy Sainte-Marie, in perhaps the most honest moment of her entire career.
It's a real shame, because she made a lot of great music. She's genuinely a gifted musician, and some of her albums are must-listens, even after all this. But she tarnished her own legacy.
Here she is performing the most honest song she ever wrote.
