7 Things: Favorite Songs by Favorite Performers #1 – The Corrs
The Corrs are my favorite band, though, technically, The Corrs are no more. Sure, they still have their website, and they’re still, you know, siblings, but the website just points to their solo projects and their siblingness doesn’t make me more music.
Don’t get me wrong, their little hiatus from each other served me well when I was sitting six inches from Andrea at the Old Vic, trying not to hyperventilate and watching her act her little heart out in Dancing at Lughnasa. But that’s already happened, we had our intimate moment, and enough’s enough.
I mean, Caroline wasn’t even with them on the Borrowed Heaven tour, so not only was it an unannounced farewell tour, it was an unannounced farewell tour missing a quarter of the Corrs. Not cool, Corrs, not cool.
I have been grasping at those solo projects, but Andrea’s Ten Feet High feels so anti-Corr with its fake instrumentation, her Lifelines is covers, and Sharon’s Dream of You is, well, lyrically-unfortunate.
I’d go on, but now I’m depressed. I really need them back. And, you know, they don’t even have to tour. I would prefer it, but even if they would just release the occasional tune from across the ocean, my little Corr heart would thump in pure musical ecstasy.
Alas, I cannot force the Corrs to gather around a microphone and lay me down a sweet track, so onto the sweet tracks they released before they stole my music and crushed my soul. <— Drama is for winners.
As far as “throwaways,” we’ll simplify by saying the entire Forgiven, Not Forgotten album, which is probably my number one album of all time, half the Borrowed Heaven album and half of Home.
Plus, the Corrs’ versions of Everybody Hurts –
and Little Wing –
– just about do me in.
Also, not included on the list, my favorite Corrs instrumental is Rebel Heart off of In Blue, my least favorite album. Frankly, I wish Mutt Lange had never gotten his hands on them.
And now, the top seven –
7 – Closer
This is one of those songs of longing, one of the most beautiful I’ve ever heard. I know no other song that so captures that feeling of curiosity we have about those people to whom we feel ourselves drawn for reasons we can’t quite explain.
6 – Angel
A song about their mother, lost when they were all still fairly young. It’s also a song about living to the fullest, and the music is awesome.
5 – So Young
An ode to youth. With a great intro. And catchy music. It’s a blast live.
4 – Heart Like a Wheel
This song about lost love is so weepingly sad that it simply had to make my list. And it is sung to emotional perfection. Every time I listen to this song, I end up replaying this part “What I can’t understand / Please God, hold my hand /Is why it should have happened to me” over and over. Because the desperation in it is so gripping.
And what is it about people calling out for divine intervention mid-lyric that I always find riveting?
3 – Old Town
This song sounds like no other song I’ve heard, which I think is a real feat in a world full of songs. The music is brilliant and the performance is always one of the Corrs’ best.
2 – Borrowed Heaven
What to say?
There are so many songs written about the blessing that is life. How fleeting it all is. How nothing lasts. This song puts it in a way that, for me, is beyond comparison. Mostly in verse two. Because saying that beauty, moonlight and pleasure are all borrowed moments is one thing. Saying these words we might hear from the lips of those we love – “Don’t stay out too late tonight,” “I love you,” “Don’t wanna die,” “You taste like paradise” – are also borrowed moments elevates this song to the stratosphere.
1 – Queen of Hollywood
My love for this song is like my love for coffee. If I’d never known it existed, I probably wouldn’t miss it, but, since I know it does, I can’t imagine my life without it.
A modern story song with a sad twist ending that contains one of my all-time favorite lyrics. And the intro is killer. If you have a moment, crank your speakers just a little and listen to the first 30 seconds.