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My Emm Gryner Top 40! #’s 1 – 5

Emm Gryner

Wow. Who knew, when I decided to put together my Top 40 Emm Gryner songs, (ONE YEAR AGO TODAY!!) that it would have taken me this long, and that my life would have changed to radically? And Emm’s songs have been with me this whole time, but as it stands lots has happened in the past several months which is way it’s been five months since I posted #’s 6 – 10.

In fact, in that time, I also spilled coffee on my laptop and lost my list, so I had to recreate my top 5! Turns out it wasn’t that difficult since… well, they’re my favorites. And in the battle between the perfect, heart-wrenching ballad, and the perfect, soul-stirring pop song, both of which Emm is a master, the pop songs win out, dominating the Top 5 (although one final ballad sneaks in at #5. It shows how two early Emm Gryner albums, Science Fair and AsianBlue clearly made me a huge fan decades ago, but her most recent makes a showing as well.

And now, without further ado, here are my top five favorite Emm Gryner songs! (At least for the past year…)

#5 – Stardeep (Science Fair)

The final ballad on a list with a lot of great ones. Emm sure knows how to write a heart-breaking ballad, this one driven by the assured strumming of an acoustic guitar that could come straight out of country song, until some piano power chords join in, and Enm’s fragile  vocals emerge to tell the tale of a lonely young woman in love with someone from afar, or perhaps unrequited. I love the pick up form the verses to the chorus too… And how about this gorgeous, heart-breaking lyric? “You used to be just a phase, now the sound waves rush to surround you.” Haven’t we all been there?

Funny story… the first time I saw Emm perform live, long before I ever met her, in a tiny student union room with an upright piano and a few couches at U Mass Amherst, she performed a few songs, then asked if anyone had any requests. I asked for Stardeep… she started, stopped, started again, then asked me how it started! Well, sadly, I froze, I couldn’t sing the first line for her… so I didn’t get to hear her perform it, and I still haven’t. Maybe one day!

#4 – Imagination (Only of Earth: Days of Games)

Taken from her most recent album, part one of a proposed concept trilogy, you can really hear the maturity in Emm’s song writing and artistry with this homage to 70’s prog-pop music. This one retains the incredible pop hooks and turns of melody of which Emm is a master, but she pushes her vocals to new heights as she layers bass, keys, guitars and drums beautifully into a lush throwback that is at the same time beautifully modern. You can hear the Bowie and Gowan influences here, two of Emm’s past collaborators, and check out this fantastic video! Really Emm, what a progression you’ve made as an artist. It’s exciting and amazing.

#3 – Beautiful Things (AsianBlue)

This one and the following #2 song are spiritual twins, both from AsianBlue, both confident, hook-laden pop songs. Beautiful Things starts with an a capella phrase, then the repeating, back and forth keyboard/guitar part drives us to a soaring chorus, .with a fabulous underscored acoustic guitar part. The contrast between the verses and the chorus is startling and heart-stopping. I love the sudden break in the third verse where the rhythm section drops away and Emm sings with the back and forth driving guitar/keys line.

I get the sense that it’s about two people reconnecting from years ago having drifted apart for various reasons, but finding that there is still something drawing them together. It’s pop perfection, something that Emm has in spades.  And check out bad-ass, rocker-chick Emm in this fantastic video!

#2 – Free (AsianBlue)

  1. Shimmery synths, a hip-hoppy backbeat, then a twisty, weaving bass line kick this glorious anthem off. Then a choppy, distorted guitar rips its way into the sing-songy melody (one of my favorite Gryner-tropes) before a soaring vocal swoops in, intercutting with the sing-song, and liberating the singer from a bad relationship. The sing-song part is the kiss-off to the ex, while the soaring melody is Emm’s declaration of freedom. Layered harmonies and electronic strings  build the song with a thrilling crescendo before an abrupt conclusion. I love how it’s clear the ex has got a hold on her, but she’s had enough and she just wants to be free. Truly one of the most empowering and joyous break up songs ever written. Take that Alanis Morrissette.

#1 – Disco Lights (Science Fair)

Disco Lights has the distinction of containing not just one, but two of my favorite lyrics of all-time: “You’re forgettable like 1993,” and “My psychic says I have until December and then it’s love, love, love.” From the moment I first heard this song, with this insanely catchy ascending chord progression in the verses and the insanely clever lyrics, I just choke up from the pop perfection of this song every time I hear it.

What’s it all about? It seems to be a nostalgia piece, thinking about how a young life unfolds, missed chances, and how a dance floor can transform the mundane into the marvelous. I can picture a young Emm spinning around under a huge disco ball so clearly. It’s joyous, it’s melancholy, it’s filled with longing, it’s filled with regret. It’s everything.

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My Emm Gryner Top 40! #’s 6 – 10

Emm Gryner

And now we’re taking a look at my Top 10 Emm Gryner songs, and every one of them is a standout, if you ask me. Here you’ll be able to figure out my favorite albums as well, as the Top 10 is primarily made up of cuts from AsianBlue, The Summer of High Hopes, and most notably, the outstanding Science Fair. While the Summer of High Hopes scores big with three songs in the Top 10, they all appear here in the lower half. Still, it’s a pretty bold showing! Take time with this list… and I hope you take a moment to listen to all of these outstanding tracks.

#10 – Serenade (Science Fair)

Here in the Top 10 we see Science Fair start to take command. Two tracks from this album appear in this segment. It’s an album that’s near perfect for me, and Serenade is a gorgeous, melancholy acoustic guitar-driven ballad. It’s also one of those songs whose lyrics are pretty poetic and don’t add up to a lot for me; it seems intensely personal. It seems that it was written on the road, and there’s definitely a sense of longing. But the killer lines come in what could arguably be called the chorus, “It’s a good day for wishing you were mine. I wish it all the time.”  We’ve all felt that before, right? Gorgeous in its simplicity, with some beautiful harmonies that just make my heart soar.

#9 – Girls are Murder (The Summer of High Hopes)

While Science Fair will continue to dominate the Top 10, The Summer of High Hopes does its best to assert dominance, with three cuts in this group. I’m a sucker for a 70’s pop groove, and Girls Are Murder has that subtly embedded in the verses, along with a killer syncopated drum track. The lyrics are vivid, telling the story of a guy who’s had his heart broken, hence, “Girls are murder.” The summer as hell imagery is fitting and ironic on the album entitled The Summer of High Hopes. And man, that chorus is what pushes it over the edge. Wow, after the commanding piano chords to kick things off, and the up and down melody of the verses, the driving, urgent chorus really pulls it all together and reels you in beautifully. While Science Fair dominates the Top 10, The Summer of High Hopes rules #’s 6 – 10, with Girls Are Murder being the first of three tracks.

#8 – Revenge (Science Fair)

Revenge has a special place in my pantheon of Emm songs. It was a cathartic song when I broke up with a long-term boyfriend nearly 20 years ago. While Emm clearly wrote this about a very specific situation, this is great break-up song from whatever your perspective. I particularly love the line, “I wanted to show you the things I know, As few as they may be.” In my own personal movie, the song’s point-of-view jumps back and forth between me and my ex, and I think that’s why I love who flexible it can be for the listener. From a musical point of view, I love the bridge and it’s gently descending melody… it just draws you directly into the chorus.

#7 – Almighty Love (The Summer of High Hopes/Gem and I)

The duet version of Almighty Love with Joe Elliott
Emm Gryner, live of Irish TV singing Almighty Love

Perhaps one of Emm’s most famous songs, after Bono selected it as one of the ten songs written by other artists that he most wished he had written. And with good reason, Almighty Love is a gorgeous love song about the one person who just can’t be denied, but is just flat-out bad for you. I love the different versions of this song, some with the distorted power chords pushing things along, another more pop-oriented, but sung as a duet with Joe Elliott form Def Leppard, who in some ways could be the epitome of the song’s subject. There are so many great, great lines from this track that I can’t pull out just one or two lines. The entire first verse is a masterpiece.

“You don’t write back when you promise to
The moon has overdosed on night-time like me on you
I got bars of your punk rock running through my veins
I got symphonies and science but no way to explain
How you broke my life in two different worlds
You move quicker than the lightning illuminates a girl
Got cigarettes you smoke burned into my veins
I got sympathy and silence but no way to explain”

Side note: for no other reason then maybe one or two lines (like the third one about punk rock) this song always reminds me of a cinematic version of my good friend Christine.

#6 – Blackwinged Bird (The Summer of High Hopes)

Blackwinged Bird is one of those soaring piano ballads with gorgeous, evocative lyrics, that conjure up images and emotions, but are impossible to understand… at least for me. But that doesn’t matter, because the song is just wrenching, even in its obliqueness. As in many of her songs, there is a lot of exploration of the way boys and girls act differently, and it seems to be referring to a dark time in this young woman’s life. Of all the beautiful lyrics of the song, my favorite verse is still fairly indecipherable in the context of the song, “Now we’re paper dolls all aflame, in houses that all look the same. Rows of regret, an arson for a wilderness.” The crowning glory from The Summer of High Hopes, Emm also produced a lush, accompanying video for this song.

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My Emm Gryner Top 40! #’s 11 – 15

Sorry, it’s been a while, but I’m finally getting back to my Emm Gryner Top 40! What brought me back to it actually was the sudden burst of my #2 song into my brain tonight while watching “Wanderlust” on Netflix. And what song was that? Well, you’ll just have to wait and see, because I’m only hitting #’s 15 – 11 this time out. And it’s a great mix of enchanting pop duets, and gorgeous heart-rending ballads. And an Emm classic thrown in. Check ’em out!

#15 – Symphonic (AsianBlue)

Symphonic is a classic Emm Gryner pop song… great lyrics about person who Emm calls symphonic and compares to the light of the moon, or all the lights on New Year’s Eve, a fantastic opening piano hook, and a soaring chorus. It kicks off Emm’s outstanding album, AsianBlue and sticks in your head for days. Pop gems? Or emotional ballads? Emm shines with both.

#14 – Sunrise Sometime (Gem and I)

Couldn’t find a video for the studio version featuring Sass Jordan, but enjoy this gorgeous live version featuring Stephanie Martin singing with Emm.

Gem and I, Emm’s 12th studio album is a collection of duets and it makes a strong return in the Top 15 with two numbers in this batch. And Sunrise Sometime features the bluesy rock & roll vocal talents of Sass Jordan as a delightful counterpoint to Emm’s clear, pop belt. It’s a perfect blend for the lyrics too, that talk about doing through hard times, but knowing that there’s a sunrise on the horizon sometime. There’s a melancholy lilt underlying a great pop song, with beautifully arranged strings powering the chorus. Sass Jordan is a Canadian artist who never really found a lot of cross-over success in the U.S. but found international notice with her 1992 album, Racine.

#13 – Underlake (21st Century Ballads)

It’s always a struggle for me to decide if Emm is the master of the pop hook, or a craftsperson extraordinaire of the piano ballad. Clearly, she is both. The slowly-paced yet deliberate piano chord progression that opens the gorgeous Underlake, leads to a gentle explanation in verse that lays out the situation before sweeping into gorgeous musical and lyrical poetry. There is love in Underlake, but it doesn’t come easy, and the tempestuous couple is struggling to make it work. “Every day, in the ocean of your gaze, I try to get brighter, remember love. Every day, like a shipwreck under lake, I want you to raise me.” It’s heartbreaking in its beauty.

#12 – Gold Soul of Rock ‘N Roll (Gem and I)

Emm reached new heights of pop perfection on Gem and I, her album of duets, as this rollicking, mid-tempo, piano-driven number clearly attests. Pairing up with Nova Scotia artist Joel Paskett, whose clear tenor matches Emm’s beautifully, allows this great song to just lift you up. The verses channel Elton John at his best, then leaps to great heights at the top of the chorus with some soaring harmonies, before gently settling you back down to the ground again. It’s one of those great songs that just plants a smile on your face. It’s the third of four cuts from Gem and I to make the Top 40.

#11 – Visiting Hours (21st Century Ballads)

21st Century Ballads offers a lot of beautiful songs, but Visiting Hours, the closing track, leaped out at me early and has stuck with me for the long haul. The intro boasts a gorgeous, descending piano lick before Emm’s hushed, husky vocals sing to a loved one who is dying. She’s there for them, “I’m not leaving you, I’ve frozen this moment.” The chorus lifts the melody into her upper register briefly before settling back into a peaceful and loving resignation. And the gorgeous reverb on the repeating piano lick as the song fades is both heartbreaking and beautiful. When my mother was in her last weeks, I would play this song and allow it to wash over me, comforting me in its beautiful and simple message. Just listening to it now while I wrote this synopsis filled me with emotion. It’s the final track form 21st Century Ballads on this list, and it wraps up the Top 20, just missing the final 10.

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My Emm Gryner Top 40! #’s 20 – 16

Emm GrynerWe’re cracking the Top 20, and the pop wonders are just going to get better and better. This is where we see Emm’s true mastery of songwriting come to the fore. We also get the first appearance of her duets album, Gem and I, and her only appearance from her albums, Goddess and Song of Love and Death. It also gets harder and harder to apply any sort of ranking system when we get this high, because on any given day, I like one song slight better than the other. At any rate, here are #’s 21 – 16.

#20 – Shining Light (Songs of Love and Death)

https://youtu.be/SZGcNx8nV8U

Taken from Songs of Love and Death, her 2005 album of songs by Irish acts, , Shining Light is a cover of a song by the band, Ash. But Emm, in her way, takes this rock-driven, slightly flat love song and turns it into an emotion-laden piano ballad. The lyrics are a little corny, but Emm sells it, and the bridge gets me choked up every time. The sad part is, I can’t find a recording of Emm’s version anywhere online, so I’ve included the far less interesting original version instead.

#19 – Boy with an Affliction (Gem and I)

Here is the first of three tracks, all in the Top 20, from Emm’s 2010 duets album, Gem and I. Talk about a batch of terrific pop gems, these are some of Emm’s best numbers. This first to appear, Boy with an Affliction is a duet with American singer/songwriter Matthew Nathanson, whose blend of folk and rock music complement Emm’s Canadian pop nicely. Matt is incidentally, from Lexington, MA. The lyrics seem to be telling the story of a boy chasing after success, and the more he gets the more he sacrifices his heart. The electric piano intro sets things up nicely before the acoustic guitar gets things moving. Emm’s background vocals over the chorus are just delightful, and Matt’s voice is a great compliment to Emm’s. And what a fantastic bridge! It just makes me smile.

#18 – Good Riddance (Science Fair)

Here’s another break-up song from Emm, but it’s also a nice “fuck you” number as the protagonist knows she’s better off without her deadbeat boyfriend. “If I’m nothing to you know then that’s the way I’d like to stay.” It’s the third song to appear on this list from Emm’s first DIY album, Science Fair, and there is more to come from this terrific album.

#17 – All-Time Low (The Summer of High Hopes)

It’s kind of amazing how Emm can apply the catchiest of pop tunes on some of the darkest or saddest lyrics and make a nearly perfect pop song. All-time Low, taken from her 2006 smash, The Summer of High Hopes, is the second song to appear on from that album. It tells the tale of a relationship that is hitting rock bottom… and we’re talking really bad, “Where everything we know keeps letting us down.” But it’s not necessarily the end, with the very slightest of hopes hidden in the bridge, “My tortured wonder, It’s a slow burn suicide. They’ve named the thunder, but God loves the world.” Maybe if God loves the world there’s still a chance? Plus, we’ve got another cool Canadian reference, “My tortured wonder, with the great lakes in your eyes.” I love how Emm tosses those lines into her lyrics.

$16 – Die Evergreen (Goddess)

Nice build on this gorgeous acoustic guitar driven pop number to a soaring chorus, Emm uses the full instrumentation well, with piano accents, nice percussion texture and great, subtle backing vocals and terrific use of her upper register. The lyrics, as usual, are a little hard to decipher… is it a break up song? Does die evergreen mean to vanish but still live on somehow? There are two cryptic reference to Rilke, a mention of the poet himself as a descriptor (“Your Rilkean heart should know…”) and a reference to one of his poems, “Blank Joy.” It all adds up to a terrific song from Emm’s 2009 album, Goddess… the only song from that album to make the list and it’s knocking on the Top 15!

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My Emm Gryner Top 40! #’s 25 – 21

Emm GrynerHere’s a nice assortment of pop songs, from gorgeous ballads, both piano and acoustic guitar, to easy pop rock, and clever lyrics. It’s a great lead-in to my Top 20… and now it’s getting harder and harder to rank them because they’re all great!

#25 – Billy Hang On (The Great Lakes)

Another one about survival, perhaps of a relatioship… “We’re at an all-time low, but some of the stars still glow. So Billy hang on, Billy hang on for me,” Emm sings. It’s heartfelt and beautiful. It’s the only track to make it to my Top 40 from The Great Lakes, Emm’s home-made album. It’s a classic Emm Gryner piano ballad sung and played with such emotion and beauty. Sadly, I can’t find a single source online for this beautiful song!

#24 – Survive (Northern Gospel)

Emm channels the smooth soft-rock of the 70’s in this easy-going pop confection about making it through life. Some nice rollicking piano and lush, soaring vocals on the chorus really propel this number along beautifully, complete with a fuzz-guitar solo, so effectively used by other 70’s pop staples like The Carpenters. Emm mines another Canadian reference, “The word came down like Victoria rain” and things look pretty bleak, especially in the romance department, but Emm challenges, “The trick is to survive, yes survive, but you gotta wanna keep yourself alive. Do I, do I?” This is the third and highest charting number from Emm’s 2011 album, Northern Gospel.

#23 – Young Rebel (Asianblue)

Stop start of the drums. Awesome Electric piano.  Recurring eastern-influenced intro. Second of 5 appearance from 2002 album, Asianblue. This still seems like one of Emm’s earlier albums, but the maturity is definitely starting to show.  One of my favorite of Emm’s albums. Emm sings about a guy who breaks rules and soars above the rest of us… he’s a bad boy, but she’s transfixed. It’s a theme that will show up again higher up on this list.

#22 – Sundown On Us (Torrential)

Man, this is a heartbreaker about a young woman who realizes that her long-term relationship is nearing its end. A gentle acoustic guitar-driven ballad. The first line, “It’s my birthday and you still haven’t kissed me,” just breaks my heart. Then the chorus, “Big day feeling small, is this the end of perfect love, feeling six feet tall. It can end just like it began. Is it sundown on us? Sundown on everything that was…? And where did that church organ come from at the fade out? If Torrential isn’t Emm’s break-up album, I don’t know what is.

#21 – Math Whiz (Torrential)

And knocking on the Top 20 is the last number from 2014’s Torrential, another break-up song, the delightfully geeky Math Whiz. In fact, it starts and ends with the same cascading synth that Sundown on Us ends with. If it wasn’t so god damn clever, it would be almost annoying as Emm crams every math metaphor to describe her breakup. But Emm’s pretty masterful with her lyrics, whether in their poetry or the simplicity… and the lovely acoustic guitar that drives this song is just perfect for the melancholy mood overlaying the pop melody. And as much as I hate auto-tuning, Emm’s use of the sound adds a nice background during the coda. Check out the promo video for the song above, and a lovely solo acoustic rendition below.

https://youtu.be/cfG4L0RacgM

And now we’re headed into my Top 20 Emm Gryner songs!