Is it ever real? I can't decide

(Note: I was actually going to post the song this post is about, but apparently my Internet connection is so slow that even SpeedyShare can't manage to upload the song before the connection times out. For now, you can listen to it here, but I'll try to update this post tomorrow, if the connection is better then. Links for everything will get added in then, too.)

I was looking through my favorite singles of this year when it occurred to me that there really has been a shortage of good...for lack of a better phrase, non-electronically-created-sounding songs. That's something that's a little crushing for me for, much as I love the disco, the dance floor, synths, the whole shebang, that's not enough for me. As I mentioned not too long ago, there's this certain gentle uplifting pop-with-guitars sound I adore, that I just might clutch closer to me than any other type of music.

I think that's part of why I'm so glad the reformed Take That are around. Their (best) songs have this glow around them that I just want to soak in, that--cheesy as it sounds--get you to that place of sort of personal calm. Certainly not all of their songs are upbeat--most probably aren't directly so, in fact--but even as they make "grown up" music, they've managed to keep the melodies and accompanying production at the level where the songs can still reach you, something the Backstreet Boys of recent years have struggled when trying to achieve.

I'm not sure why, but I've apparently developed a bit of a thing for random Take That b-sides over the past few years. I'd say the one for "Greatest Day" is pretty great. Unlike, say, "We Love To Entertain You" or "Trouble With Me," it's the swoony ballady side of the group, but that melody, that orchestration...it's all sigh-worthy, a sigh of the good sort. The intended centerpoint is probably Gary's big high delivery of the title word, but I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the lovely guitar-and-piano part that kicks in around 0:16 and that closes out the middle 8.

To buy Take That's new single, go here (physical) or, as is more cost-efficient if you live outside the UK, preorder their new album, The Circus, here (physical)--it comes out December 2.

Next up: maybe another British artist.