I first heard this week's tune while I was slaving away for Save-A-Lot filling grocery shelves and running the cash register. It's one of those songs that certainly made the workday go just a little bit better....
George Ezra (birth name George Ezra Barnett) was born in Hertford, U.K. in 1993, and though he turned thirty this year, if you look at his face, you'd swear he could have graduated from your local high school this past May. Ezra comes from a musical family, as his sister joins him on tour and his younger brother makes music as Ten Tonnes. Much to my surprise (this week's tune is my sole exposure to his music), Ezra, who started his musical career at the ripe old age of twenty, is a huge star in the U.K. (as well as Australia, Ireland, Germany, New Zealand, and Belgium--so many cool kids around the world!) with all three of his albums hitting #1 on the U.K. Albums Chart, and eight top ten singles on the U.K. Singles Chart since 2013. For his career, he has released three studio albums (as noted above), two EPs, and fifteen singles. Ezra is currently completing a tour of Europe, and also has a podcast in which he chats with other musicians.
"Shotgun" was the third single from Ezra's 2018 release Staying at Tamara's. The single was the only #1 single (so far!) for Ezra in the U.K., though it did not chart on the Billboard Hot 100. The album hit #1 in the U.K. (once again, as noted above), while it reached #68 here in America.
Fun Fact: When Ezra began writing his second album, he went to Barcelona, but instead of staying at a fancy hotel he rented a spare room from a woman named Tamara (whose home was an artist's colony of sorts). Not only did his stay there inspire the title for this week's album, a nearby mountain provided the inspiration for this week's song.
"Shotgun" has nothing to do with the weapon, but rather is a reference to riding shotgun--which is something our narrator is having a blast doing while tooling around the world. Two things really stand out for me. First is Ezra's vocals--his range is otherworldly, and his vocal inflections are truly one of a kind. Second, while not technically a summer song, for all intents and purposes, it's a summer song--celebrating the joys of warm weather and being outdoors. Throw in that it's as catch-catch-catchy as can be, and you have three and a half minutes of pop perfection.
Lyric Sheet: "We got two in the front/Two in the back/Sailin' along/And we don't look back..."
Enjoy:
Republicans = Nazis
Peace,
emaycee
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