There are some songs that simply grab you by the shoulders and say, “Hey, listen up.” They’re not always the most complex, the most poetic, but there’s something about their earnestness or melody that makes you stop using the music as wallpaper and take a moment just to absorb the sound.

The five songs that are seriously hindering Telegram Sam’s ability to multi-task this week:

1) Let It Bet- The Beatles, Let It Be -Timeless and familiar Let It Be is a song that can mean whatever you want, that you can sing with about 90% of the people around you at any given time, and makes my own heart swell with a feeling I imagine can only be the equivalent of getting a hug from John Lennon.

2) Comin’ Home- The City and Colour, Sometimes

-Oh Dallas Green, how dear you are to my heart. Both the albums from the Alexisonfire singer’s solo project are absolute gems, and this particular track sinks into the aimless 20-something’s heart exactly the right way. It doesn’t say much, but there’s something about the concept of home and longing that makes it stands out.

3) Nine Billion Names… (to A.Clarke)- Mooncake, Lagrange Points
-Easily one of the loveliest songs I’ve ever heard, Mooncake evokes a feeling of calm and simple pleasure with this opening track to their album, Lagrange points. It’s a song you can lie in bed and drift off to, as well as lose yourself in thought with. Ambient and slightly spacey, it’s what I imagine the background music of the human conscious to be.

4) Let Me Go- All Get Out, Currently unreleased (but featured on Daytrotter)

-Vocals that bleed sincerity, supported by a metronome and whispery guitar make me a total sucker for this song. The first time I heard it was at Chicago’s Subterranean, where the room was stuffed to the gills with people chatting and drinking uproariously. Them after about 10 seconds of Nate Hussey’s quiet, focused voice the entire room fell silent, absolutely absorbed in what was happening on stage. There was quiet for all 7 minutes of the song, even from the drunks in the back (which we all know is truly miraculous). Every time I hear this song I’m in that same venue, feeling the hold it had on that crowd, myself included.

Download All Get Out’s Daytrotter Session here

5) John Wayne Gacey Jr.- Sufjan Stevens, (Come on and Feel the) Illinoise
-The combination of Sufjan Stevens’ haunting vocals and the utter creepiness of a song about a serial killer join forces to make this a song I have to either skip right away, or sit paralyzed for the duration of. Not only does he sing the details of the murderous clown’s story he ends on a note that makes us think we might not want to go to Sufjan’s house. “And in my best behavior/I am really just like hime/Look beneath the floorboards for the secrets I have hid”

Tags: Lists, Music