5 Songs to Get You Through the Week #116

5 Songs to Get You Through the Week is a feature I run on Young Ears, Fresh Perspective on Sundays/early hours of Monday morning where I pick out 5 tunes that I think are notable and tell you a bit about them. The point is to give you some rocking music to help you deal with your weekday blues. You can either listen to one each day, listen to them all at once, or any other combination that you feel. As long as you can get through the week without the man getting you down, that's all I care about. Without further ado, here are the 5 tracks I've picked out for this week:

1. Ex's & Oh's, by Elle King

Because I'm often so slow on the uptake with newer artists and songs, I let about two years go by before I finally discovered this awesome song. It has a really sexy old school blues swing to it, but has enough of a modern aftertaste that it doesn't sound like another rehash of an old style of music. This is taking the blues and doing something unique and new with it, even if it is slightly overproduced. I'll be having this on repeat for some time.

2. Invisible, by Dio

Getting back to my bread and butter though, this has always been one of my favorite Dio tunes. I especially love the clean guitar and melodic vocal intro. It has a bit of a Rainbow feel to it, but you can definitely tell it's newer and more intense. It's a shame that this tune never got more attention because in my opinion the intro mixed with how in your face and pounding the rest of the song is it has what it takes to be a classic.

3. Boris the Spider, by The Who

I've always liked this tune because of just how different and off the wall it is. Bassist John Entwistle does some rather gnarly guttural vocals that make him sound like an absolute monster. In a way he was kind of laying the groundwork for the future of hardcore metal band vocalists even though The Who were farthest thing from being even remotely metal. That said, it's a short, quirky, and fun song. Even hypnotic in a way. You'll see what I mean.

4. The Dangerous Kitchen, by Frank Zappa

Speaking of quirky, off the wall, and odd you can't go wrong with a bit of Frank Zappa in your life. This song definitely features some of the most complex timing I have ever heard in music. That is absolutely no surprise though because even though Zappa's songs were weird lyrically they were very musically advanced. Everyone Frank ever worked with was an absolute super star in terms of being a technical musician. He made such music accessible to the layman though because he was able to make the lyrics humorous.

5. Stairway to Heaven, by Led Zeppelin

Oh no! Not Stairway! Yes, Stairway! Regardless of how many millions or even billions of times this song has been overplayed since 1971 I still think that it is a great iconic song. It definitely features some of Jimmy Page's best song writing and Robert Plant's best lyrics and performing. It's a seamless blend of rock and medieval European folk. It really is beautiful if you can manage to separate yourself from the stigma that surrounds the song.