On My Playlist: Top 5 City and Colour songs

City and Colour is the brainchild of Canadian musician extraordinaire, Dallas Green, who with his acoustic rock and folk music is truly one of the most talented and versatile musician on the music scene.
Listening to Dallas Green’s voice is like a refreshing breeze on a warm summer’s day. City (Dallas) and Colour (Green) was chosen as his stage name as he was not comfortable performing with his own name. Green is also the former guitarist and vocalist of the post-hardcore band, Alexisonfire, to add to his many diverse music tastes. City and Colour has released five albums thus far, each with its own unique character and sound. Here are my top 5 picks.
Honourable mentions:
Against the Grain, The Grand Optimist, Coming Home, Fragile Bird
5. Commentators
The guitar melody in this song catches your attention from the outset before Green’s vocals perfectly accompany the melody. The verse then slows down as he vents frustration at people who are not living and are hiding behind their opinions: ‘You’re nothing but a bunch of amateurs. Commentators. Who live your lives. Hiding behind a wall of insecurities.’ These are some of the best lyrics that Green has produced in his illustrious writing career. A true wordsmith who knows how to create a beautiful piece of easy listening music with a great lyrical message.

4. The Lonely Life
This is introspective songwriting at its best as Green looks at his own life as a writer and musician and whether his music can actually make a difference in life and what his purpose for writing truly is. The great thing about City and Colour is how one can truly see how different phases of life are interpreted through the songs and albums. “Would I be face down in the gutter With cheap whisky on my breath. The lonely life of a writer. Whose words could not pay his debts.’ An honest and truthful account of what writers have to go through. The chorus also focuses on relevance with Green asking for his lover not to pass him by and support him in the writing process. A different song lyrically from anything else currently on the airwaves.

3. Sleeping Sickness
Sleeping Sickness is one of my favourite songs from City and Colour that focuses on the stress and strains of modern life. The song has a fantastic rhythmic guitar part that constantly hits you in the eardrums throughout the song, and this seems to get the message across even better. One can truly feel the emotion in Green’s vocals in this song. The guitar solo also fits in perfectly with the song as its melodic nature adds a bit of a lighter feel to balance out the melancholic nature of the song.
‘Someone come and, someone come and save my life. Maybe I’ll sleep when I am dead but now it’s like the night is taking sides. And all the worries that occupy the back of my mind. Could it be, this misery will suffice?’

2. The Girl
The song from the critically acclaimed 2008 album, Bring Me Your Love is about the perfect girl as the singer confesses his love for her in the sincerest ways. From the lyrics, ‘While I’m off chasing my own dreams. Sailing around the world. Please, know that I’m yours to keep. My beautiful girl’, it is clear that a relationship is difficult for a travelling musician and this is a love letter of note asking his significant other to stand by him through the hard times as well. The musical structure of the song is also split into two halves with a soft and slow acoustic guitar melody in the first part. The second part starts off with some fast-paced strumming that sets the song into overdrive as Green repeats the song with added banjo to give it a fuller feel.

1.Sometimes (I Wish)
This is one of City and Colour’s earliest and best hit songs, on his debut album, Sometimes which was released in 2005. The intro of the song is what makes this City and Colour’s best song in my opinion –
‘If I was a simple man, Would we still walk hand in hand? And if I suddenly went blind, Would you still look in my eyes? What happens when I grow old? And all my stories have been told? Will your heart still race for me? Or will it march to a new beat? If I was a simple man.’
These lyrics sum up the song that looks at the various aspects of love and asks whether his relationships would have turned out differently if he was not a famous musician and rather a simple man. In the end, everyone wants to be loved, irrespective of what they own or what they have achieved.