If you live in Los Angeles or are hip to the National Public Radio member station broadcasting from the campus of Santa Monica College in Santa Monica, KCRW, you might have heard the beautiful sunny Southern Californian song 'Wings of Love' from Swedish/American Supergroup 'LIV'. KCRW is a mainstay for my personal driving soundtracks here in the city, which at times can resemble the lowest levels of Dante's journey into the depths of hell... BUT! There's also incredible beauty in Los Angeles and when the clouds part and the sun shines down on your head --- it's hard to not enjoy being alive. In that luminous 'happy to be alive spirit' this particular track seems to come on at the very peak of these emotions and just blows the wind right up my sails... it's almost as if the tenants of the breezy Laurel Canyon folk scene of the 60's/70's are challenging the listener to brighten their day, which I might add, works every single time!
Wings of Love, Cover Art
LIV is a very cool collaboration consisting of artists Lykke Li, Andrew Wyatt & Pontus Winnberg of Miike Snow, Björn Yttling of Peter Bjorn and John, and producer Jeff Bhasker.
The song itself has a quality that I find endearing as much as enduring... powerful hooks that are simple yet keep my ears coming back again and again. For a listener as myself who is more interested in buying full albums, hearing new music and constantly consuming content --- finding just a single that I've heard many times and keep coming back to, is a very good thing indeed!
I'm a fan of all kinds of music, I do literally eat music for breakfast... and while I love intricate movements and epic gestures of musical deity, there is truly something special about this simple melodic, hooky romp in the hills of sunny Southern California.
Have a listen for yourself, and I implore you to try and only listen just once :)
"I wanna live, wanna die on a silver lining
I wanna ride the wings of love
When I die, don't you cry, I'll be flying by you
I'll be riding wings of love"