What is this song?
June 5, 2015 9:12 PM Subscribe
This is driving me nuts: I keep hearing this song in busy loud places and I can't identify the lyrics enough to find it. I haven't been able to ask anyone who the artist is, unfortunately.
It's very quiet for the verses, slow tempo, a male voice, kind of midrange. Then it gets louder and it sounds like in the chorus he's saying something like "we will/are/could/whatever sha sha sha SHA-aa" where sha could be anything. Shock, shy, shine, I have no clue, maybe it's not even an sh but some other sibilant. Then it's something like "we will fall fall fall SO-omething" There's this cascading, sweeping instruments (including piano? I think?) around the chorus, really pretty.
I've googled all kinds of variations on fall fall fall and other words starting with sh, but I mostly get repeating lists of not-the-right-songs. Ring a bell for anyone?
It's very quiet for the verses, slow tempo, a male voice, kind of midrange. Then it gets louder and it sounds like in the chorus he's saying something like "we will/are/could/whatever sha sha sha SHA-aa" where sha could be anything. Shock, shy, shine, I have no clue, maybe it's not even an sh but some other sibilant. Then it's something like "we will fall fall fall SO-omething" There's this cascading, sweeping instruments (including piano? I think?) around the chorus, really pretty.
I've googled all kinds of variations on fall fall fall and other words starting with sh, but I mostly get repeating lists of not-the-right-songs. Ring a bell for anyone?
Take Me To Church by Hozier?
posted by joeyjoejoejr at 9:17 PM on June 5, 2015
posted by joeyjoejoejr at 9:17 PM on June 5, 2015
Response by poster: I can barely hear the music and vocals on the verse part. I can only hear it well when it kicks into the swelling chorus part with the "sha sha sha" and fa fa fa thing and the cascading sweeping part (I mean, it really does sound like cascading water in a way, it's very pretty). It's, I don't know, ballady? I guess? I don't want to say emo but it's definitely emotional rather than poppy.
No, it's definitely not Take Me to Church or really much like that at all.
posted by emcat8 at 9:22 PM on June 5, 2015
No, it's definitely not Take Me to Church or really much like that at all.
posted by emcat8 at 9:22 PM on June 5, 2015
Ben Kweller - How It Should Be (Sha Sha)? (My partner thought of this right off the bat from your description.)
posted by teg at 10:14 PM on June 5, 2015
posted by teg at 10:14 PM on June 5, 2015
Response by poster: Not even close, but thanks! I don't think the lyrics are "sha sha"--it just sounds like a word that sounds as if it starts that way. And it's repeated at least three times, like, pretend the words are shine and fall, it's something like, "and we could shine shine shine SHIII-iiine / and we can fall fall fall FAAAAal." I wish I could describe it better. The hard part is that I can't freaking hear most of it.
posted by emcat8 at 10:41 PM on June 5, 2015
posted by emcat8 at 10:41 PM on June 5, 2015
As someone who can't sing for shit, I'm not making this suggestion lightly.
Are you able to sing it and upload it so we can hear the tune and the vague vocal hints? It might click with someone.
(We had a game show with a segment like that - a team member would sing a few bars of a song and their team-mates had to guess what song is was, but the lyrics would be taken from a book like How to Raise Chickens or a car manual for a 1972 Datsun. The tune was the key, and much more often than not, someone would guess correctly. RIP, Spicks'n'Specks with Adam Hills.)
posted by malibustacey9999 at 12:10 AM on June 6, 2015 [5 favorites]
Are you able to sing it and upload it so we can hear the tune and the vague vocal hints? It might click with someone.
(We had a game show with a segment like that - a team member would sing a few bars of a song and their team-mates had to guess what song is was, but the lyrics would be taken from a book like How to Raise Chickens or a car manual for a 1972 Datsun. The tune was the key, and much more often than not, someone would guess correctly. RIP, Spicks'n'Specks with Adam Hills.)
posted by malibustacey9999 at 12:10 AM on June 6, 2015 [5 favorites]
We Are Young by Fun.? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sv6dMFF_yts
posted by wrabbit at 6:31 AM on June 6, 2015
posted by wrabbit at 6:31 AM on June 6, 2015
Can you include the genre or suggest an artist or song that is similar?
posted by joeyjoejoejr at 8:01 AM on June 6, 2015
posted by joeyjoejoejr at 8:01 AM on June 6, 2015
Could it be "Soft Shock" by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs?
posted by mondegreengoddess at 1:06 PM on June 6, 2015
posted by mondegreengoddess at 1:06 PM on June 6, 2015
Your description made me think of Somewhere Only We Know by Keane, but I dunno... could be confirmation bias due to the waterfall in the background of the vid.
posted by protorp at 2:18 PM on June 6, 2015
posted by protorp at 2:18 PM on June 6, 2015
I was guessing Burn as well. It shares a lot of the qualities you're describing, even though many of the specific details you describe are jumbled or reversed.
We'll be raising our hands, shining up to the sky
'Cause we got the fire, fire, fire, yeah we got the fire fire fire
And we gonna let it burn burn burn burn
We gonna let it burn burn burn burn
posted by tychotesla at 8:07 PM on June 6, 2015
We'll be raising our hands, shining up to the sky
'Cause we got the fire, fire, fire, yeah we got the fire fire fire
And we gonna let it burn burn burn burn
We gonna let it burn burn burn burn
posted by tychotesla at 8:07 PM on June 6, 2015
Response by poster: malibustacey, I could try to sing it but I have no idea how to record it and where to put it up? I'm not a great singer, but I'm not the worst either...
I'm not on reddit and not likely to ever be there. I've tried to look through my stuff and find something similar but honestly, I just can't pull anything up in my memory (the closest I could come was Anberlin's Unwinding Cable Car but I think his voice is higher and it's probably just because that song's been on my mind lately). I'm sure if my computer with all my music was around and not in the shop, I could find some kind of similar vocal or song style. What I kept thinking about when I've heard it is that it sounds like the kind of emotional song they'd use in the wrap-up montage of a TV show.
I appreciate people taking the time to make suggestions, but as I said, it's a MALE vocalist, midrange voice (not high or nasal like fun.'s singer), the song is a relatively slow tempo and not poppy. I suppose in some ways Hozier is the closest in that Take Me to Church has quiet verses and then swells to a louder chorus, and a male vocalist. I don't know about synths, because I couldn't hear a lot of the song the three times I ran across it, but I can definitely pick out a (probably electronic) piano in the cascading music around the chorus.
Though I'm not sure about the words, they are not burn--the second set of lyrics really did sound like fall fall fall (or fa fa fall), but I can't find anything in googling those words that matches this. I have not run across it on radio stations or anything. I think I'm just destined to never know unless I happen across it again in a coffee shop and can find someone who knows...
Thanks, though!
posted by emcat8 at 8:46 PM on June 6, 2015
I'm not on reddit and not likely to ever be there. I've tried to look through my stuff and find something similar but honestly, I just can't pull anything up in my memory (the closest I could come was Anberlin's Unwinding Cable Car but I think his voice is higher and it's probably just because that song's been on my mind lately). I'm sure if my computer with all my music was around and not in the shop, I could find some kind of similar vocal or song style. What I kept thinking about when I've heard it is that it sounds like the kind of emotional song they'd use in the wrap-up montage of a TV show.
I appreciate people taking the time to make suggestions, but as I said, it's a MALE vocalist, midrange voice (not high or nasal like fun.'s singer), the song is a relatively slow tempo and not poppy. I suppose in some ways Hozier is the closest in that Take Me to Church has quiet verses and then swells to a louder chorus, and a male vocalist. I don't know about synths, because I couldn't hear a lot of the song the three times I ran across it, but I can definitely pick out a (probably electronic) piano in the cascading music around the chorus.
Though I'm not sure about the words, they are not burn--the second set of lyrics really did sound like fall fall fall (or fa fa fall), but I can't find anything in googling those words that matches this. I have not run across it on radio stations or anything. I think I'm just destined to never know unless I happen across it again in a coffee shop and can find someone who knows...
Thanks, though!
posted by emcat8 at 8:46 PM on June 6, 2015
OMG! I've been trying to find this too! I only heard it once, in an Ikea and I also heard it as "we could shine shine shine / and we can fall fall fall." Googling doesn't bring up any of the right songs. It's a long shot but I'm going to write to Ikea and see if they have a playlist of music for their Paramus store because this is driving me bonkers, if I get any good info from that I'll let you know.
posted by wheek wheek wheek at 3:54 AM on June 7, 2015
posted by wheek wheek wheek at 3:54 AM on June 7, 2015
Is it Afterlife by Ingrid Michaelson? There is a male voice in it as well, starting here.
posted by Lay Off The Books at 7:52 PM on June 7, 2015
posted by Lay Off The Books at 7:52 PM on June 7, 2015
Probably a stretch, but could it be Growing Old is Getting Old by the Silversun Pickups?
posted by not.so.hip at 12:39 PM on June 8, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by not.so.hip at 12:39 PM on June 8, 2015 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Just in case anyone is following this thread and wanted to know the song…I managed to record a snippet of the song on my phone one night when I heard it again much to my surprise, and even though I thought there was too much noise in the place, I asked Siri if it could recognize it--turns out it did. The song is called Sharks Ahead (after hearing it on the phone, I thought the words were shock shock shock, which, if you listen, it does kinda sound like that) by Melpo Mene. Apparently I'm not the only person who was smitten by it at Starbucks.
His voice is definitely more nasal than it sounded like when I'd heard it the first few times, but everything else is pretty much like it sounded. So now I can call this question answered.
posted by emcat8 at 11:06 PM on June 22, 2015
His voice is definitely more nasal than it sounded like when I'd heard it the first few times, but everything else is pretty much like it sounded. So now I can call this question answered.
posted by emcat8 at 11:06 PM on June 22, 2015
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Quilford at 9:15 PM on June 5, 2015