New Year’s Reso-tune-tion #1 — Lively Up Myself

Happy New Year, fellow 2012 dwellers! There’s a brand spakin’ new calendar year staring at us like a blank slate — who wants to make a few resolutions? What’s that you say? There’s no point because the Mayans predicted the world would end in 2012? Well, they did, but don’t be ridiculous! That’s not supposed to happen until December 21, so we have a solid 353 days to make good on a few promises to ourselves. Since I’m definitely not making good on any resolutions related to food (Mrs. You Hear That made too much icing for her New Year’s Eve chocolate cake, so naturally we’ve been dolloping the extra icing on each piece we eat), I thought I’d stick to the music-related ones. First up — keep it upbeat. Ahem, let me try that again… KEEP IT UPBEAT!!! Much better! As I was finishing up Part 2 of my top 10 albums post, I took a step back and thought, “Holy shit! What a downer!” So many of the songs that I loved most in 2011 were downbeat or moody or slow, even when the lyrics were conveying an upper of a message. That’s why in the coming year, I resolve to balance my intake of bitter-sweetness with a little more sugary goodness, tooth decay be damned. To get things moving in the right direction, I thought I’d share a song my friend Tex shared with me a few years back that never fails to bring on a feeling of mindless joy, not to mention an urgent desire to dance — the BPA’s “Toe Jam.” The BPA (stands for Brighton Port Authority) was/is a Fatboy Slim-spearheaded project that released a super-fun album in 2009 called We’re Gonna Need A Bigger Boat. “Toe Jam” includes one the album’s highest-profile collaborators — David Byrne — and screams upbeat optimism in every way. I mean, how can you go wrong with lyrics like “Every day is fucking perfect”? Amiright? Check it out below, click here to buy the album from whence it came, and check back for a few more reso-tune-tions.

The BPA — “Toe Jam (feat. David Byrne and Dizzee Rascal)“