Hello and welcome to an out of the norm blog. Hitlist style! Yep, my Secret Santa was Chilton and for an instant, in a stout moment of a panic not knowing what to do . . . found something I could achieve for him as a gift. Now in his saying, “he loves to hate songs†. . . nope, couldn’t do that.
So in this Hitlist, is about a song that was okay and not all that bad. With that said, this mini review is about River by Robert Downey Jr. and not the one from Joni Mitchell, out of the two, I like his a little bit more. And for anyone who didn’t know, yeah he can sing. Alleged as a Bruce Springsteen and Sting toss in a blender, as some people like to tranquilly call it . . . with that, let’s get this going.
The Review:
This little Christmas melody is good. Sad, but good; how the piano starts in, followed by a subtlety soft bass of a violin doing higher notes and cello doing the lower tones, mostly to fill in space the piano couldn’t do in the require harmony. They all work very well together in really giving the emotion of sadness of mistakes that, from how the song goes, before it and it is telling the story of the aftermath of it.
The full story of this song is starting when everyone is getting into the spirit of Christmas, setting the tone of it all as jolly and cheerful. Much as other song does when setting up for what the merry season will bring;
It’s coming on Christmas
they’re cutting down trees
they’re putting up reindeer
and singing songs of joy and peace
As it plays on, RDJ sings anew verb to it, changing the tone quickly, he does give all the feeling into short words, that are very believable and heartfelt, as he’s sorry for what he is and done. Wanting as the most of the title implies take his problems to the river;
Then I’m going to quit this crazy scene
Oh I wish I had a river
I could skate away on
The reasons of why, doesn’t come near, until the near-end bridge of the song;
I’m so hard to handle
I’m selfish and I’m sad
Now I’ve gone and lost the best baby
That I ever had
 It’s around there in the song; it slows down, letting the main reflect everything, picking up later on, with a duet voice coming to sing along. It would be one the few small glares this song has. The duet female voice isn’t bad, but it happens so quickly and gone just like that, the suddenness of it roughs the flow a bit, but sadly the chance of knowing it plays, is hard to tell where the bit of duet comes from, even the short time it was on the show:  Ally Mcbeal, episode Tis the Season, only played the start of the song, so I am at a lost there to the duet minor role.
Which, stating now, never saw the show, but for what the video holds, it is rather touching. Short as it is but is not an AMV. So I am taking that into account. And does a good task enough, into giving a hint of what this song could be, before hearing as a whole. It’s just a really good hook and the following of it, really does add up more to it.
Compare and Contrast:
       Â
Joni’s Song vs. Robert’s Song
Just going to point the sliver, rainbow dotted flying turtle in the room, before anyone says something out of context.
River is a good song; even the changes that were made for each singer, Robert and Joni do a fair enough job of making the song their own. The stories are nowhere close in the emotion grip, the settles of what brought them to where they are, is similar, but not mirrored.
The most minor different people will likely be able to hear right away, is the object source of it all. Yeah, stretching a bit there, but it’s all fair really. Robert’s views of love: Joni’s sights of life. One views the song a smaller scale as the other on a larger one.
The melody at the start of each it, is vastly different, opening verses are, yes, the same, but the bridge for both become their own after that. Again, it is just a tender song to listen, when maybe the holiday seasons might be on the dejected side of things.
Final Thoughts:
I, even for how much I like it, wouldn’t even dare, make others to choose Robert’s out the two, for people may lean on Joni’s style a bit more. In short of this, again, I find this song enjoyable enough to give it an okay view of it. If I happen to hear it somewhere, I’m not going out of my way to get away from it, but playing too many times, for whatever which one might be your taste, will lose all meaning of it and likely be just white noise . . . no one wants that.
Robert’s song gets a 4 out 5 stars.
Joni’s song gets 3 out of 5 stars.
With that said, happy holidays Chilton and everyone else, many thanks to Jarvisrama99 for the title card, dude you rock. Everything in use belongs to their rightful owners. And to that, see you all next time!
