"Don't Dream It's Over" performed by The Head and The Heart, originally by Crowded House

This one popped up on my Release Radar playlist on Spotify.

This song is funny with me...I like the spirit and message of it, and I'm a fan of longer, ambitious choruses that still make sense and fit, which this song has. But for some reason, up until last year, I'd always just kind of filed this song away as this kind of jazzy, arty, stuffy song that didn't do much for me.

Then Neil Finn from Crowded House was a guest on the Nerdist podcast at the end of last year, and there was a live performance included in the episode, which got me into the song a little more.

I found a version from Sixpence None The Richer not too long after that that I kind of liked more than the original version. This new version by The Head and The Heart is probably the best version I've heard so far. I think I'd really like to hear a version that messes with the chords a little and gets rid of that lounge-y feel...something a little more punk.

Lyrically, the biggest standout detail, which Finn highlighted himself in the live performance heard on that Nerdist podcast episode: "When the world comes in \ They come, they come \ To build a wall between us \ We know they won't win" turns out to be a pretty relevant piece of writing all this time later in the year 2017, for better or worse.