You know music is going to mean something to you when you hear less than 30 seconds of one song and fall in love. It usually isn't because you can make sense of the lyrics or even the melody, but something about the sound just grabs you and pulls you in, and you know you have to have more.

Music like that makes meaning out of words that wouldn't be there were they words alone. The voice, the music... that's what does the talking.

Colbie Caillat is, to me, a little bit Norah Jones, a little bit Michael Buble, with some John Mayer thrown in for good measure. She's laid back, simple and sweet, and everything about the music sounds effortless. The mostly acoustic instrumentation allows the purity of her voice to shine through. The words are put together so conversationally, and yet she manages to express things I didn't even know I was feeling until I heard her sing them. By the time you've made it from track one, Oxygen, a song about finding that person that makes the world better and trying to tell him how you feel, to the last track, Older, a song about getting what you always wanted and realizing you might not want it anymore (and a bonus track... you can't buy Older as a single. And that song alone is worth buying the entire album for), you come away with the sense that even though you may not be able to pronounce her last name (I still haven't figured it out), you know Colbie inside and out.

Every song on her debut album, Coco, was written or cowritten by her. Many were cowritten by Jason Reeves, another name I'd never heard but I'm sure I'll be hearing more of. They are songs about relationships, love, and life. And what more can you ask for from your music?

http://www.colbiecaillatmusic.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PWfB4lurT4
http://www.myspace.com/jasonreeves