“Floridays” part two: shifting towards better days

Well, who is excited for Floridays part two? I know I am, since I get to discuss the best songs of the album here! So, without any further delay…

A very energetic song off this album is If it All Falls Down. I really like this song, from its autobiographical lyrics about Buffett’s music career, to its instrumentals. Buffett describes his job as a musician as the “perfect
crime,” due in part to how crime pays much more than it used to. However, regardless of if this crime “all falls down”, he’ll find a way out since he’d learned his “trade from the inside out” and will still be able to “strum real hard” and “play real loud.” No matter what comes his way now, Buffett has figured it out and will be able to play his “calypso beat down island sound” and make them “dance ‘til they all fall down.” Besides the lyrics, I really enjoy the instrumental of the songs, and how they build over the song from soft steel drums at the beginning through the more energetic chorus, yet they calm down during the verses. After slowing for the bridge, the song kicks the instrumentals back into high gear for a powerful ending heralded by a league of horns and those same steel drums.

The horns of “If it All Falls Down” roar into the beginning of “No Plane on Sunday”, making a first of Buffett to have two songs that seamlessly lead into one another; and may I say, I love this transition so much. Contrasting with those commanding horns we have a much calmer atmosphere for this song about two strangers trying to make the most of waiting for their broken plane to be fixed. I don’t have all too much to say about this song besides I enjoy the story and the steel drums, but it is another great song from Buffett, and it serves as a cooldown from the highs of the previous song.

The title track truly reflects the feelings I have towards this album as a whole, and how this song really brings
Buffett back into a more tropical atmosphere that his past few country albums didn’t entirely encapsulate, and there’s no better place to do that than going to the roots that is Florida. “Floridays” is arguably the best song
off the album, and it is truly one of my favorites of his. Now, the term “Floridays” comes from the title of a book by the poet Don Blanding, and Buffett seems to use the term to illustrate the song’s overarching message of longing for better days, particularly in Florida. Buffett speaks of looking for something more, “taking time to escape the maze” in this search. Through this search we see references to people in Florida finding something better in watching a spaceship launch at the Kennedy Space Center, or my personal favorite, by “pale invaders and tan crusader” worshipping the sun somewhere on US 1. The song comes to a point in the outro when we hear the backing vocals sing harmoniously the words “better days” repetitively, while Buffett sings. To me, this song represents Buffett returning to the sound and music that put him on the map; he is doing what he does best, telling stories. It makes me feel happy to listen to this song since it feels very serene, and the vocals and instrumentals all play a part in this, with the ending of the song just feeling momentous.

As I have said, this album represents a turn towards a more tropical Buffett, and I am all for this. The tropical beach sphere is where his best music comes from, and it really shows in this album. To quote Ryan White’s book “A Good Life All The Way”, the songs on the album were, “lived in and comfortable.” I guess you could say that the Floridays albums represented a shift to better days. All puns aside, the album performed like any other album from this era, in the sense that it performed just fine on the charts, and the radio didn’t pay it no mind, however there were tours to go on and things were looking up. I am happy to keep going through the discography with you guys, however, I must warn you to bring an umbrella because where we are going is cloudy with a chance of Hot Water.