MUSIC THE FACE-OFF GAVIN DEGRAW v. MATT NATHANSON

Welcome to the arena of battle, where two songwriters enter with acoustic guitars, but only one may leave victorious. At least, that’s the idea behind the songwriter battle in which we’ve placed Gavin DeGraw and Matt Nathanson, the two solo singer/guitarists that co-headline a show at Stir Cove this week. We took each artist’s top 10 hit from Billboard’s adult contemporary songs chart, and we’ve identified the best and worst bits from each in order to name a winner. BY KEVIN COFFEY MATT NATHANSON AND GAVIN DEGRAW When: 6:30 p.m. Saturday Where: outside Harrah’sStir Concert Casino Co ve in Council Bluffs Ticke Info: ts: $38 stircove 712-329-6499.com or ED PRESS AT THE ASSOCI

“Not Over You” “Come On Get Higher” Sample lyrics: If you ask me how I’m doing/I would say I’m doing just fi ne Sample lyrics: So come on, get higher, loosen my lips/Faith and desire and the swing of The best: A bombastic piano melody and a really catchy chorus made this a radio hit, and your hips DeGraw’s lyric of “sit down at a table set for two/And fi nally I’m forced to face the truth” is The Best: Nathanson’s lyrics are full of images about getting lost (and becoming a solid piece of imagery that we wish we wrote. comfortable) in someone’s arms. Plus his sing-song chorus is so perfect that we get The worst: Its message of “I’m putting on a happy face even though I’m not over you quite unreasonably happy over the fact that he sings it six times in the song. yet” is one that’s been done. We can think of dozens. The Worst: When Nathanson does a breakdown and sings, “Sing sha la la la la,” we’re not sure exactly what’s he’s trying to do. It’s like he laid that vocal down with the intention to replace it later and then (somehow) couldn’t think of anything better. But let’s be honest, Matt, anything at all would be better than that.

The Verdict: Both tunes are the kind of breathless and quite cheesy love songs that people listen to after break-ups, and they’re both perfect for a summer afternoon. That said, Nathanson takes home the trophy with his catchy chord progression and even catchier “swing of your hips” chorus. Will we ever get it out of our heads?

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