Music Diary, Vol. 9

For the rationale behind this mad effort, the initial post is here. The full series of Music Diary posts are here. The full playlist is above, and also here.

Week of Mar. 4-10, 2024

LYRICS: Alyse Alan Louis (Tesori/Hwang), "Democracy"

SONG: While I wait for Waxahatchee’s new record to come out (on Friday), I’m relishing her second advance single, which lands more on the rock than the roots side, and leans gratifyingly hard into her trademark searing vocal harmony.

ALBUM: Faye Webster’s exquisitely unbothered music reminds me of Anthony Lane’s line about Jennifer Jason Leigh’s “do-I-have-to-get-up” performances. He meant it as a diss, though, whereas I think Faye’s music rocks, her lovely new record included.

LYRICS: Rob Kendt, "Take Me Away"

SONG: Sometimes it’s not the chords or melody but the very shape of the melody that compels. That’s definitely the case with this indescribably poignant Eleni Mandell ballad, with its delicate chromatic melody dancing sadly around her measured strums.

ALBUM: It has only one truly great song on it, so how and why is Bowie’s famously dichromatic record from 1977 still one of his best? It’s almost like music can convey mood, subtext, and feeling in ways that defy or short-circuit logic.

LYRICS: case/lang/viers, "Best Kept Secret"

SONG: Yet another juicy deep cut from the well of songs Randy Newman knocked out in his tunesmith-for-hire years, this brilliant Irma Thomas track sounds like an alternate-universe oldies hit, like it's just one film placement away from being iconic.

ALBUM: Nico was an extra terrestrial, I'm 100 percent convinced. Exhibit A: This stunning 1970 record, which sounds like liturgical music from outer space. If you're not in a trance by the end of it, you must be an alien yourself.

LYRICS: Kim Gordon, "Bye Bye"

SONG: This Sting song, which he wrote for THE LAST SHIP musical, is one of his simplest and best. The minor 9th he hits on “winds” is the actual sound of yearning; ditto the appoggiatura on the final cadence (“watch the boats”). Just perfection.

ALBUM: This 1967 classic by the Four Tops is in vigorous dialogue with the rock of the era, and not just in covers of The Monkees or The Left Banke. Levi Stubbs's vocals throughout sound like a call-and-response with Dylan (among others).

LYRICS: Ali Stroker (Rodgers & Hammerstein), "I Cain't Say No"

SONG: I love the line in Jimi Hendrix's "Third Stone From the Sun" where the alien threatens, "You'll never hear surf music again." But what if aliens played surf rock themselves? It would probably sound a bit like this kicking Man Or Astroman? track.

ALBUM: In many ways his second album was even better (and he's made much great music since), but few records have had as much personal impact on me as Rufus Wainwright's preternaturally assured 1998 debut, which I can never stop playing once I start.

LYRICS: Jerry Reed, "Amos Moses"

SONG: With its surging “Creep” progression, a lyric telling off an older man who idealized her, and a climactic f-bomb, Laufey’s gorgeous new single could be mashed up with Olivia Rodrigo’s “Vampire” with just a change of the time signature.

ALBUM: The recording sound is often harsh and dry on this iconic Heifetz/Piatagorsky/Primrose/Baker/Rejto rendition of quintets by Schubert and Brahms, but somehow that rawness burrows into the guts (catguts?) of the music all the more.

LYRICS: Caroline Polachek, "Meanwhile"

SONG: A hymn to nature based loosely on a Scottish folk tune, this Dylan deep cut has been a recurring favorite at Greenpoint Reformed Church for many years now.

ALBUM: I love the 1980s-vintage pop/R&B sounds on these classic Clark Sisters records as much as I relish their gospel uplift. These are songs about eternity, anchored in a sonic micro-era.