Music Diary, Vol. -13

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

Week of Oct. 9-15, 2023

Lyrics: Buffy Sainte-Marie, "My Country 'Tis of Thy People You're Dying"

Song: How many great poets are also musicians worth listening to? It’s a small list, and Joy Harjo, who has set many of her signature poems to music, is on it. This percolating track has strong Laurie Anderson vibes and a disarmingly lovely chorus.

Album: Spending this holiday listening to Redbone's Native American '70s rock classic, and not just because it's got that catchy GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY tune.

Lyrics: Lake Street Dive (featuring Madison Cunningham), "Neighbor Song" 

Song: The longer version of The Ting Tings’ punchy 2008 pop anthem is the real version, accept no substitutes; it gives full value not only to Katie White’s defiant lead vocal but to Jules de Martino’s incantatory outro.

Album: On trying to like (or even just understand) Fleetwood Mac's weirdest record.

Lyrics: Ike & Tina Turner, "River Deep - Mountain High"

Song: The odd title of this Horsegirl song was enough to pique my interest. The jagged, tangled guitar assault and dreamy vocals held and compounded that interest.

Album: The album cover intrigued me, "Rhapsody" and "An American in Paris" diverted me, but it was the towering "Concerto in F" that I grew to love most over time. 

Lyrics: Steve Lacy, "Hate CD"

Song: If you’ve never listened closely to Colin Greenwood’s “Airbag” bass line, it’s very much worth it. For a song with such a vertical, towering sound, it’s fascinating to notice that the foundation of the thing is so skittering, even capricious.

Album: Obsessed with Alvvays’s first record, which has most of the things I like in my power pop: jangly guitars, singalong tunes, bouncy beats, a hint of melancholy. I also love the live, roomy sound of the recording.

Lyrics: Joni Mitchell, "Like Veils Said Lorraine"

Song: Behold Burt Bacharach’s first pop hit (he’d had a country chart topper earlier in the same year, 1958), a gimmicky novelty theme song for a sci-fi film which he keeps interesting by modulating the whole thing up a half step a few times.

Album: If Beach House made early-Angel-Olsen-style pop punk, it might sound a bit like this stellar, often hilarious Caroline Rose record from 2018, on which every track slaps.

Lyrics: Warren Zevon, "Lawyers, Guns and Money"

Song: I used to play this 1932 weeper for my mom when she was alive because she said her dad, who died before I was born, used to play it on the banjo. Apart from that family connection, my fave thing about the tune is the illustrative chord on “slanty.”

Album: Not going to play favorites but I do think this 1974 Linda Ronstadt collection stands out for sheer grit, beauty, and song-for-song quality. Hard to top this one.

Lyrics: Maren Morris, "My Church"

Song: Ravel wrote no religious music except his “Deux mélodies hébraïques,” a commission from the Russian soprano Alvina Alvi. While there are many essential vocal renditions of “Kaddisch,” somehow the cello sings it best.

Album: It was Nashville bassist Viktor Krauss who alerted me to this great new release from Buddy & Julie Miller (Krauss plays on about half of it). Downhome yet eclectic, abjectly spiritual yet incorrigibly doubtful, it’s my kind of record.