Music Diary, Vol. 16

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 April 23-28, 2024

LYRICS: Barbara Cook (Bernstein/Wilbur), "Glitter and Be Gay"

SONG: Elvis Costello’s record with the Swedish mezzo Anne Sofie von Otter is a mixed bag, but one of its high points is this unlikely but perfect Tom Waits/Paul McCartney mashup of two waltzes that use detritus as a metaphor for loss/letting go.

ALBUM: Simon & Garfunkel’s 1964 debut flopped at the time, but when I discovered it, about 20 years later, it was a treasure trove, a Rosetta Stone, not least because it panned the vocals (Art left, Paul right) for easy learning of their harmonies.

LYRICS: Taylor Swift, "But Daddy I Love Him"

SONG: I would nominate this Rihanna/Tame Impala tune for the Heart-Lifting Bridge Hall of Fame (kicks in at 3:04 in both versions). Bonus for the way its major-key good vibes simply evaporate into mist and the forbidding C-minor vamp sneaks back in.

ALBUM: I’d say the secret to Bonnie Raitt’s greatness, and one reason she’s too often taken for granted, is her effortless intimacy. From the start, on her 1971 debut record, she sounds like she’s singing directly to you—lucky you.

LYRICS: Nicki Bluhm and the Gramblers, "Little Too Late"

SONG: A track that Gen Xers and their kids can agree to love, or at least listen to together: Lorde’s hilariously dirge-like Replacements cover, which turns a wistful ode to misfitness into a brooding midnight drama.

ALBUM: This capacious Schubert chamber piece ranges wider and goes deeper than many a symphony. I grew up on the Heifetz/Piatigorsky version but this one, with the Emerson Quartet and Rostropovich, is unsurprisingly excellent as well.

LYRICS: Emily Skeggs (Tesori/Kron), “Changing My Major”

SONG: This 1973 Art Garfunkel single of a soaring Jimmy Webb ballad is almost too much of a good thing: feathery falsetto giving way to hearty belt, piano filigree, string embellishments, but I gulp down the syrup every time.

ALBUM: She’s hit musical heights since then but song for song, nothing tops Sharon Van Etten’s short, sweet coffeehouse country record from 2010, on which she sounds like she has earned every heartbroken word and note.

LYRICS: Lizzy McAlpine, "firearm"

SONG: “Is here no telephone.” Less famous than its counterpart from Brecht/Weill’s MAHAGONNY (the one about the moon of Alabama), this slow-burn lament with doggerel English lyrics by Elisabeth Hauptmann is absurd, affecting, and arresting by turns.

ALBUM: It didn’t occur to me at the time, but listening back to this killer live album from 1987, I thought: X is like a rootsy California version of The Pixies: punk attitude, precision aim, surf guitar, harmony vocals. Comparison aside: what a band.

LYRICS: Jane Krakowski (Paul), "Bells and Whistles"

SONG: TIL that Jule Styne wrote the Latin-inflected music for this 1947 novelty classic that Dr. Demento used to play ironically but I choose to hear now as whole-hearted nostalgia for Los Angeles (albeit mostly for the Westside).

ALBUM: Not sure how well Bartók, Ives, and Stravinsky would have gotten along IRL, but in the sure hands of this crack trio (Richards Stoltzman and Goode, Lucy Chapman Stoltzman) they sound like natural chamber concert companions.

LYRICS: Voces8 (Sibelius/Stone), "This Is My Song"

SONG: Stranded at the end of one of his lesser records, this eccentric calliope waltz by Elvis Costello is one of his greatest musical achievements, and lyrically it’s his most straightforward expression of not-quite-faith—I’d say he doubts his doubt.

ALBUM: Nat King Cole was clearly playing against type with this mostly perfunctory gospel record from 1959. But a few tracks—especially a quietly intense “Go Down, Moses”—make the most of the contrast between his smoky baritone and the amped-up choir.