Music Diary, Vol. -23

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 July 31-Aug 6, 2023

Lyrics: Bessie Smith, "He's Got Me Goin'"

Song: It's only a few years old but this sad-sack banger from Bachelor is already classic rock to me. By the time the slide-adorned I-VI progression kicks in around :52, I'm in AOR heaven.

Album: A staggering record, its soaring ambitions matched only by its inspired execution.

Lyrics: David Bowie, "Rock 'n' Roll Suicide"

Song: My first job in L.A. was running errands for the motion control company that did the animation segments for “Peewee’s Playhouse.” Mark Mothersbaugh’s indelible opening theme takes me back fondly to the summer of 1989.

Album: Maybe because it was made in loops and layers, this great Tune-Yards record feels like an endlessly recursive Möbius strip that reveals new levels on every relisten.

Lyrics: Gilbert & Sullivan, "Nightmare Song"

Song: On the quietly arresting closer of Madi Diaz's 2021 album HISTORY OF A FEELING, it's the extra two-note swell on the phrase "freak you ou-ou-out" (around 1:05) that gets me every time. It says, essentially: If you can't handle me at my worst...

Album: I love records where a musician is trying out a form or genre that's new to them, where you can hear their joy of discovery and practically taste their curiosity. Stewart Copeland's quirky, clattery first film score is one such record.

Lyrics: Suzanne Vega, "Small Blue Thing"

Song: I’ve got a soft spot for Yes’s neither-fish-nor-fowl album TORMATO, the last with (most of) their classic lineup, and this restless pop-rock banger is Exhibit A for the record’s underrated charms.

Album: The Specials’ swan song, released after they’d disbanded, was this beautifully disorienting suite of alternately sunny and cloudy Big Band pop. Not a concept album, admittedly, but it somehow feels of a piece.

Lyrics: R.E.M., "Cuyahoga"

Song: I don’t agree with the choice but I can sort of understand why Hitchcock didn’t use Bernard Herrmann’s TORN CURTAIN score. This hair-raising opening, heavy on flutes and horns, sounds more like one of Herrmann’s otherworldly fantasy film scores.

Album: Apart from Bowie's LOW, I can think of few records that have more different yet complementary Sides A and B than this John Adams diptych: one side a nervy, furious chase, the other a time-stopping elegy.

Lyrics: Rob Kendt, "Don't Tell Me"

Song: One thing I love about Raymond Scott's early work is that for all its quirks it really *cooks*. This track, for instance, is both great program music (it evokes its title bird) and a smoking chart that could slip into a jazz set without a fuss.

Album: This classic is 31 years young and still sounds great.

Lyrics: Joni Mitchell, "Banquet"

Song: With all respect to the Jane Siberry original (with sweet harmony support from k.d. lang), this gorgeous Tutti Arts rendition of her searching spiritual is the definitive version for me; it could have the tagline, “Don’t bother, they’re here.”

Album: I love the way the uncanny perfection of TAKE 6’s over-achieving full-group harmonies is set in satisfying counterpoint with their rangy, gritty solo turns. Their 1988 debut still slaps.