Music Diary, Vol. -24

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 24-30, 2023

Lyrics: Patti LuPone (Blitzstein), "The Nickel Under Your Foot"

Song: Among its many virtues, I'd say the secret weapon of this unaccountably infectious Kruangbin/Leon Bridges cut is the sunny G7 chord that first pops up at :12. Tell me your ear isn't just waiting for that fix every time it comes around.

Album: Another record I can't find on streaming is this slender, beguiling 1985 João Gilberto compilation, which I used to own on cassette. Reconstructed as a playlist, it packs 14 perfect songs into under 30 minutes. Ótimo!

Lyrics: Buck Owens, "Act Naturally"

Song: Bennett, Brubeck, Styne, Sondheim—who could ask for anything more.

Album: I love every tune on this wide-ranging Gaby Moreno record, not just the ones with Marc Ribot, Jim Keltner, David Garza, or Chris Thile. A ravishing feast of songcraft and sound.

Lyrics: Parker Milsap, "I Hope I Die"

Song: The first Rush song I liked wasn’t “Tom Sawyer” but this prickly, poppy, slightly preachy jam. Hearing it again recently I had a heretical thought: With its angular guitar and nods to reggae, it sounds as much like New Wave as it does prog rock.

Album: It may sound dismissive or reductive to say that this great Faye Webster record from 2019 is a mood, but in this case I mean it as high praise. The ubiquitous pedal steel guitar is like a siren’s song luring us into a warm bath.

Lyrics: Sinead O'Connor, "The Emperor's New Clothes"

Song: This early bop had her signature howling abandon and unbiddable intensity, but as Sinéad once said it’s “simply about shagging.” Along with “Mandinka” it’s one I always turn up when it comes on.

Album: Sinéad’s first 3 records meant the world to me but it was her fourth—a mostly ruminative, tender reclamation of faith in the image of the Divine Feminine—that truly moved me, and still does.

Lyrics: The Who, "Blue Red and Grey"

Song: Love this lightly bouncy, slightly trippy, sneakily evanescent Solange cut, and not just for the minute of exquisite harmonized hocketing that opens it.

Album: This 1988 classic from Milton Nascimento opens with a gorgeous free-tempo ode to River Phoenix and ends with a springy tribute to childhood innocence. In between: Herbie Hancock, Nana Vasconcellos, folk, jazz, spirit, and saudade.

Lyrics: corook, "if i were a fish"

Song: One of my favorite Elvis Costello deep cuts is this odd, beguiling, entirely self-recorded tune about two performers’ thwarted ambitions. It’s crafty and semi-sweet, with a spidery marimba-and-guitar break that’s both wry and unsettling.

Album: A record as lovely as it is batty, this 1960 Eden Ahbez collection is saved from utter cheesiness by its po-faced sincerity and, it may seem strange to say, a sense of sonic proportion and taste. You’re free to laugh but it’s not a put-on.

Lyrics: Sinead O'Connor, "All Babies"

Song: The theology of this Kid Prince Moore classic is a bit stark for me, but Marianne Faithfull’s sweet, unadorned rendition makes it go down easy.

Album: The same year he produced Elvis Costello’s KING OF AMERICA, T-Bone Burnett made this perfect collection of high lonesome quasi-spirituals, live to tape. Even given the producing/curating career that was to come, this is the best thing he’s done.