Music Diary, Vol. 26

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 July 1-7, 2024

LYRICS: Tsilala Brock, Nadia Dandashi (Shaina Taub), “If We Were Married”

SONG: I gravitate more toward the drama of the Mac’s Buckingham and Nicks songs, so I consistently underrate Christine McVie’s lighter pop stylings. Still I find them floating unbidden into my head, particularly this warm, diaphanous breeze of a tune.

ALBUM: Drop a needle on any second of this Beck/Dust Bros masterpiece and I’m immediately transported back to mid-90s Echo Park. Funky, baby.

LYRICS: Doc Watson, "Tom Dooley"

SONG: This odd, utterly endearing pop jangler by Finom passes the random earworm test—i.e., its insanely catchy 6-note (x3) chorus regularly pops into my head unbidden.

ALBUM: The time to rise has been engaged.

LYRICS: Ruth Etting (Ahlert/Turk), “Mean to Me”

SONG: Some classics are overrated but not this signature Carly Simon hit, which is perfect in every way but especially in its Chinese finger trap of a chorus, turning the tables on a gaslighter (or more than one) with the ultimate fake-out.

ALBUM: Apart from its invitation to a “fax orgy” (which was hilarious even when it came out in 1992), this deep dish Deee-Lite classic hasn’t aged a day. It’s also one of the only albums whose foldout CD packaging I remember fondly.

LYRICS: Johnny Cash (Roy Cash Jr.), "I Still Miss Someone"

SONG: Here’s the kind of thing I like: the intentionally odd note Jerry Herman places at the end of the second line of this deathless MAME ballad, an A natural in the key of A flat, and under the word—what else?—“wrong.” So right.

ALBUM: This wide-ranging British collection of Elvis Costello B-sides and assorted leftovers (released in similar form in the U.S. as TAKING LIBERTIES) was as formative for me as any of his canonical LPs.

LYRICS: Shaina Taub, "Where Are the Grown-Ups?"

SONG: I don't know if I should call it a guilty pleasure, but for whatever reason this posthumous Hendrix trifle, with its alternating precision and jammy looseness (plus a faint whiff of jealous menace) is a particular favorite.

ALBUM: I'd heard Spike Jones intermittently over the years but this 1994 compilation made a stunning introduction to both his wit and his formidable musicality (though the Nutcracker takeoff does wear out its welcome).

LYRICS: Victoria Williams, "Lights"

SONG: His new album GOD SAID NO is lovely throughout, but I'm especially taken with its soft-voiced, guitar-picking opening track, with its gentle but possibly doomed pleading to a lover.

ALBUM: The OBCR of this Kander & Ebb classic is a great listen for many reasons, but I especially cherish it for preserving "Telephone Song," "Meeskite," and "Why Should I Wake Up," 3 delightful numbers that are seldom (never?) included in revivals.

LYRICS: Haim, "Hallelujah"

SONG: Somehow the hard-bitten, minor-key blues sound of this Mindy Smith gem makes its literal come-to-Jesus message go down like a stiff, warming drink rather than as a soothing gloss.

ALBUM: The exclamation point in the title tells you this Loretta Lynn gospel record is every bit as ornery and unbiddable as “Fist City” or “The Pill.” Some of the theology feels like kitsch to me, but not shtick—her sincerity is never in question.