Music Diary, Vol. -26

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 10-16, 2023

LYRICS: Velvet Underground, "Heroin"

SONG: This catchy multi-metrical romp was my introduction to the giddy, carnivalesque art rock of the Philly band Man Man, who often sound to me like Captain Beefheart trying to go straight and gloriously failing.

ALBUM: I’ve never seen the Resnais film he wrote it for, so I can’t say exactly why I feel that this exquisite film score by Stephen Sondheim gives a unique insight into his soul. I know at least it makes me wish he’d written more instrumental music.

LYRICS: Rudy Vallee, "Let's Put Out the Lights and Go to Sleep"

SONG: This is arguably the saddest song Randy Newman wrote but never recorded. An eerie ode to mistrust, it has been rendered well by Dusty Springfield and Elvis Costello, but I must give pride of place to its 1965 debut recording, by Cilla Black.

ALBUM: I love every track on Finom’s 2018 debut LP. The band’s core strengths start with 2 entwined vocals and 2 interlaced electric guitars, and ripple out into alternately strange, droll, and lovely chamber art rock shapes. (Plus: hocketing!)

LYRICS: Randy Newman, "Ghosts"

SONG: Totally uncharacteristic of The Pogues yet lively and essential in its own right, this pop-soul shuffle, with zydeco-inspired accordion courtesy of James Fearnley, deserved to be at least as big as U2’s similarly atypical “Sweetest Thing.”

ALBUM: Of course I bought this LP for its hilarious cover, but in the years since I’ve found myself returning happily to its kitschy Latin Big Band takes on a score I love. Fave cuts here include “Easy To Be Hard” and “Donna.”

LYRICS: Dinah Shore (Van Heusen/Burke), "Like Someone in Love"

SONG: A peek into my early adolescence, when I collected TV show themes I loved directly off the screen with a tape recorder, and this tender Wilfred Josephs theme for a memorable 1980 Austen series was a particular favorite.

ALBUM: Spent the last few days revisiting this rich collection of Sonoran classics by a proud daughter of my home state. It sounded timeless in 1987 but somehow has only improved with age.

LYRICS: Prince, "If I Was Your Girlfriend"

SONG: This was already my favorite Motown track even before I learned, fairly recently (and thanks to the History of Rock Music in 500 Songs podcast), that Lamont Dozier’s verses were inspired by Dylan’s phrasing (“you can’t go ON”). That and the minor-key flute intro—I’m all in.

ALBUM: Though I can’t decide which Ravel I like best (piano man, orchestrator, vocal composer), there’s very little music in the world I’m more attracted to than his chamber works. This collection has the essentials, executed sharply and with feeling.

LYRICS: Steve Earle, "Ellis Unit One"

SONG: I don’t remember much about the DICK TRACY movie but I’ve always loved this pitch-perfect 1930s pastiche by Ned Claflin and Andy Paley, performed with unruffled gusto by the great kd lang and Take 6.

ALBUM: Pretty sure I first heard the great Balkan band Romashka at Golden Fest, then later saw them tear up a set at Drom. This 2005 record captures most of the joy and all of the beauty of witnessing them live.

LYRICS: Kelvin Moon Loh (David Byrne), "God Draws Straight"

SONG: This yearning, jangly guitar pop banger, from her last album under the name Leslie Phillips, sounds in retrospect like the full Sam Phillips sound bursting the chrysalis and delicately but firmly soaring.

ALBUM: What I cherish most about this brilliant, anguished quasi-oratorio by Britten is its wide, breathtaking dynamic range, from whispery, diaphanous quiet to juddering violence—a perfect marriage with the stark beauty of the text it supports.