Music Diary, Vol. 28

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 15-21, 2024

LYRIC: Roger Miller, "Dang Me"

SONG: It’s not the game changer that their 1960 hit “Shakin’ All Over” was, but this 1961 follow-up single by British rockers Johnny Kidd & The Pirates is just as good or better: same surf rock guitar and rockabilly vibe, stronger tune.

ALBUM: John Cage’s famous non-composition gets top billing on this great Amadinda Percussion Group record, but its real attractions are a series of lively, sensorially riveting pieces by Carlos Chávez, Edgar Varèse, Lou Harrison, and Cage.

LYRIC: The Replacements, "Androgynous"

SONG: In addition to being a first-rate song interpreter, Harry Connick Jr. is a deft songwriter-arranger. This sly, sleek tune from 1990, with its insinuating brass and restless walking bass, richly deserves replaying.

ALBUM: On this astonishing 2005 record, I find Lila Downs’s maximalist take on Latin American folk styles—in which she gives a rock-like urgency to assorted corridos, cumbias, and norteña—utterly intoxicating. In this case, more is more.

LYRIC: Bob Dylan & The Band, "This Wheel's on Fire"

SONG: I don't experience music synesthetically, but I swear this haunting Bowerbirds tune has a color and a taste—burnt umber soil, say, with traces of iron dust. The cello morphing into banshee voices tells us: The darkness is not tucked in.

ALBUM: Took me a few tries but I finally get the Maggie Rogers phenomenon. So much of good pop music is about a balance of passion and craft, and on her initial LP she got the balance just right. This is music you can both sing and feel along to.

LYRIC: The Flirtations (Kahlil Gibran), "On Children"

SONG: It’s not her only register, but I’m a sucker for Sasami’s full Aimee Mann mode, which isn’t just a matter of tone and vocal timbre; the chord progression on this downbeat charmer, esp. the recurring II7, also feels very Mann-like.

ALBUM: It has none of their signature chart toppers, but Sly & the Family Stone’s 1967 debut LP is a stunner, with their playful, sneakily deep funk-pop sound fully formed and flying its freak flag loud and proud.

LYRIC: Paul Simon, "The Boy in the Bubble"

SONG: Banging the drum again for the criminally underrated Amy Correia. Consider this triple-meter track, in which the emphatic orchestration elevates but never distracts from the bemused, jazzy tune at its core. This is master class stuff.

ALBUM: This saturnine classic was not my introduction to Serge Gainsbourg—my first love was his jazzy 1960s chanson period, in which he actually sang notes—but I can definitely groove with its odd, cinematic blend of poetry and symphonic funk.

LYRIC: Lizzy McAlpine, "Ceilings"

SONG: Years ago my band Millhouse played a cover of Michael Jackson’s biggest hit. It was nowhere near as good as this lovely The Civil Wars rendition (or Chris Cornell’s, for that matter), but all make the case for the song as a great near-blues.

ALBUM: Just on a craft level, The Beach Boys’ 1966 breakthrough record is obviously a pop art masterwork, but it’s the queasy ambivalence of the sound—sunny but hazy, major keys smudged with sevenths and pedal tones—that keeps me coming back.

LYRIC: Sam Phillips, "Reflecting Light"

SONG: Going to open the service at Greenpoint Reformed Church this morning with this timeless Paul Simon lament—a quasi-hymn in its own right (or perhaps an order of confession?), and not only because the tune is based on a German hymn made famous by Bach.

ALBUM: Your mileage may vary, but I find the intimacy, delicacy, and ardor of these 17th-century cantatas by Buxtehude—each dedicated in turn to a different part of the crucified Christ’s body—almost unutterably moving.