Music Diary, Vol. 30

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 29-August 4, 2024

LYRICS: Johnny Cash (Shel Silverstein), "A Boy Named Sue"

SONG: If this field recording of Ingoma drummers from Burundi sounds familiar, it’s because it provided the sample for Joni Mitchell’s unnerving “The Jungle Line” (she apparently first heard it on a French novelty record called “Burundi Black”).

ALBUM: Not gonna lie, this beguiling Lena Hall EP of Beck tunes has a bit of that musical-theater-person-doing-rock vibe about it, but ultimately I don’t care. It’s kind of great, especially the insinuating, Nouvelle Vague-esque “I Think I’m in Love.”

LYRICS: Madison Cunningham, "All I've Ever Known"

SONG: David Crosby’s entrancing 2018 rendition of this classic doesn’t so much split the difference between the famous CSN&Y version and the brooding harmonies of the original as it does return it to the garden (h/t Ann Powers’s great new Joni book).

ALBUM: This maximalist Sudan Archives record overflows with ideas, experiments, hooks, and beats. It’s also alternately horny, hilarious, and heavy, dancing in the sweet spot between confrontational and accessible, stunning and entertaining.

LYRICS: Helen Reddy (Alan O'Day), "Angie Baby"

SONG: Things I especially love about this knockabout Feist ode to/wish for rural family life: the ragtime piano flourishes giving way to chiming accents, and the weird meter of the choruses, which tack on 2 beats to every 4, in a headlong rush.

ALBUM: It’s not just the immersive sonic textures of this Stevie Wonder classic that impress but its breathtaking emotional and thematic range, though of course these are related—the Moog is a mood, the funk is deep, the clavinet glints with sunshine.

LYRICS: Chappell Roan, "Coffee"

SONG: I seldom find rock music genuinely scary, but the concluding hellhound howls of this epic, unsettling Peter Green jam—the last song he made with the original Fleetwood Mac—sound authentically haunted. The call is coming from inside the house.

ALBUM: Again going to plug Everything But The Girl’s pre-club sound, crystallized on this blessedly unflustered collection of covers and demos from 1992, all anchored by guitar, piano, and Everly-worthy vocal harmonies.

LYRICS: Hank Williams, "You Win Again"

SONG: According to this Maurice Magre lyric, beautifully set by Kurt Weill, at the bottom of the Seine are rusty boats, jewels, weapons, corpses, and “hearts that suffered too much to live.” Great place for a triathlon!

ALBUM: Had occasion yesterday to revisit this indispensable Liz Swados tribute album, featuring a murderers’ row of her like-minded alt-musical heirs. The track that especially grabbed me on this listen: The Bengsons’ primal take on “The Dance.”

LYRICS: Robert Preston (Meredith Willson), "The Sadder But Wiser Girl"

SONG: I can’t get enough of the delicious two-guitar rockabilly jangle (and vocal harmony) of this great Stones jam, but what I always listen for is the four-note fuzz riff Keith pops in after “stop and look around”—a genius bit.

ALBUM: Faye Webster’s self-titled second album, from 2017, is her first great one: The sleepy, expansive jazz-pop vibe, smudgily yearning vocals, and sweet pedal steel accents that constitute her unique sound are all fully, gorgeously in effect.

LYRICS: Indigo Girls, "Hey Jesus"

SONG: Going to open the service at Greenpoint Reformed Church this morning with my favorite Joni provocation, in which the shifting major-minor chords and alternately sweeping and personal lyrics convey both Olympian wisdom and roiling discontent.

ALBUM: I know they’re very different traditions, separated by continents and centuries, but the circular, iterative harmonic movement of these Palestrina masses puts me in mind of the swelling call and response of Sacred Harp singing.