Music Diary, Vol. -31

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 June 5-11, 2023

LYRICS: Dan Hicks, "I Scare Myself"

SONG: Cynthia Weil’s lyrics are intact, but I’d love to know what composer Barry Mann thinks of Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway’s radical harmonic transformation of the duo’s biggest hit. I’d like to think he loves it. Game recognizes game.

ALBUM: Six perfect songs, with vocals that fit the arrangements like hand in velvet glove...I could get lost in this record.

LYRICS: The Baltimore Consort (d'Urfey), "My Thing Is My Own"

SONG: As much as I love all of SONGS IN THE KEY OF LIFE, my nerdy prog rock self could listen to a whole spinoff album of tracks like this barn burner.

ALBUM: This stunning 1990 collection, conducted and curated by John Adams, was my introduction to so much essential mid-century American music, from Charles Ives to Morton Feldman, though my favorite is probably still Ingram Marshall's "Fog Tropes."

LYRICS: The Beatles, "Paperback Writer"

SONG: My local coffee place, Forest Cafe, has been a great place to hear (and Shazam) some great pop. My latest discovery: the J-pop trio Ego Apartment, who manage an irresistible fusion of funky, airy, dissonant, and catchy on this standout track.

ALBUM: Otherworldly yet irreducibly human, virtuosic within a narrow register that could still encompass the world, Astrud Gilberto (née Weinert, I just happily learned) was the sort of artist of whom it is rightly said: We were not worthy of her.

LYRICS: Sam Phillips, "Black Sky"

SONG: The Benny Goodman Sextet could just as easily have been called the Charlie Christian-Lionel Hampton Band, as far as I’m concerned. This irresistible Christian-credited boogie is a particular fave (and not just for its eyebrow-raising title).

ALBUM: Among the things music can do is reorder your sense of time. This instant classic from Arooj Aftab does more than that—I can feel it even out my heartbeat and deepen my breathing. And for all its languor, it is curiously sense-awakening.

LYRICS: Rob Kendt, "Summer Is Coming"

SONG: This riveting Celia Cruz/Sonora Matancera deep cut is one of those songs I always have to listen to all the way through whenever I even hear a snippet. It took me years, though, to realize it’s really two songs in one. Delicious.

ALBUM: This great Holly Cole collection from 1993 is neck and neck with its predecessor, BLAME IT ON MY YOUTH, in my estimation, but I give this one the slight edge for covering everything from Everything But the Girl to Kurt Weill.

LYRICS: PJ Harvey, "Good Fortune"

SONG: Eric Weissberg’s soaring pedal steel guitar is the real star of this ebullient late Talking Heads bop, which I can never hear without wanting get up and dance. ’Cause if I want to, who’s gonna stop me?

ALBUM: I cannot recommend this hard-to-find (i.e., not on Spotify) Patricia O'Callaghan record strongly enough: It's just her limpid soprano and Jenny Crober's piano on an exquisite series of songs by Weill, Poulenc, and Satie.

LYRICS: George Michael, "Praying for Time"

SONG: I occasionally trot out this churning R.E.M. deep cut at Greenpoint Reformed Church, as its strange harmonies are fun to live in (and its text is inspired by Shakers founder Mother Ann Lee), though we’ve never been able to touch Steve Berlin’s wild sax solo.

ALBUM: Your mileage may vary, but for my money Charles Ives’ final completed symphony expresses the fullest range of his mad genius, from infernal cacophony to reverent soulfulness, and all points in between. Just glorious.