Music Diary, Vol. 42

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 Oct. 21-27, 2024

LYRICS: Madi Diaz, "Crying in Public"

SONG: Mockable as it may be, I think this self-flagellating Police hit is as perfect as anything they recorded, epitomizing the spare, tensile strength—and, yes, the melancholy and menace—of the band’s sound. Andy Summers’s guitar alone, just wow.

ALBUM: This ear-opening collection of Haitian music from the 1950s inevitably evokes the influence of other nearby islands, not to mention the other half of the same island—Haitian meringue is only one letter away from Dominican merengue for a reason.

LYRICS: George Harrison, "Isn't It a Pity"

SONG: Reasons this is my fave cut from the new WARRIORS concept album: the “Maneater” bassline, the stacked harmonies, the beautiful urgency of the moment it captures, Amber Gray’s unshakable realness. This one’s a keeper.

ALBUM: It’s easy to both hear and not really hear Agnes Obel’s gorgeous, simmering songs, lit by a cool flame of a voice that suggests Peggy Lee doing Philip Glass. But there’s churning intelligence as well as mood here—a world swimming under the ice.

LYRICS: David Bowie, "I'm Afraid of Americans"

SONG: I can’t explain exactly what I mean, but this lithe, offbeat McCartney tune somehow feels like the secret key to SGT PEPPER’S. Also just noticed the lyric’s echo in “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”: Holes to fix, floors to sweep, and we still go.

ALBUM: Unlike some of her other later efforts, the sounds on this 1991 Joni record have aged well and the songs are all first-rate—serious and playful in roughly equal measure. Indeed this may be her most convincing pop record since Court and Spark.

LYRICS: The Blasters, "Common Man" 

SONG: The music tells the story, cont’d: The loping triple meter and well-placed VII chord in the final cadence (on the 2nd “spinnin’”) ideally convey the suspended animation of this gorgeous Madison Beer tune, which swirls like an upturned snow globe.

ALBUM: This cracked-crystal collection of Charles Ives songs by Jan DeGaetani and Gilbert Kalish seems to me an indispensable monument to the composer’s signature blend of whimsy and gravity, lyricism and ornery Americana. It’s a grand old freak flag.

LYRICS: John Anderson (Bobby Braddock), "Would You Catch a Falling Star"

SONG: Nick Lowe recently called this his favorite version of the iconic song his pal Elvis Costello made famous. I hear why: The Holmes Brothers' lightly worn country-soul rendition has a well-worn but unsentimental sweetness (and tasty steel guitar).

ALBUM: What made Harry Nilsson an ideal vessel for Randy Newman’s bittersweet ragtime art songs on this essential record: phrasing that evoked Newman’s own; an audible smile; above all, a spirited old-time radio sound, like a chilled-out Rudy Vallee.

LYRICS: Felix Figueroa and His Orchestra (Jule Styne/Eddie Maxwell Cherkose), "Pico and Sepulveda"

SONG: This rapturous Manning Sherwin/Eric Maschwitz tune has one of the most transporting bridges in all pop, but its real secret is the way it slows down for an extra 2 bars on the title phrase—perfect for a lyric about a lingering memory.

ALBUM: Over many listens I’ve fallen in love with this 2015 Jesse & Joy record, which has traces of classic rock en español as well as folk but is best heard as a total pop experience. Their craft is strong but they wear it lightly.

LYRICS: Johnny Cash, "Redemption"

SONG: The extra beat Norma Tanega throws into the chorus of this otherwise straightforward anthem of spiritual solidarity feels both natural and strange—not a bad musical representation of the song’s hope for us to be our best selves despite the odds.

ALBUM: “A joyful noise” isn’t even of the half of it with this ecstatic 1960 record of Alex Bradford’s gospel choir at Abyssinian Baptist Church in Newark, N.J. The 100-person choir is overpowering by itself, but then the soloists go off—it’s a blast.