Music Diary, Vol. -47

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 Feb. 13-19, 2023

LYRICS: Rihanna, "Consideration"

SONG: You can keep your James Bond scores, for my money Henry Mancini’s tight-knit title music for Stanley Donen’s Hitchcock knockoff is the 1960s thriller theme to beat.

ALBUM: A few perfunctory retreads aside, David Ruffin’s sparking, long-unreleased 1971 solo record sounds for all the world like a lost Motown classic.

LYRICS: John Prine, "Far From Me"

SONG: Maybe because it was buried near the end of the clattery grab bag of SPIKE, this beautiful, anguished Elvis Costello song about the Troubles—with a full Irish ensemble that includes Christy Moore and a Chieftain—has been unjustly overlooked.

ALBUM: If you only know the great singer/songwriter Norma Tanega from the WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS theme, you're in for a treat. Her 1966 debut album is a wild, woolly delight, thick with introspection and depth as well as jubilant oddball charm.

LYRICS: Elvis Costello & The Attractions, "Riot Act"

SONG: If Rosanne Cash, Fiona Apple, and George Harrison had somehow collaborated, it might have sounded something like this great Margo Price track, whose jarring flat-VI chords grabbed me on my first listen to STRAYS; now the whole thing sticks.

ALBUM: Hard to pick just one but I’d rank this Bernard Herrmann collection as the best, most wide-ranging sampler of his non-Hitchcock scores, from the brooding Americana of CITIZEN KANE to the subterranean splendor of BENEATH THE 12-MILE REEF.

LYRICS: Taylor Swift, "You Need to Calm Down"

SONG: The chords in this Neneh Cherry classic are wild—apparently the result of her noodling with a Casio’s autochord function—but her vocal, in service of the tough-love callout of the lyrics, holds it all together.

ALBUM: Remi Wolf's debut record sounded timeless the year it came out (2021), and hearing it again today I don't think its brand of ecstatic-but-salty pop will ever sound anything less than fresh to me.

LYRICS: Kimbra & Dawn Richard, "Version of Me"

SONG: My fave Peggy Lee track is this sleek, simmering tropical cocktail, which has an unmistakable undercurrent of bitter anger. If only we all could distill our rage into such sinuous beauty.

ALBUM: Once you get past the inevitable comparisons to previous folk rock bands and singers, if you keep listening to Kacy and Clayton (and I bet you will), you’ll hear great songs that play well together. This 2017 record was my happy point of entry.

LYRICS: Patricia Morrison (Cole Porter), "I Hate Men"

SONG: Janelle Monáe’s “Tightrope” is an all-time classic but you haven’t lived till you’ve heard the Havana Maestros’ remix. Funkiest horn section indeed.

ALBUM: When it came out in 2004, The Organ’s sole full-length record was already a throwback to a New Wave sound I wasn’t even that into the first time around, but for whatever reason I love every jangly, somnolent note on it. A strong mood.

LYRICS: Stevie Wonder, "Have a Talk With God"

SONG: Funnily enough, it was Rufus Wainwright’s name-check of this Paul Robeson gospel classic (in the song “Beauty Mark”) that led me to it. I’m going to attempt it, in a slightly higher range, at Greenpoint Reformed Church this morning; wish me luck.

ALBUM: The syncretic beauty and joy of this great 1958 recording of Les Troubadours du Roi Baudouin remains undimmed over the decades, both on side one (traditional Congolese songs) and side two (a Latin Mass adapted into an African idiom).