Music Diary, Vol. -57

The rationale behind this mad project is here. The full playlist is above (minus the Michelle Shocked tune, as none of her music is streaming), also here.

Week of Dec. 5-11, 2022

LYRICS: Michelle Shocked, "If Love Was a Train"

SONG: The anguished, slashing harmonies of Bernard Herrmann were a huge influence on Sondheim's score for Sweeney Todd, and he specifically cited the score for this 1945 thriller as direct inspiration. Swing your minor/major seventh high, Bernie.

LYRICS: Allan Sherman, "One Hippopotami"

SONG: You ever meet someone you feel like you've known all your life? That's pretty much how Waxahatchee's album Saint Cloud hit me from the first spin. Hearing it now, it feels like it's always been in my life, even though it's no older than 2020.

LYRICS: n/a

SONG: Most breakup songs are either “You’re the worst, good riddance” or “It’s not you, it’s me,” but this sad, surging Queen of Jeans tune manages to be a little of both: “Now when you hold me, I’d rather be lonely.” Ouch.

LYRICS: Charley Pride (Ben Peters), "Kiss an Angel Good Morning"

SONG: Don't mind me, I'm just lost in the billowing melody lines and unpredictable harmonies of this mesmerizing Kelsey Lu track. Even after several listens, it still surprises me...and then just ends. Ravishing.

LYRICS: Paul Simon, "The Late Great Johnny Ace"

SONG: I keep returning to this perfect, wise-before-her-years Madison Cunningham gem. I always listen for the moment at 2:12 when she hits a flat 7 rather than the 6 on the first word of the chorus, pointing the way to the gorgeous bridge that follows.

LYRICS: Lerner & Loewe, "Wouldn't It Be Loverly"

SONG: My mom bought an LP from the great hammered dulcimer player Joemy Wilson at a Tempe art fair in the mid-1980s. Even without that sentimental association, I think I would still love her rendition of this O’Carolan classic just as much.

LYRICS: Prince, "The Cross"

SONG: This ecstatic naʽat (essentially an Islamic psalm) is far and away my favorite Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan track, not least for the extraordinary, disarming "blue" note he slips into the song's Mixolydian scale at around 4:07.