Music Diary, Vol. 61

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 Mar. 3-9, 2025

LYRICS: Nick Drake, "One of These Things First"

SONG: For me the magic of this surging instrumental from Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana is its hard-to-pin meter. It's in 3 but doesn't really feel like it—except when it does. The effect is utterly disarming, all the better to sweep us up in a tide of feeling.

ALBUM: Sierra Ferrell's latest record is a thoroughly ingratiating stew of country, folk, and ragtime. There's a slight wink to it all, sure, but also sincerity, heartache, and wit to spare.

LYRICS: Jennifer Warnes (Leonard Cohen), "A Singer Must Die"

SONG: I first heard the great French singer Camille fronting the novelty cover band collective Nouvelle Vague; this is probably my fave of her efforts with them. Buffing the aggression off the XTC original, it gives the song's loping melody a rainy-day melancholy.

ALBUM: All of Björk’s music is tactile, imagistic, sensory. This delicate, goosebump-inducingly intimate 2001 record puts me in mind of a flame cutting through a block of ice, of heat and crystals, of chimes and prisms and glints of wintry light—a burning chill.

LYRICS: The Sundays, "I Won"

SONG: I’ve loved so much of what Tune-Yards has made over the years, but still nothing matches the skittering effrontery of her boisterous initial single. I can think of few songs that deconstruct themselves so thoroughly while remaining undeniable bops.

ALBUM: A bit spikier than their lush 2004 classic Faded Seaside Glamour, Delays' follow-up retains the unique majesty of Greg Gilbert's supple, textured falsetto and the band's deft guitar-synth blend. Rock has seldom sounded more unembarassedly beautiful.

LYRICS: Kimbra, "Settle Down"

SONG: The new Song Exploder on Theodore Shapiro’s excellent Severance theme made me think back to another iconic TV show framed by a loop of 4 unsettling string chords: RJD2’s backing track for the rapper Aceyalone, which became Mad Men’s indelible opener.

ALBUM: I think of the cello as a fundamentally Romantic instrument, rich and brooding. But Haydn made it dance. Rostropovich's readings of the first and second concertos are thoughtful, deeply felt and phrased, but nothing can wipe off Haydn's wise grin.

LYRICS: Lucio Gallo (Mozart/Da Ponte), "Se vuol ballare"

SONG: Brenton Wood had his roots in doo-wop, and you can hear its traces in this infernally catchy 1967 soul hit, which somehow makes sweetly consonant harmonies sound beautifully, heart-tuggingly strained. (The lyrics' catalogue of '60s fashion is also a plus.)

ALBUM: The great chanteuse Milva was especially known for stirring, impassioned renditions of Brecht songs in her native Italian. This intense, immersive 1971 record, with tunes by Eisler and Weill, will make you hear Brecht's wise, mordant lyrics afresh.

LYRICS: Spinal Tap, "Big Bottom"

SONG: I don't know who did this cheeky mashup of Alicia Keys and Elvis Costello, and I'm not sure exactly why it works so well, but work it does. The bright "Dancing Queen" piano makes it feel like an anthem with a sugar high.

ALBUM: It’s nearly 30 years old, but this Cardigans masterpiece still sounds fresh and vivid and essential. The songcraft and arrangements hit the perfect sweet spot where sophisto-pop meets guitar rock (with just a shade of prog). I just couldn’t love it more.

LYRICS: Marty Haugen, "Gather Us In"

SONG: Though this stark, stately ballad came 2 albums after Dylan’s official Christian period, it is suffused—as are so many songs from all his various eras—with pointed biblical imagery and a quiet but unmistakable blend of prophetic anger and empathy.

ALBUM: Just as you can hear ecstasy in the blues, you can hear agony in gospel, as on several tracks of this roof-raising 1962 collection by Dorothy Love Coates's Gospel Harmonettes. God may move in mysterious ways, but sometimes there's God so quickly.