Music Diary, Vol. 69

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 April 28-May 4, 2025

LYRICS: Elvis Presley (Red Foley), "Old Shep"

SONG: The different ways Jimmy Cozier and Alicia Keys vocalize/harmonize around the hypnotic Andalusian cadence of this tricky tango of mutual pull-me-push-you courtship offers a master class in contrasting styles. Her entrance at 1:24 always takes my breath away.

ALBUM: Range, both vocal and stylistic, is the signature quality of this sprawling yet remarkably consistent H.E.R. record from 2021. “Hold On” was my gateway drug and now I’m hooked.

LYRICS: Sinéad O’Connor, “Black Boys on Mopeds”

SONG: I just realized another reason I’m so drawn to this ebullient Supergrass earworm: With its bright, wobbly piano, stretchy vocals, and sneaky-smart songcraft, it calls back to a similarly named and beloved band from my 1970s childhood: Supertramp.

ALBUM: Maybe it’s down to its long and piecemeal gestation, a la The White Album, or its many guest spots. Either way, this Buffalo Springfield record from 1967 contains multitudes: acoustic, electric, cosmic, raw, Nashville, Stax. A broken arrow hits its mark.

LYRICS: Elvis Costello, "New Lace Sleeves"

SONG: What’s left of this stirring Debussy dance when you replace its lapidary textures with woozy walls of synths, as Isao Tomita did on this landmark 1974 recording? To my ears, it has a kind of mad purity that taps something wild and weird in the original.

ALBUM: I came upon this Hideo Shiraki LP while looking for recordings of the Japanese folk song "Sakura" to ring in cherry blossom season in NYC. Imagine my pleasant surprise when I found a full-on modern jazz record, led from the drums rather than the koto.

LYRICS: Low, "Plastic Cup"

SONG: What cinches this already fantastic Jensen McRae tune, a movingly unembittered ode to an ex, is the III-iv chord change she drops into the chorus at the line “everything went up in flames”—just the right extra heart tug in a song not short on emotion.

ALBUM: This has never been my absolute fave Bowie record, but that's a very high bar. What I do love about this 1973 collection is its maximalist glam aesthetic, a shotgun wedding of blues-guitar crunch to swirling lounge-piano swoon—a truly original sound.

LYRICS: Allan Sherman, "Pop Hates the Beatles"

SONG: Chuffed that Dead Outlaw dropped half their cast album today, on which I immediately cued up this sweet, searching tune, well delivered by Julia Knitel. The slight jolt of a flat VII chord in the chorus (first on "Hoping...") makes all the difference.

ALBUM: I love the muscular guitar-and-vocal sound on this short, sweet 2020 record by Argentine rocker Barbi Recanati. It's giving strong Divinyls/Pretenders/post-New Wave vibes.

LYRICS: Billy Bragg (Woody Guthrie), "All You Fascists"

SONG: You don't have to know the layers of irony embedded in this delicious TV Girl mashup-pop track (the title phrase is a sample from a notoriously dorky anti-copyright-infringement "rap") to enjoy its sinuous groove (built on a Tom Scott/L.A. Express sample).

ALBUM: A band led by 2 keyboardists had no reason to work as well as Supertramp in their prime, as on this ageless 1979 disc. The key (no pun intended) seemed to be a kind of Lennon-and-McCartney complementarity/competition that spurred both Rick Davies and Roger Hodgson to their best work.

LYRICS: Essra Mohawk, "Magic Pen"

SONG: One of the top 10 Bernstein moments: when the limpid, slightly bluesy boy-soprano setting of Psalm 23 is abruptly invaded by a raucous, raging chorus shouting Psalm 2. West Side Story has nothing on this drama.

ALBUM: Though only one of the pieces on this exquisite record has an explicitly religious source (Tehillim), the whole thing is a deeply spirit-lifting experience, not least because this is some of the most warmly tonal music Steve Reich has produced.