Music Diary, Vol. 71

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 May 12-18, 2025

LYRICS: Mandy Patinkin (Rodgers & Hart), "Where or When"

SONG: It’s probably too fancy to say that Kenny Burrell deconstructs this Arlen/Mercer standard. What he does do is strip it for parts and cut to its molten blues core (after brilliantly dispatching with the bridge up top). Not a hurried or wasted note here.

ALBUM: I'm late to the Hiatus Kaiyote party, and what a shindig it is. It's as if Dirty Projectors had a side project with Thundercat and Betty Carter. As chaotic as that sounds, even the bumpy parts on their 2013 debut go down surprisingly smoothly.

LYRICS: No Doubt, "Bathwater"

SONG: Of course I’ve always known it was great, but I never really clocked the beguiling bait-and-switch form of this goofily beautiful Dylan classic: The penultimate line of every stanza repeats the wind-up of the first line, then concludes with a variation of the title and takes a breath.

ALBUM: If Captain Beefheart led a dance band, it might sound like the music of Philly band Man Man. Indeed, their maximalist assault can be a lot—a relisten to this 2008 record definitely woke me up—but sometimes too much is just the right amount.

LYRICS: Frank Ocean, "Siegfried"

SONG: n/a

ALBUM: Holy moly, could Johnny Smith play the guitar. His exquisitely voiced chords have a warm, melty tone that evokes Hawaiian slide, and his solos are quietly wild and intricate. Having Stan Getz as a sideman on this definitive collection doesn’t hurt.

LYRICS: Chris Stapleton, "Whiskey and You"

SONG: I don't know much about Calvin Scott, an Alabama-born soul singer who recorded for Stax Records, but I do love his odd, impassioned, quasi-animist ode to everyday emptiness, released in 1972. Listen for the mind-bending chord on "have."

ALBUM: Just happily discovered the great mid-century singer Maxine Sullivan, who Peggy Lee cited as a major influence. I definitely hear that, though on this 1956 record I also hear plenty of Ella ease and Billie rasp. You can always tell when a singer enjoys their work; the joy is catching.

LYRICS: Tom Waits, "Filipino Box Spring Hog"

SONG: Not my favorite Strouse-Adams tune by far, but it definitely killed in my high school production of Birdie, in which I played Mr. MacAfee. Strouse didn't get a lot of chances to parody the classical music he was trained on, but he sure seized this one.

ALBUM: My sister was given this cast album on cassette but I think I played it more than she did. Though I've never seen a fully satisfying production (or film), this ebullient Charles Strouse-Martin Charnin score is satisfying entertainment on its own. RIP Buddy.

LYRICS: Frank Sinatra (Jimmy Van Heusen/Phil Silvers), "Nancy With the Laughing Face"

SONG: I know many fans barely tolerate it, but George Harrison’s sole contribution to Sgt. Pepper's has always been a particular favorite of mine for its guileless attempt at full immersion into Hindustani classical sounds and forms. The striving is the destination here.

ALBUM: You can listen all the way through this delightfully traditional-sounding Peso Pluma collection of corridos—and I highly recommend you do—and not detect any contemporary touches amid the horns and guitars. (And then you check the lyrics in translation!)

LYRICS: Liz Swados, setting Nazim Hikmet, "Things I Didn't Know I Loved"

SONG: The sunny “Brown Eyed Girl” vibe of this Van Morrison gospel jam belies its bracing prophetic thrust. For all the lyrics about “the gentle evening breeze,” the central image is of God’s love as an overwhelming storm you can’t ignore—one that knocks you down before it lifts you up.

ALBUM: We’ve gotten through Lent but I’m still stuck on Stabat Maters, with Pergolesi’s stately yet dramatic Baroque setting rising to the top. It feels tapped directly into a vein of redemptive suffering and grief no less wrenching for its sanctification.