Music Diary, Vol. -78

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 July 11-17, 2022

LYRICS: Dirty Projectors, "Irresponsible Tune"

SONG: I know it’s a bridge too far for most Dylan fans, but this sunny reggae-with-flutes version of one of his most durable standards always makes me smile. I’d say his utter conviction and comfort (“When the rooster crows!”) is what cinches it.

LYRICS: Judy Garland (Irving Berlin), "What'll I Do"

SONG: I haven’t yet heard a song by the Chicago piano boogie rock/pop outfit The Claudettes that I don’t at least like, and most I love. If you don’t know them, this rollicking kiss-off from their album Dance Scandal at the Gymnasium! is a great intro.

LYRICS: n/a

SONG: This smoking Urbie Green rendition of an Irving Berlin classic is easily one of my favorite Big Band charts, heavy on atmosphere yet sleek as a bullet train—just a total delight.

LYRICS: Randy Newman, "Burn On"

SONG: I relish all of Angel Olsen’s various aural guises (including her rootsy new record BIG TIME) but the sound of hers I still love most is in the punky, pouty jams of her earlier records, especially this catchy, bossy earworm.

LYRICS: Sydney Lucas (Tesori/Kron), "Ring of Keys"

SONG: Has a more stirringly sad or defiantly unsentimental anthem of alienated individualism ever been sung on a Broadway stage? Among the things powering this orphans’ cry from Elizabeth Swados’ Runaways is its queasy chromatic creep: Bm, Cm, C#m, Dm.

LYRICS: Everything But The Girl, "The Night I Heard Caruso Sing"

SONG: I don’t know the provenance of this killer zydeco tune by the inimitable Texas dance band Brave Combo, from their peerless 1987 collection Polkatharsis, but it’s my top favorite among many in their exuberant catalog.

LYRICS: Billy Bragg (Blake/Parry), "Jerusalem"

SONG: I can’t be the only one who finds the late Sam Phillips sound, as exemplified on her 2004 masterwork A Boot and a Shoe, devastatingly beautiful. This aching waltz sounds like the memory of a carousel and vibrates on a tragic spiritual wavelength.