Music Diary, Vol. 80

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 July 14-20, 2025

LYRICS: Dua Saleh, "Sugar Mama"

SONG: I know this catalog of high-end desserts is purportedly nothing more than a riff on his pal Eric Clapton’s sweet tooth, but I’m always struck by how nasty, even angry this George Harrison tune sounds. Maybe that’s the joke—a gritty blues about sweets, ha ha—but I find it unsettling.

ALBUM: I had what I think must be a common experience with Yes: I was sold on their usual canon and only later discovered their shaggy, endearing 1969 debut, in which some but not all of their unique magic is in place. Fave track: the sweetly epic “Harold Land.”

LYRICS: The Replacements, "Valentine"

SONG: This Indigo Girls track about childhood night terrors has an appropriately creepy, even grim vibe going—and then Michael Stipe’s unmistakable croak emerges from the darkness like a fairy-tale troll and brings it home. A case of ideal musical casting.

ALBUM: Just discovered this beautiful newgrass record by the Nashville trio The Arcadian Wild, whose pristine, judicious arrangements might cloy if the tunes weren’t so lively and surprising. There’s deep feeling as well as craft to spare here.

LYRICS: David Bowie (Brecht/Weill, trans. Willett), "The Drowned Girl"

SONG: The Dutch singer Josephine Odhil, who served as the lead singer of the much-missed band The Mysterons, recaptures much of their dreamy guitar pop vibe in her solo material, as on this ecstatic, mildly unsettling track.

ALBUM: The extent to which Johnny Alf pioneered the sound that would become bossa nova may be debatable, but Tom Jobim did credit him with inspiring “Desafinado,” and that’s good enough for me. This 1961 record is a great intro to Alf’s overlooked talents.

LYRICS: Thin White Rope, "Thing"

SONG: This rousing Norma Tanega tune gets a lot of its urgency from the extra beat she throws into the chorus—it makes the title admonition to seize the day all the more literal and insistent.

ALBUM: James Carr may or may not have been the greatest Southern soul singer of all time, but he’s certainly in the running for the best to never crack the top of the charts. Not a bum note on this vintage collection.

LYRICS: Neneh Cherry, "So Here I Come"

SONG: Another for the I-like-the-verse-better-than-the-chorus file: This Selena Gomez power ballad, in which the light appoggiaturas in the first 2 bars hook me every time (especially the Eb notes on “get me there”). Pure yearning in musical form.

ALBUM: Getting strong Neko Case/Stevie Nicks vibes from this great new record by the improbably but aptly named Jade Bird. Vocals that soar to the edge of cracking, Americana drenched in country-adjacent longing—that's the stuff.

LYRICS: Sarah Vaughan (Michel Legrand/Alan & Marilyn Bergman), "What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?" 

SONG: I figured out what “ride a blind” meant a while ago, but only today did I search out the meaning of “She got an Elgin movement” in this Robert Johnson classic: Elgin was a watch company, so this means the woman moved like clockwork “from her head down to her toes.”

ALBUM: Wet Leg's second record is another satisfying slab of churning, cheeky pop-punk, with the confidence to relax (occasionally) into sweeter, softer sounds. Immediate faves: "CPR," "catch these fists," "11:21," "davina mccall."

LYRICS: Todd Snider, "Too Soon to Tell"

SONG: The closer of one of U2’s least loved records (which I have a soft spot for) is this authentically despairing cry of devotional irreverence—a blunt expression of a sentiment even the most faithful among us have felt, essentially: Are you really there, God? Please show me.

ALBUM: You can enjoy the distinctly 1980s Americana sound of this record by Mark Heard—the touches of zydeco, fiddle, and mandolin in service of straightahead power-pop anthems and ballads—without clocking its searching spirituality, but that’s good too.