Music Diary, Vol. 82

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 27-Aug. 3, 2025

LYRICS: Tom Lehrer, "Be Prepared"

SONG: I've listened to this dizzyingly brilliant Tom Lehrer tune all my life and I cherish every bit of it even though I can't follow it at all. That's sort of the point, of course, but what gives it its power is knowing that he means every word (and digit).

ALBUM: Tom Lehrer's last full disc of original songs, from 1965, is many things at once: a great comedy record, a time capsule of mid-century liberal politics (you may Google George Murphy), a musical and lyrical feast, and a portrait of an artist at his peak.

LYRICS: Otis Redding (Dan Penn/Rick Hall/Oscar Franks), “You Left the Water Running”

SONG: This acoustic M. Ward cover of one of Bowie’s most ebullient dance-floor ditties is almost self-parodically slow and morose, but it won me over when he went up rather than down on “I’ll run with you.” The climactic lyric “tremble like a flower” makes a new kind of sense.

ALBUM: Honestly this Bud & Travis folk set is a bit much, between the cringily zany patter and often over-eager strumming. But it has so many gems, including "Cloudy Summer Afternoon," "Bonsoir Dame," and "Carmen Carmella," that it's more than worth a spin.

LYRICS: Conway Twitty, "You've Never Been This Far Before"

SONG: You know that feeling at the end of a night when you’ve maybe had a few drinks too many and you lay your head down to sleep but you still feel like you’re spiraling down into the pillow? That’s precisely the feeling this woozy My Bloody Valentine classic gives me.

ALBUM: If I'd written any of the songs that Nina Simone definitely overhauls on this great 1969 record, I would be so grateful and humbled, I would never think to perform them again in their original arrangements. And if I were John Lennon, I would just shut up.

LYRICS: Uncle Bonsai, "Isaac's Lament"

SONG: It's one of the great Bollywood videos of all time, but it wouldn't be half as much fun if the track it supports, written by A.R. Rahman and sung by Sukhwinder Singh and Sapna Awasthi, weren't also an all-time bop. (And its appearance in Inside Man was a pleasant surprise.)

ALBUM: For me this 1974 Yes record has always suffered in comparison to its immediate predecessors, especially the similarly formatted Close to the Edge; it has always felt as harsh and chilly as its icy cover image. But with fresh listens, I’m warming up to it.

LYRICS: Cibo Matto, "Sci-Fi Wasabi"

SONG: Unlike her last single, Chappell Roan’s newest track isn’t country, except in its classic heartsick I-can’t-get-over-you sentiment and a few yodel-y catches in the vocal. Also: The perfectly placed Saskatchewan line got me.

ALBUM: Spending the day listening to the late, great Flaco Jiménez, who made the squeeze box sing like no one else. Lots of records to choose from, but this self-titled 1994 collection nicely splits the difference between traditional corridos and country blues.

LYRICS: Flaco Jiménez (Santiago Jiménez), “Un Mojada Sin Licencia”

SONG: Devastating tune by Bowerbirds, in which the minor-key grind of the accordion, the birdsong vocables, and the slowed down choruses all combine to create a sort of atavistic campfire singalong, if you can imagine the whole burning world as the campfire.

ALBUM: The 2001 debut record of Algerian-French singer-songwriter Souad Massi is a companionable blend of grunge-adjacent rock (she’d clearly heard Alanis) and world folk (ditto Lhasa de Sala). Highly recommended.

LYRICS: Joan Baez, "Blessed Are"

SONG: Fantastic Negrito’s funky, flute-flecked rendition of this gospel standard gives it several new shades of light and adds a tune or two of its own. You might even call it inspired.

ALBUM: Rolling Stone Brian Jones was already well into his final downward spiral when he made and mixed this odd, transfixing field recording of Sufi music in Morocco in 1968 (not released until 1971). I like to think he found some peace and joy in the project.