Music Diary, Vol. 1

A colleague asked my recently why I do it—why, for more than a year now, I have made a habit of sharing daily musical offerings on social media. (I do a #dailylyric on Facebook and Instagram, a #dailysong on Facebook, Twitter, Threads, and Bluesky, and a #dailyalbum on all of the above.)

I replied: "I just like considering and sharing music," noting that music and criticism are two of my greatest interests, and that sharing music on social media with a few annotations feels like an easy way to do it. I added, "By now it has the appeal of routine for me; in my more pretentious moments I think of it as a spiritual practice." That's a pretty high-falutin' way to put it. If I'm honest, I think all this music over-sharing is just my middle-aged online version of the kid with the huge, block-shaking speakers in his car who wants everyone in the vicinity to hear what he's into as he drives by.

Starting this week I'm going to cull my social posts here on my blog (since in essence all this social sharing is what I'm now doing in lieu of blogging here), as well as create a playlist of the week's offering (embedded above and linked here—it's on YouTube Music rather than Spotify entirely because the final cut, Tutti's cover of "Calling All Angels," is only on YouTube). This really amounts to a kind public journaling of my curiosities and tastes; if it happens lead anyone else to some interesting music, so much the better. Ring the bells that still can ring.

Week of Jan. 8-14

Lyric: Bull Moose Jackson, "Nosey Joe"
Song: I love how hard this Go-Go’s tune goes from the jump, epitomizing a quality I treasure as much in music as in narrative: It sounds like it starts in media res, barging in fully formed, mid-thought, and we have no choice but to pay attention. Album: I wore this Neneh Cherry cassette out in the summer of ’89, especially Side A, but haven’t checked in with it for years. Now it all rushes back: the swaggering confidence, also the nuance and vulnerability; the kaleidoscope of references. A masterpiece.

Lyric: Sufjan Stevens, "Casimir Pulaski Day" Song: This has been a fave Percy Grainger cut since I first heard it at the opening of HOWARDS END. Today I learned that he wrote it as a wedding gift to a former lover when she found happiness with another, which might explain its bittersweet grace. Album: I’m a pretty normie U2 fan but my 2 outlier opinions are that I prefer OCTOBER to WAR and that their 1997 so-called “techno” record, widely mocked at the time, holds up well, both in terms of the songwriting (“Gone” especially) and the sonics.

Lyric: Rupert Holmes, "Escape" Song: Best news of 2024 so far: Waxahatchee, whose last record, ST. CLOUD, helped me get through pandemic lockdown, has a new one, TIGERS BLOOD, coming out in March. The first track is out and it really hits the spot. Album: Gonna tell my grandkids this was Pussy Riot.

Lyric: Stephen Trask, "Wicked Little Town" Song: The cliché that specificity is a gateway to universality is challenged by an artifact like this British music hall novelty (popularized in America by Sammy Kaye). The charm here, I'd argue, is all in its irreducible, evocative oddity. Album: She’s made some good music since but nothing has topped Jain’s full-length debut from 2016, as irresistible a cocktail of hooks and beats as I’ve ever imbibed. The ubiquitous swirl of “Makeba” is just the tip of this delicious iceberg.

Lyric: The Country Gentlemen, "Matterhorn" Song: The melody on this sunny Sondre Lerche banger is mostly a rangy alternation of giant leaps and step-wise runs that keeps the ears alert—and then he still manages to surprise with some thoroughly unexpected left turns. Album: I wouldn’t quite say that 3 string quartets by Jón Leifs sound like they’re written by 3 different composers, but they are sufficiently distinct that the effect of this must-listen record is nothing less than emotionally panoramic.

Lyric: Dua Saleh, "mOth" Song: Sensory overload delivered with surgical precision may sound like an oxymoron, but just listen to this sleek, exuberant, bonkers Stray Kids track and tell me you’re not changed (h/t Jolie Myers of Switched on Pop for the rec). Album: This compilation of classic rags played by Williams Albright and Bolcom is an unmitigated delight. Particular faves are tunes by Eubie Blake, Joseph Lamb, and Zez Confrey, whose “Dizzy Fingers” is just what its title promises.

Lyric: Julie Miller, "All My Tears"
Song: With all respect to Jane Siberry, the definitive version of her questing modern spiritual is not the one she recorded with kd lang (as great as it is) but this gorgeous choir rendition by Australia’s Tutti Arts ensemble. Album: Cristobal Tapia de Veer’s wild score for WHITE LOTUS was justly acclaimed but the soundtrack was also memorably permeated by heart-rendingly beautiful choral selections from this essential collection of Hawaiian music from the Rose Ensemble.