Music Diary, Vol. 24
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 June 17-23, 2024
LYRICS: Brody Grant (Clay/Chance), "Great Expectations"
SONG: Both an ode to and a warning about the power of music, this hypnotic whirlpool of a tune by Mary Margaret O’Hara is the highlight of her 1988 solo album. Joy is the aim, dissociation the result.
ALBUM: I won’t lie, I first listened because of the irresistibly ridiculous band name Illuminati Hotties, but I kept listening happily because their brand of guitar-forward quasi-retro pop-rock, aka “tenderpunk,” is a total blast.
LYRICS: Modest Mouse, “Tiny Cities Made of Ashes”
SONG: I get strong Deee-Lite vibes from Sofi Tukker—they don't really sound that much alike, but the ratio of undeniable groove and pure Dada feels very similar, as on this infectious blend of surf guitar and ridiculous basso toasting.
ALBUM: Spent much of yesterday soaking in the Secret Sisters' loamy, bittersweet swamp of a new album; it's less immediately ingratiating than previous efforts, perhaps, but it burrows in just as deep (or deeper).
LYRICS: Jim Croce, "You Don't Mess Around With Jim"
SONG: It may not be my favorite Camille tune, but this skittering, soaring ode to adventure is probably the ideal introduction to her inimitable, sneakily ambitious blend of body music and vocal gymnastics.
ALBUM: This stately, delightful record of 17th-century Praetorius dances—which he collected and arranged rather than wrote per se—gives me double nostalgia, both to the time of their writing and to the time in my tweens when I was an early-music nerd.
LYRICS: Carole King (Goffin & King), "Smackwater Jack"
SONG: I have no idea what film or scene this amazing Vijaya Anand track accompanied, but it’s hard to imagine anything living up to its mind-bending tonal shifts and hypnotic drama.
ALBUM: Try to imagine the sound of a band comprising just two electric basses, violin, and keening soprano, and you still might not conjure the soaring, glorious weirdness of Hugo Largo, captured on their Michael Stipe-produced debut record from 1988.
LYRICS: Elvis Costello, "I Hope You're Happy Now"
SONG: Case study in chords and feelings: In this wistful, churning Nick Drake tune, the first time he goes to the A chord (:32), he then slips down to a floor-shifting G (:37); next time he goes from A to F#m (1:08) and the resignation is palpable.
ALBUM: The Nico comparisons for Bridget St. John are obvious, but this deceptively lovely 1972 record makes me think more of Bobbie Gentry covering Nick Drake. (I say deceptively because, as with all 3 artists, there are real sharp edges here too.)
SONG: Self-referential in both its lyrics and its music (it contains samples of some early tracks), this 1992 banger by Prince is both hilarious and menacing, sexy and silly—after all, he’s got two sides, and they’re both friends.
ALBUM: Gymnopedies and Gnossiennes and Nocturnes, oh my. Yuji Takahashi’s collection of Satie, which I once owned on cassette, renders these pieces with crystalline clarity and transparency without sacrificing their essential gnomic mystery.
LYRICS: Pete Seeger (Dick Blakeslee), "Passing Through"
SONG: How very Sufjan Stevens to thread anguished lyrics, suffused with grief and religious longing, into a quiet, achingly tender tune, as on this 2015 track from CARRIE & LOWELL.
ALBUM: Brecht & Weill's final full collaboration was this captivating, sardonic dance oratorio in which the seven deadly sins are twisted into a lacerating critique of bourgeois virtues; you might never guess it was written on the run, in 1933 France.
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