Music Diary, Vol. 31

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 Aug. 5-11, 2024

LYRICS: Caroline Polachek, "Billions" 

SONG: My 11-year-old is now playing the SUFFS cast album non-stop, which I very much don't mind. I must say my ears always perk up at the insistent oboe riff of this propulsive song/scene.

ALBUM: The fullest realization of the Weill-Brecht partnership remains this towering opera, which pulls off at least 2 remarkable (and related) fusions: of popular with “classical” forms,  and of emotional power with an unsentimental, tragic politics.

LYRICS: Willie Nelson, "I Just Can't Let You Say Goodbye"

SONG: Oddly enough, this overlong catalogue song in lilting sextuple meter is what finally sold me on Dylan’s wildly underrated STREET LEGAL—maybe because his utter conviction delivering this exquisite nonsense makes everything stick and signify.

ALBUM: This Wanda Jackson record from 1961 is a fascinating snapshot of a career at a crossroads: Side A is syrup-sweet country, Side B snarling rockabilly. A shame she had to choose, as she’s a delight in both registers.

LYRICS: Lee Dorsey (w/ Allen Toussaint), "Who's Gonna Help Brother Get Further?"

SONG: Leave it to Holly Cole to turn this lovely Sondheim rumination into a sly bossa nova.

ALBUM: More than just companion merch for this sprawling, definitive Evelyn Waugh adaptation, this soundtrack of alternately surging and melancholic chamber orchestra music by Geoffrey Burgon was a crucial text in its own right during my tender teens.

LYRICS: James Taylor, "Bartender's Blues"

SONG: Sure, it’s borrowed glory to take the old “Streets of Laredo” tune (itself based on an Irish air) and repurpose it for the SONGBIRDS AND SNAKES film, but Rachel Zegler’s spare, perfectly calibrated rendition more than pays back the debt.

ALBUM: I highly recommend this collection of limpid, expressive piano tunes by Manuel Blancafort, a sort of heir to the gnomic, tuneful side of Les Six, particularly Satie.

LYRICS: Jack Thackray, "Leopold Alcocks"

SONG: I was already loving this Vampire Weekend choral ode to youthful impressions of NYC (especially the mention of the subway rumble in the theater). Then the Soul II Soul beat dropped and the scent of nostalgia grew thick and strong and sweet.

ALBUM: I’m still regularly astonished not only by the A-list cast of characters assembled for this 2007 Joni Mitchell tribute record but just as much or more by the fresh shadings and angles they find in her catalogue.

LYRICS: Romeo Void, "Never Say Never"

SONG: Proof that it’s possible to love something both ironically and sincerely: This Tudor Lodge cover of a Ralph McTell ditty about love blossoming in a botanical garden is almost self-parodically twee *and* a gem that could make stone griffins cry.

ALBUM: I loved Alvvays’s 2014 debut album so completely, it took me a while to warm to their 2017 follow-up. This is music whose surface pleasures—the chiming, swirling guitars, the sing-song vocal hooks—invite and reward deeper immersion.

LYRICS: boygenius, "Satanist"

SONG: Going to open the Greenpoint Reformed Church service this morning with this late-period U2 hymn, which I’ve always heard as bookend with “Gloria.” The minor sus4 chord on “love” in the chorus conveys a lifetime of bruised passion and gracious gratitude.

ALBUM: This stunning 2011 record from gospel giant Kirk Franklin does double duty, functioning as both a full-service pop entertainment and a rafter-shaking altar call. Its form is also a kind of ascension: It saves its best song for last.