Music Diary, Vol. -34
For the rationale behind this mad effort, explanations here. The full series of Music Diary posts are here. The full playlist is above, also here.
Week of May 15-21, 2023
LYRICS: Elvis Costello, "Less Than Zero"
SONG: Most of us first heard the great Mizrahi singer Ofra Haza in hip-hop samples. When I sought out her records, I discovered this bouncy pop classic from 1988, which never charted here but absolutely should have.
SONG: Most of us first heard the great Mizrahi singer Ofra Haza in hip-hop samples. When I sought out her records, I discovered this bouncy pop classic from 1988, which never charted here but absolutely should have.
ALBUM: Maybe my favorite record that nobody I know has heard: This note-perfect recreation of vintage 1930s Big Band sound by the Originální Pražský Synkopický Orchestr (Original Prague Syncopated Orchestra), recorded in 1982 but sounding ageless. (Full post about this record here)
LYRICS: Kara Jackson, "why does the earth give us people to love"
SONG: Mildly obsessed by Kara Jackson’s somber but lively debut record WHY DOES THE EARTH GIVE US PEOPLE TO LOVE? It’s hard to pick one song to share, but I especially love the way at 4:00 in this track she turns into Rufus Wainwright.
SONG: Mildly obsessed by Kara Jackson’s somber but lively debut record WHY DOES THE EARTH GIVE US PEOPLE TO LOVE? It’s hard to pick one song to share, but I especially love the way at 4:00 in this track she turns into Rufus Wainwright.
ALBUM: There’s stiff competition but I’d say Ravel’s masterpiece is the opera he wrote with Colette where anthropomorphic furniture and other items, then assorted backyard assorted animals, punish a bratty kid until he cries out for his Maman.
LYRICS: Loretta Lynn, "Fist City"
SONG: Leave it to Squeeze to set a lyric about deathbed regrets to a suave, bouncy singalong tune. I remember it well as the Side One capper of their underrated 1987 record BABYLON AND ON.
SONG: Leave it to Squeeze to set a lyric about deathbed regrets to a suave, bouncy singalong tune. I remember it well as the Side One capper of their underrated 1987 record BABYLON AND ON.
ALBUM: One reason THE PURPLE ROSE OF CAIRO is my fave film by you-know-who is that it's one of the few (only?) with an (almost) entirely original soundtrack, by the incomparable Dick Hyman. Just great stuff.
LYRICS: Violent Femmes, "Kiss Off"
SONG: Can't get enough of this Chloe and Halle Bailey tune, which makes the most of its disorienting I-III-IV chord progression; usually when we talk about a song being catchy, we don't necessarily also mean it's haunting. This one is both.
SONG: Can't get enough of this Chloe and Halle Bailey tune, which makes the most of its disorienting I-III-IV chord progression; usually when we talk about a song being catchy, we don't necessarily also mean it's haunting. This one is both.
ALBUM: I owe this recommendation entirely to Joshua Weilerstein, whose Sticky Notes podcast turned me on to polymath composer Derrick Skye (formerly Derrick Spiva Jr.). This is one of the most ravishingly exuberant records I've ever heard.
LYRICS: Frank Loesser, "Traveling Light"
SONG: I’m not sure this is a perfect song but it does have an exquisitely shaped melody. Amazing that decades after “Michelle,” Macca’s ballad craft is as strong as ever.
SONG: I’m not sure this is a perfect song but it does have an exquisitely shaped melody. Amazing that decades after “Michelle,” Macca’s ballad craft is as strong as ever.
ALBUM: This latter-day Tom Waits masterpiece was released on a punk label and won the folk Grammy, though really the man deserves his own category.
LYRICS: Tom Lehrer, "Poisoning Pigeons in the Park"
SONG: My favorite Smiths track has a Bo Diddley beat and an alternately playful and keening vocal, but its catchiest hook may be its bouncing bass line. RIP Andy Rourke.
SONG: My favorite Smiths track has a Bo Diddley beat and an alternately playful and keening vocal, but its catchiest hook may be its bouncing bass line. RIP Andy Rourke.
ALBUM: This weirdly, sublimely beautiful Juana Molina record evokes the old cliche of the swinging watch hypnotist, if the watch were a guitar and the hypnotist a sneaky freak.
LYRICS: Bob Dylan, "I Believe in You"
SONG: Call me crazy but I would absolutely listen to a whole record of The Beach Boys doing a cappella gospel in the vein of this gorgeous outtake from their Christmas album.
SONG: Call me crazy but I would absolutely listen to a whole record of The Beach Boys doing a cappella gospel in the vein of this gorgeous outtake from their Christmas album.
ALBUM: Leslie Phillips’s last album before she became Sam remains an acoustic pop classic, easily holding its own alongside two other T-Bone Burnett-produced records of the same era (KING OF AMERICA and his own self-titled folk record).
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