Music Diary, Vol. -39

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 April 10-16, 2023

LYRICS: Norma Tanega, "You're Dead"

SONG: Maybe not the best TV theme song ever, but certainly the one I like best for a show I've never quite watched. Somehow Mike Post makes a synth-and-French-horn combo rock; Larry Carlton's guitar and Tommy Morgan's harmonica certainly don't hurt.

ALBUM: Much as I prefer pre-INGENUE k.d. lang, I have to say I prefer pre-“Missing” Everything But The Girl. For years IDLEWILD has been a particular fave but lately I’m especially savoring this 1986 country/soul classic.

LYRICS: Richard and Linda Thompson, "Did She Jump or Was She Pushed?"

SONG: This is one of my favorite Otis Redding recordings, because it sounds like he's discovering something about himself in real time: He really, really loves the lady he finds himself up all night chatting with! I've been there.

ALBUM: I just realized that song for song, I slightly prefer Sam Phillips' 1991 follow-up to her groundbreaking pop masterpiece THE INDESCRIBABLE WOW. This record's journey through darkness and cynicism to joy is especially heartening.

LYRICS: Everything But the Girl, "Lonesome for a Place I Know"

SONG: Mind blown: Until yesterday I had never heard Everything but the Girl's subdued, winking cover of this misanthropic Randy Newman classic. Somehow their Englishness makes it all the droller.

ALBUM: I think the reason this classic—in which Marc Ribot repurposes the conjunto arrangements of bandleader Arsenio Rodriguez for a rock band—works so well is that Rodriguez composed on the Cuban tres; Ribot's axe cuts to the heart of the music.

LYRICS: Regina Spektor, "Summer in the City"

SONG: It’s not just the traces of McCartney’s “Riding to Vanity Fair” I hear in it; it’s not just that I have weakness for sad, swirling folk pop. This Olivia Kaplan not-quite-breakup tune is one of those that scratches an itch I didn’t know I had.

ALBUM: That this Sinatra-Ellington record sounds great is no surprise, but what consistently grabs me is the song curation and sequencing: persistently plush and mellow and moody, building to a manic car crash of a closer. Gets me every time.

LYRICS: Guy Clark, "My Favorite Picture of You"

SONG: Every time this exquisite Cornelius Dufallo track turns up on my playlist, I think: Is this some lost Arvo Pärt tune I forgot I had in my library? Something by Ljova? It’s just one of many highlights on his 2010 CD “Dream Streets.”
ALBUM: Not every track on Bowie's underrated all-covers record is ideal, certainly, but enough of them are definitive, and the whole spirit of the effort is so generous and joyous, that I enjoy it all as much as I admire it.

LYRICS: Boygenius, "True Blue"

SONG: Though it's only the second best song named for this particular predatory fish, John Cale's bleakly amusing 1974 track has an itchy, slow-burn appeal. The ocean will have us all.

ALBUM: I know many folks swear by 2015's "Strange Trails," but Lord Huron's most recent release is the one I keep returning to. Here their sweeping nouveau Western sound meets a batch of killer songs—what's not to love?

LYRICS: U2, "Wake Up Dead Man"

SONG: Planning to open the service at Greenpoint Reformed Church today with a rendition of this lovely, casually profound Tristen tune. I’ll have to sing it about an octave below hers, which usually works with Joni’s songs, so why not this one?

ALBUM: This gospel punk side project of Gordon Gano’s weds Violent Femmes grit to some headbanging grooves; Zena Von Heppinstall is a convincing frontwoman and there are some real finds here, especially the sinuous closer, “Mother Talking.”