Music Diary, Vol. -43

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 March 13-19, 2023

LYRICS: Tom Waits, "All the World Is Green"

SONG: The electronic duo Silver Apples were one of those bands who weren’t so much ahead of their time as out of time. If you had to guess, would you have pegged this nervy, obsessive bubblegum pop confection as a product of 1969?

ALBUM: My favorite Ry Cooder record, Get Rhythm, is inexplicably not online, so I’ll share my second favorite, this wry, sweet acoustic collection from 1978, which features the late great David Lindley on a few tracks.

LYRICS: Lizzy McAlpine, "Hate to Be Lame"

SONG: Sade’s silky pop sounded ageless and borderless when I first heard it on the radio back in 1984. This was the song that hooked me, with its simmering “Billie Jean” bass, needling guitar, and—above all—the sweet, sharp vocal harmonies.

ALBUM: I loved their first record but I was absolutely blown away by Cibo Matto’s 1999 follow-up, an irrepressible brew of trip hop, pop, rock, and above all bossa nova. To my ears it’s as rich and layered as Pet Sounds.

LYRICS: The Belle Brigade, "Punchline"

SONG: For me the high point of Art Garfunkel's first solo album, Angel Clare, is this weird mash-up of a Haitian folk tune he'd demo-ed with Simon and a Bach chorale, gorgeously set to some batshit lyrics by his fiancé. It's all very 1973.

ALBUM: I’ve liked everything I’ve heard from Adia Victoria but for me nothing has topped the ethereal swamp blues of her 2016 debut. Not a bad track on this one.

LYRICS: Prince, "Pop Life"

SONG: Oh my God this First Aid Kit cover of Simon & Garfunkel.

ALBUM: Serge Gainsbourg may have better or more iconic records, but this mesmeric 1961 collection (compiled on a cassette with his follow-up LP N° 4) was my intro to his louche but poised genius, and still contains many of my favorites of his.

LYRICS: George Jones, "Things Have Gone to Pieces"

SONG: I could not love this sad, sweet Faye Webster waltz more. Its lyrics could be sung by a Sam Hunter character, and the weeping tones of the steel guitar are a perfect counterpoint for Webster's laconic delivery. Honeyed heartbreak.

ALBUM: My mom bought this collection of O'Carolan tunes on hammered dulcimer as an LP from Joemy Wilson herself at a street fair in Tempe back in 1986. I love it on its own terms—it's an unimpeachably gorgeous record—but also for that memory.

LYRICS: Brecht & Weill (Willett/Manheim), "Second Threepenny Finale"

SONG: I like all of Caetano Veloso's many phases and dispensations, but there's nothing quite like his early '70s folk-rock era, epitomized by this blessedly unbiddable cry of protest.

ALBUM: I love the way The Slits' 1979 debut record swerves between abandon and control, tight arrangements and jagged noise. The vocals and guitar are what caught my ear first, but lately I've also been keying into Budgie's flawless percussion.

LYRICS: Julie Andrews (Sherman bros.), "Feed the Birds"

SONG: St. Vincent really knows how to work a room.

ALBUM: Gospel is inherently joyful but what sets Mahalia Jackson apart is how deadly seriously she takes it. Without making it sound heavy-spirited, she gives this music the gravity of prophecy. You don’t have to be a believer to believe her.