Music Diary, Vol. 50

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 Dec. 16-22, 2024

LYRICS: Judy Garland and company (Arlen/Harburg), "It Really Was No Miracle"

SONG: I love it when Led Zeppelin goes full folk, as on this knee-slapping hoedown, a tribute to the band's Welsh retreat that owes more than a little to the great Bert Jansch. The run-on form of the verses is a simple trick, and it's utterly beguiling.

ALBUM: The signature Ellington winds—subtle, sweet, sour, perfectly in sync—are the stars of this elegant, too-cool-for-school setting of Tchaikovsky’s holiday ballet, with the swaggering/sneering brass charts and Sam Woodyard’s hip drumming close seconds.

LYRICS: David Bowie, "The Little Bombadier"

SONG: Sometimes I play a song over and over not just because I love it but to figure out why I love it. Recent case: this sad, spare Julia Jacklin tune about an awkward professional gathering, with long, keening lines that belie the drollery of the lyrics.

ALBUM: Sly & The Family Stone's 4th LP is considered a high point in their discography for good reason: It's got 5 of their essential pop/funk singles, and the other tracks are fascinating time capsules, including the trippy 14-minute jam "Sex Machine."

LYRICS: David Ackles, "Down River"

SONG: One key to how Dave Edmunds made this great Elvis Costello tune even better is literally its key changes: Dave does the intro and solo in B and the song in C#, ratcheting the drama up and down like a fader. (Tegan & Sara’s version pulls the same trick.)

ALBUM: Come for the brilliant pop and rock covers, stay for the rackety, searching jazz originals. The Bad Plus’s splashy 2003 debut sounds as fresh and alive as ever. This is music that is somehow both digressive and assertive, chaotic and clear as a bell.

LYRICS: Sabrina Carpenter, "Please Please Please"

SONG: Getting sweet, strong Fleetwood Mac/Neko Case vibes from this sizzling new track by the Crane Wives. Brace yourself for the surprising chromatic chord at 1:30 and 2:45, and for the soaring, celestial outro.

ALBUM: I grew up hearing the music of the 1950s through a nostalgia filter. But a lot of '50s artists were themselves nostalgic for the music of earlier eras, and few artists did rosy throwback better than Doris Day, as on this bright, lush 1951 record.

LYRICS: Dick Powell (Warren/Dubin), "Lullaby of Broadway"

SONG: John Zorn’s wild take on this pseudo-hymn/march from Happy End sounded like a nonsensical collage when I first heard it. Returning to it after getting to know the original, it all snaps into place, and it’s glorious—Brecht/Weill as Dada sound sculpture.

ALBUM: If you’ve never heard the Brazilian body music ensemble Barbatuques, or only caught their classic showcase tune “Baiana,” you’re in for a treat. This 2015 collection is a vocal and rhythmic feast, as heart-moving as it is ear-tickling.

LYRICS: Tom Waits, "Christmas Card From a Hooker in Minneapolis"

SONG: My second favorite Sharon Van Etten track (after “A Crime”) is this bittersweet jangle of resignation and resolve, made all the lovelier by the intertwined vocal harmony throughout.

ALBUM: Though set in Sweden, this lilting Sondheim confection sounds as Viennese to me as Der Rosenkavalier. The London cast album with Jean Simmons and Joss Ackland, which happened to be the one I learned it from, isn’t streaming; the OBC more than suffices.

LYRICS: Sufjan Stevens, "That Was the Worst Christmas Ever!"

SONG: This Bach chorale has a uniquely beguiling yet stately ebb and flow to it, both in its circling, layered harmonies and its stop-start phrasing and dynamics—a good fit for the hopeful vigilance of the lyric.

ALBUM: Oud rest ye merry, gentlemen: This collection of carols and spirituals performed by Naser Musa, many with entirely welcome new rhythms and flourishes, makes these exhausted melodies sound fresh and piquant, at least to my holiday-saturated ears.