Music Diary, Vol. 53

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 Jan. 6-12, 2025

LYRICS: Darren Criss and Helen J. Shen (Hue Park/Will Aronson), “When You’re in Love”

SONG: The Go! Team bring all their demented-pep-rally energy to this rousing, rackety Sonic Youth cover—an absolutely inspired match of sound and sensibility.

ALBUM: Spent much of today with Joan Baez’s stunning 1960 debut, which shimmers vibrantly along the line between folk song and art song, effectively fusing them. I especially appreciate her dynamic range, from whispered nuance to blunt force and back.

LYRICS: Dirty Projectors, "Two Doves"

SONG: Is this Dylan deep cut really a parody of “Norwegian Wood”? Lennon certainly thought so, and wasn’t thrilled about it. While it mimics the form of the Beatles tune (and is even in the same key), I think it stands on its own as a lilting but firm kiss-off.

ALBUM: It opens with the sound of a match being struck, then this 1995 classic by Cassandra Wilson proceeds to slowly but surely burn down the Woodstock barn where it was recorded. Old weird America made new and bracingly intimate.

LYRICS: Peter, Paul & Mary, "The Great Mandella (Wheel of Life)"

SONG: In Oscar Hammerstein's universe, larks pray and the moon flies high. In Hank Williams's world, on the other hand, the moon hides and birds are suicidal. That's not the only reason, but it's one of them, that this is among the greatest of American songs.

ALBUM: You get all the bracing clarity and concision you expect from Víkingur Ólafsson’s playing on this, his rendition of one of the monuments of the Western classical repertoire. What you also get: surging emotional subtext and singing musicality. Delicious.

LYRICS: The Beatles, "Blue Jay Way"

SONG: Burt Bacharach composed this lush, dippy, dashing jam as an ode to the leisurely drives he used to enjoy in his Corvette convertible up the PCH to Malibu. I offer it today, with all my heartbroken love, to Los Angeles, where at least one ventricle of my heart remains.

ALBUM: The anguish and devastation conveyed by this George Crumb threnody, here given its definitive rendition by Kronos Quartet, feels agonizingly apropos for this apocalyptic moment.

LYRICS: Kate Bush, "Love and Anger"

SONG: “You are for me; the wind has told me this.” The gentle but firm love breeze that Julieta Venegas sings about somehow wafts through this sunny, relaxed, reggae-adjacent hit from 2007, with a similarly unfussy rap break by Anita Tijoux.

ALBUM: The cheese is thick but often irresistible on this attentively curated collection of 1960s/70s rock and funk classics covered by the likes of Mel Tormé, Francis Lai, Peggy Lee, and the Johnny Mann Singers. (Vol. 1 is similarly rich and wrong.)

LYRICS: MJ Lenderman, "You Don't Know the Shape I'm In"

SONG: Eleri Ward’s new single isn’t as chill as her last one, “Moss”; the new one is a skittering 5/4 electropop pep talk about seizing the moment. But to my ear it similarly bears the bold harmonic stamp of her Sondheim covers (esp. the turn around :56).

ALBUM: At long last the 2 records made in the '80s by sui generis art-rock quartet Hugo Largo (two basses, electric violin, keening vocals) are up on streaming. I shared a sketchy upload of their first, Drum, last year; their gorgeous second is also a must.

LYRICS: Sufjan Stevens, "Everything That Rises"

SONG: So many reasons to love this Rev. Gary Davis classic, but what always gets me is the way the chorus spills right out of the verse, with “Just as long as I’m in this world” like a full-measure pickup to the title line. Music works in mysterious ways.

ALBUM: Is there any group whose name more accurately describes their music than Sweet Honey in the Rock? Their heartful, rangy a cappella gospel rains comfort on a harsh world—like balm in Gilead, about which they sing on this essential 1995 collection.