Music Diary, Vol. 72

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 May 19-25, 2025

LYRICS: Liz Phair, "Jealousy"

SONG: 2 things I picked up from some happy replays of this vintage ELO jam: Its clear debt to the Beach Boys, and the fact that what sounds like "Bruce" is actually the German greeting "gruss." But the song's main draw for me is still the sunburst change to the flat III chord on "tell you once more."

ALBUM: Like fellow soul-inflected singer-songwriters Nicki Bluhm or Mindy Smith, Nicole Atkins deserves a much wider audience. Imagine Faye Webster with a Fiona Apple belt and you'll be close. This 2020 record, made at Muscle Shoals, makes a good intro.

LYRICS: Styx, "Renegade"

SONG: What the hell is going on in the bridge of this classic Stones album opener? The phased vocals and broken-down tempo are a psychedelic trap-door drop from the straightahead jam, hinting at a queasy hangover/withdrawal to come—before the song snaps back into place.

ALBUM: Okay, I'm now a proper Nicole Atkins obsessive. Yesterday I recommended her most recent record; this knockout 2017 collection is squarely in the Shelby Lynne/KT Tunstall is-it-country-or-is-it-soul sweet spot, albeit with a heavier retro vibe.

LYRICS: Michelle Shocked, "Anchorage"

SONG: Did any band have more distinctly different periods than The Bee Gees? Fleetwood Mac, sure, but that’s mostly due to personnel changes. The Gibbs brothers first made their name with stately chamber pop like this lovely if po-faced ballad, which couldn’t be further from the dance floor.

ALBUM: I'm sure I'm not the only who finds Mendelssohn's Octet propulsively exciting, as if by doubling the string quartet sound he actually squared the sweetness and drama. This Cleveland/Tokyo Quartet rendition makes a beautiful case for the work's range.

LYRICS: Stevie Wonder, "Village Ghetto Land"

SONG: I can't decide what I love most about this swirling techno concoction, which opened the Indestructible Asian Beats compilation from 2001: the slicing violin, the gritty sax, the jumpy beat, the keening Manorama Prasad vocals. Luckily I don't have to choose; it's all there. A sonic feast.

ALBUM: Now that my kid is into them, I figured I should finally give Pink Floyd a chance. So I spun this iconic LP today for the first time (really), and my verdict is that "Time" and "Money" are bops and "Great Gig in the Sky" is impressive. That's about it.

LYRICS: The Contours (Robinson/Rogers), "First I Look at the Purse"

SONG: Shilpa Ray's catchy, jangly new single somehow sounds both sneering and warm, another of her signature kiss-offs but this time with an unmistakable wink. Bonus: some great guitar flourishes by Jeff Berner.

ALBUM: This exquisite piano concerto by Timo Andres was apparently inspired by Beethoven's second, but something about its vibrant textures and colors put me more in mind of Ravel's (both of them), though its harmonies are both denser and rawer.

LYRICS: Dead Kennedys, "Nazi Punks Fuck Off"

SONG: This hilarious Vulfmon/Jacob Jeffries duet may have novelty song-worthy lyrics—the singer is all but bullying a prospective partner to show him love in song form—but the delivery is pure blue-eyed soul delight (including the modulation), all the more impressive for seeming tossed off.

ALBUM: I know he’s got a famous piece with the word “spring” in it, but the work of Stravinsky’s I find most refreshing, vibrant, and, yes, spring-like is this dramatic, inspiriting ballet about a puppet love triangle.

LYRICS: The Pixies, "Monkey Gone to Heaven"

SONG: Not sure I share Stevie Wonder’s faith in reincarnation but I do heartily believe in what he’s laying down in this classic clavinet jam, in which God is definitely in the details.

ALBUM: If Neil Young were a Jesus freak, he might sound a bit like Larry Norman, whose definitive 1973 record makes a persuasive case for him as a first-rate folk-rock polymath with some admittedly fringe ideas but no shortage of craft or prophetic fervor.