Music Diary, Vol. 87
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 Sept. 1-7, 2025
LYRICS: Madonna (Sondheim), "More"
SONG: This head-banging Beatles cover by the Australian band Zoot, apparently inspired by Hendrix’s way with other people’s songs, leaves out some of the original harmonies but adds some intriguing chords of its own. On lead guitar, btw: Rick Springfield.
SONG: This head-banging Beatles cover by the Australian band Zoot, apparently inspired by Hendrix’s way with other people’s songs, leaves out some of the original harmonies but adds some intriguing chords of its own. On lead guitar, btw: Rick Springfield.
ALBUM: Like Talking Heads’ debut, released the same year, Television’s first disc is essentially a live capture of a nervy NYC art-rock band with a wiry frontman, though here the main draw is the piercing two-guitar counterpoint of Tom Verlaine & Richard Lloyd.
LYRICS: Merle Haggard, "Hungry Eyes"
SONG: It may not be as great a song as “Little Wing,” but this lush Hendrix ballad remains a fave for its gorgeous scene painting—not only in Jimi’s limpid pentatonic guitar lines but also in Mitch Mitchell’s tabla-esque snares-off drums and Noel Redding’s droning bass.
SONG: It may not be as great a song as “Little Wing,” but this lush Hendrix ballad remains a fave for its gorgeous scene painting—not only in Jimi’s limpid pentatonic guitar lines but also in Mitch Mitchell’s tabla-esque snares-off drums and Noel Redding’s droning bass.
ALBUM: After the searching rock Americana of Strays, Margo Price’s new record makes a hard swerve back to classic country, but with a fresh edge and confidence; who else would drop the line “We played the jukebox while democracy fell” into a love ballad?
LYRICS: Liam Tamne & Siubhan Harrison (Lin-Manuel Miranda), “A Very Good Day” from Working
SONG: It’s hard not to love this mid-60s cut from Quincy Jones and his band, in which the twanging scales of the koto seem to lead the composer, Marvin Hamlisch, down some surprising harmonic side trips off the main A-minor vamp, while remaining infectiously tuneful.
ALBUM: Jacqueline du Pré’s cello could brood and saw, sure, but what set her apart imo was that she made the instrument sing like few others, as on this exquisite pairing of Saint-Saëns’s stirringly neoclassical concerto with Delius’s wilder, woollier number.
LYRICS: Sabrina Carpenter, "My Man on Willpower"
SONG: This slamming Sam Fender track gives off the usual Springsteen vibes (there’s even a sax), but the tune it most reminds of, in its phrasing and sound, is Don Henley’s “Boys of Summer,” if its sun-kissed melancholy were turned up to 11.
SONG: This slamming Sam Fender track gives off the usual Springsteen vibes (there’s even a sax), but the tune it most reminds of, in its phrasing and sound, is Don Henley’s “Boys of Summer,” if its sun-kissed melancholy were turned up to 11.
ALBUM: Rufus Wainwright's first record positively knocked me out, but his lush, assured, overflowingly tuneful sophomore effort somehow topped it. Now 24 years old, it sounds as ageless as ever.
LYRICS: Jen Cloher, "Protest Song"
SONG: It’s not just the vivid Dust Bowl lyrics of this Dallas Frazier/Earl Montgomery classic, definitively sung by Merle Haggard, that make it stick. There’s also the startling third chord of the verse (a flat VII) and the delayed entrance of the chorus (*beat* “Cal…”).
SONG: It’s not just the vivid Dust Bowl lyrics of this Dallas Frazier/Earl Montgomery classic, definitively sung by Merle Haggard, that make it stick. There’s also the startling third chord of the verse (a flat VII) and the delayed entrance of the chorus (*beat* “Cal…”).
ALBUM: Natalia Sokolovskaya plays Rameau's complete piano works with bracing clarity but not without warmth on this lovely 2-disc set. Baroque brightness makes a better match with Russian darkness than you might think.
LYRICS: David Bowie, "Bring Me the Disco King"
SONG: What hooked me on the Violent Femmes wasn’t just the edgy lyrics, it was the sound: On this, possibly the most iconic list song of the 1980s, it’s Brian Ritchie’s twanging acoustic bass guitar and Victor DeLorenzo’s skittering drums as much as Gordon Gano’s sneering vocals that seal it.
SONG: What hooked me on the Violent Femmes wasn’t just the edgy lyrics, it was the sound: On this, possibly the most iconic list song of the 1980s, it’s Brian Ritchie’s twanging acoustic bass guitar and Victor DeLorenzo’s skittering drums as much as Gordon Gano’s sneering vocals that seal it.
ALBUM: If you like singer-songwriter Americana in the Lucinda/John Hiatt vein but you don’t know Amy Correia’s work, I can’t recommend her highly enough. This rich, rangy 2012 record makes a great intro; faves include “O Lord” and “Carolina Rail.”
LYRICS: Sweet Honey in the Rock, "Would You Harbor Me"
SONG:Obsessed with Marion Williams’s upper register on this barn-burning rendition of a Thomas A. Dorsey gospel classic—she starts out popping the high Fs into a woozy head voice, but later she croons and growls (and surpasses) them. The spirit is breath, after all.
SONG:Obsessed with Marion Williams’s upper register on this barn-burning rendition of a Thomas A. Dorsey gospel classic—she starts out popping the high Fs into a woozy head voice, but later she croons and growls (and surpasses) them. The spirit is breath, after all.
ALBUM: Celestial harmonies, songs of love and healing in Māori—what’s not to like about this exquisite EP by Te Kaahu?
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