Music Diary, Vol. 101
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 (though the first song is a different rendition than the one I shared and link below), and also here.
Week of Dec. 8-14, 2025
LYRICS: Rob Kendt, "The Girl Who Went Away"
SONG: The other morning my wife said to me, “What was that strange sound?” I had to admit it was me casually trying to make the 10-note vocal leap in the chorus of Stephin Merritt’s most infectious earworm.
SONG: The other morning my wife said to me, “What was that strange sound?” I had to admit it was me casually trying to make the 10-note vocal leap in the chorus of Stephin Merritt’s most infectious earworm.
ALBUM: It may simply be a matter of timing (it came out when I was 19), but this double album will always be the Prince record for me. Spare, dark, and weird but also sugary, sexy, and exultant, it's the ultimate pop-rock ride.
LYRICS: Cole Porter, "Anything Goes"
SONG: Somewhere in the gap between Nina Simone and David Longstreth sits this impossibly yearning Brittany Howard ballad, which savors bittersweet feeling like a lozenge and exhales its minty bouquet with arrestingly improvisatory intimacy.
SONG: Somewhere in the gap between Nina Simone and David Longstreth sits this impossibly yearning Brittany Howard ballad, which savors bittersweet feeling like a lozenge and exhales its minty bouquet with arrestingly improvisatory intimacy.
ALBUM: Can't recall how I stumbled on this lovely record by Dan Dorff and Ronnie Kuller, but its loose-limbed blend of chamber classical-folk, played as if they're just noodling in the parlor next door, is so up my alley it's like I dreamt it into existence.
LYRICS: The Beatles, "You Never Give Me Your Money"
SONG: McCartney has his share of indefensible tunes, but this funky trifle from 1980, which sounds like his attempt to one-up “Disco Duck,” is the only one I unabashedly (ok, somewhat abashedly) love.
SONG: McCartney has his share of indefensible tunes, but this funky trifle from 1980, which sounds like his attempt to one-up “Disco Duck,” is the only one I unabashedly (ok, somewhat abashedly) love.
ALBUM: Technically the first solo album by a Beatle, this Paul McCartney-credited soundtrack record from 1967 should probably have been credited mostly to George Martin. It’s pleasant enough faux-classical folderol, but one strains to hear any Macca signatures.
LYRICS: Kae Tempest, "Lonely Daze"
SONG: Among the pleasant surprises of this excellent late-career collab between these 2 ex-Fleetwood Mac polymaths is this bouncy track, a sort of follow-up to "Think About Me" in that it sounds like an exact gene splice of Buckingham's tightly wound pop and McVie's easy-breezy tunefulness.
SONG: Among the pleasant surprises of this excellent late-career collab between these 2 ex-Fleetwood Mac polymaths is this bouncy track, a sort of follow-up to "Think About Me" in that it sounds like an exact gene splice of Buckingham's tightly wound pop and McVie's easy-breezy tunefulness.
ALBUM: Resistance-lib showtune soul and folk isn't everyone's cup of tea, but no one does it better, or with more salty vigor and heart, than Shaina Taub. Happily revisiting this 2018 joint, which includes a tune from her terrific As You Like It.
LYRICS: Hermione Gingold (John Jowett/Robert Gordon), “The Borgias Are Having an Orgy”
SONG: I’m a sucker for a pop song with a guitar part at least as catchy as the vocal hook: “And Your Bird Can Sing,” “(Nothing But) Flowers,” “Break-Thru.” I’d put this Paramore banger in that category, with extra points for putting these 2 parts in counterpoint at the chorus.
ALBUM: Paul Cauthen is almost too good to be true: an old-school country crooner with Tom Jones swagger and arena-rock uplift. The key to it all, as heard on this gorgeous 2019 record, is absolute sincerity, whether his subject is love, regret, or cocaine.
LYRICS: Harry Styles (w/ Thomas Hull, Tyler Johnson, and Amy Allen), "Matilda"
SONG: For sheer contrast and relative concision, this 11-minute track could be the portable Yes, alternating nimbly between kicking math rock and faerie folk. The sharp distance between their two modes seldom rang out more clearly.
SONG: For sheer contrast and relative concision, this 11-minute track could be the portable Yes, alternating nimbly between kicking math rock and faerie folk. The sharp distance between their two modes seldom rang out more clearly.
ALBUM: It’s on the borderline of twee, but I was ultimately won over by Amanda Pascali’s 2018 debut, a hearty collection of folk with some Italian flavor but also hints of Sufjan and Regina Spektor. Choice cut: “Uccellino (Little Bird).”
LYRICS: Kate Bush, "Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)"
SONG: This haunting tune from a fave record (a collection from St. Joseph’s Māori Girls College and Te Aute College), partly based on the great English carol “In the Bleak Midwinter,” came up on shuffle as I walked through snowy NY streets today. There are no coincidences.
SONG: This haunting tune from a fave record (a collection from St. Joseph’s Māori Girls College and Te Aute College), partly based on the great English carol “In the Bleak Midwinter,” came up on shuffle as I walked through snowy NY streets today. There are no coincidences.
ALBUM: Another Sunday, another collection of underrated Holst choral works inspired by Hindu spirituality (and, in the stirring opener, the Greek pantheon). As with “The Cloud Messenger,” the lightly worn Eastern influences sound ahead of their time.
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