Low- The Last Snowstorm of the Year (from “Trust”)
Too thematically appropriate to resist posting, given that I’m about to go out into the heavy April snow to write songs. Also, it had damned well better be the last!
Suede- Picnic By the Motorway (from “Coming Up”)- (“If it’s a single, I’ll call it ‘lovely day’- if not, I’ll think of something clever)
Despite, or perhaps because of the fact that “Dog Man Star” ranks so high in my pantheon of favorite albums, I never really listened to anything later- partly from repuation, partly from pique at the poor taste of an ex-girlfriend who ex-girlfriend very much preferring “Coming Up”, partly from not much caring for the cover art- in any case, I always figured I wouldn’t much care for it. Still, not having listened to much pop music over the winter and being in the mood for such things, I pulled it out a month or so ago, and was more pleasantly surprised than not. It’s distinctly spotty, and still not quite my cup of tea- the worse songs play like bad self-parody, while the better ones come of as rather good, guilty-pleasure self-parody, while a few, like the one listed above, are unexpecedly gorgeous and weird, and have been played over and over again on repeat pretty often after lousy days this past few weeks of absent spring.
Galaxie 500- Isn’t it a Pity (George Harrison Cover)
Probably my favorite Galaxie 500 song, though it isn’t even theirs (and one last post of songs I was reminded of how much I loved hearing on last months road trip on bsabo.tumblr.com’s old ipod). We place a bit too much value on irony and subtlety are generally overrated- nothing can top a cliche done perfectly and with a pure heart.
Current 93- Patripassian (from “All the Pretty Little Horses”)
A day late on this one, but seasonally appropriate all the same. Nick Cave reads a text by Blaise Pascal, over a renaissance choral loop, curated by everyone’s favorite ludicrously pretentious catholic/buddhist/gnostic/crowley-ite goth/industrial impressario, David Tibet. Jesus will be in agony until the end of the world. There must be no resting in the meantime.
Sam Cooke- “All Night Long”
Never mind Beatles/Stones (the correct answer is “Kinks” in any case)- here’s the real burning, and as yet unanswered question: “Billie Holliday or Sam Cooke”? (in the contest being for greatest voice in (recorded) history)I asked it of the fiancee recently while out getting dinner when a Sam Cooke song came on the jukebox, and she wasn’t aware the matter was even in doubt, prompting the need to evangelize. Evangalizing, once started, can become hard to stop- and so I present to you the song above, as good an contender as for most perfect thing ever put on record, at least in what could broadly be construed popular song. Time don’t mean that much to me, but for two and a half minutes, it’s gloriously erased.
Spoon- Paper Tiger (from “Kill the Moonlight”)
An old favorite found by surprise on a friend’s ipod and listened to on the long drive last weekend, which I hadn’t listened to in years, and had half-forgotten how lovely it was. For the record, it’s lovely.
His Name is Alive- Send My Face (from “Detrola”)
Related to the former. Oddly, no uploaded video for this one, and I only have it on an old CD myself- the only other place I found it (should you happen to be spotifyless) is on an old myspace page, of all places: http://www.myspace.com/hisnameisalive/music/songs/send-my-face-alternative-42022755
Dug out said CD trying to find things to listen to on a drive to, and back from, Milwaukee (close enough to Detroit, in a way), not having listened to it for a number of years, and was reminded of just how wonderful it is (works beautifully on a late-night moonlit winter central-Wisconsin landscape). “Dream pop” (one of the rare ridiculous genre labels I’m actually kind of fond of) usually gets applied to music that sounds somehow “dreamy”- this, on the other hand, is music with all the actual strangeness of dreams.
