My Top Five for 2021

 I learned recently that the drop of one's annual top songs and artists lists on Spotify is a big deal in some circles. I never paid them much mind, but this year's top songs are so very reflective of my recent tastes, I thought I would just share them here. Some were new in 2021, others far from new. These five have been practically on repeat at some point in the last year. Let's just take them in order:

#1) "Postcard" First Aid Kit

This one is from 2018. First Aid Kit are Swedish sisters Johanna and Klara Soderberg. Gorgeous harmonies on first-rate songs. Johanna has an Emmylou Harris catch in her voice for which I am just a fool, whomever might be doing it. This one veers more into the country vein, where they are usually more folkie. I can't hold it against them here.

...and then I went and broke my own goddamn heart

#2) "VBS" Lucy Dacus

VBS is short for Vacation Bible School, a ubiquitous summer fortnight in Midwestern Christian America. I think the vacation part is for the parents, who get the kids away from the house for awhile.

Sedentary secrets like peach pits in your gut, locked away like jam jars in the cellar of your heart

Playing Slayer at full volume helps to block it out

 

#3) "Born On a Train" The Magnetic Fields

Terrific song about death. Beautiful melody over a train-like rhythm. I don't much like the official video. Makes me think of Arte Johnson on Laugh-In. "Velly interestink." But there don't seem to be any good performance videos.

And is there a sexier instrument than a cello? I think not.

Some roads are only seen at night

 

#4) "Hammond Song" The Roches

Now we're really going back (1979). 

When I first left home, I lived in a house with four other folks, including my future wife and her sister. Another housemate would often play The Roches, and this one always fascinated. In retrospect, the family fight depicted in the song might have seemed eerily familiar to me. I always have an emotional reaction listening to it.

Odd harmonies, but they work wonderfully. I wanted to use a live video, as they recreate the song supremely on stage. But the studio version has the added bonus of Robert Fripp's guitar. It melds so well with the voices, and almost adds a fourth voice to the song. (Fripp and Richard Thompson are my favorite guitarists, bar none.)

If you go with that fella, forget about us

 

#5) "The Barrel" Aldous Harding

I have no clue what this song is about. I found the groove hypnotic. Then my brother told me to check the video. Just as hypnotic as the music. And rather silly.

Look at all the peaches. How do you celebrate?

Looks like a date is set, show the ferret to the egg

 

Common themes on the list:

Female singers

Lush harmonies

Peaches

Genius

Angry music has always been my first love.  Indignant anthems from The Clash, bitter recrimination like Dylan's "Positively Fourth Street", Graham Parker railing about "Local Girls".  Elvis the Latter was my go-to favorite for two decades, reliably finding the sweet spot to push it in and twist.  But no one, no one, did it like Warren Zevon.

The anger was not just for show, and frequently hidden deep in very funny lyrics. How I would love to have new material from Brother Warren...but he is long dead, and the old stuff will have to do.

For my money, Zevon's greatest work was called "Genius." I'm sure he meant it ironically, but it is incredible.  Every line is golden, within as deep a rhyming scheme as you will find.  He wrote a string quartet to back it up. Our protagonist has lost his woman to a barber, and he meditates on the nature of genius.  This is from the last of his many appearances on David Letterman.



Going back to Zevon's first true album, "Backs Turned Looking Down the Path" reflects on growing up, featuring Lindsey Buckingham on guitar, and Jackson Browne on slide guitar and harmonies.  Beautifully rendered, and darker than the arrangement makes it seem.



Finally, something funny. "Lord Byron's Luggage" has some astounding double entendres all about the male unit.  From the same album as "Genius": My Ride's Here.



So very hard to choose just a few songs. This music does a world of good for me in my melancholia.

Yep, Still Here

The long awaited followup is here, at Out of My Mind.

Slipping Back

Moving backward, at Out of My Mind.

Winter Songs

Awakened early today (for me, anyway).  I was looking out the window and admiring the pale blue winter sky, quite lovely.  Then I thought about the gray skies that dominate the season, and Fleetwood Mac's "Bare Trees" started going through my head.  Bare trees, grey light, oh yeah, it was a cold night.

Soon, a litany of songs came to mind, and I had to grab some paper to clear my head, and maybe get back to sleep.  And it all became this post.

Bare Trees was released in 1972, and marked the transition from Danny Kirwan to Bob Welch as front man. Songs are about evenly divided on the album, but Kirwan got the title track.



Here's an album track from Simon and Garfunkel's The Sounds of Silence.  They were very new to stardom, and Simon seems to be taking himself very seriously still.  I love the enthusiasm of the audience at the start.



Billy Bragg nicked Simon's opening line, and created something wholly different, performed here in a favorite winter spot: a pub.



Fountains of Wayne is a power pop band from New Jersey, with a wicked sense of humor and a warm humanity. The latter is embodied in "Valley Winter Song" from their third album, Welcome Interstate Managers.



After the critics slagged A Passion Play (rightfully), Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson swore that he was done recording.  A year later, War Child was released, with the sublime "Skating Away on the Thin Ice of a New Day."



And speaking of sublime skating, the perfect winter song might be Joni Mitchell's "River".  Watch for the footage with Graham Nash.  So much melancholy in that woman.



There, about three songs too long for a good post. But, which ones to cut?!?  This one should get a lot of TL,DL comments: Too Long, Didn't Listen.

Liverpool Twofer

...and the Beatles are not within sniffing distance.

The Bangles' first LP All Over the Place included "Going Down to Liverpool", a cover of a Katrina and the Waves song.  It has a nice shuffle rhythm to it, and has always been my favorite Bangles song.  Susanna Hoffs got all the play as the cute Bangle, but I would take bass player Michael Steele all day.  She's on the far right in the car.

"In Liverpool" is from Suzanne Vega's fourth album, 99.9 F°.  The record was produced by Mitchell Froom, her then-husband.  The whole album bristles with metallic, brittle arrangements

Do you have a favorite producer?  Stupid as it sounds, I do: Mitchell Froom. Or maybe it's that he has produced so many of my favorite albums.  Chicken or egg?  He produced the first three Crowded House albums, three Ron Sexsmith albums, a bunch of Richard Thompson, Elvis Costello, Sheryl Crow, Randy Newman, The Bangles (though not the song here).  Consistently interesting, quirky production.

Put It Down

Mike Doughty, from Golden Delicious

This song came up on my iPod over the weekend, and I wound up listening to it three times straight.  Reason enough to share it with my peers.

Doughty is a native Kentuckian (bonus points!).  He was the principal songwriter and singer in Soul Coughing, who had some minor hits.  Doughty continues to make catchy music for small labels.  Highly recommended if you like this one.



What the heck, go for the bonus.  one of Soul Coughing's more popular songs, "Super Bon Bon".

I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight

Richard and Linda Thompson, from the album of the same name

Ask me my favorite guitarist, and the answer comes easily: Richard Thompson.  I am a fool for all things English, and Thompson is the epitome.

I haven't been to a lot of concerts, so it's a small sample size, but my favorite was an acoustic show by Richard Thompson.  He was supporting 1994's Mirror Blue (outstanding, btw), accompanied by Danny Thompson (no relation) on double bass.  Richard's virtuosity was breathtaking.  This was before I started playing, and it would have been discouraging to my ambitions.

This song was from the first record from Richard and his wife, Linda.  In its original arrangement, it has a Beatle-y flavor, with a brass band that features a pocket cornet (think "Penny Lane").  I found several different arrangements on Youtube as he has played it over the years, but this solo performance was the best of the lot, I think.  It really emphasizes his guitar stylings.



If it won't play for you, and it isn't for me(!), you can see it here.

Appreciating My Kids

Life lessons, at Out of My Mind.

Gonna Be Some Changes Made

Remember when this space used to pretend to be a music blog?  Yeah, me neither.  But it's true. 

This great number from Bruce Hornsby popped up on my iPod last night, and the volume went up.  When the song was new, I saw several live performances on TV, with great interplay between piano and rhythm section.  This promotional video is a solo performance, but has two extra verses that I don't get with the recorded version, so it's an extra treat for me.  Hope you enjoy it.