camera obscura

Playlist #266

/ xeyeti / Leave a comment

Happy Monday, folks! I’m glad we’ve finally seen the back of May; that month had it out for me, I swear. But now it’s June, and the end of the school year beckons. Here’s a playlist to start your week.

  1. Paul McCartney, “Lost Horizon”: McCartney released a new album last week. It’s pretty good. It’s a McCartney album, which I feel like is a known quantity at this point in his career. His voice is still in fine form, even if there’s the occasional warble to it, and the man still crafts beautiful melodies like most people craft bowel movements.
  2. SUSS, “Sunset IV”: These guys do “cosmic Americana,” which is ambient music with pedal steel. This particular collection, Counting Sunsets, gets the closest they’ve actually been to composing what I’d think of as songs, but it’s all very pleasant music to listen to while you do your laundry on a rainy Sunday.
  3. nep, “A Big Brown Dog Named Bagel”: a musician I discovered via Facebook last week. Her first album, which this song is from, is mostly acoustic singer-songwriter fare, while her more recent album (last year’s Noelle) incorporates more modern styles and sounds. Both are pretty good, though, and this particular song is great.
  4. Billy Bragg & Wilco, “California Stars”: Could Mermaid Avenue be done nowadays? Could you get an anti-folk folkie like Billy Bragg and alt-country darlings like Wilco together, throw a bunch of Woody Guthrie lyrics at them, and get a masterpiece like this? I’m not sure you could, but I’m glad we did.
  5. Grateful Dead, “Touch of Grey”: It’s very difficult to ever actually say exactly what a Grateful Dead song is about (other than psychedelic drugs and overlong guitar solos), but I’m pretty sure this one is about trying to age gracefully, even when you fall on your ass or you, like, drop trou in front of your fiancée’s parents. I could be wrong, though, and this one could just still be about drugs.
  6. Mike Doughty, “Grey Ghost”: I just love the rhythm and feel of this song. It’s great.
  7. Drive-By Truckers, “Everybody Needs Love”: Is this contemporary southern rock’s answer to the Beatles’ “All You Need Is Love”? Maybe. Is it a great song? Definitely.
  8. The National, “Bitters & Absolut”: Who doesn’t love a song about being an alcoholic?
  9. Bahamas, “Lost in the Light”: A lazy, laconic guitar riff helps this song lope along to those beautiful harmonies in the chorus.
  10. Camera Obscura, “If Looks Could Kill”: I love how bouncy and jangly the guitar part is in this song, and the vocals are just perfect. No notes.

Happy Valentine’s Day 2017

/ xeyeti / Leave a comment

When I was a younger man, single and insecure and full of anxiety and dumb ideas, I was a bit of a sad sack.  Okay, a lot of a sad sack.  I moped around the campus fountain at midnight listening to sad songs on my Discman like some mooney-eyed twit.  And I made mix CDs of songs about love gone sour and losers.

Nowadays, I tend to mope less, mostly because I finally got medication and therapy.  Marrying an amazing woman helped, too.  While I don’t make mix CDs anymore (I make playlists on my phone instead, because it’s 2017), I do still enjoy putting together thematic lists for special occasions.  While I think of myself as less of a loser than I once did, I thought it might be fun to put together one more Loser List for Valentine’s Day.

Before the list, though, a few words on this holiday.  I’ve never been a big fan of Valentine’s Day.  Maybe it’s a result of being single throughout college and grad school.  Maybe I resent being told I have to be romantic on a set day in a specific way (today’s comic is a pretty clear indicator that the Wife and I have our own unique brand of affection and romance).  Honestly, I don’t think there’s any real reason to feel obligated to do some big, ridiculous thing today, unless you really want to.  Some folks really love Valentine’s Day, and that’s great for them!  For the rest of us, let’s just act like it’s a regular ol’ Tuesday, and everyone has joined Garibaldi’s Red Shirts for the day for some weird reason.

Anyway, without further ado, here’s the Losers List.

The Beatles, “I’m a Loser”: A Hard Day’s Night is one of my absolute favorite Beatles albums, and this manages to be one of the best songs on the record.

Beck, “Loser”: Like this song wasn’t going to show up on this list.

Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, “Even the Losers”: More a song of hope than anything else, it always gives me strength to think that even the losers can get lucky sometime.

The Avett Brothers, “Shame”: Sometimes we feel so sure of ourselves, only to realize we’re being tremendous assholes.

Bob Dylan, “You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go”: Blood on the Tracks is full of sad songs of love gone wrong, but this is one of my favorites.

Cake, “Friend is a Four-Letter Word”: If early-20s me had an anthem, this was probably it.  If anyone needed a punch in the face, it was early-20s me.

Camera Obscura, “Lloyd, I’m Ready to be Heartbroken”: “‘Cause I can’t see further than my own nose at the moment.”  Brilliant.

Sting, “Seven Days”: Sting’s face is pretty punchable, too, if only because he refers to his rival as “Neanderthal.”

Jesse Malin, “She Don’t Love Me Now”: I’m a sucker for great horn arrangements.

Led Zeppelin, “Hey Hey What Can I Do”: Your woman runs around on you while everyone’s at church?  Robert Plant feels your pain.