mon rovia

Playlist #246

/ xeyeti / Leave a comment

Happy Monday, folks. It’s my anniversary this week, so you’ll excuse me if I don’t answer any calls or whatnot tomorrow. Yeah, that’s right, I know when my wedding anniversary is. Take that, Boomer comedians! Anyway, have a playlist.

  1. Matt Berninger, “Blue Monday”: Is this the most obvious cover of all time? Possibly. Is it still a pretty great cover? Most definitely.
  2. Peter Gabriel, “Been Undone”: New Peter Gabriel, and we’re gonna keep getting new Peter Gabriel twice a month all year? I’m here for it. i/o was excellent, and o/i already seems like it might be just as good.
  3. The Faim, “Ease My Mind”: Poppier than what I usually listen to, but still a fun little number.
  4. Bob Weir, “Only A River”: Bob Weir passed last week, meaning the remaining Grateful Dead are now one fewer. While I never really cared much for the Dead or their jam band-y meanderings, I recognize their influence and lasting importance. Weir was a good songwriter and guitarist, and this track off of a solo album he released a few years ago remains very affecting.
  5. The Magnetic Fields, “Nothing Matters When We’re Dancing”: My song with The Wife. We have a poster with the lyrics on it hanging up in the living room that she bought for me last year. She is excellent at coming up with thoughtful gifts.
  6. Mon Rovia, “Bloodline”: I dig the short, simple songs these guys create. There’s a sincerity and honesty to the music that comes through in their arrangements and excellent vocal harmonies. I want more.
  7. David Bowie, “Five Years”: Is Ziggy Stardust an album about a weird singer, or is it a prophetic warning about the end of the world? Por que no los dos?
  8. Mark Knopfler, “Cannibals”: Cannibals and dinosaurs and hurricanes, oh my!
  9. Billy Bragg & Wilco, “Remember The Mountain Bed”: Just one of the sweetest – and somehow saddest – songs I can remember hearing in the past twenty-five years or so. Absolutely perfect, no notes.
  10. Cat Power, “The Greatest”: A song about a boxer, maybe, or maybe just a song about striving. It’s great either way.

Playlist #244: End of Year Wrap-Up

/ xeyeti / Leave a comment

Happy last Monday of 2025, folks! It’s been a helluva year, I think we can all agree, and I’ll be glad to see the back of it. But there were a lot of songs I listened to pretty much on repeat this year, such as the following:

  1. The Wallflowers, “It’s a Dream”: I love the rhythm of this song and the interior rhymes Jakob Dylan throws into it. And that’s a great chorus, too.
  2. Lord Huron, “Meet Me In The Woods”: I apparently have listened to this song about 50 times this year, and I only first hear the album in…August? September? Geez.
  3. Langhorne Slim, “House Of My Soul (You Light The Rooms)”: This song lights to rooms in the house of my soul.
  4. Matt Berninger, “Little By Little”: I loved this album and I love this song. It just has such great momentum and a catchy melody that I can’t stop humming to myself.
  5. Bob Dylan, “Red River Shore”: Why does this song feel more like a relic of a past century than something Dylan penned in 1997? And yes, I realize 1997 was last century, but you know what I mean. This feels like a song that has always existed, not one Dylan conjured from the aether while working on Time Out of Mind.
  6. Mon Rovia, “Heavy Foot”: It’s a simple political song masquerading as a stomp-clap-hey song.
  7. Chris Smither, “Origin Of Species”: Satirical look at the ascent of man through a warm, folky groove.
  8. Glen Phillips, “Go”: Just one of the most affecting songs I’ve heard in recent years. It’s beautiful and haunting and moving.
  9. Bob Dylan, “Boots Of Spanish Leather”: One of the saddest early Dylan songs, if you ask me. There’s no bitterness in it; the bitterness came later, I think. There’s just a resigned sadness in it.
  10. Hurray For The Riff Raff, “Snake Plant (The Past Is Alive)”: It’s amazing what you can do with just two chords.