This week’s playlist is somewhat skewed towards songs I’ve been listening to for longer than a year. I have tended to be relentless in making sure I continue exploring new music out of fear that I would become mired in the quicksand of nostalgia, but now I fear that I’ll forget the songs I enjoy, having no material reminder of them beyond their temporary presence on the internet.
This week:
Cripple and the Starfish – Antony and the Johnsons
Beautiful, beautiful song that shows the basic song form has incredible depth to continue charting.
Elderberry Wine – Wednesday
I’m a bit suspicious of the ongoing turn to something like country given that country itself is essentially a poor appropriation of folk music, but songs like these give me hope for the genre.
Riding Around in the Dark – Florist
This song comes off the I Saw the TV Glow soundtrack, which is a great album in itself (and the movie’s great too). NPR has a write-up on the way that the album came together that isn’t as insightful as it could be, but might be a good introduction to the movie if you haven’t seen it already.
Words – F.R. David
“Words,” which comes to me via @norkpen, has the rare accomplishment of being a good meta song on the difficulty of language, and maybe it does this by investing its reflections into the form of the radio pop of its time (1982).
Alibi – Hurray for the Riff Raff
Alynda Segarra doesn’t get enough credit for her long commitment to mining the form of folk music, and coming back to this song over two years reminded me I never listened to the album it was a single for.
Fish in the Jailhouse – Tom Waits
I’ve been listening to “Fish in the Jailhouse” for maybe a decade now, trying to figure out how guitarist Marc Ribot does what he does so well for Tom Waits, and I think this song might be his greatest guitar writing accomplishment.
Cowgirl – Ora Cogan
Ora Cogan occupies a surprisingly under-explored terrain in the area of folk, weird spooky sound, and at times a driving rock form. This song single-handedly inspired me to pursue other music that fits the bill, which I’ve called “pensive cowgirl,” and I’ve only found 2-3 other real contenders (Marissa Nadler and some Chelsea Wolfe).