So that it doesn’t seem as if I’m trying to pull a fast one on you–slipping a Taylor Swift mega-track into one of my humble, left-of-center playlists in hopes that no one might notice–I will instead call attention to it up front. Yes, there’s “Anti-Hero,” six songs in. And yet I will claim that the playlist is as left-of-center as ever; the concept here isn’t to banish songs that happen to be very popular, it is rather to present quality songs in a context the internet normally deprives us of–which is to say, a thoughtful, multi-genre, multi-decade context. I don’t hear a lot of current pop that I would tag with the word “quality” (“formulaic,” “over-processed,” and “social-media-obsessed” are more likely to apply), which is the main reason for 21st-century pop’s typical absence from the Eclectic Playlist Series. But occasionally something good slips in. In any case, I somehow doubt a Taylor Swift song has anywhere else appeared sandwiched between Portishead and Mary Margaret O’Hara. And while I didn’t do it for shock value–I do very much like how this unlikely trio works together–I guess I don’t mind knowing it might jar if not the ears then the intellect, a bit. And, it keeps me one step ahead of the algorithm, yes?
All that aside, I hope you find this month’s mix stimulating, with its unusual blending of the well-known and the rarely-heard, with one particular, recently-minted treasure stashed in the middle: the Innocence Mission’s gorgeous “On Your Side,” from 2020. It was a Fingertips download feature at the time and surely deserves another bit of appreciation. It kind of breaks my heart that a song this dazzling and heartfelt can fall through our cultural cracks without any celebration or even notice, but that’s the sort of culture in which we are ensconced, with its bombastic, attention-seeking public figures on the one hand and (do I sense a vicious cycle?) super-short-attention-spanned consumers on the other.
The playlist as always has 20 songs, all worthy, but you’ll definitely need a bit of an attention span to make it through to the end:
1. “Shotgun” – Soccer Mommy (Sometimes, Forever, 2022)
2. “On Automatic” – Michael Penn (Mr. Hollywood Jr., 1947, 2005)
3. “Put Yourself in My Place” – The Elgins (single, 1965)
4. “Any Danger Love” – The Starjets (God Bless the Starjets, 1979)
5. “All Mine” – Portishead (Portishead, 1997)
6. “Anti-Hero” – Taylor Swift (Midnights, 2023)
7. “To Cry About” – Mary Margaret O’Hara (Miss America, 1988)
8. “Undertow” – Katy Vernon (Suit of Hearts, 2019)
9. “Nardis” – Bill Evans Trio (Explorations, 1961)
10. “Home at Last” – Steely Dan (Aja, 1977)
11. “Crystal” – New Order (Get Ready, 2001)
12. “On Your Side” – The Innocence Mission (See You Tomorrow, 2020)
13. “Sunlight” – The Youngbloods (Elephant Mountain, 1969)
14. “Money” – Slowdim (single, 2012)
15. “I Say Nothing” – Voice of the Beehive (single, 1988)
16. “In a Little While” – U2 (All That You Can’t Leave Behind, 2000)
17. “Go Down” – Sam Phillips (Cruel Invention, 1991)
18. “Mystic Voyage” – Roy Ayers Ubiquity (Mystic Voyage, 1975)
19. “Set Me Free” – Utopia (Adventures in Utopia, 1980)
20. “My Terracotta Heart” – Blur (The Magic Whip, 2015)
Stray comments:
* My abiding fondness for the British band Blur has never, somehow, translated into a lot of listening time. I have no idea exactly why, but as such, when 2015’s The Magic Whip appeared, 12 years after the last album bearing the Blur name and 16 years after the last album featuring all the original members, I let it come and go with barely a passing glance. This, it turns out, was a big mistake. On the heels of a new Blur single and the announcement that another somewhat unexpected album is coming out next month, I went back to The Magic Whip and much to my delight found a splendid and thoughtful listening experience waiting for me. I’ve pulled out “My Terracotta Heart” as a wistful closing track here, but do yourself a favor and dive into the whole thing. (And by the way that new single, “The Narcissist,” is also excellent. I promise to pay more attention to the new album when it drops.)
* With its classic Motown swing, Holland-Dozier-Holland pedigree, and the enticing vocals of Saundra Mallett Edwards, “Put Yourself in My Place” is another one of those “why-wasn’t-this-a-big-hit?” songs that seem to overflow in the Motown archives. The song was a b-side to the single “Darling Baby,” which was itself a modest hit. The Elgins were formed when Berry Gordy decided to place Edwards (at that point a struggling solo artist) at the front of a trio of vocalists who had previously been in an undistinguished doo-wop group called the Downbeats. The combination worked nicely, and resulted in a couple of minor hits before Edwards decided to leave the industry a few years later. If “Put Yourself in My Place” sounds like something the Supremes should be singing, there’s good reason for that: H-D-H wrote it for the more well-known group but were convinced to give it first to the Elgins; perhaps it helped that one of the Elgins was Brian Holland’s barber. The Supremes did end up recording it anyway, the next year.
* The widely-praised Steely Dan album Aja is filled with familiar, painstakingly crafted songs, but the one that has long been my dark-horse favorite is Becker and Fagan’s impressionistic take on The Odyssey, “Home at Last.” The mind-boggling precision on display is counter-balanced by an ineffable sense of poignancy conveyed via the shuffling rhythm, the question-and-answer horn refrain, lyrics at once vivid and elusive, and a chorus highlighted by a split-level melody, suspended chords, and an ambiguous conclusion. I will never tire of this multifaceted masterpiece.
* New Order, meanwhile, is not a band to study too often for their lyrical insight, and the insistent “Crystal” is no exception. Much better to ride the strength of the indelible bass leads and the grinding grit and drive of the arrangement than to fret over lines like “Here comes love, it’s like honey/You can’t buy it with money.” Um, whatever. Get Ready was released after an open-ended eight-year hiatus, the album itself as unanticipated as the reorientation of the band’s sound back towards guitars there in 2001. Solid stuff all around, and while the radio edit of “Crystal” is less meander-y, there’s something about the full-length track’s unhurried opening and determined brio that carries a listener willingly along for the extended ride.
* If you’ll indulge a bit of what we in the US call “inside baseball,” I’ll note that the exemplary singer/songwriter Sam Phillips is now tied with David Bowie for most appearances in an Eclectic Playlist Series mix to date, with nine. Of those right behind with eight only Radiohead and Kate Bush have yet to make an appearance in 2023 so either one or both might end the year tied in that top position. (I anticipate both things happening but you never know.) The other artists with eight appearances are Elvis Costello, They Might Be Giants, and Björk. These numbers relate to the policy here that no one artist may appear in a playlist more than once in a calendar year. Out of the 20 artists in this month’s mix, eight are here for the first time. I always aim to have at least seven or eight “newcomers” every month. Each month also, usually, features a few songs that were previously posted in a review here on Fingertips. This month there are three: “Undertow,” by Katy Vernon, “Money” by Slowdim, and the aforementioned Innocence Mission track.
Fingertips 