January has come and gone, as it does. But talk about “bleak midwinter”: here in the Northeast US, Philadelphia specifically, we’ve been encrusted by great piles of snow that have refused, for weeks, to melt–unusual for a standard winter here, but logical enough given the ongoing Arctic cold, which may finally be relenting. Without conscious effort, this latest mix reflects a bit of the hunkering down we weather-bound folks have been doing–one part melancholy introspection, one part bittersweet determination. Don’t miss a magically effective segue from Blue Rodeo into Sinéad O’Connor, as they blend together on the exact same note. I’d like to say I planned that but it’s actually more fun to have stumbled into it. I actually do a fair amount of stumbling to craft these mixes; it’s all good.
On an unrelated note, pondering current events more generally, I can’t help remarking that I’ve been writing this blog for 22-plus years and barely put my name on it. Then again I’m neither an extravert nor a narcissist nor a monumentally insecure kleptocrat so what do I know? The mentality of requiring things to have one’s name on them, in any case, is entirely foreign to me. The man should be pitied for being such a faulty specimen of human being if he weren’t doing so much damage to our worthy institutions, stabilizing norms, and collective spirit. And yet I can’t arrive at pity quite yet; despair and anger seem easier to land on.
Back to the music, here’s what you’re in for:
1. “None of This Will Matter When You Are Dead” – Club 8 (Seasonal Echoes, 2025)
2. “Til I Am Myself Again” – Blue Rodeo (Casino, 1990)
3. “It’s All Good” – Sinéad O’Connor (single, 2003)
4. “Throwing Stones” – Grateful Dead (In the Dark, 1987)
5. “I Saw You Blink” – Stornoway (Beachcomber’s Windowsill, 2010)
6. “Backlash” – Freddie Hubbard (Backlash, 1967)
7. “Quiet Eyes” – Sharon Van Etten (Past Lives soundtrack, 2023)
8. “Breakaway” – Gallagher and Lyle (Breakaway, 1976)
9. “TV Reality (The New Plague)” – Contramano (Unsatisfecho, 2007)
10. “Do You Wanna Hold Me” – Bow Wow Wow (When the Going Gets Tough, The Tough Get Going, 1983)
11. “I Can’t Hold On” – Lorraine Chandler (single, 1966)
12. “Just Two Girls” – Wolf Alice (The Clearing, 2025)
13. “I Looked Away” – Derek & the Dominos (Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, 1970)
14. “Oh Oh” – Shout Out Louds (Ease My Mind, 2017)
15. “In Indiana” – Brenda Kahn (Epiphany in Brooklyn, 1992)
16. “Europe After the Rain” – John Foxx (The Garden, 1981)
17. “Sidestepping” – Doris Henson (Give Me All Your Money, 2005)
18. “There’s No Way Out of Here” – David Gilmour (David Gilmour, 1978)
19. “Lights Out (Read My Lips)” – Katydids (Katydids, 1990)
20. “Walking Past the Graveyard, Not Breathing” – Hem (Departure and Farewell, 2013)
Random notes:
* The recent Wolf Alice record, The Clearing, is a winner all the way through. Give it a listen; I don’t think you’ll be sorry.
* I am miles away from being a Deadhead but I did want to honor the memory of Bob Weir, who died in January. “Throwing Stones,” a late-history Grateful Dead composition, is at once expansive and resolute, with Weir’s distinctive, breathy vocals front and center. The album it’s on, 1987’s In the Dark, was “unexpectedly popular,” according to Wikipedia, going double platinum in the U.S. It was their second-to-last studio album.
* Founded by singer Susie Hug and guitarist Adam Seymour, Katydids were a short-lived British band with an appealing vibe. They released two major-label albums and were dropped, splitting up shortly thereafter. The first album, represented here, was produced by none other than Nick Lowe. After a few solo efforts in the first decade of the 21st century, Hug got back together with the band for two EPs in 2014.
* Sinéad O’Connor had sung with Damien Dempsey, who wrote “It’s All Good,” on his version of the song, released in 2003 on his album Seize the Day. O’Connor’s indelible rendition was initially available that same year as a promotional single–and a free and legal MP3 at the time, as I recall; it then appeared among the rarities and one-offs collected on a compilation album entitled She Who Dwells in the Secret Place of the Most High Shall Abide Under the Shadow of the Almighty, a two-disc set also released in 2003. The album is not available on Spotify so you won’t see it on the EPS master playlist. (But there are 2,094 other songs there you might want to spend some time with.)
* Speaking of a song not on Spotify, the original studio recording of Gallagher and Lyle’s “Breakaway” is also missing in action–as are all of the Scottish duo’s eight albums from their 1970s heyday. On the aforementioned Spotify master list I’ve subbed in a fairly similar live recording from 1977. The song, meanwhile, was much more well known at the time via Art Garfunkel–it was the title track to his 1975 album and a top-40 US hit. Sticklers may note that Garfunkel, whose version predated Gallagher and Lyle’s by a year, broke the title into two words for the song while retaining the one-word title for the album, for reasons lost to history.
* Sharon Van Etten was specifically approached by director Celine Song to write a song for the end credits to her movie Past Lives–a charming film if you haven’t seen. She collaborated with composer/engineer Zachary Dawes. The accompanying video evokes the movie’s warm wistfulness.
* John Foxx’s long and winding career, in and out of the music industry, began as a college student in the late ’60s. In 1974, as lead singer, he formed a band initially called Tiger Lily. After a few aborted name changes, they settled in 1976 on the name Ultravox and began to gain some renown, if not record sales, for their pioneering synth-rock sound. Foxx left the band in 1979, and while his former band went on to mainstream new wave success, he took a left turn into a variety of electronic-oriented projects both as a solo artist and in many different collaborations. He’s one of those musicians as beloved by a cult following as he is overlooked by the casual music fan. “Europe After the Rain” comes from his second solo album, in which you can still feel the connection to his Ultravox output.
* Contramano was a Brookln-based indie band in the 2000s who released two albums and more or less disappeared. But front man Pablo Cubarle, a multi-instrumentalist whose spiky cello lines are heard here in “TV Reality (A New Plague),” is still out there on the edge of the music world, posting the occasional demo. (Try his latest, posted this month: “Thom Yorke Says.”) He otherwise identifies himself these days as a freelance photo retoucher. “TV Reality” was originally featured here in 2007. In case you’re curious, the Spanish word contramano has no direct translation in English, but can be thought to mean “the wrong way” or “against traffic.”
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