Category: playlist

It’s December and here’s a last playlist for what has been pretty much of a wreck of a year; I speak both personally and collectively. So there is no overt display of holiday cheer– you can grab that elsewhere if that’s your thing. And yet here’s the magic of music: even songs offering up protestations of various sorts end up somehow fueling an optimistic flame, however fragile and windblown. Some of that is due to the connectiveness of song, which inherently represents an effort by a human being, or a group of human beings, to reach out to other humans, consciousness to consciousness. Some of the subtle optimism comes simply from one person’s saying “I see it too”–whether it’s the dirty world or the hit of a new love. Songs can travel up or travel down and they still move us.

As usual the playlist is enlivened with synchronicities. There’s the unplanned adjacency of the Radiohead song containing the lyric “The sky turns green” with the Peter Green song “In the Skies.” There is the unpremeditated gathering of outtakes, perhaps an unconscious cri de coeur, a seeking of a better place to be than here. And there are the inadvertent appearances, cloaked and uncloaked, of two previous Republican presidents whose questionable moral compasses look benign compared to the sociopathic narcissism of the current office holder, adrift in his self-created sea of grift and cruelty. It’s a damnable ride but one day he’ll be drowning in his own wreckage and, with each of us using our own system of survival, we will arrive, blinking, in the light of a better day.

Here are the specifics:

1. “Private Number” – William Bell and Judy Clay (single, 1968)
2. “News” – Bruce Woolley & the Camera Club (English Garden outtake, 1979)
3. “Lose It Again” – Hatchie (Liquorice, 2025)
4. “Can’t Let Go” – Lucinda Williams (Car Wheels on a Gravel Road, 1998)
5. “Mykynos” – Fleet Foxes (Sun Giant, 2008)
6. “Dirty World” – Meshell Ndegeocello (Weather, 2011)
7. “Forgive Her Anything” – Elvis Costello & the Attractions (Blood & Chocolate outtake, 1986)
8. “Popafangout” – Sharp Pins (Balloon Balloon Balloon, 2025)
9. “Bring Down the Birds (Outtake)” – Herbie Hancock (Blow-Up Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, 1967)
10. “Salvation” – Scanners (Submarine, 2010)
11. “Where I End and You Begin” – Radiohead (Hail to the Thief, 2003)
12. “In the Skies” – Peter Green (In the Skies, 1979)
13. “Boy” – Book of Love (Book of Love, 1986)
14. “Lightnin’ Strikes” – Lou Christie (single, 1966)
15. “Hit” – The Sugarcubes (Stick Around For Joy, 1992)
16. “Loaded” – The Idle Hands (The Hearts We Broke on the Way to the Show, 2009)
17. “Just Blue” – Space (Just Blue, 1978)
18. “Severed” – The Decemberists (I’ll Be Your Girl, 2018)
19. “Wreck” – Neko Case (Neon Grey Midnight Green, 2025)
20. “System of Survival” – Earth, Wind & Fire (Touch the World, 1987)

Random notes:

* I only recently learned of the existence of a smattering of extra recordings made by Bruce Woolley and the Camera Club, a top-notch but short-lived new wave outfit, who had released one dynamite LP in 1979 and disbanded. The easy to love “News” appears to have been recorded at the same time, and the internet tells me that there was actually a second album at least partially recorded that was never released. I may need to spring for the 2024 box set to finally hear it.

* Speaking of something that’s somewhat difficult to locate, the Elvis Costello and the Attractions song “Forgive Her Anything” emerged on a 1990s Rhino Records expanded version of Blood & Chocolate but can’t be found on Spotify. For Elvis fans it’s a terrific find.

* And then for something easy to locate but difficult to understand, give “Popafangout” by Sharp Pins a spin or two. I’m staring at the lyrics and haven’t a clue what Kai Slater is singing about. But you know what? That doesn’t matter. The song connects via vibe and sound, and what a sound it is from a 21-year-old. I’m going to spend some time with this new album of theirs.

* “Lightnin’ Strikes” is an odd, memorable song, Lou Christie’s one claim to U.S. chart-topping fame. Once upon a time this was all we needed to know. But scratch the surface of any so-called “one-hit wonder” (thanks, internet!) and be introduced to innumerable complications and piles of forlorn facts. Let’s just say that Christie was a Pittsburgh area singer and songwriter with a longer-than-anticipated Wikipedia page that is, truth be told, more detailed than interesting. Without any more notable commercial successes to speak of, Christie nevertheless stayed active in the music industry into the 2020s; he died this past June.

* I have long felt that Radiohead’s Hail to the Thief never fully got its due. After the experimental electronics of Kid A, they were expected, somehow, both to continue avant-garde-ishly and yet also to go back to their guitar-based roots. And in sort of doing both many seemed to think they did neither. The album is dark and occasionally dour but there are many excellent songs to be had along the way, including this one.

* Herbie Hancock was just 26 when he recorded the music he composed for the now-classic Antonioni film Blow-Up. The music evokes the so-called “Swinging London” scene depicted in the movie, which came out in 1966. The album was released in 1967. That’s Phil Woods on the alto sax. This was Hancock’s first film score but not his last. He would go on to win an Oscar for his score to the 1986 movie Round Midnight.

Friends, it’s been a challenging year not just nationally (obviously) but personally; and I fear I’ve spent too much of it apologizing for late posts. I aim for monthly playlists but in 2025 they have turned bimonthly. I will try to take a deep breath and remember that it doesn’t really matter, that there is in any case more than enough to listen to online were I never to make another mix. But hey if nothing else I must try to justify the $15 a month that Mixcloud extracts from my nonexistent budget. Let’s see if I can at least get another two playlists in the hopper before year’s end. First and foremost here’s what awaits your ears right now:

1. “Live Life” – The Kinks (Misfits, 1978)
2. “Virtual Insanity” – Jamiroquai (Travelling Without Moving, 1996)
3. “Not Strong Enough” – Boygenius (The Record, 2023)
4. “Shallow” – Halomobilo (single, 2005)
5. “I Want to Know What Love Is” – Ane Brun (Leave Me Breathless, 2017)
6. “Rockaway” – Christine Lavin (Future Fossils, 1985)
7. “One More Chance” – Margie Joseph (single, 1969)
8. “Happy As Can Be” – Cut Off Your Hands (Happy As Can Be EP, 2008)
9. “To Find a Friend” – Tom Petty (Wildflowers, 1994)
10. “All These Things” – Empire (Expensive Sound, 1981)
11. “Take It Off The Top” – Dixie Dregs (What If, 1978)
12. “New Punching Bag” – Tristen (Zenith EP, 2025)
13. “City Sidewalks” – Hard Water (Hard Water, 1968)
14. “Half Ladies” – Christine and the Queens (Chaleur Humaine, 2014)
15. “Ozark” – Pat Metheny and Lyle Mays (As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls, 1981)
16. “Untouchable” – Glenn Tilbrook (Transatlantic Ping Pong, 2004)
17. “One Goodbye in Ten” – Shara Nelson (single, 1993)
18. “Come Down in Time” – Elton John (Tumbleweed Connection, 1970)
19. “Stay Soft” – Mitski (Laurel Hell, 2022)
20. “Detectorists” – Johnny Flynn (single, 2014)

Random notes:

* Did the British band Jamiroquai know something the rest of us didn’t back in 1996? Most of us were reveling in our newfound online universes at that point, with little idea of the Pandora’s Box we’d unwittingly opened. Founded in 1992 by vocalist Jay Kay, the veteran outfit is still active, with a tour about to begin and a ninth studio album purportedly on the way. For those few who may not have seen it, the trippy video for “Virtual Insanity” is widely regarded as a classic.

* Split for a number of 21st-century years from his Squeeze bandmate and songwriting partner Chris Difford, Glenn Tilbrook released a handful of generally agreeable but largely overlooked albums on his own during the century’s first decade and a half. Perhaps the best of them was 2004’s Transatlantic Ping Pong; “Untouchable” is in any case a song that compares favorably with Squeeze’s better offerings. But truth be told, even on his weaker material Tilbrook wins points for his indelible voice. And for those who’ve lost track, I’ll point out that Squeeze re-formed in the mid-’10s and has so far released two newer albums, in 2015 and 2017. They claim not to be done yet.

* I seem to have a soft spot for performances that reimagine songs I previously considered somewhat beneath my consideration. There were all those Journey songs entirely upended by Clem Snide, for one; another that comes to mind is Fountains of Wayne’s sublime version of “…Baby One More Time.” In that general vein, I now present the Norwegian singer/songwriter Ane Brun with her version of Foreigner’s “I Want to Know What Love Is.” Brun’s voice is something of an acquired taste, but conjoined with the right material it can compel. The Foreigner song comes from her 2017 album Leave Me Breathless, an all-covers effort, including songs by Bob Dylan, Sade, and Radiohead, among others.

* Tom Petty left our midst eight years ago, early October. At his best his songs and performances sound simple and effortless, which is a good part of his magic.

* I just featured Christine and the Queens in a song review in my last post, which put me in the mind to dig back into Chaleur Humaine, their debut album. I know there’s a lot to unpack with them, given their complex personal and performing history, but I mostly just use my ears and as such find the music, while somewhat out of my usual wheelhouse, wonderfully crafted and mysteriously alluring. I recommend the whole album, and will put in one more pitch for the magnificent “Tilted” video.

* Halomobilo was a band from Chelmsford, England who were active from 2002 to 2009. “Shallow,” from 2005, was an early Fingertips favorite–so much so that it landed a spot on the one promotional CD I curated and offered as a limited release in 2006. This song has a dark, appealing swing and is actually rather touching if you listen closely. Note that this “Shallow” has no relation to the song sung by Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga in 2018’s A Star is Born.

* If you don’t know of the TV series Detectorists and consider yourself a fan of subtle, quirky British comedy I would urge you to check it out. This Johnny Flynn composition served as the sharp yet melancholy theme song.

Yet another overdue playlist! Life issues have been intervening here in 2025 but I remain grateful for the opportunity to continue to share these mixes when I have the wherewithal to plan one out and put it all online. For those keeping score at home, fully 12 of the 20 artists in this month’s mix are appearing in the Eclectic Playlist Series for the first time. Reminder that house rules prohibit any given artist from appearing more than once in a calendar year. Reminder too that, against all conventions on the internet, I aim to distribute the music evenly across the decades. Might as well keep the robots puzzled if nothing else. Here’s what your dog-days-of-summer-2025 playlist looks like here in Fingertips World:

1. “Breathing Underwater” – Metric (Synthetica, 2012)
2. “Too Late” – Shoes (Present Tense, 1979)
3. “Dark Ages” – Eliza Gilkyson (Dark Ages, 2025)
4. “It Didn’t Work Out” – Michael Chapman (Rainmaker, 1969)
5. “Somewhere Else” – Kathleen Edwards (Back To Me, 2005)
6. “Kidney Bingos” – Wire (A Bell is a Cup…Until it is Struck, 1988)
7. “Red Wooden Beads” – John & Mary (Victory Gardens, 1991)
8. “Picture Window” – Japanese Breakfast (For Melancholy Brunettes [& sad women], 2025)
9. “Intermission” – Mary Lou Williams (Zoning, 1974)
10. “Viva La Vida” – Coldplay (Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends, 2008)
11. “We Don’t Have to Go Out Tonight” – Death in the Afternoon (Death in the Afternoon, 2015)
12. “Et moi, et moi, et moi” – Jacques Dutronc (Jacques Dutronc, 1966)
13. “Sweethearts Together” – The Rolling Stones (Voodoo Lounge, 1994)
14. “Lipstick on the Glass” – Wolf Alice (Blue Weekend, 2021)
15. “A Million Miles Away” – The Plimsouls (Everywhere At Once, 1983)
16. “Turn This Thing Around” – El Presidente (El Presidente, 2005)
17. “Need Your Love” – The Notations (single, 1972)
18. “Come As You Are” – Nirvana (Nevermind, 1991)
19. “Not Today” – Mattiel (Mattiel, 2017)
20. “Break Away” – The Beach Boys (single, 1969)

Random notes:

* In a just world, Eliza Gilkyson’s “Dark Ages” would by now be our country’s unofficial anthem. Do your part, at least, and play it, loudly and repeatedly. She names names (except when she purposefully doesn’t), pulls no punches, and sings like a hero. The 74-year-old Gilkyson has more grit and guts than most performers half her age.

* “Kidney Bingos” is for all appearances a nonsense song: while composed of English words, the lyrics nonetheless make no normal kind of sense even as the song carries you amiably along. I like this combination of accessibility and inaccessibility. If AI managed to spit out these lyrics it would be a pointless glitch; with human intention behind it everything is different. Try to remember that.

* Mary Lou Williams was an American jazz pianist and composer of great talent and stature. Her recording career spanned more than three decades; she was friends and collaborators with many of the genre’s giants, including Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. Not a jazz aficionado myself, I only recently stumbled on her work, starting with Zodiac Suite, her debut recording, released in 1945. A series of 12 interrelated pieces, each one based on one of the signs of the zodiac, the album is considered a landmark recording for its fusion of jazz and classical elements. “Intermission” comes from her 1974 LP Zoning.

* El Presidente was a promising Scottish band with a short career in the mid-’00s, who seem to have disappeared without a trace. “Turn This Thing Around” is a super confident piece of neo-glam rock; it was featured here on Fingertips way back in 2006.

* The Illinois quartet Shoes (no “the” please) were formed in Zion, Illinois in 1974. They had their moment in the sun in the late ’70s and early ’80s during the brief ascendancy of power-pop-oriented new wave music. This included the band’s being among the first featured when MTV launched in August 1981. Shoes continued in an off-and-on way through to the release of Ignition in 2012, their last album of new material. All these decades later, “Too Late” remains an impeccable exemplar of the difficult-to-pin-down power pop genre.

* There appears to be nothing on the internet to corroborate the fact that there was a British girl group called The Notations–Google’s AI assistant denies their existence–and yet, go figure, “Need Your Love” by a group called The Notations is in fact a track on a compilation album called Right Back Where We Started From: Female Pop and Soul in Seventies Britain. AI does like to make things up. (Just like humans!) Things are muddied by the existence of a male soul group called The Notations; they are often misidentified as the band behind “Need Your Love,” which they most assuredly are not. Beyond the indisputable fact of their existence, however, the female British group called The Notations are a mystery I haven’t been able to solve. Cool song, however!

* I do not need to add to the outpouring of tributes posted in the aftermath of Brian Wilson’s death last month. But what I am happy to do is continue to dive into the man’s vast discography ever on the lookout for hidden gems. “Break Away” was released as a non-album single in 1969, having been recorded during the sessions that produced the album Sunflower. The song was co-written by Wilson and his father Murry, who used the pen name Reggie Dunbar. It’s not clear whether the father and son co-wrote any other songs; what is clear is that Murry Wilson presented as a complex and often troubling presence in his sons’ lives. You can read about this elsewhere if you’re interested.

I won’t continue to bemoan my country’s current situation via these posts, other than ongoingly try to be a voice of reason in the face of the inhumane madness of the man currently occupying the White House–a man so brave and strong that he cannot tolerate even one word of criticism. But we knew that about him. Laid bare, most discouragingly, is how the naked desire for power has warped an entire political party’s capacity to discern right from wrong. I guess it’s been coming for a while (see song #20, below) but here we are. The question now is where are we going.

But me, to avoid the despair, I’ve wrestled this latest set of songs more or less to the ground. Apologies in advance for at least one potentially clunky segue. I try. Meanwhile, from an obscure neo-surf-rock band to a pop megastar (that’s an actual segue), from lost soul nuggets to a hypnotic piece of contemporary classical music, it’s another unusual journey through the genres and the decades, but if you’re still reading this I’m guessing you’re up for it. Down with the algorithm, up with the human touch; here’s this month’s road map:

1. “Outside Chance” – The Turtles (single, 1966)
2. “Over and Over” – Shelby Lynne (Consequences of the Crown, 2024)
3. “Calhoun Surf” – Raybeats (Guitar Beat, 1981)
4. “State of Grace” – Taylor Swift (Red, 2012)
5. “Lay My Love” – Brian Eno & John Cale (Wrong Way Up, 1990)
6. “Stop, Look and Listen” – Barbara Acklin (B-side, 1971)
7. “Deep Red Bells” – Neko Case (Blacklisted, 2002)
8. “Glass: Études: No. 6” – Yuja Wang (The Vienna Recital, 2024)
9. “You Know What I Mean” – Cults (Cults, 2011)
10. “Mr. President (Have Pity On The Working Man)” – Randy Newman (Good Old Boys, 1974)
11. “Seven Steps” – Cassandra Wilson (Traveling Miles, 1999)
12. “Won’t You Give Him (One More Chance)” – Solomon Burke (Rock ‘n Soul, 1964)
13. “One Horse Town” – The Thrills (So Much For The City, 2003)
14. “Tell Me What You Want” – Daryl Hall & John Oates (Private Eyes, 1981)
15. “Want You” – Francis of Delirium (Lighthouse, 2024)
16. “8:05” – Moby Grape (Moby Grape, 2017)
17. “I’m the One That’s Leaving” – Bram Tchaikovsky (Strange Man, Changed Man, 1979)
18. “Back to Life (However Do You Want Me)” – Soul II Soul (Keep On Movin’, 1989)
19. “Box of Letters” – The Ericksons (Don’t Be Scared, Don’t Be Alarmed, 2010)
20. “Soldiers of Christ” – Jill Sobule (Happy Town, 1997)

Random notes:

* So sad and horrific to have lost Jill Sobule in a house fire, of all things. I would like to propose that there was far more to her catalog of music than “I Kissed a Girl” and “Supermodel,” even as those two songs on Spotify dwarf everything else she’s recorded by outlandish proportions. (“Supermodel” has 7.5 million streams; meanwhile, a great song like “One of These Days” has but 13K.) She was a songwriter who didn’t mince words or avoid political engagement, as you’ll see from the song I leave you with here–a song that shows off her toughness and poignancy and the drollness she served up with a large dollop of melancholy. And was she friggin’ prescient or what? This was 1997. I guess it reminds us that our country has always had its share of self-righteous hypocrites using religion as a shield for their bigotry (cf. the Civil War). Sorry about the derogatory word near the beginning; remember that Sobule, very much the LGBTQ+ activist, is singing here as an (extremely) unreliable narrator and this was still the ’90s. By the way, I can’t help thinking that she continually slurs the words “Our lord” throughout the song to sound more than a little like “Allah.” Just to bust some right-wing chops. I’ve always loved her close and quirky vocal style, which is on full display in what I have very purposefully selected as a closer. Poor Jill…but if anything resembling heaven actually exists (doubtful!), she’s a shoe-in, while the song’s benighted narrator and people like him or her would be in for a big surprise.

* Speaking of songwriters who don’t mince words or shy from controversial topics (or unreliable narrators for that matter), let’s welcome back to an EPS mix Mr. Randy Newman. Newman is a national treasure whom we really must keep remembering to appreciate while he is still with us. This rollicking yet oddly touching tune from 1974’s Good Old Boys presents a somewhat downtrodden but actually quite reliable narrator, who wonders aloud why the president doesn’t seem to care about working people. Talk about prescient. The arrangement is exquisite; listen in particular to how Newman uses the orchestration to resolve melodies. Absolutely nobody has ever written songs like Randy Newman when he’s on his game.

* Is that some Edge-y inspiration in “State of Grace”? One might say Taylor went a little out of control there…

* “Outside Chance” was a commercially unsuccessful single by the Turtles, but not only is it an excellent song (reminder: “popular” and “quality” are often unrelated concepts), the music was written by none other than Warren Zevon, long before he emerged as a well-respected singer/songwriter in his own right. I had placed this song here some weeks ago, before the news arrived of Zevon’s long-awaited if sideways induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. To whatever extent that institution is meaningful, Mr. Zevon’s long-standing exclusion was a black eye on the folks in charge of such things. The man in any case is still missed.

* For the uninitiated, the pianist Yuja Wang is as close to a rock star as the classical world (very occasionally) produces. The Chinese-born American performer has played with all the major American orchestras and most of the leading international ensembles as well. And while I have no ear for the seemingly minute but apparently very important nuances that separate one pianist’s mechanics and style from another, I know a good tune when I hear one. When Philip Glass manages to condense minimalism’s signature monotony into something concise and, dare I say, dramatic, he can produce music that’s accessible to audiences well beyond the academy and related cognoscenti, unlike too many of his contemporary classical composer peers.

* Francis of Delirium is not only notable in the rock’n’roll world for being from Luxembourg (a country not well known for cultural exports), they are impressive for their confident and compelling recordings. “Want You” is from the band’s debut album, Lighthouse, which came out in March 2024 and is well worth a listen. I featured “Blue Tuesday” from that album in a track review last year. And I also featured one of their earlier singles, in 2022, in a post that offers a short but effective recap of how this somewhat unusual band came about. Meanwhile, don’t sleep on “Want You,” which is one of 2024’s better if underappreciated songs.

* “Calhoun Surf” is a song with a long tail. It begins in 1980, when the songwriter and guitarist Danny Amis was in a band called the Overtones, who released the song on a local Minneapolis label. Amis left to join the New York City band Raybeats, who recorded the song themselves the next year. In 1988 Amis formed a new band, Los Straitjackets, which pretty quickly broke up but then reformed in 1994. The band included their own version of “Calhoun Surf” on their 1995 debut album. Los Straitjackets went on to much more widespread success and recognition than did either of Amis’ previous two outfits. He remained with the band through 2017; Los Straitjackets are still doing their thing, most recently recording an album with Nick Lowe in 2024.

I fell a little behind in playlist production in 2024; here’s another one emerging a month or so later than intended. But, better late than really really late. And I guess it’s good that I hadn’t been making an overtly holiday-related mix. I did leave in a song associated with Christmas but in this version it feels more winter- than holiday-oriented, so still quite appropriate, if only for the title alone.

Otherwise, hello. Happy new year? We can always dream. Getting right into the music, this month’s mix features 10 artists who have not previously found their way onto an Eclectic Playlist Series playlist, even as we are now in year 12. I do strive to keep the newcomers coming in, while always enjoying the opportunity to mix them in with favorites old and not too old. And it is January, which, according to house rules, means that the library resets, rendering any previously featured artist now available. (The house rule, for the uninitiated, is that no artist may be featured in an EPS mix more than once in a given calendar year. The slate is wiped clean each January and we start again.) Three particular, all-time favorites are making an early appearance; newsletter recipients will know exactly who they are. (Have I ever mentioned that the newsletter version of this comes with bonus notes? Now you know!)

And here’s what you’re in for here in this particularly bleak midwinter:

1. “Earn Enough For Us” – XTC (Skylarking, 1986)
2. “Girl Don’t Make Me Wait” – Bunny Sigler (Let the Good Times Roll & (Feel So Good), 1967)
3. “But Not Kiss” – Faye Webster (Undressed at the Symphony, 2023)
4. “The Outsiders” – R.E.M. (Around the Sun, 2004)
5. “Sweet Little Truth” – Tasmin Archer (Bloom, 1996)
6. “Love is a Stranger” – Eurythmics (Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This), 1982)
7. “You Probably Get That a Lot” – They Might Be Giants (Join Us, 2011)
8. “Now is the Time” – Norma Tanega (I Don’t Think It Will Hurt If You Smile, 1971)
9. “On The Wrong Side” – Lindsey Buckingham (Lindsey Buckingham, 2021)
10. “Appalachia Waltz” – Yo-Yo Ma, Edgar Meyer, Mark O’Connor (Appalachia Waltz, 1996)
11. “Somebody Hurt You” – A Girl Called Eddy (A Girl Called Eddy, 2004)
12. “Stay” – David Bowie (Station to Station, 1976)
13. “I Belong In Your Arms” – Chairlift (Something, 2012)
14. “I See the Rain” – Marmalade (There’s a Lot of it About, 1968)
15. “Dragonfly” – Samantha Crain (single, 2024)
16. “Days” – Television (Adventure, 1978)
17. “Above the Treeline” – Jane Siberry (Jane Siberry, 1980)
18. “Buildings & Mountains” – The Republic Tigers (Keep Color, 2008)
19. “In the Bleak Midwinter” – Polly Scattergood and Maps (single, 2014)
20. “Better Git In Your Soul” – Davy Graham (Folk, Blues & Beyond, 1965)

Random notes:

* “In the Bleak Midwinter” is a Christmas song, but stripped here of its religious content, the song functions more broadly as a statement of seasonal resolve– we hear ongoingly of the “bleak midwinter,” the electronics provide a blizzardy whoosh, and singer Polly Scattergood, nearly but not entirely overshadowed, holds her ground. Scattergood here works with James Chapman, who does musical business as Maps; the two British musicians also had a one-off go-round as a duo, known as On Dead Waves, releasing one album in 2016. Both have been individually featured on Fingertips, Scattergood in 2013, Chapman even further back, in 2007. Scattergood’s most recent record is 2020’s In This Moment, while Maps released Counter Melodies in 2022.

* It’s possible that “Stay” is my favorite David Bowie song.

* “Appalachia Waltz” is calm and quiet and clearly unlike songs typically featured here. I invite you to slow yourself down to adapt to its pace and vibe. If you do, you may find that the composition works some kind of magic on your state of being, the deliberate, cycling and recycling melodies melting any resistance you might have to this kind of thing– whatever “this kind of thing” actually is. Once you meet the piece where it is you may find that, at 5:47, rather than seeming too long, it ends up seeming not long enough.

* Smoky-voiced singer/songwriter Erin Moran has been recording as A Girl Called Eddy since 2004. The records have been sporadic to say the least: there have been only three full-length albums to date, most recently 2020’s Been Around. An air of bygone songwriting styles and arrangements floats through Moran’s work; her professed love of the great Burt Bacharach audibly informs what she writes and sings. “Somebody Hurt You” comes from her debut self-titled album, released in 2004. Hat tip to George at Between Two Islands for the recommendation.

* As both a singer and guitarist, Lindsey Buckingham has an iconic sound, which was on full display on his most recent album, recorded in 2018 but due to the ongoing drama that forever is and was Buckingham and/or Fleetwood Mac, not released until 2021. The self-titled album got strong reviews but didn’t seem to muster a lot of attention. But, expertly crafted, catchy as hell, and intermittently odd, it’s just about everything a late-’70s/early-’80s Fleetwood Mac fan would want from a solo record of his. The artist’s conflict-filled history aside, this album is well worth a listen.

* Before she became a left-of-center indie pop diva, Caroline Polachek was co-founder of the band Chairlift. Chairlift began as a duo in Boulder, Colorado before moving to Brooklyn, expanding to a trio, and then shrinking back to a duo with the new guy replacing the first guy. (First guy had been Polachek’s boyfriend, then not.) “I Belong In Your Arms” comes from the band’s second album, Something, released in 2012. They would release one more album–Moth, in 2016– before going their separate ways. Polachek’s solo work has twice previously been featured in an EPS mix, in February 2022 and May 2023.

* Davy Graham was a pioneering figure in the history of British folk music. Known for his fingerpicking (also known as fingerstyle) guitar work, Graham introduced sounds from outside the UK (including the Middle East and India) into his arrangements and compositions. He is sometimes credited with inventing the folk guitar instrumental; his song “Anji” (sometimes spelled “Angi”) became something of a model and inspiration for a new generation of guitarists, including Bert Jansch and John Renbourn. You may in fact be familiar with it via Simon & Garfunkel, who put the song on their Sounds of Silence album. “Better Git In Your Soul” is Graham’s arrangement of a Charles Mingus song; it closes his 1965 album Folks, Blues & Beyond.

Honest, I started this playlist last month, intending to upload it in October. But plans changed, and now the post-Election-Day timing renders the opening song all the more haunting. The tracks that follow may or may not relate; you decide.

And I will otherwise spare the hand-wringing; there’s enough of that going around, and I for one aim to keep the deranged manbaby from invading my headspace over the coming weeks, months, (sigh) years. I will just note this: the election of a convicted felon, cheater, and predator who had previously attempted to overthrow an election indicates that there is something terribly wrong with our basic, collective ability to inform, organize, and govern ourselves. And that something has everything to do with unregulated capitalism and its various discontents, most specifically the widespread inclination to prefer revenue to virtue. Things fall apart precisely from there.

Anyway, the music:

1. “When the Devil’s Loose” – A.A. Bondy (When the Devil’s Loose, 2009)
2. “Pinned” – Unknown Venus (single, 2024)
3. “That’s the Way” – Led Zeppelin (Led Zeppelin III, 1970)
4. “You Gotta Be” – Des’ree (I Ain’t Movin’, 1995)
5. “Cry Baby” – The Motels (Careful, 1980)
6. “Lorlir” – Kaki King (Modern Yesterdays, 2020)
7. “Play With Fire” – The Rolling Stones (b-side, 1965)
8. “Salt Eyes” – Middle Kids (New Songs For Old Problems EP, 2019)
9. “Black Star” – Gillian Welch (single, 2005)
10. “The Card Cheat” – The Clash (London Calling, 1979)
11. “Australia” – Manic Street Preachers (Everything Must Go, 1996)
12. “The Witch” – Kaia Kater, featuring Aiofe O’Donovan (Strange Medicine, 2024)
13. “Helplessness Blues” – Fleet Foxes (Helplessness Blues, 2011)
14. “Bring Back the Love” – The Monitors (Greetings!…We’re the Monitors, 1968)
15. “Half Asleep” – School of Seven Bells (Alpinisms, 2008)
16. “Cornerstone” – Richard X. Heyman (Cornerstone, 1998)
17. “In Between Days” – The Cure (The Head on the Door, 1985)
18. “Afraid of Everyone” – The National (High Violet, 2010)
19. “Swampland” – Alex Winston (Bingo!, 2024)
20. “I’m Going to Tear Your Playhouse Down” – Ann Peebles (single, 1973; I Can’t Stand the Rain, 1974)

Random notes:

* This is very likely the least classic-rock-y playlist on the internet that nevertheless manages to include songs from both Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones.

* Gillian Welch’s incandescent cover of Radiohead’s “Black Star” is a classic, presenting the song in a totally different setting while retaining and enhancing its poignant essence. I’ve poked around a bit and still can’t determine how she came to record this and why it exists as a standalone single but she did and it does and it moves me every time I hear it. I don’t think I’ve previously featured a live recording on an EPS mix but this only exists in a live version and it’s pretty much perfect as is.

* I am not inherently a fan of instrumental tracks but I can’t help being ongoingly fascinated by what the experimentally-minded guitar virtuoso Kaki King has released over the course of her iconoclastic career. Her 2020 album Modern Yesterdays was recorded just as COVID-19 was identified and lockdowns beginning; everyone who worked on the album came down with it (and recovered, thankfully). The album itself arose as a side effect of a planned live project called Data Not Found, which got scrapped due to the lockdown. While Modern Yesterdays finds King finger-picking in the Fahey/Kottke lineage, the album also expands into evocative electronic soundscapes, incorporating alternative guitar sounds and spacious synthesizer beds created by sound designer Chloe Alexandra Thompson. “Lorlir” offers King’s brisk finger work on top of electronics so gentle that they seem, somehow, part of the guitar itself. While the song’s title is a mystery–I can find nothing that explains it–other titles on the album bring the listener straight back to that disastrous time (e.g., “Can’t Touch This or That or You or My Face,” “Sanitized, Alone”)–a time which, I might add, seems to have been forgotten by the misled half of the US population who voted to bring back the cruel and inept leader who tragically bungled the country’s response (and pretty much everything else). In this context an instrumental seems about right, as words become inadequate.

* There exists an all but endless trove of R&B tracks from the 1960s that were not hits but one wonders why the heck not. “Bring Back the Love” has the melodic drama, confident vocals, and sure groove of a classic Four Tops tune–perhaps not a complete coincidence, as one of the four songwriters credited here is Brian Holland, the music-oriented Holland of the famed songwriting trio of Holland-Dozier-Holland (his brother Eddie did the lyrics). Those three were responsible for some of the finest songs recorded by the Four Tops–not to mention the Supremes, and Marvin Gaye, and a number of other first-tier Motown acts. This one sounds like a winner, even if it wasn’t.

* Not a lot of information is available online about the singer/songwriter calling herself Unknown Venus, which is probably (given the moniker) how she wants it in this day and age of intrusive, overzealous fandom. (Perhaps there’s a new generation of musicians arising who intend to forge a road back to some semblance of reasonable privacy.) In any case, what she has revealed online: her name is Annie Lancaster, she is based in Los Angeles, plays the harp, and has released five singles to date, most recently “Pinned.” The song is at once dreamy and straightforward, complete with an actual instrumental hook by way of the distorted guitar line that we first hear in the introduction. Who does this anymore? Not enough people, that’s who. Not enough people make this sort of well-constructed, effortlessly melodic music either, but they’re out there and I always aim to find them. Hat tip to the Luna Collective’s weekly, off-the-beaten-path playlist for this one.

* There are a half-dozen or more well-known, widely-regarded songs from the Clash’s seminal London Calling, and then there’s “The Card Cheat.” A loping, keyboard-driven song, launching off a decisive Hal Blaine drumbeat, “The Card Cheat” is pleasingly enigmatic in a Dylanesque sort of way–vague characters speak, specific locations are cited, you sense something important is going on but you can’t put your finger on it. A little burst of horn adds to the mystique along the way, and Joe Strummer’s urgent/friendly voice holds it all together. Perhaps part of my attraction to the song has to do with the fact that it isn’t as well-known as the album’s other highlights, but for one reason or another it remains a big favorite after all these years.

* Richard X. Heyman made an appearance here last year when I pulled the Doughboys’ oddly endearing “Rhoda Mandelbaum” out of obscurity for EPS 10.8. Heyman, the band’s drummer, was a teenager during the Doughboys’ late-’60s, garage rock heyday, but re-emerged as a power pop-oriented singer/songwriter in the late ’80s. He got as far as signing a deal with the prestigious Sire Records label, which released one album of his then dropped him for lack of sales. He had to finance Cornerstone himself, and played most of the instruments on most of the tracks. Since then he’s been releasing albums regularly on his own label, most recently 2022’s 67,000 Miles an Album. The man has a preternatural knack for melodic rock’n’roll, an appealing baritone, and, unhappily, little to no commercial appeal. But maybe he’s okay with that, doing his own thing for his own audience in his own corner of internet. (Some of us are.) Note too that the Doughboys have had a second wind in the 21st century, reviving their garage rock sound–fine if you like that kind of thing but I’ll stick with Heyman’s solo albums, which I aim to investigate further in the days to come.

Summer may be over, but tell me if there isn’t a dark-ish, summer’s-over feeling coursing through the Santo & Johnny version of the Gershwin classic “Summertime.” The famed sibling instrumental duo, from Brooklyn, turned a song that typically evokes languid sunshine into something introspective, spooky, intermittently discordant, and, somehow, maybe, autumnal. In any case, I didn’t manage to get a playlist up in August so here it is one way or another.

There are two other evocative covers in among the mix this month, and one fake cover: the Concretes’ “You Can’t Hurry Love” is not the Motown nugget but its own incisive thing. The real covers are discussed below, along with many other things, so I’ll keep the intro short this time. For those who don’t like surprises, here’s what’s on tap in 11.07:

1. “Becoming All Alone” – Regina Spektor (Home, Before and After, 2022)
2. “Revolutionary Kind” – Gomez (Liquid Skin, 1999)
3. “The Riddle” – Nik Kershaw (The Riddle, 1984)
4. “Cathedrals” – Cry Cry Cry (single, 2018)
5. “La Bambola” – Patty Pravo (Patty Pravo, 1968)
6. “Big Tears” – Elvis Costello & the Attractions (b-side, 1978)
7. “You Can’t Hurry Love” – The Concretes (The Concretes, 2003)
8. “Coast” – Kim Deal (single, 2024; Nobody Loves You More coming 11/24)
9. “Every Shining Time You Arrive” – Sunny Day Real Estate (How It Feels To Be Something On, 1998)
10. “Everybody Plays the Fool” – The Main Ingredient (Bitter Sweet, 1972)
11. “Any Way You Want It” – Clem Snide (Clem Snide’s Journey EP, 2011)
12. “Annie” – Kirsty MacColl (Real, 1983; released 2023)
13. “Get Yourself Together” – Small Faces (Small Faces, 1967)
14. “Not a Job” – Elbow (Cast of Thousands, 2003)
15. “What Now” – Brittany Howard (What Now, 2024)
16. “Life is Sweet” – Natalie Merchant (Ophelia, 1998)
17. “Amor Fati” – Washed Out (Within and Without, 2011)
18. “You Never Come Closer” – Doris (Did You Give the World Some Love Today Baby, 1970)
19. “Summertime” – Santo & Johnny (Santo & Johnny, 1960)
20. “Middle Cyclone” – Neko Case (Middle Cyclone, 2009)

Random notes:

* Clem Snide front man Eef Barzeley has proven over the years to be a master of rock’n’roll covers. Nowhere was the skill in more evidence than in his specially-released 2011 EP, Clem Snide’s Journey. A tour de force of transformational interpretation, the all-Journey EP was inspired by his version of the song “Faithfully,” covered as part of the intermittently wonderful AV Club Undercover series. I featured this song at the time, and stand by my characterization of the man as some sort of mad genius. These days the EP is available to his Bandcamp subscribers only, with no playback options. However, three of the six songs are available to listen to on Spotify, including “Any Way You Want It.”

* The Swedish pop singer Doris Svensson was a curious case. Billed by her first name only, she released one solo album in 1970 and pretty much retreated from performing after that. The album initially was a commercial flop, but a re-release in 1996 captured the attention of hipsters, and hip-hop artists, and brought the album back into the cultural flow. The album is an idiosyncratic mix of pop, soul, funk, psychedelia, and jazz, with a Dusty Springfield-esque vibe–well worth a listen if you’re into that kind of thing. It’s not only available on the streaming services, the whole thing can be downloaded for free via the Internet Archive. Svensson died last year at the age of 75. Thanks to the blog James Writes Stuff for the head’s up on this one, which I otherwise hadn’t heard of. And yes it’s very ’00s of me, offering a hat tip to another blog, but James like me has a very ’00s thing going over there, with his observant, personal, well-written album reviews; his blog is a relatively rare example of an algorithm- and commercial-free web site just doing its thing here in the corrupted, over-stimulated world of internet 2024.

* The brilliant Kirsty MacColl was taken from us, tragically, some 24 years ago. But it was only last year that we saw the long-awaited release of an album she had recorded in 1983 that was shelved by Polydor, her then record company; they felt it wasn’t commercial enough. It would have been her second album. She and Polydor parted ways after that. She had a UK hit single in 1985, with a dazzling version of Billy Bragg’s “A New England,” recorded for Stiff Records, but soon it got complicated: Stiff went bankrupt, there were contractual complications and personal complications, leading to a lot of session work–including her indelible star turn on 1987’s “Fairytale of New York”–but no record deal. The song “Annie,” from Real, was one of three songs from the ill-fated LP that Polydor saw fit, in 1985, to tack onto a re-released version of her debut album. A handful of other songs from Real surfaced years later on a posthumous 2005 compilation album. I’m not sure what took quite so long for Real to emerge as its own thing, but I’m glad we finally have it–it’s not a classic but a treasure for Kirsty fans nonetheless. The album is available on its own digitally; for the devoted fan, all the album’s tracks are on CD as part of the lavish, eight-disc, 161-song box set called See That Girl 1979-2000, released by Universal Music in a limited edition last year. But good luck finding it: I don’t see any for sale in any of the usual places at this point.

* “Cathedrals” was something of a radio hit for the North Carolina band Jump, Little Children back in 1998. The dormant singer/songwriter trio Cry Cry Cry ended a long hiatus in 2018 with a cover of the song, and they did three helpful things in the process. First, they removed the strings, which had added a bit too much saccharin to a song teetering already on the edge of schmaltz (if I may mix my food metaphors). Second, Dar Williams sings lead, transforming the somewhat overwrought original into something more pensive and substantial. Lastly, the stellar harmonies provided by band mates Lucy Kaplansky and Richard Shindell lend warmth and depth that the original’s vocal performance lacked. Oh and as a bonus, the Cry Cry Cry version is 20 seconds shorter, almost always a good thing.

* I’ve put Elvis Costello songs on a playlist more or less once a year here, but I’ve been leaning in the direction of his 21st-century output. I’ve done that consciously, because I feel his later-career stuff is relatively overlooked–wide-ranging musically, his 21st-century albums are maybe harder to pin down than the “angry young man” material of the late ’70s and early ’80s, and so over the years they’ve kind of piled up into a corner that his loyal fans have pretty much to themselves. So I like to give the newer songs some sunlight here. That said, I haven’t meant to entirely ignore his seminal work from back in the day. But as ever I tend to avoid the obvious. You don’t need me to give you the likes of “Pump It Up” or “Watching Detectives,” but maybe slipping a muscular B-side like “Big Tears” into the mix is a fine idea every so often. The man is surely one of the great songwriters of our time; I wish this were more universally recognized, but it remains one of those “if you know, you know” things.

* “Coast” is such an effortlessly confident song: quirky, inscrutable, and mysteriously catchy, with smile-inducing horn charts and the lackadaisical charm of a one-off jam session. Kim Deal, as you likely know, was an original member of the Pixies and the front woman for the Breeders. While she has released a few solo singles, “Coast” is a song that will be on her debut solo album, called Nobody Loves You More, which is due out in November.

* Patty Pravo is the stage name adopted long ago by the Italian singer Nicoletta Strambelli. Pravo, now 76, was in her heyday in the late ’60s through the late ’70s. One of her signature songs, “La Bambola” was number one on the charts in Italy for nine straight weeks. To my ears, it retains its energetic appeal these many decades later. Pravo has had a long and idiosyncratic career, not to mention personal life, including a stretch where she lived in the United States and recorded a new wave adjacent LP in the early ’80s. Her most recent album, Red, came out in 2019.

* The mighty Neko Case closes us out. I guess I like quirky and inscrutable songs; this one’s power comes from its restraint, its poignant turns of phrase, and Ms. Case’s ever potent voice. Her most recent album of new material remains 2018’s vibrant Hell-On. She’s got a memoir coming out in January, entitled The Harder I Fight the More I Love You, and, apparently, a new album on the way shortly thereafter.

What a difference a month makes. The mood is (cautiously) lighter. I remain stupefied that a convicted criminal who orchestrated an attempted coup can be considered a viable candidate for president of this country. Can be popular despite his track record of various despicabilities. Is continuing to be treated by mainstream media as pretty much normal. This is not just frightening but also goddamned puzzling. How did we get here? But wait a minute: I said the mood is lighter, and it certainly is. The dreaded rematch has been short-circuited. I’m with her.

Now then, I can’t claim that this month’s playlist has anything to do with this. Or does it? “If I Can’t Change Your Mind”; “The Next Time Around”; “Don’t Change On Me”; “Don’t Come Running to Me”; “Then Came You”: a suggestive batch if looked at a certain way. But seriously unplanned. Consider it the zeitgeist at work. In any case, here’s where we’re going together this month:

1. “If I Can’t Change Your Mind” – Sugar (Copper Blue, 1992)
2. “Patterns” – Laura Marling (single, 2024; Patterns in Repeat, coming 10/24)
3. “The Next Time Around” – Little Joy (Little Joy, 2008)
4. “Gag Reflections” – Wild Moccasins (single, 2012)
5. “Don’t Change On Me” – Ray Charles (Love Country Style, 1970)
6. “Don’t I Know” – Sinéad Lohan (No Mermaid, 1998)
7. “Nowhere” – Swaying Wires (I Left a House Burning, 2016)
8. “A Little Respect” – Erasure (The Innocents, 1988)
9. “Don’t Come Running to Me” – Madeline Bell (Bell’s A Poppin’, 1967; bonus track on the 2004 re-issue)
10. “Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft” – Klaatu (3:47 EST, 1976)
11. “Shenandoah” – Anaïs Mitchell (The Brightness, 2007)
12. “Hot Sun” – Wilco (Hot Sun Cool Shroud EP, 2024)
13. “Zoeira” – Joyce (Hard Bossa, 1999)
14. “You Can’t Take Love For Granted” – Graham Parker (The Real Macaw, 1983)
15. “Then Came You” – Dionne Warwick and the Spinners (single, 1974)
16. “Like I Say (I runaway)” – Nilüfer Yanya (single, 2024)
17. “Red Rubber Ball” – The Cyrkle (Red Rubber Ball, 1966)
18. “You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb” – Spoon (Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, 2007)
19. “Afternoon in Kanda” – Jesse Harris (Sub Rosa, 2012)
20. “Find My Love” – Fairground Attraction (The First of a Million Kisses, 1988)

Random notes:

* The Houston indie outfit the Wild Moccasins had a bit of an internet moment earlier this century. Fronted by Zahira Gutierrez, the band started up in 2007, released three albums between 2010 and 2018 on the reasonably high-profile New West label, got some love from NPR among other places, but quietly disappeared after their last release. Gutierrez has recently reemerged as a solo artist, with more of a pop orientation, using only her first name. “Gag Reflections” was a single released in between their well-regarded first and second albums.

* Sinéad Lohan recorded two albums in the mid- to late-’90s, the first of which was released only in Ireland, the second of which got full distribution on a major label and earned her a good amount of attention and airplay back in the day. And that was pretty much that: she got married, had two children, and at one point sooner than later decided that she had zero interest in continuing on as a professional musician. Wikipedia reports that she did work on a third album in the 2004 to 2007 range but it never saw the light of day. Her one widely-released album, 1998’s No Mermaid, remains a quiet classic of sorts, full of songs of depth and quality. “Don’t I Know” is the third song from the album that I’ve featured in an EPS mix over the years.

* Well known by now as the composer, playwright, and brain child behind the hit Broadway show Hadestown, which won eight Tony Awards in 2019, Anaïs Mitchell began her career as a singer/songwriter in the early ’00s. Hadestown started as a concept album in 2010; it was Mitchell’s fourth release at the time. Then came a long and winding road to the Broadway stage, which occupied a lot of Mitchell’s time and creative energy along the way; she’s only released two albums of original material since then, in 2012 and 2022. “Shenandoah” is a song I’ve always loved, from 2007’s The Brightness. I’m a bit of a sucker for songs with asymmetrical melodies–and here I mean the way the first line of the verse stops, melodically, at 0:30 but when the melody repeats in the next line it extends itself (0:40). There’s something timeless in that, with the vibe of an old folk song. Mitchell has a confident, distinctive singing voice, which sounds at once innocent and full of wisdom. A longtime visitor or two might remember seeing the beautiful “Flowers (Eurydice’s Song)” featured here back when it first appeared, on the 2010 Hadestown concept album.

* The new single from Laura Marling is gorgeous. What a songwriter she is. And she can sing, too.

* Madeline Bell was born in New Jersey and began singing gospel as a teenager; her professional career, however, took her in another direction. On tour with a gospel act in Europe in 1962, Bell ended up being introduced to a number of notable British performers, including Dusty Springfield, who not only went on to employ Bell as a backing vocalist but by some accounts began to model her singing style after Bell’s. Bell stayed in the UK, recorded a few more albums, and later became known as vocalist for the pop group Blue Mink, which had a half-dozen hit singles in England in the early to mid-’70s. You’ll definitely hear something Dusty-ish in “Don’t Come Running to Me,” a track included on the 2004 re-issue of Bell’s 1967 solo debut Bell’s A Poppin’. While Bell moved into more of a smooth pop-soul direction later on, this debut album is much more of a Bacharachian pop recording, very much an artifact of a particular (and particularly wonderful) moment. For those with a soft spot for the so-called “Swinging London” era, check out this performance of the song from British TV in 1967“.

* The background story of many a long-ago rock band can be more interesting than anticipated. Take the Cyrkle, a one-hit wonder ensemble from Easton, Pennsylvania. Originally called The Rhondells, they ended up being managed by none other than Beatles manager Brian Epstein, who changed their name to the Cyrkle–exotic spelling suggested by John Lennon himself. They even opened 14 times for the Beatles on their 1966 tour, including the Fab Four’s final-ever concert performance, at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. “Red Rubber Ball,” meanwhile, was a song co-written by Paul Simon and Seekers’ guitarist Bruce Woodley, offered to the Cyrkle when the band was opening at one point for Simon and Garfunkel. Cyrkle singer and bassist Tom Dawes had a subsequent career writing commercial jingles, including Alka-Seltzer’s omnipresent “plop plop fizz fizz” refrain. According to an over-long, un-sourced write-up on Wikipedia, the band managed to reunite in 2016 and were still performing live as recently as 2022. Over on Spotify, there are four new singles posted since 2023, including the nostalgia-laced “We Were There,” which was released in May.

* Speaking of bands unexpectedly reuniting, the Scottish group Fairground Attraction, fronted by the wonderful Eddi Reader, has reemerged here in 2024 with their first new material in 34 years. Known best for the soft, swinging single “Perfect,” from their 1988 debut, the group offered up only one follow-up release–a collection of b-sides called Ay Fond Kiss (1990)–before disbanding. Reader went on to an artistically rewarding if off-the-beaten-path solo career, which has slowed down in recent years–there were 10 albums released from 1992 to 2009, and only two since then, most recently Light Is In The Horizon (2022). Meanwhile, Fairground Attraction has put out two singles in 2024, including “Beautiful Happening” in June, the title track to a forthcoming album. “Find My Love” is one of a number of delightful, light-spirited songs from their late-’80s debut.

I see the statistics, from Mixcloud, and they are very clear: not all of you guys listen to these playlists all the way through. In fact, it’s quite the overwhelming majority of listeners who listen to some but not all of the songs, playlist after playlist. And I get it: it’s human nature–or, at least, human-on-the-internet nature; twenty-song playlists may prompt the aural equivalent of TL;DR in this click-happy, distraction-filled environment.

But I intermittently feel compelled to point out that these playlists are not like an album front-loaded with its best songs only to fizzle out on side two. They are, instead, packed with excellent songs from top to bottom. What’s more, I often find myself installing a particular favorite as the last track–I suppose this is me in “always leave them wanting more” mode, aimed towards the intrepid few who take the whole journey with me. But a lot of listeners, alas, don’t hang in there long enough to hear it.

Consider this a long-winded way of urging you not to miss the last song this month, which is an unassuming gem from newcomer Selma Eriksen called “By Now.” I won’t further describe; go listen and discover it for yourself. Even if you just want to skip right down to it.

Repeat reminder from last month: for an overview of (almost) all songs featured to date in an Eclectic Playlist Series mix, check out the master EPS playlist that I update on Spotify every month. As noted in the past, Spotify does not have available every song I place on every list–it’s almost always missing one or two songs every couple of months (this time, for instance, “I Don’t Wanna Lose Him” is unavailable). Another obvious drawback is that you don’t get the contexts of the original mixes with this master list, or the crafted segues. But what you do get is a unique, super-long-lasting listening experience presenting as a quirky, genre-free radio station, minus any interruptions. And at 1,900 songs, it’s a playlist many times larger than most 21st-century radio stations would dream of offering.

As for this month, here’s what you’re in for:

1. “That Great Love Sound” – The Raveonettes (Chain Gang of Love, 2003)
2. “Susannah’s Still Alive” – The Kinks (single, 1967; The Kink Kronikles, 1972)
3. “Lights Light Up” – Fenne Lily (Big Picture, 2023)
4. “Don’t Look” – Nervus Rex (single, 1978)
5. “Possession” – Sarah McLachlan (Fumbling Towards Ecstasy, 1994)
6. “It’s Not My Place (In the 9 to 5 World)” – The Ramones (Pleasant Dreams, 1981)
7. “Tomorrow Today” – Kippington Lodge (single, 1968)
8. “Comet” – Lonely Drifter Karen (Poles, 2012)
9. “Red Pepper Blues” – Art Pepper (Art Pepper Meets the Rhythm Section, 1957)
10. “Jigsaw Falling Into Place” – Radiohead (In Rainbows, 2007)
11. “I Don’t Wanna Lose Him” – Gigi and the Charmaines (unreleased single, 1966)
12. “Running Back” – Thin Lizzy (Jailbreak, 1976)
13. “Heartbeat” – King Crimson (Beat, 1982)
14. “Rains Came” – Shelby Lynne (Tears, Lies, and Alibis, 2010)
15. “Violent Times” – St. Vincent (All Born Screaming, 2024)
16. “Burning Down the House” – Tom Jones and the Cardigans (Reload, 1999)
17. “Takatanga” – Antônio Carlos Jobim (Tide, 1970)
18. “Le Salon” – Autour de Lucie (Faux Mouvement, 2001)
19. “As If You Read My Mind” – Stevie Wonder (Hotter Than July, 1980)
20. “By Now” – Selma Eriksen (single, 2024)

Stray commentary:

* A few internet music veterans out there may remember “That Great Love Sound” being a bit of a blog-based sensation back when MP3 blogs were a shiny new thing. The Raveonettes–whose name was based on the Buddy Holly song “Rave On”–were and are a Danish duo who clothe their neo-garage rock in layers of noise. And if “That Great Love Sound” has the inexorable vibe of a classic, consider that the song’s co-writer was none other than Richard Gotterher, who wrote or co-wrote some actual classics, including “Hang On Sloopy” and “I Want Candy,” before becoming a trailblazing producer of acts such as Blondie, The Go-Go’s, Marshall Crenshaw, and many others. Gotterher produced this first Raveonettes album, Chain Gang of Love, which is interesting also for the oddity that every song on it was written in the key of B-flat major. The Raveonettes, meanwhile, press on as an active band; a cover album called The Raveonettes Sing… is due out next month.

* Gigi and the Charmaines were another hard-working ’60s R&B group that struggled to make it commercially, recorded a number of songs, including some–such as “I Don’t Wanna Lose Him”–that went unreleased for decades, and ultimately faded away without fanfare. It strikes me that the less well-known the group, the more complex their backstory can be. I can’t summarize quickly; read the notes for a compilation put out by the UK label Ace Records, in 2006, if you’re interested. All I will report is that Gigi was the nickname used by lead singer Marian Jackson, that the group started in Cincinnati in 1960, and landed in Canada at some point. They lasted in one form or another until 1974.

* This Talking Heads cover by the unlikely partnership of Sir Tom Jones and The Cardigans is bizarrely compelling. Jones’ allure is not to be underestimated, ever. The song appeared on his 1999 album Reload, which featured mostly cover versions and mostly had the dynamic Welshman singing with a variety of guest artists, including the Pretenders, Van Morrison, Robbie Williams, and Portishead. Wikipedia reports that Reload is the best-selling album of Jones’ career; at the time it was his 34th studio album. That number is now up to 40.

* Kippington Lodge was the psychedelic/baroque-pop-ish forerunner to the venerable pub rock band Brinsley Schwarz, and was itself an outgrowth of a band Nick Lowe and Brinsley Schwarz had previously formed named Sounds 4+1. When Lowe left the country for a while after that, Schwarz formed a new band, called Three’s A Crowd, which got signed to EMI Records, and subsequently changed their name to Kippington Lodge. When Lowe returned to the UK, he joined the band, which proceeded to release a series of singles, including “Tomorrow Today,” but never a full album. (Much later, in 1998, an album emerged which gathered in one place all pre-Brinsley Schwarz recordings.) For the uninitiated, I should note that Brinsley Schwarz is the name of the lead guitarist but was also used as the name of the band after they jettisoned Kippington Lodge. What’s more, two members of Brinsley Schwarz–Schwarz himself and keyboardist Bob Andrews–went on to form the core of The Rumour, for a number of years Graham Parker’s ace backing band.

* I highly recommend the new St. Vincent album. Lots of good tracks including the James Bond-y one tucked into this mix. All Born Screaming isn’t any sort of concept album, and the music varies from song to song, yet there’s something subtle in the air that creates a consistent feeling by the time you’re through. And it definitely encourages repeat listens.

* A recent article in the New York Times profiling Sarah McLachlan reminded me what a big deal she was back in the day, and rightly so. McLachlan’s star run didn’t necessarily last that long, but the highlights reward the ears all these years later. I especially like her second album, Solace, one album before her songs began to hit the charts. But there’s little wrong with Fumbling Towards Ecstasy as well, and “Possession” remains one of her most fully-realized and absorbing compositions.

* “By Now” appears to be the first release by the aforementioned Selma Eriksen. Eriksen was born in Norway but has lived for some time in the U.S., in Los Angeles and New York City. She is both a singer/songwriter and a model; at this point online information seems more oriented towards her modeling than her music. “By Now” was released in May. Hat tip to the Luna Collective’s weekly Spotify playlist for this one.

* The Vin Scelsa reference in the Ramones song is there for those who know. I will always be musically and creatively indebted to that man.

With the Eclectic Playlist Series now in its 11th year (!), I still aim to populate each mix with a good number of artists who have yet to appear on a prior list. I shoot for seven or eight new artists every time; this month there are 12. Sometimes artists new to an EPS mix are people I’ve previously featured with an MP3 review (as, for instance, Becca Richardson this month, among others). Other times a debut artist here is someone relatively new to the music scene (Jenny Owen Youngs this time, as an example). Another category can be a seemingly random band from the past with a song I happen to feel like plugging into the mix; the British post-new-wave band Haircut 100 qualifies this time around. A long-ago figure from the jazz world can become another first-timer (see Gil Mellé, below). One last interesting (and less common) category is the massive pop star who sneaks in with a song that somehow fits into the EPS flow more than what they usually put out (enter, here, Beyoncé).

Unrelated reminder: for an overview of (almost) all songs featured to date in an EPS mix, you can check out the master EPS playlist that I update on Spotify every month. As I have noted in the past, Spotify does not host every song I place on every list–typically it’s missing one or two songs every couple of months (this month, for instance, “Once You Know” is missing). But there are at last count nearly 1,900 songs on the playlist. You don’t get the contexts of the original mixes with this master list, but you do get many hours of entertaining listening out of the deal–the equivalent of a very quirky radio station, without any announcers.

As for this month, here are the goods:

1. “Fallout” – Yo La Tengo (This Stupid World, 2023)
2. “A Bird in the Hand (Is Worth Two in the Bush)” – The Velvelettes (single, 1965)
3. “Nothing To Be Done” – The Pastels (Sittin’ Pretty, 1989)
4. “Free Ride” – Nick Drake (Pink Moon, 1972)
5. “Once You Know” – Le Reno Amps (LP, 2004)
6. “If I Were You” – k.d. lang (All You Can Eat, 1995)
7. “Alliigator Tears” – Beyoncé (Cowboy Carter, 2024)
8. “Etc” – Francis and the Lights (single, 2013)
9. “Ode to Billie Joe” – Sinéad O’Connor (The Help Album, 1995)
10. “Favourite Shirts (Boy Meets Girl)” – Haircut 100 (Pelican West, 1982)
11. “Under Capricorn” – Gil Mellé (New Faces – New Sounds: Gil Mellé Quintet/Sextet, 1953)
12. “Avalanche” – Jenny Owen Youngs (Avalanche, 2023)
13. “On Top of the World” – Cheap Trick (Heaven Tonight, 1978)
14. “Mathematics” – Cherry Ghost (Thirst For Romance, 2007)
15. “Wanted” – Becca Richardson (We Are Gathered Here, 2017)
16. “It’s Wonderful” – The Rascals (Once Upon a Dream, 1968)
17. “Take Me As I Am” – October Project (October Project, 1996)
18. “Everybody Loves the Sunshine” – Roy Ayers Ubiquity (Everybody Loves the Sunshine , 1976)
19. “The Bike” – Amy Correia (Carnival Love, 2000)
20. “Stop Hurting People” – Pete Townshend (All The Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes, 1982)

Stray commentary:

* If “A Bird in the Hand (Is Worth Two in the Bush)” sounds a little familiar–sounds, perhaps, a bit like “I Heard It Through the Grapevine”–that’s because the two songs were both co-written by the Motown songwriter/producer Norman Whitfield. And this song came out first. If you think about it, the songs are similar not only in sound but in subject matter: in each case, the lead singer is saying “I love you more than that new person who says they love you.” The Velvelettes were yet another high-quality Motown singing group that seem to have deserved wider success than they ultimately achieved. Their best-known song, in retrospect, was “He Was Really Sayin’ Somethin’,” which was a minor hit for them in 1964, and a bigger hit for the group Bananarama (re-titled as “Saying Something”) in 1982. The Velvelettes started as a quintet, and later performed as both a quartet and a trio. After dissolving at some point in the 1970s, the group was re-assembled in the 1980s and intermittently toured into the 2000s.

* Le Reno Amps was a good-natured, They-Might-Be-Giants-adjacent duo from Scotland, active between 2004 and 2011. They are not, as noted, to be found on Spotify, but you can discover their appealing, slightly skewed, DIY-ish pop on Bandcamp. (And, you can buy any of their albums there on a name-your-price basis.) An example of their general approach to things: the band’s name was devised as an acronym of the bandmates’ two surnames (Maple and Nero), with an added “s.” I featured “Once You Know” here back in 2005, and retain a soft spot for this one.

* Gil Mellé was an interesting cat. As a 19-year-old baritone saxophonist he was signed to Blue Note Records–the first white musician on that storied label’s roster. At the same time he was a visual artist, who created covers not only for his own albums but for albums by Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins, and Thelonious Monk. After recording a series of albums between 1953 and 1957, he abandoned jazz performance for a long and busy career as a composer for film and TV; he wrote some 125 scores in all, including work for Ironside, Night Gallery, and Columbo. He was known in particular for being a pioneer in the use of electronic music in film and TV scores, building his own synthesizers and, by some accounts, the world’s first drum machine. Later in his career he returned his focus to visual art, working in the ’90s with computers to create widely-acclaimed digital paintings. He died in Malibu in 2004.

* For the uninitiated (which includes me), that is not a typo in the Beyoncé song title. All song titles on Cowboy Carter that have words with the letter “i” in them are spelled with double “i”s; the song titles are, furthermore, capitalized on the album, so each “i” looks like this: “II.” This is an inside reference to the fact that the superstar singer/songwriter considers this album to be “Act II” in a three-act sequence, which began with 2022’s Renaissance. Cowboy Carter presents a lot to sort through, and while not much of it has clicked with me so far, I felt drawn to “Alliigator Tears” right away, so here it is.

* As if we needed more evidence of the late Sinéad O’Connor’s majesty as a singer, give a listen to her commanding take on the Bobbie Gentry chestnut “Ode to Billie Joe.” O’Connor’s use of her breath as part of her vocal tone is all but heartbreaking. And don’t miss the choice she makes on the word “spring” about 45 seconds before the end. Big props here too to the minimal, eerie arrangement, which keeps a flowing, menacing undercurrent throughout. The song can be found on The Help Album, which was released in 1995 as a fundraiser for a charity called War Child, which provides assistance to people in war zones around the world. The artists featured on the album were all British or Irish, and included Paul McCartney, Radiohead, Oasis, Blur, and Paul Weller.

* As a single, “It’s Wonderful” was initially credited to the Young Rascals, but the band was about to officially become, simply, the Rascals by the time Once Upon a Dream came out. If remembered at all here in the history-challenged 21st century, the band has been pretty much reduced to their R&B-flavored hit singles “Good Lovin’,” “People Got to Be Free,” and “I’ve Been Lonely Too Long.” But as the Rascals evolved through the later ’60s they had more complex aspirations. Front man Felix Cavaliere was quoted in an interview at the time referring to Once Upon a Dream as “Sgt. Pepper-ish”; clearly the band was aiming for a previously unattained sophistication in the music and general presentation. The album was marked by some between-song effects and a number of tracks that flow together without pause–you’ll hear some of that both before and after “It’s Wonderful” if you listen carefully. I’m not sure how successful the whole thing is–it’s no Pet Sounds–but it is a worthy artifact of the time.