“The Day Is Long Enough” – Claire Barbour

Lovely, vulnerable

“The Day Is Long Enough” – Claire Barbour

“The Day is Long Enough” begins with a lovely sense of spacious vulnerability, and doesn’t take long to show off its fetching chorus. The 21-year-old Claire Barbour sings with both authority and reserve as the song combines lo-fi immediacy with a sneaky sense of production know-how. The simple, engaging melodies provide a throughline for a song that slowly transforms itself from bedroom ambiance to, by 1:47, the feel of a full (if gentle) band playing, a transition preceded by Barbour providing us with an unexpected taste of airy, jazz-inflected singing starting at 1:26.

And remember that gorgeous chorus that gets introduced near the beginning? This smartly crafted song withholds the chorus’s lyrical and musical resolution until its third and final iteration, as Barbour at last completes her thought that begins with “I can’t say it all enough,” singing, at 2:22, with wonderful offhand phrasing, “how the light makes me high.” The song, it turns out, is at least partially about those famously long Scandinavian summer days.

There is not much yet to learn online about Claire Barbour. Her submission letter here identifies her as “Stockholm/New York based” and notes that she was born in New England; her internet trail at this point is all but nonexistent. “The Day is Long Enough” was released last month on Hvilan Grammofon, an independent label based in Stockholm.

I wish I could believe you

Eclectic Playlist Series 12.04 (July 2025)

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.

“Fading” – Steel Wool

Laid back melodic fuzz

“Fading” – Steel Wool

There’s a deep Wall-of-Sound blur to the aural landscape here–try as the ear might to discern what exactly is doing what and when to create the murky clamor of noise that underpins “Fading,” explanations are not forthcoming. No matter: the song’s amiable melodies and Sean Lissner’s laid-back vocals combine with the amorphous noise to create an oddly welcoming environment.

But things change. At 1:37 a trap door opens and the background din shifts forward and seems now to be constructed, at least partially, of intersecting screams. For some 35 seconds we are embroiled in something of a sonic bad dream, where strangled words fall short of comprehension, the listener offered no immediate way out except to focus on the unflappable lead guitar line that competes concurrently with the noise. (The screaming is real, and credited to bassist Jaden Amjadi.) Things slide back to the previously established noise norm but with a residual edge; there’s a sense of waiting for the other shoe to drop. The song goes on to revisit its two previous responses: at 3:04, Lissner reprises his reassuring “oo-oo”s, first heard around 1:07; but, as before, these are followed by the disorienting scream-noise. The song seeks simultaneously to soothe and agitate. As does the world at large.

Steel wool, a material at once tough and fuzzy, seems oddly apt to the sonic palette this Los Angeles-based quartet produces. “Fading” is a track from the band’s five-song self-titled EP, which was released in April. You can listen to it and buy it, for a price of your choosing, via Bandcamp.

“Take It Out On Me” – Smug Brothers

Incisive, immediate, well-built

“Take It Out On Me” – Smug Brothers

The Columbus, Ohio-based Smug Brothers return to Fingertips with more of their durable lo-fi pop rock, in which the “pop” has little to do with its contemporary usage but refers rather to the platonic ideal of modern music that’s incisive, immediate, and admirably well-built. This is the pop of “power pop” and “jangle pop” but less confining. It’s music made by humans with three-dimensional instruments and a reflexive predilection for the Beatlesque.

This song’s particular charms are rooted in the way it ongoingly anchors its melodies away from the downbeat (i.e., the first beat in a 4/4 measure). This creates a slinky, seductive atmosphere in which the song becomes its own backstory–a propulsive backbeat on the one hand, melodies that weave between the lines on the other. Kyle Melton’s sturdy vocals begin the verses within a megaphone filter, inviting us to lean in, before allowing his Tweedy-ish tone to fully inhabit a song that eschews narrative for the stringing together of evocative lyrical phrases. All in all these guys operate so far from what passes for popular music here in 2025 that I can nearly imagine a moment of cultural whiplash that would bring them straight to the forefront of the zeitgeist. Don’t laugh: any indie band forever remains one canny song placement away from if not fortune then at least fame.

“Take It Out On Me” is a song from the 11th Smug Brothers album, entitled Stuck on Beta, released earlier this month on Anyway Records; check it out via Bandcamp. MP3 courtesy of the band. The band has also released seven EPs and nine singles, all of which are also up there on Bandcamp. The band has previously been featured here in 2023 and 2019.

“Solar Babes” – Storm Recorder

Brisk, poignant guitar rock

“Solar Babes” – Storm Recorder

Driven by brisk, clangy guitar chords, “Solar Babes” has an unmistakable poignancy about it, even as I can’t quite put my finger on what’s driving that impression. Some of this seems built into Jesse LeGallais’ voice, with its fetching, slightly nasal timbre. Some of it may be generated by the verse’s insistent, two-chord melody, the sing-song-y quality of which creates an underlying innocence to the proceedings.

The chorus, comprising little more than the word “fight,” creates a passing sense of movement even as it’s still built on the same two-chord foundation. The breakthrough happens around 1:15, after one more round of verses: we find ourselves in an extended bridge or bridge-like section that offers the ear the sorts of chord progressions the song has previously withheld from us, and which sound all but heroic in context. Equally heroic is how the opening chords are re-cast at the end in a brief, quasi-Springsteen-esque conclusion (2:07). Wrapping up in under three minutes, the song invites and rewards multiple listens.

Storm Recorder is the Nova Scotia-based duo of LeGallais and Palmer Jamieson. LeGallais was based in Montreal for 15 years, playing in an assortment of bands, before moving to Halifax; Jamieson is a Halifax-based producer who runs his own studio. LeGallais initially intended to record a solo project with Jamieson. Their level of affinity ended up turning the record into a new, joint project called Storm Recorder. “Solar Babes” is the opening track on the album Always Coming Home, which they position as an homage to the Ursula LeGuin novel of the same name. A particular inspiration for the duo comes from a LeGuin quotation the band has posted on its Bandcamp page: “We live in capitalism, its power seems inescapable–but then, so did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings.” These are words that feel especially welcome right about now. Thanks to LeGallais for the MP3.

I’m surprised that you even found me

Eclectic Playlist Series 12.03 – May 2025

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.

“Serious Man” – Soltero

Brisk and thoughtful

“Serious Man” – Soltero

A confident burst of thoughtful indie rock, “Serious Man” hooks the ear first with its jangly guitar riff and then witih its characteristic time-signature hiccup, arising first as we hear the titular phrase around 0:13: those two extra beats required to fit the music to the words manage both to interrupt and to reaffirm the appealing flow. Nothing like a little asymmetry to make the world a better place in this age of overly perfected beats and AI-induced conformity. Nothing, too, like Tim Howard’s reassuring, unpolished voice, to remind us that we want and need human beings out there expressing themselves. (Why anyone would want to hear a machine expressing itself remains a puzzle to my organic brain and my beating heart.)

“Serious Man” is brisk and to the point, but also expansive enough to include some incisive octave harmonies, some scratchy guitar work, and, as unexpected as it is welcome, a bass solo (1:35-1:47). Best of all is the underlying sense of humor that subtly supports the enterprise, knowingly undercutting the singer’s effort to assert his seriousness. It’s not laugh out loud humor, at all; it’s weary-acceptance-of-the-human condition humor. Although Howard’s low-register vocal following the bass solo (1:47) does provoke a soft smile, at least for me.

Soltero is a shape-shifting project fronted by Howard, which got started back in 2001. Sometimes a solo project, Soltero is now a trio. “Serious Man” is the lead track from Soltero’s ninth album, Staying Alive, released last month. You can check the whole thing out, and buy it, over on Bandcamp. This is the first album Soltero has recorded since the American-born Howard relocated to Berlin in 2018. Soltero has been featured five previous times on Fingertips, most recently in 2023; see the Artist Index for all the links.

“Fire Sign” – S.G. Goodman

Strong personality and drive

“Fire Sign” – S.G. Goodman

Alternating between a dusty stomp and a keening incantation, “Fire Sign” finds S.G. Goodman sounding weary yet self-possessed. At the song’s heart, the Western Kentucky singer/songwriter changes vocal registers to persistently pose the question “Who’ll put the fire out?” The repetition, lyrically and musically, takes on an aspect of supplication. Is part of her wondering what it’ll take to extinguish her inner drive? Why is she assuming it can/will in fact be extinguished? Unless she’s pondering the permanent extinguishment that awaits us all. Her press material does report that this song was written in the aftermath of the deaths of both her dog and a good friend and mentor while Goodman was out on a grueling tour. Meanwhile, why is it a “who” versus a “what”? (Note that in the same material she answers the question directly: “The only person who can put my fire out is myself.”)

Astrologically speaking, fire signs are characterized by their strong personalities and drive. This song has both. Goodman’s knack for the offbeat turn of phrase–“Shapeshifting through the night of life’s turn rows”? “No curling in the daylight”?–is buttressed by the music’s durable framework. We don’t hear anything but bass and drum under her cold-open vocals until 36 seconds in. The only addition we get at first is a thoughtful, resonant guitar, describing phrases that lag behind the song’s rhythmic center. Halfway through (1:12) we hear a keyboard that’s just as thoughtful and restrained, adding almost subliminally to the hand-wrought texture, moving to the front of the mix only at the tail end of the coda. What the song may ultimately lack in development it makes up for in potency. No one’s putting Goodman’s fire out just yet.

“Fire Sign” is a song from Goodman’s forthcoming album, Planting By the Signs, which will be arriving in June. She was previously featured on Fingertips in August 2020.

“Wherever” – Jonas Carping

Steady melodies, resonant vocals

“Wherever” – Jonas Carping

There’s something about the central descending melody delivered by Jonas Carping’s rich baritone that feels especially satisfying here. Perhaps all the more so because of how Carping teasingly withholds the crucial chord progression that underpins the melody the first time he takes us through it (0:12-0:22). As a listener I feel both intrigued and a little “huh?” at that point. But the context is corrected immediately thereafter (listen for that first, greatly anticipated chord change at 0:27), and throughout the rest of the song.

The other attractive thing about “Wherever” is the way its aural space subtly shifts as the song unfolds. For the first 50 seconds we’re in an unmoored, vacant lot of a space, with vague background sounds accompanying a heartbeat drumbeat. Things solidify slightly at 0:49 as a full drum kit kicks in while a droning electric guitar ringingly expands the landscape. A brief but incisive drum fill at 1:12 flips a sonic switch and we lose the muted fogginess of the opening third. As things progress the song’s simple, steady melodies acquire a sort of august resonance, amplified by Carping’s sonorous vocals. While the song stays mostly within his lower register, the couple of times in the last minute that he reaches slightly higher are each a mini-highlight.

Jonas Carping is a singer/songwriter based in Lund, in the south of Sweden. Interesting story: Carping has been submitting his music to Fingertips since 2012–enough times to be an inbox regular, not enough times to be an annoyance. I’ve always liked his songs but they each time seemed to fall just a little short, due no doubt to my own idiosyncrasies as a listener. “Wherever,” for whatever reason, hits the mark for me; so here, at long last, is Jonas Carping. “Wherever” is a song from an upcoming EP. MP3 via the artist.

You laugh tonight and cry tomorrow

Eclectic Playlist Series 12.02 – February 2025

We said goodbye to the mighty Marianne Faithfull last month, as well as to the quiet genius Garth Hudson, wizard organist of The Band, who skillfully handled any number of other instruments as well. I need to remain mindful about working musical elders into these mixes while they’re still alive, as I am not trying to get all “In Memoriam” here. But these two deserve an appreciative word, a respectful moment of silence if you’re so inclined, and a place in the playlist, so you’ll find them here in 12.02.

Beyond that, so many things to tear one’s hair out about. Still hard to believe that we have turned the reins over to a convicted criminal, whose track record as a human being falls so short of humane all the possible ways. With this track record you wouldn’t hire him to babysit your child and yet here we are. The situation has inadvertently uncovered democracy’s foundational fatal flaw: in designing positions of power that people can attain via, essentially, a popularity contest, in the long run the evil people are going to win, for the simple reason that they are always going to want it more. And, because evil is as evil does, they will be willing to do what it takes, which will always eventually include subverting the very institutions and systems through which they attained the power. Me, I retreat into music, finding solace there, and community. I offer a heartfelt thank you to those of you who have written in with encouraging words. As I have said in the past, knowing that I’m making a genuine connection with a small number of people feels, these days, much more rewarding than seeing soulless statistics about clicks and visits. Ideally this might also reflect back onto you, knowing that you aren’t just a faceless one among millions. You matter here, as an actual person.

And with that, the songs:

1. “Até Ao Verão” – Ana Moura (Desfado, 2012)
2. “Ticket to Ride” – The Beatles Help!, 1965)
3. “Get It While You’re Young” – The Act (Too Late at 20, 1981)
4. “That’s What You Say (Every Time You’re Near Me)” – Gloria Scott (What Am I Gonna Do, 1974)
5. “Beaches” – Beabadoobee (This is How Tomorrow Moves, 2024)
6. “Army Of Me” – Björk (Post, 1995)
7. “Blue Skies” – Art Tatum (Art Tatum, 1950)
8. “Woman King” – Iron & Wine (Woman King EP, 2005)
9. “Nathan Jones” – The Supremes (Touch, 1971)
10. “Sunday Best” – Lauren Mayberry (Vicious Creature, 2024)
11. “You Keep On Lyin'” – The Hoods (Gangsters & Morticians, 1991)
12. “Look Out Cleveland” – The Band (The Band, 1969)
13. “Vendala Vida” – Dinosaur Feathers (Fantasy Memorial, 2010)
14. “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” – Marianne Faithfull (Strange Weather, 1987)
15. “The Narcissist” – Blur (The Ballad of Darren, 2023)
16. “He Can Only Hold Her” – Amy Winehouse (Back to Black, 2007)
17. “Better Must Come” – Delroy Wilson (Better Must Come, 1971)
18. “Change” – Tears For Fears (The Hurting, 1983)
19. “Walking Aimlessly” – Anna Ternheim (The Night Visitor, 2011)
20. “Life Is” – Jessica Pratt (Here in the Pitch, 2024)

Random notes:

* We’ll start with something a bit off the beaten path: Ana Moura’s splendid “Até Ao Verão.” Delicious, melodramatic chords anchor the heart of this deceptively brisk composition while lovely, front-of-mix guitar work dominates the accompaniment. Ana Moura is a Portuguese fado singer, but her 2012 album Desfado was somewhat controversial among sticklers, not being a pure fado LP. She actually recorded the album in the United States, employing the American producer Larry Klein. Fado or no, the Portuguese public didn’t mind at all; it now stands as the country’s biggest-selling album of all time. For the first time, Moura sings in English on a few songs on this album. But you don’t have to understand the lyrics to be moved by “Até Ao Verão” (which translates to “Until Summer,” according to Mr. Google); the song is gorgeous, with all the melancholy ache of traditional fado but with a modern spark igniting the performance.

* Okay so “Ticket to Ride” may be so familiar that your ear doesn’t really pay attention to what it’s hearing. But to me, this has always been one of the more magical Lennon-McCartney numbers. To begin with, it comes from a marvelous pivot point in their output, possessing at once the simple-seeming charm of their early hits while also displaying a depth of craft that will start to characterize their music moving forward. Listen to how the recurring guitar pattern and the drumming together conspire to defeat a strict sense of time. Note too the simple yet beguiling chord changes that link the verse to the chorus, and the striking intervals in the vocal harmonies at that same point. Things of course would grow ever more complex as the Beatles soon begin to use the recording studio itself as a kind of instrument. As a side note, some three years into their recording careers (Help! was already their fifth album), this was the first Beatles song to clock in at over three minutes.

* The trio Dinosaur Feathers had a minor moment in the online sun back when the music blogosphere was a dynamic thing. But their internet trail is pretty thin at this point–no Wikipedia page, a handful of likes on a Facebook page last updated in 2015, a Bandcamp page you have to dig through to find their full discography. “Vendela Vida” dates back to the days of good promise, in 2010, from the band’s debut album Fantasy Memorial; it was featured here that same year. The song’s connection to the writer Vendela Vida was and is unclear. Maybe it was just a fun name to sing. In any case this is still a fun song to listen to.

* “Nathan Jones” was, in 1971, one of the last top-20 hits for the Supremes after the departure of Diana Ross, who left the group the previous year. The three remaining Supremes certainly stayed busy in the immediate aftermath: the album Touch, where you’ll find “Nathan Jones,” was already the Supremes’ fifth Ross-free release. While Jean Terrell had taken over lead vocals, for “Nathan Jones” all three women sang lead together, an unusual and rather fetching maneuver.

* The Act was a British band plying their trade at the height of new wave’s power pop takeover; their one album, Too Late At 20, came out on Hannibal Records in 1981. The Act’s only minor claim to fame is being the band that Nick Laird-Clowes was in before going on to front The Dream Academy (best known for “Life in a Northern Town,” which Laird-Clowes co-wrote). That said, “Get It While You’re Young” is a pretty solid piece of vintage early-’80s British rock, an era and sound for which I will always have a soft spot.

* Lauren Mayberry is the lead singer of the Scottish band Chvrches. Vicious Creature is her first solo album, but she has made it clear that the band, while currently on hiatus, will be back together in the future. And if all else fails down the road, maybe she can fall back on her undergraduate law degree and master’s degree in journalism. But I’d say she’s not nearly through as a singer and songwriter. Her bright, pop-leaning sound is tempered, to my ears, by deft melodic acumen as well as activist-informed lyrics that range well beyond the purview of the typical Spotify hit.

* The Jessica Pratt song “Life Is” was selected as the best song of 2024 by the venerable Said the Gramophone blog, maintained all these years by the novelist Sean Michaels. Michaels can write circles around pretty much anyone who tries to write about music. His wide-ranging taste is not always mine; he finds treasure in the extremities of both pop and lo-fi that eludes my ears. But this one stuck with me. I like its strong yet leisurely beat and its sneaky melodicism. That post-chorus shift at 1:19 is inspiring, and leads into a second verse with a different melody than the first. The song is a glowing mystery, and a nice place to land.