Fingertips

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.