Some people knit. I make playlists. Until the day I learn to knit, at which point I’ll knit while listening to my playlists.
This year I’ve decided to make a playlist for each month, just to track the songs that capture my interest in a particular span of time. Kind of like a very brief diary in music. I usually don’t discover more than two or three new songs every few weeks; sometimes I rediscover old songs instead.
It used to be that I could spend hours each day listening to music. In college I think I spent most of my waking hours doing just that. When I worked in tech I wore headphones for most of the day if I was coding. I could listen to spacy, disturbing, far-out, strange music for days. I often did.
These days my golden opportunity to listen to music is in the car, often with one or both kids. Pink Floyd’s 23-minute “Echoes” opus is not going to fly with this audience, no matter how amazing I think it is. Everyone’s happy if the music is happy. Heavy on vocals doesn’t hurt either.
That said, here are my picks for the May ’11 playlist.
- The Belle Brigade, “Losers” and “Sweet Louise”
I’m a huge Fleetwood Mac fan, and the Belle Brigade was recommended to me as “the next Fleetwood Mac.” I was highly doubtful. Billing a band as The Next Anything is a great way to convince me not to like them. Fortunately, the Belle Brigade is unworthy of this title, and thus I’m liking them a lot. They’re a brother-and-sister team from Los Angeles, and the Mac comparisons are due to their lush and lovely harmonies, but the comparisons can stop there, as they lack the driving rhythm section of the real thing. They fall into the Wilco category of folksy, country-tinged rock, and “Losers” is heavily inspired not only by Mac but also by the Beatles. (BTW, “Losers” is an outstanding ode to geeks and outcasts everywhere.) It’s sunny-day, windows-down music and I plan on trying out a few more tracks from their self-titled debut. - Fleet Foxes, “Montezuma,” “Helplessness Blues,” and “Battery Kinzie”
I really liked Fleet Foxes’ first album, and these tracks from their sophomore album, titled Helplessness Blues, are even better than anything on the first album. This is Laurel Canyon-style gorgeous haunting hippie music, deeply influenced by the Byrds, the Beach Boys, and Simon & Garfunkel. The album was just released last week and it has enough beautiful moments to be worth owning in its entirety. - Paul Simon, “The Afterlife”
Mr.Mango and I have a theory that the longer a jam band plays, the more they start to sound like Paul Simon. All arcs of crunchy granola live music gradually bend towards a single happy instrumental of “Diamonds on the Soles of her Shoes.” In this new track from his recently released album, So Beautiful or So What, Paul Simon goes back to that Graceland place and illustrates why everyone wants to sound like him. And the lyrics are classic Simon: witty, sharp poetry, a main course of truth with a side of wry humor. They’re too good not to share:After I died, and the makeup had dried, I went back to my place.
No moon that night, but a heavenly light shone on my face.
Still I thought it was odd, there was no sign of God just to usher me in.
Then a voice from above, sugar-coated with love, said, “Let us begin”.You got to fill out a form first, and then you wait in the line.
You got to fill out a form first, and then you wait in the line. - Lady Gaga, “You and I”
So I watched Gaga do this song on the Today Show months ago and I kind of fell in love with it. It’s anthemic arena-rock with an Elton John twist and a We Will Rock You beat. Born This Way was released yesterday and it’s one of those albums everyone will know, even if they don’t love it. I’m liking Gaga’s campy, Rocky Horror, Bat Out of Hell direction here. Plus she knows how to write a hook. I can’t get this song out of my head to save my life.
mango theory 