Best Songs of 2013 – #10
Kicking off the top ten of my favorite 2013 songs is a track my wife discovered using Shazam when she heard it playing over a department store loudspeaker.
She has a knack for knowing instantly that she loves a song. I’m the opposite… it sometimes takes me a three or four listens before I have a clue.
Last year, my 40th birthday fell on a Random Weekend and I took advantage of the occasion to spin the wheel and dial up a song that would have special meaning for the day.
I wound up with Johnny Cash’s cover of Nine Inch Nail’s ‘Hurt,’ a powerful and moving song sung by an old man near the end of his life.
It felt like an appropriately weighty selection, if a little morose.
These are the Random Weekend selections I most enjoy — little blasts from the past that give me an excuse to catch up with an artist I’ve long ago forgotten.
Josh Joplin Group made a (very) minor alternative splash at the turn of the millennium, releasing an album called Useful Music that is among the better examples of that late 90s alt-rock sound.
Best Songs of 2013 – #11
Another Self Portrait, the latest installment of Bob Dylan’s great Bootleg Series, goes a long way toward redeeming Self Portrait, widely considered Dylan’s worst album.
Or at least it makes you wonder about the album Dylan might have released had he gone in a different direction.
Best Songs of 2013 – #12
Here’s the Josh Rouse song I alluded to during the most recent Random Weekend.
Rouse has always reminded me of Paul Simon, even before he started dabbling in exotic rhythms. He has a similar knack for infectious melodies, usually based around an acoustic guitar with occasional horn flourishes. Stylistically, much of Rouse’s discography could fit comfortably on Simon’s early solo albums.
Meet Me In Montauk 