Author Archives

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Song of the Day #4,881: ‘The Night’s Too Long’ – Lucinda Williams

‘The Night’s Too Long’ is one of two songs on Lucinda Williams’ self-titled 1988 album to become hits for other artists.

Patty Loveless recorded this track for her 1990 album On Down the Line and put it on the country charts for 19 weeks.

Two years later, Mary Chapin Carpenter recorded ‘Passionate Kisses’ for the album Come On Come On and found success on not just the country chart, but Adult Contemporary and the Billboard Hot 100. That recording won Williams a songwriting Grammy for Best Country Song.

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Song of the Day #4,880: ‘Swan Swan H’ – R.E.M.

‘Swan Swan H’ is the penultimate track on R.E.M.’s 1986 album Lifes Rich Pageant, though it was listed last on the packaging because a cover of the song ‘Superman’ was left off.

This album was the band’s fourth, and the first to move into more rock territory after the murky alternative pop of their first three releases. I slotted this album as #3 on my list of R.E.M. releases when I ranked them back in 2008.

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Song of the Day #4,879: ‘Suicide is Murder’ – Aimee Mann

Aimee Mann’s latest album came out a week ago today (though it hasn’t yet been released as I write this). Queens of the Summer Hotel is an interesting project, a batch of songs written for a planned stage musical based on the 1993 memoir Girl, Interrupted by Susannah Kaysen.

The book, about the author’s experiences as a young woman in a psychiatric hospital, seems like a weird fit for a musical. A 1999 film adaptation worked well enough, winning strong reviews for star Winona Ryder and an Oscar for co-star Angelina Jolie. But setting such dark and unsettling material to music? I don’t know.

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Song of the Day #4,878: ‘Speaking with Trees’ – Tori Amos

Tori Amos. To quote Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars, “Now that’s a name I haven’t heard in a long time.”

The indie singer-songwriter released her 16th album, Ocean to Ocean, last month. And while I feel like she has been missing since her heyday in the early 90s, this is actually her fifth new studio album in the past decade. In fact, the four years between this record and her last is the longest she’s gone between releases in her career.

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Song of the Day #4,877: ‘Black Bathing Suit’ – Lana Del Rey

Lana Del Rey is back with her second album of 2021, following the release of Chemtrails Over the Country Club in March. The new record, titled Blue Bannisters, features 15 new tracks. This deluge of material reminds me of Taylor Swift’s one-two punch of Folklore and Evermore last year.

It’s great to witness artists peaking creatively and channeling that inspiration into new albums. Often when I look back at the careers of big stars from the 70s, I’m amazed to see how often they released albums during their heyday. Feels like we’re seeing the same sort of thing with Swift and Del Rey.

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