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Song of the Day #4,326: ‘I Contain Multitudes’ – Bob Dylan

It’s never clear what exactly motivates Bob Dylan, so maybe it was coronavirus or maybe it wasn’t, but the 78-year-old legend has released two new tracks over the past month and a half, his first new original material since his 2012 album Tempest.

The first track, released in late March, was titled ‘Murder Most Foul.’ At just under 17 minutes, it is the longest track Dylan has ever released, and the first about the John Kennedy assassination, a subject that has always fascinated him. It’s extremely spare musically, a spoken-word poem set to a somber piano and strings backdrop.

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Song of the Day #4,325: ‘You Don’t Wanna Hear It’ – Ron Sexsmith

Canadian singer-songwriter Ron Sexsmith quietly released his 17th studio album, titled Hermitage, in mid-April. He’s not exactly an artist who pairs up an album release with multiple talk show appearances and a stadium tour, so he probably didn’t think about postponing the record due to coronavirus.

His timing turns out to be pretty good, though, because Hermitage is a very upbeat, positive, sunny record. Sexsmith often leans toward the melancholy, but he’s equally adept at spinning out feather-light tunes with sugar-sweet melodies, and he’s in that mode here.

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Song of the Day #4,324: ‘Damsel in Distress’ – Rufus Wainwright

Rufus Wainwright is another artist whose 2020 plans have been upended by the coronavirus. The April release of his new album, Unfollow the Stars, has been pushed back to mid-July and much of his tour schedule has been cancelled.

Wainwright has made the most of the situation, though, performing daily “Quarantunes” from his apartment and releasing the videos on Facebook. Each day he sits, either at the piano or with guitar in hand, always in a bathrobe, and belts out a selection from his enviable catalog.

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Song of the Day #4,323: ‘Living in a Ghost Town’ – The Rolling Stones

Like Alicia Keys, The Rolling Stones have released a new song perfectly suited to our current times that was actually written well before the coronavirus pandemic.

‘Living in a Ghost Town’ was originally recorded more than a year ago, but Mick Jagger and Keith Richards took another pass at it to make it more relevant to our lives in quarantine. I assume the line “life was so beautiful, then we all got locked down” was a recent addition.

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Song of the Day #4,322: ‘Good Job’ – Alicia Keys

Coronavirus has disrupted every industry, and the music business is no exception. High profile releases by such artists as Dixie Chicks, Lady Gaga and Haim have been delayed, and concerts are pretty much a thing of the past (when will you feel safe sharing close quarters with 20,000 fellow fans?).

But our new normal hasn’t stopped some artists from releasing music, and over the next two weeks I’ll feature songs by ten of them, from new names to grizzled veterans.

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