Over the next few weeks I’ll dive into the next installment of an occasional series here at Meet Me in Montauk, where I focus on a single year and post songs from both my favorite albums and the acclaimed albums I’ve never heard.
I started this series with 1972 (my birth year) and subsequently covered 1982 and 1992. Now I jump ahead another decade to 2002, a year after the 9/11 attacks, the year I turned 30, the year my first daughter was born.
Elvis Costello’s many reissues of his back catalog have unearthed a lot of excellent tracks. Today’s Random iTunes selection is not among them.
This alternate take of Imperial Bedroom‘s ‘Little Savage’ is nearly incoherent, especially vocally, a fact that Costello himself acknowledges in the disc’s liner notes:
Apparently the Random iTunes Fairy felt it had been too long since Beyoncé graced the blog with her presence. So here is a cut from Queen B’s 2006 album B’Day.
The record was Beyoncé’s second solo effort and, looking back now, it’s a charming glimpse at the R&B diva before she took over the world.
This week’s final track is a better time machine than Doc Brown’s DeLorean. Rumer (stage name of Sarah Joyce) was born in 1979 but her songs sound like they were recorded five years earlier.
Her Karen Carpenter vocals and Burt Bacharach production are completely out of time but charmingly so. Her throwback style has earned the fandom of Elton John and, yes, Burt Bacharach.
The globetrotting continues with today’s artist, Lianne La Havas, who was born in London to a Greek mother and Jamaican father. She counts Prince among her biggest fans, and has played alongside him on Saturday Night Live and elsewhere.
La Havas released her debut record in 2012 and her sophomore effort, Blood, in July of this year. The album was well-received, hailed as a stirring blend of pop, soul, jazz and R&B. No wonder Prince likes her.
