When today’s song popped up as my Random Weekend selection, my first thought was to write about Sara Bareilles’ Little Voice as a great debut album. I’ve been meaning to do a series of posts on my favorite debuts, and this one would certainly make the cut.
But when I called up Bareilles’ discography, I learned that while 2007’s Little Voice was the singer-songwriter’s major label debut, it is actually her second album.
Lyle Lovett’s 1994 album I Love Everybody has come up on the blog a few times before, and I always say the same thing.
To wit, this collection of odds and ends written before Lovett landed his first album deal was a let-down following the genius run of Pontiac, …and His Large Band and Joshua Judges Ruth, but as let-downs go it contains its fair share of memorable songs.
Today’s track isn’t one of those.
My final track in the Your Favorite Songs series is Taylor Swift’s ‘Begin Again,’ which showed up on both Amy and Madison’s lists. This is the final track, and second single, on Swift’s 2012 album Red.
Red is a fan favorite, perhaps because it gives equal weight to both her country roots and her shift toward pop. I placed it in the middle of the pack when ranking Swift’s albums last year.
Recently my daughter shared a tweet (or TikTok, or whatever social platform she was on) by somebody who wrote something along the lines of “what’s the greatest song ever recorded and why is it ‘Upside Down‘ by Jack Johnson?”
I get where that person is coming from. That song, from the soundtrack of 2006’s animated Curious George, is a blast of pure happiness. I could listen to it every day.
But I’ve never listened to anything else by Johnson, with the exception of a brief dalliance with his debut album, 2001’s Brushfire Fairytales.
Both Amy and Dana included Bonnie Raitt’s recording of the John Prine classic ‘Angel From Montgomery’ on their list of favorite songs. This is a stone-cold classic, no doubt.
This track appeared on Raitt’s 1974 album Streetlights, her fourth release. She was pressured by her label to work with an established producer who could give her work more of a mainstream pop sheen, as opposed to the raw blues sound of her first few albums. She agreed, but wasn’t happy about it, and the album was a critical and commercial failure.
Meet Me In Montauk 