This is Michael Penn’s first appearance on the blog in three and a half years, when I named his sophomore album Free-For-All my second-favorite of 1992. Today’s song comes from the same album.
I have a theory on why Penn never became a bigger star. I think his lyrics are just too inscrutable. His one hit, ‘No Myth,’ was easy enough to decipher. “What if I were Romeo in black jeans?” is a great, memorable line that doesn’t make you scratch your head like so many of this later songs.
When today’s random song popped up, I was reminded of how disappointed I was in Counting Crows’ 2008 album, Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings.
The concept was half an album of upbeat songs and half an album of slow ballads. What they ended up with was a Goldilocks selection without anything that was “just right.” The first half was annoying and off-putting while the second half put me to sleep.
Ella Mai’s ‘Boo’d Up‘ is at #13 in the Village Voice Pazz & Jop poll, and right behind her are America’s royal couple, Beyoncé and Jay-Z (billed as The Carters), with their track ‘Apeshit.’
After the pair went through a difficult, and very public, rough patch (documented in stunning fashion on Beyoncé’s Lemonade and in less stunning but still admirable fashion on Jay-Z’s 4:44), they teamed up on an album titled Everything is Love, putting an exclamation point on their reconciliation.
Drake occupies the 10th and 11th spots on Village Voice’s Pazz & Jop poll, by himself with ‘Nice For What‘ and paired with Travis Scott on ‘Sicko Mode,’ respectively.
At #12 is a song (and artist) that’s completely new to me: ‘Night Shift’ by Lucy Dacus.
Today is my daughter Fiona’s 13th birthday, so I hope ‘Night Shift’ is an appropriately celebratory song. Happy Birthday, Fiona!
The seventh and eighth top songs on 2018’s Pazz & Jop poll have also been featured on the blog before, demonstrating exactly how firmly I have my finger on the pulse of the popular music landscape. Or that I have to post 365 songs each year so I’m bound to get it right once in awhile.
At #7 is Kacey Musgraves with ‘High Horse,’ the first single from her celebrated album Golden Hour. Golden Hour claimed the #1 spot on the poll’s album list, adding to a year of tremendous accolades for Musgraves’s third full-length release, culminating in the Album of the Year Grammy this past weekend. That album is certainly appreciated in my house.
Meet Me In Montauk 