This is the first real heavyweight battle of Round One of Montauk Madness: Elton John vs. Paul Simon. A couple of musical geniuses in their 70s who have written some of the most memorable songs of the last 50 years.
‘Your Song’ vs. ‘Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard.’ ‘Levon’ vs. ‘Still Crazy After All These Years.’ ‘Tiny Dancer’ vs. ‘Graceland.’ (I should note here that this matchup includes only Paul Simon’s solo work… Simon & Garfunkel received their own spot in the tournament).
Hope everybody enjoyed the weekend. We now return to our regularly scheduled programming, the continuation of Round One of Montauk Madness. Our next matchup: Coldplay vs. The Shins.
This is an interesting one because Coldplay started off as a hip indie band not unlike The Shins before they blew up into a stadium band and thereafter became terminally uncool.
‘Rise,’ the final track on Selena Gomez’s quite-good 2015 album Revival, commits one of my cardinal musical skins — the spoken-word interlude.
It serves as a bookend to the album’s opening moments, also spoken by Gomez, so I see what they were going for. But I can’t think of a song by anyone, ever, where that has worked for me.
‘Suitcase Song’ is a delightful track from Disc Two of Nellie McKay’s 2004 debut album, Get Away From Me. McKay’s blend of jazz and pop and her throwback vocal style earned this album a ton of critical acclaim.
She has worked pretty steadily since, though I lost track of her after her sophomore effort, Pretty Little Head. She has released four more studio albums and delivered an award-winning turn on Broadway in The Threepenny Opera.
Closing out this first week of Montauk Madness, we have the fifth matchup from Round One, pitting Lucinda Williams against Garbage. Folk rock vs. industrial rock. Organic vs. electronic.
As much as I like Garbage, particularly their first three albums, this is another easy pick. Ideally, the first round should be easy, though peeking ahead I see a couple of hair-pullers on the horizon.
Meet Me In Montauk 