The Scottish band Travis put out a few lovely albums in the late 90s and early 00s, the best of which was probably 2001’s The Invisible Band.
That album is chock full of beautiful, fragile tracks like today’s Song of the Day, ‘The Cage.’ Lead singer/songwriter Fran Healy has a knack for penning aching choruses that make perfect use of his distinctive tenor voice.
‘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.
Here’s a nice song from Guster’s 2015 album Evermotion. Guster is a band that just doesn’t seem to record bad music, even if I don’t fall in love with everything they do.
When this track popped up as today’s Random iTunes Selection, I didn’t know it. I haven’t listened to Evermotion much and this is a deeper cut. But I knew it would be a perfectly enjoyable song, with pleasant vocals and an easy groove. Because that describes every Guster song.
John Mayer has a knack for making me like genres I don’t usually dig.
Take ‘Vultures,’ a song from Mayer’s excellent 2006 album (Continuum), which sounds like a lost Steely Dan track.
I hate Steely Dan. OK, that’s a bit strong, but I definitely don’t like them. And yet I love ‘Vultures,’ and the rest of Continuum, which has the same general vibe.
Meet Me In Montauk 