Hmm, what are the odds? Eight days after the Random iTunes Fairy served up a track from David Byrne’s 1992 album Uh-Oh, she came right back to the same album.
‘Now I’m Your Mom’ is an odd song, either poking fun at or celebrating the transgender community. I think the lyrics lean toward a supportive stance but the falsetto reading of the title line feels like schoolyard taunting.
‘I Wanted To Be Wrong’ has the dubious distinction of being the best song on the worst album by one of the best bands of all time.
2004’s Around the Sun was R.E.M.’s unlucky 13th album, the third without drummer Bill Berry and their most uninspired effort. Only this song and one or two others are worth hearing.
Here’s a great song written by Laura Nyro and featured on her classic album Eli and the Thirteenth Confession but turned into a hit by 5th Dimension.
Nyro wrote a ton of songs that became hits for other people but never received the acclaim she deserved as a performer in her own right. I own only this one album and it’s a knockout.
One of the down sides of being a music fan who constantly seeks out new artists and albums is that you’re leaving other artists and albums behind along the way.
Twenty-five years ago, I listened to a shit ton of David Byrne and Talking Heads. The 1992 album, Uh-Oh, on which today’s Random SOTD appears, was in constant rotation. But I’ve probably listened to in only once or twice in the two-plus decades since.
I forget if I created an exception early on in Random iTunes Weekends that disallowed instrumental tracks. I vaguely remember instituting, or at least considering, such a rule.
But if I did, I’m rescinding it now, not because this track from Brad Paisley’s largely instrumental album, Play, is particularly special, but because I don’t see any reason why songs with vocals should be deemed more legitimate than those without.
Meet Me In Montauk 