When today’s Random Weekend song popped up on iTunes, my first thought was that I would at long last get to hear something other than ‘Stay (I Missed You)’ from Lisa Loeb’s 1995 album Tails.
But a few bars into ‘Taffy’ I realized that I know this song pretty well. And a quick sample of some other Tails tracks revealed the same. So I guess I gave this album enough of a listen back in the day to stick deep in my subconscious 23 years later.
This is the fifth track I’ve featured from No Doubt’s 1995 album Tragic Kingdom, and the third on a Random Weekend. I wish I’d been keeping stats from the start, so I’d know if this is one of the most-represented Random Weekend albums or somewhere in the middle of the pack.
‘Happy Now?’ was written by Gwen Stefani about her breakup from band member Tony Kanal, with whom she had a 7-year relationship. How odd it must have been for both of them to perform this song (and others with a similar theme) night after night.
Today’s random selection comes from the artist who originally launched Random Weekends more than six years ago — Sarah McLachlan.
‘Rivers of Love’ appears on McLachlan’s rather weak 2010 album Laws of Illusion. I’ve been very dismissive of that record, but I have to admit this song isn’t half bad.
I love when Random iTunes Weekends tip me off to new music. Ashley Monroe, for example, has a new album due out five days from now and I might not have learned that had she not popped up today.
Monroe hit my radar as one of the three Pistol Annies, then won me over as a solo artist with her 2013 album Like a Rose. Its follow-up, 2015’s The Blade, was an even stronger record, making my expectations sky high for the upcoming Sparrow.
Has any millionaire rock star ever captured the yearning of the underclass as well as Bruce Springsteen?
Bob Dylan did it in his early years, when he was still something of a vagabond himself, but as he grew older and more successful he turned to more internal and cerebral subject matter (with plenty of exceptions, I know… please spare me the hate comments, Dylanphiles!).
Meet Me In Montauk 