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Song of the Day #1,191: ‘America’ – Simon & Garfunkel

Simon & Garfunkel’s third album, 1968’s Bookends, marked a major stylistic departure for the duo.

The straightforward acoustic folk (and folk rock) of their first few albums gave way to a record very much crafted in the studio. The songs on this album feature distorted instruments, samples, skits and interviews. It’s a cross between Peter, Paul and Mary, National Public Radio and Eminem.

Bookends is a concept album at heart, though I’m not sure the concept holds up across its full length. Side One starts and ends with ‘Bookends Theme,’ a gentle guitar melody that is echoed in the moving track ‘Old Friends,’ about two elderly men who sit on a park bench “like bookends.”

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Song of the Day #1,190: ‘Trout’ – Neneh Cherry (featuring Michael Stipe)

The end of this week has turned into an unofficial theme week, focusing on women who made a momentary splash and then fell off the face of the earth.

Next on the list is Neneh Cherry, who came to my attention in 1992 with the released of her second album, Homebrew. Cherry actually reached a bigger audience with her first album, 1989’s Raw Like Sushi, which spawned the hit single ‘Buffalo Stance,’ but I’d never heard of her before Homebrew.

This album is a mix of hip-hop, R&B and pop that may well have been too ahead of its time. You look at a group like the Black-Eyed Peas scoring hit after hit these days and wonder if Cherry might have found her niche too soon.

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Song of the Day #1,189: ‘Always’ – Shea Seger

Continuing yesterday’s focus on one-hit wonders, I’m turning today to Shea Seger, a singer-songwriter from Texas whose 2001 album, The May Street Project, is a refreshing blend of modern studio wizardry and appealing Lilith Fair-ready folk rock.

I guess it’s not even accurate to call Seger a one-hit wonder, because she never really had a hit. One song, ‘Clutch,’ was released as a single but I’ve never heard it other than on the album itself.

I posted ‘Clutch’ as a Song of the Day in early 2010 and was surprised to see it handily dismissed by the commenters. I’ve always loved that song.

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Song of the Day #1,188: ‘Murder’ – Alana Davis

In 1997, Alana Davis released Blame It On Me, a sultry blend of soft rock and R&B that landed on Time magazine’s list of the five best albums of the year.

The first single was a cover of Ani DiFranco’s ’32 Flavors’ that markedly improved upon the original. Another single, ‘Crazy,’ didn’t receive as much attention and Blame It On Me peaked at #157 on the charts.

Davis waited four years before releasing her second album, Fortune Cookies, then left her label and independently released a third album, Surrender Dorothy, in 2005. Her official website hasn’t been updated since 2004, and features a sad little banner that reads “Alana’s new album is coming soon!”

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Song of the Day #1,187: ‘Friday’ – “Bob Dylan”

Rebecca Black’s ‘Friday’ was excoriated as everything wrong with the modern music industry — the epitome of packaged product and the removal of talent from the commercial equation.

Indeed, Black is the logical extension of Britney Spears. Spears proved that you didn’t need vocal talent to become a superstar… just a sexy image and a group of top hit-makers and producers behind you.

The Ark Music Factory removed the sex appeal and the proven behind-the-scenes talent from the equation and still managed to score a big hit, if only an ironic one.

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