When today’s random song popped up, I had a hard time remembering that English indie rock band Keane ever released an album called Strangeland.
A quick search of the blog revealed my lone post on the 2012 recording, written the year of its release, in which I trashed it as the band’s first misstep after a string of very good albums.
This is the first time I’ve heard a moment of the album in the decade since.
This is the fifth song I’ve featured from Wilco’s 2007 album Sky Blue Sky, all on Random Weekends. That’s nearly half of the album’s 12 tracks. The Random iTunes Fairy seems to have a thing for this record.
‘On and On and On’ is a deep cut on an album that is one of the band’s least heralded releases, but it’s quite meaningful to songwriter and lead singer Jeff Tweedy. Here’s what he had to say about the song in a 2016 interview:
I missed out on a lot of popular music in the 90s, whether it came from grunge acts or boy bands. I spent some time on alternative pop acts (see Toad the Wet Sprocket, Hootie, Gin Blossom, etc.) but otherwise I spent that decade following my personal faves that were largely out of the mainstream.
That’s why I completely missed out on TLC’s CrazySexyCool, the first-ever album by a girl group to reach Diamond status in the U.S. This R&B smash placed five singles in Billboard’s top five (two at #1) and ultimately sold 15 million copies worldwide.
Before he was a two-time Academy Award winner (for 2010’s The Social Network and 2020’s Soul), Trent Reznor melted brains and faces with his hardcore industrial music as the sole member of Nine Inch Nails.
The Downward Spiral, released in March of 1994, was NIN’s second full-length album, following the critical and commercial favorite Pretty Hate Machine.
I thought it fitting to follow up my post on Hole’s Live Through This with one on Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged in New York. This is another album that overachieved due to the tragic suicide of Kurt Cobain.
Recorded in November of 1993 and released a year later, MTV Unplugged in New York found a band famous for pioneering the loud grunge sound settling into an acoustic set that highlighted their skill as songwriters and performers. In a set heavy on deep cuts and covers — they don’t even play ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ — Nirvana makes a case for themselves as an excellent folk rock band.
Meet Me In Montauk 