It’s a rare Random Weekend twofer, with Belle and Sebastian making an encore appearance.
The selections line up chronologically as well. Yesterday’s song came from a 2001 single, while today’s SOTD appears on the band’s next project, the soundtrack to the 2002 Todd Solondz film Storytelling.
The band and director didn’t work well together, and only six minutes of their music wound up in the finished film.
Today’s track is the B-side (if such a thing exists in the digital world) to Belle and Sebastian’s 2001 CD single ‘Jonathan David.’
The song’s title is a play on the British short story and film The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner, and the lyrics reference some of that story’s plot points and themes.
Continuing my look at 1994, first by counting down my own top ten albums of that year.
#6 – Grace – Jeff Buckley
Jeff Buckley isn’t really part of the collective pop culture consciousness anymore. I can’t recall the last time I heard a song of his on the radio, or in a TV show or movie.
Even ‘Hallelujah,’ the Leonard Cohen song Buckley turned into a near religious experience and an unlikely hit, has now been covered by so many other artists that his definitive version is unlikely to surface before anybody else’s.
Continuing my look at 1994, first by counting down my own top ten albums of that year.
#7 – Under the Table and Dreaming – Dave Matthews Band
I was shocked, when choosing which song to post today, to realize that I have never featured a song from Dave Matthews Band’s Under the Table and Dreaming through more than 5,000 Songs of the Day. Wild.
I think that’s because my admiration for Dave Matthews Band crested and waned well before I started the blog. It was a decidedly mid- to late-90s love affair.
Continuing my look at 1994, first by counting down my own top ten albums of that year.
#8 – Brutal Youth – Elvis Costello
A long time ago on this blog, I referred to Brutal Youth as “one of the highlights of the back half of Costello’s career.” I guess that was true when I wrote it, more than a decade ago.
This album was Costello’s 16th of 33 (and counting), putting it just before the midpoint in terms of recorded output. And it was released in the 27th year of his 55-year (and counting) career, again putting it just before the midpoint. So now, rather than representing the “back half” of his career, I guess Brutal Youth falls at almost the exact center.
Meet Me In Montauk 