The Random iTunes Fairy is looking ahead to my 50th birthday this December and serving up a track from Frank Sinatra’s 1965 album September of My Years. Sinatra released this album in August of that year, ahead of his own 50th birthday that December. A nifty coincidence.
Turning 50 in 1965 isn’t the same as turning 50 in 2022, so I like to think I’m not entering the September of my years, exactly, but more like the early July.
Often when the Random iTunes Fairy unearths a track from a decades-old album, I hit Wikipedia and discover the band responsible has released a dozen more albums in the time since.
That is not the case with today’s SOTD.
Save Ferris, a ska punk/pop band that built a decent following in the late 90s, released its sophomore album, Modified, in 1999. That’s the album featuring today’s song, and the only album of theirs I own.
Born Pink, the second album by K-pop sensation BLACKPINK, is due out next month. Its first single, ‘Pink Venom,’ dropped the day before I’m writing this and already has 115 million YouTube streams and counting.
Blackpink is the most successful female K-pop band worldwide, second only to BTS overall. The quartet formed in 2016 after years of auditions and tinkering by the YG Entertainment agency, a major label specializing in cultivating and promoting Korean pop acts. The band spent four years touring and collaborating with other artists before dropping their first album, titled The Album, in 2020.
Singer-songwriter Josh Rouse just released his 14th studio album in the last 25 years. I’ve been following his career since 2005’s Nashville, still one of my favorite albums ever, and he has yet to disappoint.
Rouse’s new album is called Going Places, and it’s a return to the sweet soft rock that most typifies his style. It follows 2018’s Love in the Modern Age, a delightful detour into 80s synth-pop, and a 2019 Christmas album (cute, but proof that we don’t need new Christmas songs, even from our best songwriters).
I’m a huge fan of Carly Rae Jepsen’s 2015 album Emotion, as sparkling and clever a pop collection as you’ll find on this side of the 21st century.
Her follow-up, 2019’s Dedicated, somehow flew right past my radar. I recall opening track ‘Julien,’ but I don’t think I ever heard the whole thing through. It suffered a similar fate as Emotion, receiving widespread critical acclaim but very few sales. Is there no room these days for Jepsen’s brand of danceable pop?
Meet Me In Montauk 