This is a vacation week, for me and the blog. I’ll be posting, without comment, several songs I’ve stashed away in an Odds & Ends list for just such an occasion. Enjoy, and see you in 2022!
Song of the Day #4,923: ‘The Child is Gone’ – Fiona Apple
Today’s Random Weekend selection is a late track on Fiona Apple’s 1996 debut album TIdal.
Ironically, Tidal is both the biggest success and the most forgotten record in Apple’s 25-year career. She has released only five albums during that span, and it was the second, 1999’s When the Pawn…, that made her a critical darling and indie icon. The three releases since have met with lavish critical praise as her music has become less commercially accessible.
Song of the Day #4,922: ‘Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)’ – Darlene Love
Song of the Day #4,921: ‘The Number One Song in Heaven’ – Sparks
Like Todd Haynes, Edgar Wright is an idiosyncratic writer-director who released his first documentary this year. Unlike Haynes, Wright brought his trademark wit and visual ingenuity to the new project. The mind behind such films as Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Baby Driver and this year’s Last Night in Soho proved a perfect match for this material.
The movie in question is The Sparks Brothers, an in-depth look at the career of brothers Ron and Russell Mael, whose band Sparks has been a cult favorite for more than 50 years.
Song of the Day #4,920: ‘Sunday Morning’ – The Velvet Underground
Writer-director Todd Haynes’ delivered another of this year’s celebrated music documentaries with The Velvet Underground, the first feature length film to explore the career of the seminal indie rock band.
This is Haynes’ first documentary, though he has tackled musical icons in the past with Velvet Goldmine (about the glam rock scene in the 70s, and based heavily on David Bowie) and I’m Not There, which chronicled the life of Bob Dylan through multiple stages using six different actors in the central role.
Meet Me In Montauk 