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Song of the Day #4,879: ‘Suicide is Murder’ – Aimee Mann

Aimee Mann’s latest album came out a week ago today (though it hasn’t yet been released as I write this). Queens of the Summer Hotel is an interesting project, a batch of songs written for a planned stage musical based on the 1993 memoir Girl, Interrupted by Susannah Kaysen.

The book, about the author’s experiences as a young woman in a psychiatric hospital, seems like a weird fit for a musical. A 1999 film adaptation worked well enough, winning strong reviews for star Winona Ryder and an Oscar for co-star Angelina Jolie. But setting such dark and unsettling material to music? I don’t know.

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Song of the Day #4,878: ‘Speaking with Trees’ – Tori Amos

Tori Amos. To quote Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars, “Now that’s a name I haven’t heard in a long time.”

The indie singer-songwriter released her 16th album, Ocean to Ocean, last month. And while I feel like she has been missing since her heyday in the early 90s, this is actually her fifth new studio album in the past decade. In fact, the four years between this record and her last is the longest she’s gone between releases in her career.

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Song of the Day #4,877: ‘Black Bathing Suit’ – Lana Del Rey

Lana Del Rey is back with her second album of 2021, following the release of Chemtrails Over the Country Club in March. The new record, titled Blue Bannisters, features 15 new tracks. This deluge of material reminds me of Taylor Swift’s one-two punch of Folklore and Evermore last year.

It’s great to witness artists peaking creatively and channeling that inspiration into new albums. Often when I look back at the careers of big stars from the 70s, I’m amazed to see how often they released albums during their heyday. Feels like we’re seeing the same sort of thing with Swift and Del Rey.

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Song of the Day #4,876: ‘Snow Globe’ – Pistol Annies

‘Tis the season for Christmas albums by random artists. First out of the gate, at least in the circles I follow, are Pistol Annies with a new album titled Hell of a Holiday.

I don’t typically go for these Christmas releases, even when they come from acts I really like. Aimee Mann delivered a nice one with 2006’s One More Drifter in the Snow but, apart from a lovely rendition of ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,’ it didn’t grab me beyond a couple of listens. Same goes for Bob Dylan’s 2009 Christmas in the Heart.

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Song of the Day #4,875: ‘Easy On Me’ – Adele

I haven’t done the math, but on a per-album basis, is there a more successful female artist than Adele? She currently sits at #10 on the all-time sales list for women based on the performance of just three albums. Everybody above her has released at least twice as many.

Even more impressive is that she makes those numbers with seemingly very little effort. She just emerges every 4-5 years after being almost completely out of the spotlight, drops a new song, and watches it break every streaming record in the book.

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