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Song of the Day #4,325: ‘You Don’t Wanna Hear It’ – Ron Sexsmith

Canadian singer-songwriter Ron Sexsmith quietly released his 17th studio album, titled Hermitage, in mid-April. He’s not exactly an artist who pairs up an album release with multiple talk show appearances and a stadium tour, so he probably didn’t think about postponing the record due to coronavirus.

His timing turns out to be pretty good, though, because Hermitage is a very upbeat, positive, sunny record. Sexsmith often leans toward the melancholy, but he’s equally adept at spinning out feather-light tunes with sugar-sweet melodies, and he’s in that mode here.

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Song of the Day #4,324: ‘Damsel in Distress’ – Rufus Wainwright

Rufus Wainwright is another artist whose 2020 plans have been upended by the coronavirus. The April release of his new album, Unfollow the Stars, has been pushed back to mid-July and much of his tour schedule has been cancelled.

Wainwright has made the most of the situation, though, performing daily “Quarantunes” from his apartment and releasing the videos on Facebook. Each day he sits, either at the piano or with guitar in hand, always in a bathrobe, and belts out a selection from his enviable catalog.

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Song of the Day #4,323: ‘Living in a Ghost Town’ – The Rolling Stones

Like Alicia Keys, The Rolling Stones have released a new song perfectly suited to our current times that was actually written well before the coronavirus pandemic.

‘Living in a Ghost Town’ was originally recorded more than a year ago, but Mick Jagger and Keith Richards took another pass at it to make it more relevant to our lives in quarantine. I assume the line “life was so beautiful, then we all got locked down” was a recent addition.

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Song of the Day #4,322: ‘Good Job’ – Alicia Keys

Coronavirus has disrupted every industry, and the music business is no exception. High profile releases by such artists as Dixie Chicks, Lady Gaga and Haim have been delayed, and concerts are pretty much a thing of the past (when will you feel safe sharing close quarters with 20,000 fellow fans?).

But our new normal hasn’t stopped some artists from releasing music, and over the next two weeks I’ll feature songs by ten of them, from new names to grizzled veterans.

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Song of the Day #4,321: ‘Cupid’s Got a Brand New Gun’ – Michael Penn

Every so often the Random iTunes Fairy serves up a Michael Penn song and gives me an excuse to dip my toe into his five albums, the last of which was released 15 years ago, and bemoan the fact that he stopped recording pop songs in favor of work on TV and movie soundtracks.

‘Cupid’s Got a Brand New Gun’ is one of my favorite tracks from Penn’s debut album, 1989’s March. That album included the almost-top ten hit ‘No Myth’ (it reached #13 on Billboard’s Hot 100, though it did climb all the way to #4 on the Modern Rock chart) and it proved to be the commercial peak of Penn’s career.

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