‘Hotwax,’ the second track on Beck’s breakthrough 1996 album Odelay, sums up the genre-busting weirdness of that album quite nicely.
This song mixes a blues guitar riff with hip-hop beats, rapped lyrics and a Spanish-language chorus, and emerges as something wholly unique. Or at least as unique as everything else on Odelay, which is full of sonic mind-fucks like this.
This early Joni Mitchell song is one of her most popular, having been covered by more than 200 artists. It follows a boy through childhood, comparing the passage of time to a carousel.
Mitchell released this song on her 1970 album Ladies of the Canyon, a few years after it had already shown up on albums by Buffy Sainte-Marie and Tom Rush.
I know Badfinger’s most famous song, 1970’s ‘Without You,’ pretty well, though probably not through their original version. Harry Nilsson’s version reached #1 for a month in early 1972, and Mariah Carey had an international hit with the song in 1994, a week after Nilsson’s death.
The original version, featured today, has a definite late-60s Beatles vibe, appropriate because Badfinger was the first band signed to The Beatles’ Apple label and the band recorded songs written by Paul McCartney and George Harrison. Apparently Nilsson thought this was a Beatles track when he first heard it.
Maren Morris is having a moment. The Nashville singer is coming off of the top five smash ‘The Middle’ (with producer/DJ Zedd) and just dropped ‘GIRL,’ her second full-length album to high sales and critical acclaim.
I didn’t spend a lot of time with Morris’ debut album, Hero, though I liked it well enough. I’m enjoying Girl a lot more.
Love the Marvel Cinematic Universe or hate it (and I love it), you have to give credit to producer Kevin Feige for pulling off such an extraordinary feat of extended storytelling.
Twenty-one movies over ten years, with the granddaddy of them all — Avengers: Endgame — due in just a few weeks. A huge slate of perfectly cast stars popping up in multiple films in either lead or supporting roles. A talented slate of writers and directors who have brought their own sensibilities to individual films while maintaining the threads that tie them all together.
It is a unique cinematic achievement.
Meet Me In Montauk 