After a month-long hiatus, please welcome back Random iTunes Weekends! Now that I’ve switched to a streaming service, the idea of randomly pulling from my meager iTunes library seems a bit quaint, but we’re still looking at more than 13,000 songs.
Even if I could figure out how to pull a random song from the millions accessible through Amazon Music, I don’t think I’d be happy with the results. And I like that Random iTunes Weekends give a little glimpse of where my interests lie.
Alongside Jason Isbell, the other great find of my young streaming era is Brandi Carlile. I haven’t (yet) dived into her back catalog, but the folk rocker’s newest album, By the Way, I Forgive You is a winner.
The 36-year-old Carlile hails from Washington state and has enjoyed modest success releasing six studio albums since 2005. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of her; in fact, when I read about this new release, I alternately confused her with Brandy Clark and Belinda Carlisle.
Another benefit of streaming is that it allows me to catch up with albums that passed me by in recent years.
Many albums fall just outside of my radar when they first come out and end up eclipsed by future releases. The same thing happens with movies. I still have a dozen or so titles on my 2017 to-see list, but how many of those will I realistically get to once a new set of films make up this year’s list?
The streaming life allows me to download albums I’m curious about but probably wouldn’t have bought. Camila Cabello’s solo debut is a great example.
The former Fifth Harmony member scored a breakout hit with lead single ‘Havana’ but all of Camila is worth a listen. It’s a far more subdued record than you might guess given her pop pedigree, featuring minimal instrumentation and mostly mid-tempo tracks.
It also boasts the best album cover in years.
So far, my greatest streaming success story has to be Jason Isbell. I first discovered the Alabama-born Americana artist through Village Voice’s Pazz & Jop poll, when his ‘If We Were Vampires’ showed up at #20 and was easily the best song on the list.
I downloaded his most recent album, The Nashville Sound, and was blown away. I got that buzz you feel when you know you’ve stumbled onto something special. That sent me back to Amazon to download the other five albums he’s released either solo or with his backing band the 400 Unit.
Meet Me In Montauk 