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Song of the Day #2,808: ‘Way Down in the Hole’ – Tom Waits

wire_season_twoOne of the cool things about The Wire is how each season focused in on a particular subset of Baltimore citizens, even as the core cast remained largely the same.

Season One introduced on a special crime task force utilizing the titular wire to build a case against the city’s major drug runners. That group of cops and lawyers form the spine of the whole series. But the smaller universe of characters in that season were a group of “corner boys” caught between their criminal bosses and the police.

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Song of the Day #2,807: ‘Way Down in the Hole’ – The Blind Boys of Alabama

the_wire_season_oneA decade ago, B.J. Novak penned a MySpace post titled “I will watch The Wire when I watch The Wire!” aimed at all of the people — friends and strangers alike — who go on and on about how you can’t miss such an excellent show.

I’ve been on both sides of that equation, having blathered endlessly about the greatness of Breaking Bad, Friday Night Lights and many other shows, but also fatigued by the endless proselytizing by others about their own favorite — House of Cards, say, or The Sopranos and, yes, The Wire.

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Song of the Day #2,805: ‘Wrap Your Arms Around Me’ – Barenaked Ladies

gordonHere’s a very pretty song from Barenaked Ladies’ debut album, Gordon. The lovely acoustic guitar and impressive vocal harmonies mask the fact that it appears to be sung from the perspective of either a murderer, a perpetrator of domestic violence or both.

The opening line about tracing a likeness of the woman’s body suggests a chalk outline at a crime scene, supporting the murder interpretation. The line “I regret every time I raised my voice” in the final verse implies that these two are in a relationship. My take is that he finally went too far and his abuse resulted in her death.

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Song of the Day #2,804: ‘Hands to Myself- ‘ Selena Gomez

selena-gomez-revival-preview-250x250Rounding out the best Billboard recap yet is Selena Gomez with the third hit from her excellent 2015 album Revival. ‘Hands to Myself’ follows ‘Good For You’ and ‘Same Old Love’ up the charts, solidifying Gomez’s transformation into an adult pop star.

‘Hands to Myself’ is a simple, sexy track that sounds to me like Robyn sounding like Prince. It’s exotic but spare, like the rest of Revival.

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