Today’s Random Weekend selection is the second track from Rihanna’s second studio album, A Girl Like Me.
‘Kisses Don’t Lie’ is a neat track, blending electric guitars, reggae rhythms and an R&B bass line in the service of a standard issue “should we or shouldn’t we” love song.
If somebody asked me to recommend a musical artist they’d never heard of, my first answer would be Tift Merritt. She’s the best.
This assumes, by the way, that people have heard of Ben Folds and Belle & Sebastian.
My second answer might be Josh Rouse or Ron Sexsmith. Or it could well be Dar Williams, the writer and singer of today’s random iTunes selection. She’d be in the top five, no question.
Three years before Kate Bush released her most acclaimed album, Hounds of Love, she set the table with her fourth record, The Dreaming. This was the first album Bush produced on her own and she took advantage of the chance to let her freak flag fly.
Hounds of Love is a great art pop album, and the only one of Bush’s records I own. Her style is a bit too out there for my taste, but I recognize the talent.
The Cure’s Pornography didn’t show up on many top ten lists back in 1982, but the album has developed a following in the ensuing years, and it does show up on quite a few retrospective lists chronicling that year.
It’s always interesting to see films, albums or novels get ripped upon release only to become classics decades later. Some works of art are either ahead of their time or require time to sink in.
In contrast to the first two albums featured this week, which I knew by reputation and their hits but didn’t own, today’s record is one I’ve owned for quite awhile but have never heard.
I first learned about Shoot Out the Lights (and Richard and Linda Thompson) when Rolling Stone named this record the 9th best of the 80s in their decade wrap-up issue. Sitting alongside albums by Prince, R.E.M., Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon and U2, this folk rock album by a married British couple seemed entirely out of place.
Meet Me In Montauk 