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Song of the Day #2,463: ‘Simple Machine’ – Guster

guster_evermotionLike yesterday’s featured artist, Josh Rouse, Guster is a moderately popular indie act that has quietly amassed an impressive discography. The band’s new album, Evermotion, is their seventh.

This record finds them a god distance, sonically, from their early work even as the songwriting sticks to the same tried and true folk pop formula. Guster’s calling card in the late 90s was acoustic guitars and stick-free percussion, a very lo-fi organic vibe. Evermotion, in contrast, is synth-heavy — almost distractingly so in some cases.

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Song of the Day #2,462: ‘Crystal Falls’ – Josh Rouse

josh_rouse_embers_timeI’ve spent the past couple of weeks exploring the new Courtney Barnett album, but it’s not the only new record I’ve picked up recently. I won’t go through the others track by track, but I will give them some love the rest of this week.

I’ll start with Jose Rouse’s The Embers of Time. This is Rouse’s 11th studio album in 16 years — he’s a lot more prolific than I give him credit for.

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Song of the Day #2,461: ‘Boxing Day Blues’ – Courtney Barnett

courtney_barnett_sometimesAnd so we reach the end of my 11-day discovery of Courtney Barnett’s album, Sometimes I Sit and Thing, and Sometimes I Just Sit. As I suspected, the final song on the album is a short one, juxtaposed with the nearly 7-minute epic that preceded it.

No clue what it will sound like (yet) and based on the blend of styles on the album so far, I’m not sure I can even venture an educated guess.

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Song of the Day #2,460: ‘Downtown Lights’ – Annie Lennox

annie_lennox_medusaThis track, from Annie Lennox’s 1995 hit covers album Medusa, is the odd song out on that record.

The lineup features renditions of cuts by Paul Simon, Procol Harum, Bob Marley, Al Green, Neil Young, The Clash and The Temptations. And ‘Downtown Lights’ by Blue Nile.

What the hell is Blue Nile, you ask? Good question. They are a Scottish band that has moderate success with this song in 1989. And by “moderate success” I mean it reached #67 on the UK charts.

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Song of the Day #2,459: ‘Nobody Knows Me’ – Lyle Lovett

largebandHere’s a lovely track from one of Lyle Lovett’s best albums, 1989’s Lyle Lovett and His Large Band.

This album picked up where Lovett’s Pontiac left off, splitting its focus between traditional country, jazz and blues. ‘Nobody Knows Me’ falls in the album’s second half with the rest of the country songs.

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