I like when my Random Weekends produce a song that is new to me.
This one comes from the Hunger Games soundtrack, which I bought due to the presence of Pistol Annies, Neko Case, Arcade Fire, Maroon 5 and Taylor Swift. I think I listened to the whole thing through only once.
I don’t know who The Carolina Chocolate Drops are, but this is a nice enough track. It does a good job channeling the Appalachian dystopia of the book and film.
Here’s a lovely track from Bob Dylan’s Oh Mercy, the 1989 album that rescued him from his mid-80s slump.
Dylan followed Oh Mercy a year later with the uninspired and downright goofy Under the Red Sky and then it would be nine years before his late career renaissance kicked off with 1997’s Time Out of Mind.
A few years ago I counted down my list of favorite songwriters and Paul Simon wound up in the top spot. So it’s no surprise that he’d place a song on this list.
What may be a surprise is that I’m not going with one of his solo tracks, particularly something from Graceland, one of the best albums ever recorded.
Given that my first ever Song of the Day post was about The Smiths, it’s only fitting that they find a spot on this desert island list.
I was surprised to see that, unlike every other song I’ve featured over the past two weeks, I have never written about today’s song. ‘There is a Light That Never Goes Out’ is one of the band’s most beloved songs, a highlight of their best album, The Queen is Dead.
My first real exposure to Elvis Costello was through two albums I still consider his best — King of America and Imperial Bedroom.
Those two albums contain a wealth of styles and moods, from the laid back country crooning and rockabilly of the former to the Beatles-esque menagerie of the latter. They both serve as perfect vehicles for Costello’s brilliant lyrical word salad and as entry points go, I couldn’t have been blessed with better ones.
Meet Me In Montauk 