More than 1,300 songs into this Song of the Day project, I’m still occasionally surprised to discover something I haven’t posted on the blog.
Recently, today’s SOTD — a standout track from Belle & Sebastian’s 2006 album The Life Pursuit — popped up on my car stereo and brought the same smile to my face that it always does.
“This would make a good Song of the Day,” I thought to myself, then immediately assumed it had been one already.
Belle & Sebastian sing duets as a matter of course, with three or four of their seven members sharing vocals on most of their albums. Lead singer Stuart Murdoch often trades lines with Sarah Martin or (previously) Isobel Campbell as well as Stevie Jackson.
But on a couple of occasions, Murdoch has teamed up with somebody outside the band. One was the EP track ‘Lazy Line Painter Jane,’ on which Scottish singer Monica Queen laid down a spirited vocal track that threatened to blow Murdoch’s thin whisper right off the tape.
This week I’ll feature my 1,000th Song of the Day. That’s 1,000 consecutive days of blogging… haven’t missed a single one. Even if the content was crap, I’d be proud of the consistency.
A few people have asked me if my 1,000th song will be my last. I’ll be honest, I’ve considered it. At times writing this blog has been like entering the numbers must have been for Desmond in Lost. It’s something I have to do, even when I don’t want to.
But most of the time I do want to. Most of the time I get a lot out of it: a good debate, a chance to share something that means a lot to me, the opportunity to flex the writing muscles that might have atrophied long ago without this outlet.
So no, my 1,000th song won’t be my last. It will just be my 1,000th. The next day will be my 1,001st.
Best Songs of 2010 – #5
For 15 years, Belle & Sebastian have been releasing albums chock full of literate, gorgeous pop music. They’ve recorded so many string-and-horn embellished soft rock songs that it’s hard to believe there’s a melody or a trumpet solo out there that they haven’t hit on yet.
But in 2010 they did it again. Their latest album, Write About Love, features a handful of tracks as good as anything the band has put out over the past decade. Par for the course.
I’m not a critic. I’m a fan.
I can be critical of things, even things I expect to love. But I can’t imagine listening to a new album by a favorite artist without a rooting interest in it being great. And I don’t think critics do that.
On the contrary, I believe a good critic has a “show me” attitude and expects the work he’s reviewing to fall just about halfway between good and bad until he’s convinced to tip that scale one way or the other.
I’m bringing this up because my first listen to Belle and Sebastian’s new album, Write About Love, left me mostly indifferent. And were I a critic, that probably would have been that. Six paragraphs, two and a half stars… next!
Meet Me In Montauk 