Your Mouth is a Garden - Raynes

Your Mouth is a Garden - Raynes

3:57

Bloom, 2025

Written by Raynes

This is an upbeat blend of pop and folk with a driving percussive beat, soaring, heartfelt vocals, building up to harmonies and big "oh oh oh" choruses.  Lyrically, the song is a declaration of love, with images of remembered scenes between two people.  It starts with what might be an apology after a rift: "Thought about what I said / And I wanna take it back / Hanging on by a thread / When I knew it would snap / Can we break the head from the haft / And bury it somewhere outside?"  I love the literate, gentle poetry of this song, and I'm continually surprised that music this melodic, heartfelt, and lyrically ambitious can exist without becoming a huge hit. If you think contemporary pop has nothing left to say, give this one a listen.

One Night - Elvis Presley

One Night - Elvis Presley

2:32

single, 1958

Written by Dave Bartholomew, Pearl King, Anita Steinman

Apparently Elvis was unhappy with having to bowdlerize the lyrics as originally sung by Smiley Lewis ("One night of sin / Is what I'm now payin' for") into the much tamer "One night with you / Is what I'm now praying for."  Lewis' reflection on the night, which has already happened, is that it shook him to the core.  The things he has seen and done!  Elvis' night, on the other hand, is still safely hypothetical: "The things that we two could plan / Would make my dreams come true."  It's an interesting distinction.  But over a driving piano, Elvis gives a fierce, almost growling vocal, giving passion to the comparatively insipid lyric.

Night - Bruce Springsteen

Night - Bruce Springsteen

3:01

Born To Run, 1975

Written by Bruce Springsteen

Okay, so this rocker is a little bit of a cheat, because I have been dipping into Born To Run for most of my life, and the title track is one of my favorite songs of all time.  But I'm not very familiar with this particular song, and it's such a quintessential Bruce number in its stark depiction of the working man trying to escape drudgery through cars, girls, and sheer velocity that I can't believe I've given it so little notice.  "The rat traps filled with soul crusaders / The circuit's lined and jammed with chromed invaders / And she's so pretty that you're lost in the stars."  How can you not like that?  It's like the younger cousin of "The highway's jammed with broken heroes / On a last chance power drive / Everybody's out on the run tonight / But there's no place left to hide."  That kind of turnpike poetry is why they call him the Boss.

Night Nurse - Gregory Isaacs

Night Nurse - Gregory Isaacs

4:10

Night Nurse, 1982

Written by Gregory Isaacs, and Sylvester Weise

This is a prime example of lovers rock, the easy reggae style introduced to white people by the Clash in their song of the same name.  Over a slow-burning synth beat, Isaacs delivers his delicate, smooth vocals, calling for the only one who can heal the pain of a broken heart.  "I don't want to see no doc / I need attendance from my nurse around the clock."  I love the pleading croon in his voice even as he gets self-referential: "Tell her it's a case of emergency / There's a patient by the name of Gregory."  Hilarious!

Wasted Days And Wasted Nights - Freddy Fender

Wasted Days And Wasted Nights - Freddy Fender

2:52

Before the Next Teardrop Falls, 1975

Written by Wayne Duncan and Freddy Fender, 1959

Many people know this song from the Sir Douglas Quintet version, or the live versions by singer Doug Sahm.  The Quintet released it in 1971, four years prior to this recording, but it's actually a Fender original from 1959.  On this re-recorded version, Fender dedicates the song to Sahm in appreciation for his prior recording: "Wherever you are, brother!"  With his wavering falsetto, Fender sings like New Orleans version of the Ink Spots' Bill Kenny.  His voice soars over some polished pedal steel lines and a tinkling country piano.  The lyrics, about a lost love, feature a first line with some interestingly mangled Spanish-influenced grammar: "Wasted days and wasted nights / I have left for you behind / For you don't belong to me / Your heart belongs to someone else."

Night Spots - The Cars

Night Spots - The Cars

3:13

Candy-O, 1979

Written by Ric Ocasek

Featuring Ocasek's yelping, tense lead vocal, this jumpy, jittery song is all synth-driven, New Wave rhythm.  With a pulsing bass line, it evokes the chaotic, strobe-like atmosphere of the titular club: "You go dancing in the dim lit club / Some pressure cooker crawls up on his knees / Flashing sensation like a one on one / Stomping around in the jitterbug breeze."  This didn't end up being one of the big hits from this album, but it was a crowd and band favorite, being played in many live shows.

The Gardener - The Tallest Man On Earth

The Gardener - The Tallest Man On Earth

3:57

Shallow Grave, 2009

Written by Kristian Matsson

This neo-Americana love song disguised as murder ballad is an extended metaphor: the gardener is the first-person narrator, slaying a series of rivals (a spy, a runner) who might reveal to his love that he isn't quite the man he makes himself out to be.  "I know the runner's going to tell you / There ain't no cowboy in my hat / So now he's buried by the daisies / So I could stay the tallest man in your eyes, babe."  Matsson's high vocal yelp, what you might call a twang if he wasn't Swedish, brings to mind the backwoods bluegrass and ballad singers of the "old, weird America."

Gold Past Life - Fruit Bats

Gold Past Life - Fruit Bats
3:29

Gold Past Life, 2019

Written by Eric D. Johnson

Sounding like a fusion of Supertramp and the Bee Gees, this piano-based song with wavering falsetto vocals is a throwback of disco-inspired soft rock.  The lyrics are somber, contrasting with the bright poppy music, but mimicking the sonic blast from the past, the message is entirely about looking back at lost time and lost love: "You used to dance in the night / With a girl you loved so much / You used to look her in the eyes as the nightbirds sang."

Get Up Offa That Thing - James Brown

Get Up Offa That Thing - James Brown

4:10

single, 1976

Written by Deanna Brown, Deidre Brown, Yamma Brown

This song's credit is, of course, a boondoggle; James gave credit to his wife and daughters for tax reasons.  The story goes that Brown was inspired by an audience that remained seated during a funk performance.  Thus, this half-chanted, hand-clapping exhortation to "Get up offa that thing / And dance till you feel better."  A big bold brass section with saxes, horns, and trombones accompanies bass and drums, and the whole thing was recorded live in studio.  Sometimes I look back at this era and wonder at the sheet talent that today's artists can only dream of.

Greaze Mode - Skepta

Greaze Mode - Skepta

2:48

Ignorance Is Bliss, 2019

Written by Joseph Adenuga, Nathan Adams, Clayton Gavin, Andrew Mair, and Vonkeli Williams

A duet with some rapper named Nafe Smallz, this is the typical rap puffery, all boasting about ganja, being rich, and having girls.  The Nigerian-British Skepta does touch on his heritage in a couple of lines ("I'm gonna need some palm wine / I'm gonna need some pepper soup") but mostly this is about smoking, flexing, grinding, and partying.  It's a fun song with a catchy beat, but nothing essential.