Fine To Me - Pokey LaFarge

Fine To Me - Pokey LaFarge

3:58

In the Blossom Of Their Shade, 2021

Written by Pokey LaFarge

LaFarge is an interesting character.  His musical style is blend of, and influenced by, neo-swing, Americana, swing, jazz, ragtime, and Appalachian folk — that "old, weird America," as Greil Marcus put it.  Over boogie-woogie piano, walking bass, and handclaps percussion, LaFarge talk-sings in a nasal croon about someone in his life who is "the rock I cling to when there's a riptide in the sea," and "just like superglue."  It's a slinky, rocking, strut of a song that makes you want to get up and dance.  It feels fresh and new but with a familiar, old-timey feel.

Feel a Thing - Meet Me @ the Altar

Feel a Thing - Meet Me @ the Altar

3:26

Model Citizen, 2021

Written by Edith Victoria and Téa Campell

For my money, Meet Me is the best power-punk trio going.  This song, among their best, is as raucous as it is catchy.  I love the muscular chant-chorus in the break: "Am I stuck? Can I defeat this? / With my luck, would I be complete then?"  The tempo never flags, especially that machine-gun drumming.  I read a review that called this "Nintendo-core;" my teenaged daughter said it sounded like a rock band you might hear in a Disney movie.  That's fair; it is pretty polished.

Let's Do It Again - Reigning Sound

Let's Do It Again - Reigning Sound

2:53

A Little More Time With Reigning Sound, 2021

Written by Greg Cartwright

A throwback garage rock boogie with singer-songwriter sensibilities, this rollicking, winking song is about someone who eagerly anticipates the return of an old love and the good times they had.  The narrator has let a few things slide in their absence ("Now my nights without you aren't the same / I've been walkin the dog in the pouring rain / And the garden I startеd last spring / Is full of vines and weeds") but when a letter arrives, he can't wait to be together again.  Vocalist Cartwright sings in a croon that evokes Nashville Skyline-era Dylan and the band sounds like it's internalized and perfected '70s rock.

Luck Be a Lady - Willie Nelson

Luck Be a Lady - Willie Nelson

3:05

That's Life, 2021

Written by Dean Kay and Kelly Gordon

I think it's fair to say that Frank Sinatra owns this song.  Willie doesn't exactly make it his own, but he has the skill of effortlessly inhabiting any song of any genre and making it fit.  As always, his vocal is impeccable, but I'm not sure I care for the arrangement.  It's brash and melodramatic, which is fine by itself, but juxtaposed with Willie's laid-pack singing style, it feels odd.  It's all Rat Pack-style big brass stabs and '60s-era orchestral stings, and the result is less intimate and authentic than I would have wished.

The Resignation Vs. The Comeback Special - Todd Snider

The Resignation Vs. The Comeback Special - Todd Snider

3:54

First Agnostic Church Of Hope and Wonder, 2021

Written by Todd Snider

Todd Snider died yesterday.  I can't pretend I've been a lifelong devotee — I'm always the last one to discover a talent — but I really enjoyed his acerbic wit and dry, deadpan delivery.  His sharp observations and craggy growl lent his songs a gravitas missing from a lot of political singer-songwriter material.  I chose this song because it captures both Snider's mordant humor and his exasperation with an absurd, unjust world, and because musically it's a step outside the usual acoustic story song Snider excels at.  Over a funky, bluesy piano line, Snider half-raps the lyrics, in which a figure in the spotlight, probably a politician, announces his grand, principled resignation.  "I cannot succeed the way that I need to under the glare of all these suspicions / And I will not stand here and listen to any more of these wild accusations."  He's stepping down, do you hear me?  The punchline, and the depressing reality, is when after a beat of silence, the band slides back in: "I'm making a comeback! Just the same as ever if not even more the same!"

Calls To Tiree - Hamish Hawk

Calls To Tiree - Hamish Hawk

3:12

Heavy Elevator, 2021

Written by Hamish Hawk

I just love Ham, as we Hawkheads call him. (I made that name up.)  The first and only other time I featured on of his songs on this blog, I just squealed fanboyish encomiums and made references and had no content about the song itself.  Why change now?  Hawk is like Neil Hannon if he were more literate, Nick Cave if he could sing ten times better, Bing Crosby raised on orchestral pop and "King Lear."  Oh, all right. This song seems to be about a broken heart.  "Can it last? I think not / Tezcatlipoca gets himself around a lot."  I think if you were to make a word cloud of Hawk's lyrics, it would be almost utterly distinct from the average pop-rock word cloud.

If It Don't Bleed - James McMurtry

If It Don't Bleed - James McMurtry

3:50

The Horses And the Hounds, 2021

Written by James McMurtry

McMurtry, son of the fabled novelist Larry McMurtry, is a master songwriter with his father's gift for vivid description and pathos. Here, he approaches aging with wry acceptance and dry humor. The narrator is a man who's lived hard and now faces his own decline: “I burned a lot of bridges and I dropped a lot of balls / It’s a wonder I can ever go back to any place I've been," he sings in a craggy deadpan. "Now it’s all I can do just to get out of bed / There's more in the mirror than there is up ahead." McMurtry's voice is limited in range, but he's cultivated a barbed deadpan delivery that cuts straight through the sentimentality other writers might lean on.  But it's not just in voice that he's similar to Bob Dylan, but his writing chops.  In this song, the keen observations, alternately droll and poignant, just flow on, one after the other.

Part Of You Wants To Believe Me - They Might Be Giants

Part Of You Wants To Believe Me - They Might Be Giants

2:58

Book, 2021

Written by John Flansburgh and John Linnell

"Part of you wants to believe me, but part of you / Isn't yet totally off of your meds / Part of you senses that all of this story is / Totally making no sense."  So begins yet another Giants track about a lack of communication, interpretation, obscure irrelevant details, and madness.  With the Johns' trademark witty wordplay,  energetic, catchy poppy melody, this is a top-notch addition to their catalog.

I Can't Remember the Dream - They Might Be Giants

I Can't Remember the Dream - They Might Be Giants

3:12

Book, 2021

Written by John Flansburgh and John Linnell

In this surprisingly sad song, the narrator bemoans the fact that although he has a photographic memory in his waking life, which is "an ever-ending litany of pain and ennui," he can't remember his dreams, which are unfailingly good.  It's sort of like a "Twilight Zone" episode.  But one particular stanza gives a hint of optimism: "I can't remember the dream that I had last night / But the simple fact that my mind could concoct such a thing / As the incredible dream that I had last night / Is a clue to the key to a door to a world like that."  Hey, maybe things might get better.

Find My Way - The Mighty Mocambos

Find My Way - The Mighty Mocambos

3:29

single, 2021

Written by Mighty Mocambos?

The Mighty Mocambos are a neo-funk band from Hamburg.  Singer Nichola Richards has a beautiful, slinky voice, over a chill groove cut by precise percussion and horn lines, punctuated by fuzzy guitar.   The lyrics are purely rote ("If you just believe, try and see, a way will find you / So many walls / And rivers to cross / When you don't know the way / It's easy to get lost"), but the vibe is genuine, smooth soul.  Puzzlingly, this song is not listed in the band's official site discography or Discogs.

Barroom Blues - The Pink Stones

Barroom Blues - The Pink Stones

3:02

Introducing... The Pink Stones, 2021

Written by the Pink Stones

This is a catchy country-rock song that might have been found on a late Byrds album.  The Pink Stones, a sextet from Georgia, lean on twangy pedal steel and honky-tonk piano over the typical guitar, bass, and drums.  In the song, the narrator is just hanging around the bar, with nothing to do since his lady left him, ready to drink or fight, or anything that's not going home: "I've got nowhere to be now that you're not mine / Waiting on an empty bottle to show me a sign / I got the late night bar room blues / And I'm aiming to lose."  The melody bounces along, belying the deep loneliness of the lyrics. 

All You Ever Wanted - Rag'n'Bone Man

All You Ever Wanted - Rag'n'Bone Man

3:06

Life By Misadventure, 2021

Written by Ben Jackson-Cook, Mike Elizondo, Natalie Hemby, and Rory Graham

In this song, the narrator wanders through the old haunts of his city, seeing despair and poverty, and none of the old landmarks he knows form his youth.  "Moving forward, walking back / Everyone is falling but we don't see them / A day away from a stroke of bad luck / Money's slipping right through the cracks." The title is a sneering challenge, not a consolation: it asks, is this watered down, gentrified place all you ever wanted?  Really?  Rag'n'Bone Man's booming baritone gives the lyrics a righteous power.

The Damned - Bridge City Sinners

The Damned - Bridge City Sinners

2:47

Unholy Hymns, 2021

Written by ?

This outfit is neo-folk horrorbilly from Portland, OR.  Really, you only have to look at them to know that.  This song is pretty gloom and doom, like a Hieronymus Bosch painting turned into a poem: "The soil is dead and rotten / Plants don't grow here anymore / Can't feed the hungry babies / Water's creeping up the shore."  It would be a middling horrorbilly song, but for half the song, singer Libby Lux changes her voice to an overwrought, ragged, histrionic screeching borders on the comic, except it's excruciating to listen to.  I don't see myself listening to this one a lot.

Hey Lou - Liz Phair

Hey Lou - Liz Phair

2:42

Soberish, 2021

Written by Liz Phair and Brad Wood

Who's Lou?

A not entirely light-hearted jab at Lou Reed.  "What's inside that heavy head? / Are you on the junk again? / Your eyes look dead / But your mouth keeps moving on and on."  She accuses him of "acting like an asshole" and "talking shit about Warhol again."  Phair's vocals are great here and the peppy melody, with handclaps and echo, keep it from being too heavy-handed.

Shades Of Blue - Paul Weller

Shades Of Blue - Paul Weller

3:07

Fat Pop (Vol. 1), 2021

Written by Paul Weller and Leah Weller

Breezy, melodic pop with a soulful touch.  A duet with Weller's daughter, it came out of the Covid pandemic and seems to say that a bit of perspective during tragic times can show us what really matters: "All that matters / Is close to you / The people you know / The things that you show / Shape our views." I like the driving piano line.  Weller's voice is in great form too.

The Mauritian Badminton Doubles Champion, 1973 - Hamish Hawk

The Mauritian Badminton Doubles Champion, 1973 - Hamish Hawk

3:38

Heavy Elevator, 2021

Written by Hamish Hawk

Holy shit.  Holy forking schnitt.  Mind blown.  Jaw dropped.  Ears exploded.  Who the hell is this mad genius and why have I never heard of him?  Like a non-acerbic Morrissey and Nick Cave had a baby and it grew up on Bob Dylan and the Divine Comedy.  A sweeping cathedral of a song, bewitching ornate lyrics, a lush gorgeous baritone voice.  I am seriously in awe.  It's rare, extremely rare, for someone of my age to be blown away by new music.  I honestly feel like I did at 16 when I first listened to Bob Dylan.