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Catch Me If You Can - Beu Sisters
Not to be confused with the Hanks-DiCaprio flick from a year or so ago, this song played over the opening credits of "How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days" (I know! But the soundtrack is great). It's total teenybopper fare, but I thought the BGVs singing REALLY fast on the chorus was pretty cute. Upon checking out their website, they're not hard on the eyes, either. |
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I Get The Message - Ivy
Ivy first caught my ear with "This Is The Day", which boasted a tight horn section over distorted guitars. Hoping this wasn't all the band had to offer, I picked up Apartment Life and found myself further enamored with Dominique Durand's French accent. |
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Goodness Gracious - Kevin Gilbert
I've quickly become a huge Kevin Gilbert fan, starting with his Toy Matinee outing, and then getting blown away by The Shaming Of The True, so his Thud album was an inevitable purchase. Quite dark in tone for the most part, this song has an awesome hook, and the punchiest bass/bass drum/crash hits this side of the Mississippi. A stellar pop voice, and great instrumentalization. |
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High Speed - Coldplay
Bordering on downtempo, Coldplay's first disc sported this track near the end, full of atmospheric background sound behind heavily-treated guitars and Chris Martin's sedate vocals. The chords piqued my interest, and I immediately plugged it into the mix. |
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Just The Way You Are - Billy Joel
Billy's always been a huge influence on me, never more so than during the fall of 1998. On this, perhaps his best-selling album, is the song he wrote for his first wife. It's a good follow-up to Coldplay, and I love the phased-up Rhodes he uses (check out the "Sweetness" patch on the Yamaha Motif keyboard). |
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But Not For Me - Elton John
At the top of "Four Weddings And A Funeral", the Rocket Man does Gershwin in ultra-contemporary style. When I incorporated "Why Should I Care" into 016, the string arrangements at the top of the song reminded me of the same lush layering found in this song. The ending of this one is so smooth. |
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Passion Fruit - Rippingtons
I first listened to Welcome To The St. James Club at my grandparents' cabin during the summer of 1998. The entire album is excellent, and this track, St. James' penultimate, continues the trend of really, really tasty chords, late 80's keyboard horns (not always a flattering characteristic, but great when in context), and general mellowness. The album wraps up with "Victoria's Secret", and the opus is complete--not to be missed. |
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What A Shame About Me - Steely Dan
After the long, slow fade of "Passion Fruit", the shimmering burn of "What A Shame" feels right at home. In the vein of SD's usual quirky, lurid subject matter (with a musical bed which reflects that expertly), "Shame" was another great front-runner to their long-long-overdue return from oblivion, 2000's Two Against Nature (which, technically, turned one year old this past February 29). |
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Above Ground - Norah Jones
Upon this release, everyone I talked to had a different track that really spoke to them. My choice was Adam Levy and Daru Oda's "Above Ground", a dark groove which I remembered hearing in concert last summer, when Norah unleashed a completely unfamiliar catalog of golden tunes (most of which, thankfully, ended up on the new release). It's a deviation from the folk/country-tinged material which occupies most of the disc...not that there's anything wrong with that. |
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Chank - John Scofield
The second track on John Scofield's "A Go Go" album featured a minor-9 riff at the top, which kicked into a groove shortly thereafter, courtesy of groovemasters Medeski Martin & Wood. The guitar and organ solos are both great (how could they not be, given the sources?). This track almost lost out to "Hottentot", another strong track from the same album, but after hearing Jon Rydquist jam on it at my church, it got the vote. |
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Fierce Flawless - Ani Difranco
The "Revelling" side of Ani's 2001 double-opus has always been my favorite, merging uber-grooves with askew lyrics. This track, frankly, got the vote because 1) "O.K." had already been used in a previous mix, and 2) the guitar riff reminded me of that in "Goodness Gracious" (track #2). It's got a warm feeling to it, and it's accented by some hella-good playing. |
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San B - Kubla Khan
Minimalist lyrics. Tight horns. It's just a fun song. When Kai and I saw them at the Cabooze, they encored with this jam. It seemed to fit well between Ani and.... |
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She Don't Use Jelly - Ben Folds Five
One of a great many non-album tracks put out by the Five, "She Don't Use Jelly" is a Flaming Lips cover put to a kickin' lounge groove (those last three words have NEVER been used consecutively like that before now). It features solo vocals by all three members of the Five, as well as strings, brass, and Alexander Courage-esque vocals during the last verse. William Shatner, we salute you. If there ever is a "best of" disc by the Five, it would be a crime to leave out the "Jelly". |
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The Other Side - Aerosmith
Okay, back to reality. I'd forgotten just how good these guys are. My friend James had this cassette on repeat for an entire weekend during the heyday of "Wayne's World" and the Gulf War. We were playing "Desert Strike" on the Sega Genesis, and this song kicked off the B-side of the tape each time. Listening to it again years later, there is some tremendous orchestration and production on this album. This is a fun song which has made it onto all the recent "greatest hits" compilations, and now it's here, too. |
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I'll Follow Where You Lead - The Winans
Pianist extraordinaire Gary Fiorino once told me, "Your gospel collection is not complete without some Winans." I picked up their VBO, and instantly appreciated the vocal work on this track, and took the lyrics to heart as I continue my search in life. |
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Secret Journey - The Police
Like Steely Dan, the first Police album I got was their boxed set, Message In A Box. Having been unfamiliar with their work, I couldn't differentiate between their big hits and their B-sides. "Secret Journey" came at the end of a fun stretch which included "Omegaman", and it has all the apocalyptic darkness of late-period Police. A relatively short song, it fit perfectly into this mix, and provided an ambiguous prelude for the spoken intro to.... |
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Welcome Home - Giraffe
Okay, so I cheated--this is another Kevin Gilbert track on the same mix. But, as he's under a different moniker this time, it works. And, man, does this song work. Giraffe was another disc that just wrecks me musically...it's SO good. It's a straight time trip back to 1987, and--don't ask me how--these guys just nailed it. It's like a time capsule, taking me back to the days of the Sega Master System. Not many tunes can do that, but this one is king. |
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All I Want Is You - U2
Our mix concludes with one of the finest final tracks to be found on any album: "All I Want Is You" completes the long-playing Rattle And Hum road album by U2, and is a fantastic love song. I particularly enjoy the lyric, "You say/You want/A highway with no one on it." Bono and the boys rock out during the first half, and the denouement is a fabulous string overture that cascades down to a sweet, refractorial release. |
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