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Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus (Version 2) - Joe Rogness
Back in February, Joe released Retrospect, a disc full of reinterpretations of hymns. Since then, this track has resonated the most deeply within me, particularly because of the chords he selected. It's so beautifully sparse and thoughtful.
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Whisper In My Ear - Fourplay
I bought several Fourplay albums several months back, and this became one of my new favorite songs. I find comfort in contemporary jazz, and this is done so tastefully. Man, this is a gorgeous song.
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My Only - Danielle Brisebois
I first heard this song in the movie "As Good As It Gets", performed by Danielle Brisebois. Turns out the song is only a minute-and-a-half long, but it's a fabulous little taste of a great, sultry voice over a soothing island beat.
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Gaucho - Steely Dan
After breaking the bank on the Dan's Citizen Steely Dan box set ten years ago, it took me a while to get to the fourth disc, which contained the tail end of Aja and all of their last album of their original incarnation, Gaucho. This song is a perfect title track, not one likely to enjoy much airplay, but gorgeous in arrangement. Donald Fagen pulls a beautiful melody out of the changes, and Tom Scott colors the piece throughout with alto sax. Between that and Larry Carlton's electric guitar work in the background, it's a piece of summer, and a great way to fully experience the Dan.
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Becoming A Nun - Vanessa Daou
Vanessa Daou's first album, Zipless, featured her music combined with the poetry of her aunt-in-law, Erica Jong. This track is total sex. Like a lot of her music, it's got a smooth drum loop, lush keys and a lead sax line. With Vanessa's tittilating voice topping it off...yeah, it's freaky.
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Jabuticaba - Bebel Gilberto (Stuhr Remix)
Continuing the sexy remix vibe, I eventually discovered the music of Bebel Gilberto, who I mistook for a coattail-riding pop star when she experienced a brief season of commercial success a year or so ago. You can't judge a record by its cover, and so I was intrigued to find a remix album of hers. These DJs get their hands on the original tapes, and just do amazing things with them. The thing is, her songs are actually fabulous to begin with, and are given a fresh club spin by these artists.
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Life On Mars? - David Bowie
I'm bad when it comes to two-disc "best-of"s, in that I rarely make it through the entire volume to experience what they consider to be the best. I'll buy them for a handful of songs, and assume I got a deal on everything else. But, after seeing Wes Anderson's "The Life Aquatic", and hearing this song in the soundtrack, I returned to Best Of Bowie and unearthed this great, great song.
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Today Is The Last Day I Fixate On Your Shape - Spiraling
Spiraling quickly became one of my very favorite bands after performing with them a few months ago. This track is essentially an intro to the next song, "Your Excellent Body", but I'm so fond of it on its own because, frankly, it sounds like a video game. And, if you've seen any of my other mixes, my affection for the vintage age of video games is no secret. It makes me feel like I'm playing "Zillion" or something. The song begins and ends faster than it took you to read this entry.
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Your Excellent Body - Spiraling
There's some kind of polyphonic portamento synth in this song, playing either a 4th or a 5th interval, that totally colors the piece. I love the rhythm, which is so prominent and effective in most of Spiraling's material, and, of course, the keyboard work is stellar. I remember this one from the show, but I was reminded of how utterly cool this track is when I got the CD.
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One To One - Joe Jackson
I first heard this on JJ's Live 1980/86 album, and couldn't track down the original for the life of me. I later discovered its origin on 1980's Beat Crazy, which has been out-of-print for years. It was the last piece I needed to complete the Joe Jackson catalog, and was selling used for a king's ransom until recently. The chord changes inspired one of my songs, "Twelve Twenty-One".
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Kiss On My List (Live) - Daryl Hall & John Oates
I saw Hall & Oates with Todd Rundgren (who was the reason I was there) a couple of years ago, and never realized they were the genius behind so many great radio hits. I remember this one from way back, along with "Puttin' On The Ritz" and "Abracadabra". This is a great live version, and is the first of a "live suite" on this mix. The applause continues into...
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One I Love - Coldplay
I took my friends Justin and Rebecca and my girlfriend Jen out on my parent's pontoon boat a few weeks ago, and popped in Coldplay's Live 2003 album. This track, not found on any of their studio albums to date, continued to build and build, catching my ear and mandating a mix inclusion. The fadeout continues jarringly into...
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Chalkdust Torture - Phish
Immediately following the fantastic, 20+ minute rendition of "You Enjoy Myself" is this rockin' cut from Vermont's Phinest. Slightly less mix-prohibitive at around 7 minutes, it moves along at an ambitious pace, and features some wicked guitar soloing in the middle by lead singer and cult leader Trey Anastasio. All the marijuana innuendo aside, these guys are phenomenal musicians--it takes killer chops to rock like this.
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If I Have To Be Alone - Todd Rundgren
And, concluding the live suite is a track originally featured on Todd's musical Up Against It, and selected for here from 2nd Wind. I heard several of the 2nd Wind tracks on the Live In Chicago '91 set, and was extremely impressed, particularly by the title track. A few weeks back, I was at the Electric Fetus in Minneapolis, and found this in the used section. "If I Have To Be Alone" joins a massive group of positively beautiful songs written by this guy.
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No One Said It Would Be Easy - Sheryl Crow
I'm becoming less and less of a fan of Sheryl Crow, given her penchant for siring celebrities away from their otherwise healthy families. However, her first album, which featured many songs co-written by Kevin Gilbert, contains this little gem. For some strange reason, it evokes memories of one of my teachers, Mr. Rausch, back in 1996, just before he retired, and a box fan in his window. There's the smell of the school: the waxed floors, bottled up during the summer, meeting with the smell of freshly-cut grass...the smell of the first day of school. How does music do this to one's mind?
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Harry's House/Centerpiece - Joni Mitchell
I picked up The Hissing Of Summer Lawns during the summer of 1999, when I was living in St. Louis with my friend Tim, and eating up anything singer-songwriter. Hot on the heels of Court And Spark (both in her oeuvre and in my collection), this song literally is the centerpiece. The "Harry's House" section puts pictures in my head of 60's New York, of the Four Seasons restaurant in the Seagram Building, and the fourth-season episode of "The Man From U.N.C.L.E.", "The J For Judas Affair", which featured a rooftop helicopter and an elaborate vault system.
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Richard Shores Medley - Richard Shores
And speaking of "The Man From U.N.C.L.E.", I nearly soiled myself when I discovered these 2-disc sets from Film Score Monthly chronicled the expansive library of music used for this seminal spy show. Composer Richard Shores' dark fourth-season music was very effective in creating suspense and high drama, and piqued my interest in learning more about the emotional effectiveness of film scoring. Therefore, it was an added bonus for me to discover a medley of his musical cues, some not much longer than 20 seconds, culled together, showcasing the best of his material. I will SO buy every season of this show when it comes out on DVD.
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