This mix is a true Sounds Delightful in that it has no theme other than songs that have brought me joy in the past few months.
1. Lizzo — “Juice” (2019) This is what a hit’s supposed to sound like, people. Peppy, instantly memorable, and above all fun. Along with its flouncy delivery and choice sing-rapping, “Juice” flaunts some very respectable Nile Rogers-style guitar and a real horn section. Lately it seems to me that the music that would have at one time been called “R&B” has become the standard bearer for the kind of quality mainstream songwriting and production that was once the hallmark of rock and pop.
2. Teleman — “In Between the Rain” (2018) Sometimes Teleman get much more electronic, but here they’re downright McCartneyesque with a jaunty piano line and crafty melody. “Fifteen hundred birds singing out your name/You didn’t hear a thing, they were singing in vain” is the best hook, especially the way it goes up a little on the word “singing.” You know this is true because that line only comes around twice, and you’ll be waiting for it the second time.
3. Dragon — “April Sun in Cuba” (1977) I heard this song on a Kiwi tv show where it was presented as the kind ubiquitous throwaway that any New Zealander would be prepared to sing along with after a few mojitos. Really, it’s just some straight up, good-time classic rock, full of “whoa-oh-ohs” and “so rights.” The real draw as an American is getting to hear this style of music with a freshness that no Tom Petty or Doobie Brothers song is ever going to have for us again.
4. Weyes Blood — “Everyday” (2019) Another throwback, but in so timeless a style that you won’t believe it isn’t still a dominant force in pop music. Weyes’ voice is like liquid gold — gorgeous, but with heft. She reminds me a bit of Joni Mitchell in that way. I particularly love the string arrangement, the “bah-buh-bah-bah backing vocals,” and the quasi-earnestness of lines like “True love is making a comeback.”
5. Nick Lowe — “Tokyo Bay” (2018) Nick Lowe is hands down the coolest old guy around. His current musical touchtones — classic country, pre-Beatles rock’n’roll, and rockabilly — are the sonic equivalent of his white hair, dark glasses, and crisp collared shirts: completely age-appropriate, yet never out of style. In “Tokyo Bay,” Lowe plays off the surf rock stylings of Los Straightjackets with a tale of high-seas adventure, peppered with old school jive talk like “Long gone, daddy,” “Work my ticket,” and “That’s all I wrote.” It’s seriously my life goal to age this well.
6. Paul Westerberg — “First Glimmer” (1993) There are just so many masterful songwriterly touches in this song. First, the details: the bridge that’s been torn down, the bikes, the Indian summer, the purple mascara and safety pins — you’re there. Then there’s the way that lines hide within lines. Here’s the chorus: “You were my first [pause] glimmer of light.” It doesn’t get much plainer than that, but you might not notice given most listeners’ tendency to focus on a song’s title as a unit. I also like “Purple mascara, safety pins/God did it hurt.” What exactly hurt? The safety pins, yes, probably — but one gets the sense it’s a lot more than that. And finally ““We made a wish[,] things would never be better.” It’s unclear whether that comma should be there after “wish,” but each option is poignant in its own way.
7. Morrissey — “Wedding Bell Blues” (2019) Morrissey’s been on fire with his covers lately. While “Wedding Bell Blues” is thematically ambiguous — and the circumstance of a male singing it makes it potentially more so — I don’t think that’s the point here at all. Morrissey sings the song not like a man who’s emotionally engaged with its content, but like a man who loves “Weddings Bell Blues” and might almost be singing along to a car radio, albeit excellently.
8. The Partridge Family — “I’m on My Way Back Home” (1974) I first misheard the chorus of this song as “I’m on my way back home, butterfly,” which I might like even better. I was turned onto this track by an excellent record guide called Lost in the Grooves, which describes its parent album — The Partridge Family Sound Magazine — with a well-deserved ecstasy. And how could this not be good when it’s the product of best that the ’70s studio machine had to offer? One of the co-writers is Bobby Hart and the other is the guy who wrote the Bewitched theme song! Never believe that crass commercialism can’t yield great results.
9. Emily King — “Look at Me Know” (2019) Here’s another R&B-adjacent gem, this one the responsible sapphire to Lizzo’s sparkly diamond. Catchy as anything, “Look at Me Now” talks like a modern-day “I Will Survive,” although with a hint of wistfulness that suggests Emily King might not be as over it as she thinks. The arrangement is pure class, and there’s something about the guitar that reads classic rock to me — almost a Brian May sound, I think?
10. R.E.M. — “Imitation of Life” (2001) Thanks to my recent immersion in Scott Miller’s Music: What Happened? I’ve been having a mini renaissance for late-period R.E.M. I love the sounds of the words in this song, just for themselves: “This sugar cane, this lemonade/This hurricane, I’m not afraid.” I take the meaning of it to be a commentary on fame’s constant need to deliver greatness, while glossing over the struggles it takes to achieve it. That sounds dark, but actually the song comes across with a sense of triumph.
11. Ben Lee — “Catch My Disease” (2005) There’s been a certain type of song in the past twenty years that I worry about. It’s the “indie hit,” briefly popular on college radio and adult alternative stations, unavoidable for a while then fading away like most hits do. But while other genres have places where their old hits can go to live out their days, what will happen to these songs? Have we reached the point where we need some “classic indie” stations and compilations to preserve the minor classics of the 2000s? If so, then Ben Lee’s “Catch My Disease” will be the “Dancing in the Moonlight” of its generation. With its plinky piano, party vocals, and affable self-deprecation, it’s the kind of throwaway bauble that nostalgia radio is made for.
12. Lou Reed — Sweet Jane (Live) (2008) If you know the original “Sweet Jane” really well and you try to sing along with this version, all of the words will line up in the gaps like a set of bad teeth. It’s remarkable how much Lou Reed can alter about the phrasing — and really everything else — and still have this be recognizably the same song. The slight increase in tempo, the super-tight touring band, and Lou’s punchy delivery all give this version a sharpness that makes the original seem a little slow and fuzzy. The best part is near the end when he sings “And life — life! — and life is just to die.” Tell us something, Lou.