Friday Playlist

For obvious reasons making an adjustment to our format this week.

“Jolene” – The White Stripes covering Dolly Parton
I once read a fine summation of the greatness of the White Stripes’ take on Dolly’s classic. Paraphrasing, Dolly’s original was filled with the fear of a theoretical infidelity that had yet to take place, the narrator begging to keep it from happening. Jack White, however, sang it as though the affair had already been consummated, and his narrator was both filled with heartache that it happened and desperate to get her man back.

“august” – Taylor Swift
Good grief, August has slipped away?

“Bobby” – Phoebe Bridgers
Her new album came out two weeks ago, to overwhelmingly terrific reviews. I gave it one listen and, like most of her albums, prefer individual bites to the entire meal. The highlight is this gorgeous, shimmery piece.

“Paperchains” – Westside Cowboy
WC’s debut full length finally came out last week, after over a year of EPs and advance tracks. It was worth the wait, excellent beyond the several fine tracks I had already heard. Including this one which comes across as a British take on the Kings of Leon’s sound. Much better than KoL, too, I should add.

“Fur Elise” – Blondshell
No, this is not Sabrina Teitelbaum’s take on the Beethoven classic. Rather, it is her taking her music to a wonderful new level of emotion and maturity. I especially like the bit at the end, when everything gets cranked up at least 30%.

“The Way It Goes” – World News
Like Westside Cowboy, World News has been sharing music for over a year – they cracked last year’s D’s Notebook Favorite Songs list – but will only, finally release their debut album in mid-October. Also like Westside Cowboy, no two of World News’ songs sound alike. At least of the ones we’ve heard so far.

“Message From The Venus Flower” – Death Valley Girls
This song sounds super fun at first listen. But it grew out of the lead singer both losing her home in California wild fires and her dog later dying. Yeesh.

“Get Me Down” – Nia Archives featuring Jorja Smith
A cool meeting point of a drum and bass revivalist and a modern R&B queen.

“Kind” – Joy Oladokun
“Fuck around and you’ll discover, there’s bloodstains on my teeth.” Don’t judge a book by its cover, folks.

“Tonight” – Social Distortion
I shared the two advance singles off Social D’s latest album, but then didn’t listen to it when it was fully released. I heard this track this week on The Bridge and was mad at myself for not having heard it sooner. Another track that is about the best you could possibly expect from a band with the miles on them Social D has.

“Desperately Wanting” – Better Than Ezra
I also heard this on The Bridge this week, a track I bet I hadn’t heard in 20 years. I forgot how great it was. “At the Stars” is my favorite BTE track, but this isn’t far behind.

“The Hardest Thing” – Julia Jacklin
I wanted to double up on videos this week because JJ’s latest is something to look at. As my fear of heights has become more acute as I’ve aged, there is zero chance I would ever film something like this if I was a recording artist, no matter how cool the director promised it was going to look.