“Endless Shore” – Melody’s Echo Chamber. Terrible news broke this week when Melody Prochet’s family announced that in an accident earlier this month, the French singer suffered an aneurysm and broken vertebrae. She had a new album scheduled for release soon, but that has been shelved for the time being as she (hopefully) recovers. Send good thoughts her way as we listen to this song, which landed in my top 10 for 2012.

“Night Moves” – Bob Seger. It may not have moved the needle on most folks radars when Seger’s discography finally hit streaming services a couple weeks back after lengthy negotiations between him and his label. To be honest, I had no plans on listening to any of his songs. Until I looked at his list of huge hits over his career. His peak was in the late 70s, so he was firmly in the circle of my parents’ generation’s music rather than mine. But I do remember how inescapable his music was back then. Oh, and there’s the bonus how the resurgence of Heartland rock over the past few years has brought references to his music. So last night I listened to most of his biggest songs. Not sure why I was surprised, given what I listen to now, but a lot of the songs really hold up and sounded great. “Old Time Rock & Roll” will always be his biggest hit. But this is his best.

“Eyes to the Wind” – The War on Drugs. No current bad owes more to Seger than TWOD, especially in this song, which sound like it could easily have been on one of his classic albums. It just sounds like something you listen to on a warm summer night in a big American car with the windows down as you consider life. As an aside, the early rumors are TWOD’s new album is fantastic. I can’t stop listening to the first two singles. It’s still a long, long way to August 25.

“Summer Breeze” – Las Kellies. Your summer jam for the day.

https://youtu.be/7GqCPrDRXm4

“Don’t Dream It’s Over” – Flock of Dime (and Sylvan Esso) covering Crowded House.

Stereogum has an ongoing feature called Gotcha Covered, in which they look at covers of famous songs. I was super interested when they tackled my all-time favorite song. This was is by far the best of their selections, and proof that just about everything that Jenn Wasner does is fantastic. I approve.