“Lovesick on a Hotel Wildfire” – Korey Dane. This is a song Spotify sent my way, and I’m glad it did. Apparently I’ve heard a couple of Dane’s songs before, although I did not recall his name. He’s been called a “stoner Springsteen,” and this song certainly fits that vibe.
“Name For You – Flipped” – The Shins. A few weeks back Strand of Oaks released his Harder Love album, which featured both different versions of songs from last year’s Hard Love and songs that had been recorded in its sessions but did not make the final album. The Shins have done something similar. They took last year’s Heartworms and revamped every song: slow songs get fast, fast songs get slow, genres get swapped, and so on. The result is The Worm’s Heart. This song, which was my favorite from the original album, translates quite well in its new form, too.
“Baby I Love You” – Ryan Adams. A single for Valentine’s Day. From everything I’ve read, this is a one-off single rather than a leftover from last year’s Prisoner or Prisoner B-Sides albums. I want to be careful how I say this: Ryan Adams, for all his immense talent, is not Prince. But he has a very Prince-like ability to crank out a kick ass song at any time.
“Weather With You” – Crowded House. This popped up this morning, and it made me think of spring and warm days. We’ve had a few such days this week, but this is Central Indiana: spring is still a long way away. From 1991’s wonderful Woodface album, when Tim Finn joined his brother Neil in CH and they created some of the greatest vocals of the decade.
“Safe European Home” – The Clash. I’ve been trying to squeeze in a song each week that is x0 years old. So most week’s we’ve had a song from 2008, 1998, etc. This classic is from 1978’s Give ‘Em Enough Rope album, often viewed as a weak point between The Clash’s self-titled debut and the legendary London Calling. But there was nothing weak about this song, which poked fun at the band’s love of Jamaican culture and how their expectations of the country were shattered by their first visit to the island, during which the band just avoided being robbed for all their money and gear. BTW, The Clash have one of the great side-one, track-one runs of all time. Their first three albums began with “Janie Jones,” “Safe European Home,” and “London Calling.” A lot of bands would kill to make those three songs over a 20 year career. The Clash did it on the first song of their first three albums! Sandinista’s “Magnificent Seven” was pretty good, but not in the class of those three songs.
“Nameless, Faceless” – Courtney Barnett. Yes!!! There had been rumors that Barnett already had a new album ready, despite just putting out an album with Kurt Vile last year. We got the first single and a release date – May 18 – yesterday. I keep a list with release dates of albums I’m looking forward to. Right now there five albums on the list. All will drop in April and May. It’s going to be a good spring.