Friday Playlist

“Gold Paint For Blue Skies” – Peter Matthew Bauer
Former Walkmen lead singer Hamilton Leithauser released an excellent album almost exactly a year ago. Here his former bandmate’s latest sounds like it easily could have been a Walkmen song. I can’t help but wonder what it would sound like with Leithauser on vocals.

“Rule 31” – Radio Free Alice
I love this band’s name, harkening to clandestine shortwave stations of ages past. They tap into a different kind of post-punk from Preoccupations, but you hear some similar influences.

“95” – Yumi Zouma
A super melancholic song about getting everything you dreamed about and finding it leaves you empty. Perfect for January!

“X-Ray” – The Notwist
Not many German artists in the indie rock world, so perhaps this is the first ever appearance by a German band? I knew of The Notwist back in the early 2000s. They’ve been active very sporadically over the past 15 years. Pretty cool that they are still hanging around and making solid music.

“We’ll Burn That Bridge When We Get To It” – Bory
Good song or not – and this is pretty good – this deserved inclusion for its title alone.

“Cut Fruit” – Remember Sports
Following the success of Momma and Rocket last year, another female-fronted band that taps deep into Nineties alt rock for their sound.

“A Gun In Every Home” – Wings of Desire
I don’t have much to say about this song, mostly because I can’t get over that the lead singer’s name is James Taylor. This couldn’t sound less like the James Taylor a lot of us grew up on.

“High Road” – Charlotte Day Wilson
I enjoy that moment every month or two where I stumble across another track like this, that blends R&B with other elements to create something that defies categorization while sounding amazing.

“Downtown” – The Afghan Whigs covering Still Corners
Cincinnati’s greatest rock export released two new covers just before Christmas. This one, a cover of a 2016 Still Corners track, fits the band’s sound perfectly. The original was much more of a synth-pop track. On the cover Greg Dulli and his partners add that classic Afghan Whigs sense of drama and danger.

“The Sun Always Shines on T.V.” – A-ha
Ya’ll might recall that in 2024 each week I shared a video from the corresponding week in 1984. I decided not to continue that into last year with songs from 1985. This morning I found myself having no idea what to include for a video so I’m jumping back into the 1986 charts. Not saying I’ll do it weekly, but when in doubt that will be my crutch, generally focusing on lesser known tracks at the bottom of the Top 40.

For this week the song that kept A-ha from being a one-hit-wonder in the US. Although I imagine most folks completely forgot about this track. It reached #1 in Germany, the UK, and #2 in their native Norway, but only #20 in the States. While not a bad song, it lacks the magic that made “Take On Me” a world-wide smash. Number 37 this week in 1986.