Music
This Week’s Heavy Rotation #17
“Turn to face the breeze in the distance to the East”
Note: Each week I take a look back at my playlists and share songs that were either played the most, got stuck in my head, or just stood out. Many are new to me, but there are old faves mixed in as well.
Let’s get right into it!
Hit The North Pt. 1- The Fall
I was late to the party with The Fall. Through the years, people would add songs to mixtapes, or get me to listen to the band, but I could never quite get into them. When lead singer Mark E. Smith passed away in 2018, my social media timelines were full of people posting about the loss they felt. Eventually, I found this song and saw what I’d been missing all that time. These days, it crops up often on my playlists.
Tides-Swimming Tapes
Most years, my family makes a point to escape the brutal Midwest winters. We invariably wind up on a beach someplace, where I spend as much time as possible doing as little as possible.
We didn’t get to go this past year, but songs like this did their best to fill that void. The vibes here are all sunny with a gentle breeze.
Leave The Door Open-Silk Sonic
If you have kids or a niece/nephew, you may have found yourself pleading with them to try a new food. “You like everything that’s in it,” you’ll say, only to be met with a turned-up nose. So it was with my son and this song.
It checks all the boxes:
Smooth beat: Check Anderson.Paak: Check Soulful groove: Check
Nia Simone McLeod wrote about the song earlier this year. In that piece, she noted:
“The best part about the song is that it sounds so easy. Neither Anderson .Paak nor Bruno Mars seems like they’re trying too hard.”
…and yet he still just wasn’t into it. So it goes, I guess. Maybe he’ll come around the same way I did with The Fall. In the meantime, this is a fantastic track.
Ghosts of Beverly Drive-Death Cab For Cutie
To me, this song is the soundtrack you listen to while walking through the ashes of an ended relationship. It’s been many years, but I can clearly remember being angry that while my world may have stopped, everything else just roared along unbothered. It was disorienting, and a feeling you never really forget. So when Ben Gibbard sings the chorus, it hits deep.
I don’t know why, I don’t know why I don’t know what I expect to find Where all the news is second hand And everything just goes on as planned
Feeling OK- Best Coast
Off of 2015’s California Nights album, Bobb Bruno’s intricate parts contrast nicely against a backdrop of Bethany Cosentino’s heavier chords. The result is a wonderfully melodious song. In a Song Exploder episode, Consentino called the song “A statement of reaching a point in my life where I felt content…I want to stay more at this medium level of contentedness.”
Honorable mention:
Lotta Love- Nicolette Larson
Did you know Larson sang back up on a VanHalen song? Me either, but she did. That’s just the sort of inside information that came out of The Riff’s 1st ever Album of The Month Zoom call. Thank you to Keith R. Higgons for setting it up. Stay tuned for upcoming events.
In the meantime, here she is singing her 1978 hit “Lotta Love,” a track actually by Neil Young. That’s my kinda Venn diagram...
What’s been playing on your sound machines this week? Any new discoveries? Old favorites making a return? Let me know!
As always, thank you to The Riff and the amazing group of writers here!
Don’t be late to the party — check out the fantastic work by Kathryn Dillon Terry Barr Rob Janicke Noah Levy Jessica Lee McMillan Frank Mastropolo If Ever You’re Listening Steven Hale David Acaster MDSHall and more today!
Last week’s list, in case you missed it: