The Wedding Present, “Nobody’s Twisting Your Arm”

The first Wedding Present album is a perfect gem, full of the best kind of frantic jangle pop. And, of course, David Gedge’s heart breaking about every two minutes.

Emperor, “A Fine Day To Die”

Looks like this is the first time we’ve had Emperor on here, so we get to go over the history of yet another important and deeply shitty bunch of Norwegians. The lineup that produced In The Nightside Eclipse featured Ihsahn and three dudes who wound up in prison, for burglary, arson (of a historic church), and murder respectively. The album reflects a lot of that ugliness, reveling in horrible sounds and dark lyrical themes. But, for all that, it’s maybe the most influential black metal album of all time. Maybe because of all that. Many following bands cribbed their style from this record, with its chilly darkness and bleak relentlessness.

PJ Harvey, “My Beautiful Leah”

Is This Desire? is the album that really completed PJ Harvey’s transition from kickass rock artist to just plain ol’ kickass artist. Yeah, broadly, this is still a rock record, but she started doing so much more. The arrangements incorporate so much more beyond just stardard rock instrumentation, the songs range much wider, and the whole thing is so much more sophisticated. That’s not to say that the first couple records aren’t brilliant, they are, but this is just a different beast.

Xzibit, “Just Maintain”

Before he was a tv host, before he was an ubiquitous (and now old) meme, before he was a famous rapper who appeared in video games, Xzibit was a promising young rapper who put out a couple albums that were pretty good. This is from the first of those records, from 1996, sounding every inch like it was from 1996.

Blue Meanies, “When We Were Queens”

I kind of poke fun at the Blue Meanies here quite a bit, because, well, they just doesn’t appeal to me much any more. But the horns sound pretty good here!

Alejandro Escovedo, “Chelsea Hotel ‘78”

Escovedo is one of those artists that has had a long recording career, and someone whose name I’d seen in a bunch of places, but I didn’t really know anything about him. I picked up what was, at the time, his latest record…and still don’t really know much about him. It’s good, but didn’t really grab me all that much either.

Wilco, “One and a Half Stars”

Ode to Joy is the latest Wilco album, from 2019. It comes after two solo Jeff Tweedy records, which I thought were better than the previous couple Wilco records. So, is it more like Warm (good) or Star Wars (bad)? More good than bad, I think? It’s not top-tier, but it’s a solid record.

The Busters, “Rude Vibrations”

The Busters were something of a transitional band, firmly rooted in two-tone and sounding an awful lot like Madness, but on Moon Ska and chronologically more a part of the third wave. So they kind of bridge the gap, especially in things like the production here, which is extremely 80s. This hasn’t aged particularly well, and the production is at least a pretty big part of it.

Boris, “Party Boy”

This kind of sounds like a Death From Above 1979 track, a demonstration of the range that Boris have displayed over their long and incredible career.

The Shins, “Red Rabbits”

I’m not going to rehash my schtick with the Shins here (you can read it here), but I’ll instead note: I could have sworn I had a copy of Chutes Too Narrow (which is not this record), and I do not appear to have it in the library. Did I not rip it? Did I lose it? It’s the sort of question that kind of haunts me a little. How many records failed to make their way into my library or got lost during its peripatetic journey to its current home. Was I going to listen to it? Not the point!

Otis Redding, “Try a Little Tenderness”

One of Redding’s iconic hits, this is actually a much older song, more than thirty years old when he recorded what is by now the definitive version. The very slow build up throughout the song is such a delight, a masterclass in pacing.

Mastodon, “Steambreather”

After a couple albums of relatively accessible music in The Hunter and Once More ‘Round The Sun, where Mastodon kind of stepped away from their most elaborate tendencies, they made something of a return to the style with Emperor of Sand. Part of that is the return of the same producer who helped them make Crack the Skye, part of that is the desire to make a concept album again, but whatever it is, it’s my favorite of the latter-day Mastodon albums. Although I haven’t really fully digested the most recent one, so I don’t know about that record yet.

STS, “All I Wanted Was A Caddy”

I’ve sung the praises of this record, but the STS and RJD2 colab from 2015 is such a gas. RJD2 is in great form, and STS is able to really bring it home on that platform. A really delightful record.

Sharon Jones, “Got a Thing On My Mind”

Hell yeah!

Lambchop, “The Daily Growl”

Lambchop’s Nixon was something of a breakthrough, gaining a lot of press attention and elevating the profile of the band. Their arrangements had been getting more and more elaborate, and Nixon is pretty busy (as Lambchop goes). So the question was, on their followup, would they keep going in that direction? No, as it turns out. Is A Woman is something of a retrenchment. The songs are pretty languid, and it’s clear at this point that Lambchop was going to just blaze their own path through music, being impossible to categorize but recognizable as just being themselves. From this album forward, Lambchop albums pretty much just always sound like Lambchop albums, and not a whole lot else.

John Coltrane, “Naima”

I often feel inadequate on this blog. My words are woefully insufficient to describe so many of the beautiful songs we get on here. Writing about music is hard, even for somebody good at it. Writing about it for an idiot like me is basically impossible. I’m just banging rocks together here and ooking at the moon.

And then something like Coltrane comes up, and I really vanish. What can I possibly say that’s going to add to one of the true artistic triumphs any of us are likely to encounter? You either feel this in your heart, or you don’t, but it’s not like I’m going to be able to awaken your soul with my typing.

Pardoner, “My Sorry Ass”

We’re unabashed Pardoner fans here at Five Songs, who do a great job of bringing that 90s indie rock aesthetic into our ears. Go listen to them! They’re really good!

John Oswald, “Btls (Marco Integer)”

I think that’s the chord from “A Day in the Life” getting deconstructed. Fun!

The Exceptions, “Circles”

I generally like it when ska is mixed like this, with kind of an intimate mix putting the vocals forward and sounding like it’s in a small room. It’s nice!