Mark Eitzel

The Budos Band, “Ghost Walk”

The Budos Band are brilliant, always worth listening to, but they don’t always do cool. This song, though, is so smooth and cool, a standout from their brilliant first album.

Squarepusher, “Nux Vomica”

Burningn’n Tree is a collection of Squarepusher’s earliest EPs (one not even credited as Squarepusher), along with a few new tracks for the album. As a result of being a collection, as well as being from when Tom Jenkinson was still kind of sorting out what he wanted to sound like, it’s uneven. So it’s interesting stuff if you’re a Squarepusher sicko, but you have a lot of records to get through before you should get to this.

That’s 11 month of perfect attendance. NOT BAD AT ALL. On the 29th, we’ll celebrate a full year of Five Songs every day unless I totally biff it. Which I might! And we’re getting pretty close to one thousand entries on this blog, so I guess I’ll have another little celebration when we hit that. Or I’ll forget.

Vulfpeck, “3 on E”

You know what? I wanted to hear this song, and I wrote this entry back-to-back with the previous one. Screw it! This place is random enough! Please write to the Five Songs ombudsman if you have a problem with our editorial decision here.

Eddie Floyd, “Don’t Tell Your Mama (Where You’ve Been)”

We Love Song Titles (With Parentheticals)!

The Books, “Smells Like Content”

Can I engage in some old-fart bloviating? Of course I can, nobody else has the password to this site so nobody can stop me! The labeling of all videos as just “content” is really unfortunate. It signals a commodification of creative work that only serves the massive aggregators that control what we see, and yet people have willingly adopted the nomenclature. And lumping together criticism, reviews, buying guides, how-tos, and everything else together as just a homogonized slurry doesn’t even help viewers find what they want. I hate it!

Michael Kiwanuka, “Black Man In A White World”

Kiwanuka’s second album, Love & Hate, is an ambitious album that roams all over the R&B and soul maps, unafraid to stretch out the songs, play with lush arrangements, and challenge listeners. It’s an album that I really prefer to listen to as a full album, because I think it builds on itself well.

DJ Shadow, “Good News”

DJ Shadow followed up his excellent 2016 album The Mountain Will Fall with an EP the next year, called The Mountain Has Fallen. It features a couple of nice collaborations with Nas and Danny Brown, and then it has this. The spastic pace, blurting synths, and swaths of noise seem deliberately hostile paired up with some of his most accessible stuff. Overall, though, it’s a solid EP.

Today!

Mr. Lif, “Jugular Vein”

A repeat! But still a good song.

Simon & Garfunkel, “Feuilles-O (Demo)”

I don’t think Simon & Garfunkel need an introduction, do they? Anyway, my copy of Bridge Over Troubled Water has a couple of demos whacked onto the end. They’re kind of pointless.

Merle Haggard, “I Can’t Hold Myself In Line”

OK, we’re doing quieter today, apparently. Cool, cool.

Mark Eitzel, “Gentle On My Mind”

Mark Eitzel was the main force behind American Music Club, and he embarked on a long a solo career as well. I always preferred American Music Club, but he’s a good songwriter, so his solo work usually has something to recommend it. This album, Music For Courage & Confidence, a mid-career record that is uneven. Another pretty quiet song!