It's been a weird couple of weeks, on the personal life front, and in these moments I generally turn to music. So I've actually built up a few singalongs in my head, this one actually being the hardest. It's something about British singer/songwriters and moddy, slightly sad songs, and moody, cold days... but more than that:
Kirsty MacColl, You Just Haven't Earned It Yet, Baby. I rarely claim to have a favorites musical artist, genre, or even song; my tastes are wide and varied, and the best song I've heard is usually the most recent. But Kirsty MacColl may be the exception that proves my rule: she's near impossible to categorize, but I love her gorgeous voice and layered harmonies more than almost anything. Among her many cool things, MacColl was good friends with Johnny Marr, collaborating on several songs, and also doing this brilliant cover of a Smiths song. "You just haven't earned it yet baby, you must suffer and cry for slightly longer" is the lyric that comes closest to summing up my own mood, just now.
Elvis Costello and the Attractions, Accidents Will Happen. I tripped over this song, years ago, from some TV show, I can't remember anything about it, except it was about a radio DJ and Music Director who thought of this song over some incident on the show. I'm not the biggest Costello fan - I think he's often too pretentious to be worth the effort - but patience does yield up some real gems (my real fave is actually "Every Day I Write The Book" which I think is sweet without being cloying).
Paper Moon, Turning Colours Into Greys. In my annual "why haven't you tried Pandora yet" speech, I would use this as Example A: I created a "Kirsty MacColl" station and got this song as a selection, from a Canadian band, completely unfamiliar to me. "I don't know how to breathe, anymore" in their hands is both sad and moving.
Beth Orton, Concrete Sky. This is another discovery from my new Pandora station. I tend to keep singers like Orton - though she's very much unique (while reminding me of, say, Tracey Thorn) - at arm's length; I tend to feel my age when listening to smooth, middle of the road ballads. Still, I have a secret love of Central Reservation, and also this song - harder than a heartbreak, too.
Kirsty MacColl, Soho Square. This has been my best discovery so far from Pandora, probably the best cut from Titanic Days, Kirsty's album recorded during her divorce from producer Steve Lillywhite. As you might guess, the album's moody and sad (and MacColl vowed not to record another until she cheered up), but this song is somehow not that. I've decided it's the song Dusty Springfield would have recorded if she had worked with Prince her heyday, a piece of late Sxities era, mod Britpop, driven by unexpected instrumentation (never mind the string quartet, the solo bridge is an oboe!). Meanwhile the lyrics are both sad and hopeful all at once, about a lonely birthday on a park bench in a wintry park, that somehow devolves into the catchiest chorus and lovely images of hanging stars and soaring birds. And I miss Kirsty MacColl all the more because I just discovered this, yet another example of her brilliance.
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