Enjoy ten great tracks that have made the rounds on my iPod the last couple months.
Elvis Costello - The Crooked Line
The Handsome Family - Wild Wood
God Help the Girl - If You Could Speak
Malcolm Middleton - Subset of the World
Iggy Pop - Je Sais Que Tu Sais
Crocodiles – I Wanna Kill
Telekinesis! - Coast Of Carolina
Modest Mouse – Satellite Skin
Dark Night of the Soul – Daddy’s Gone
Papercuts - A Dictator's Lament
Forget about all the things people expect Wilco to be. They’ve produced an amazing body of work with very few exceptions—maybe Sky Blue Sky was one of them—but even that was a pretty enjoyable listen. From album to album, they’ve been more country, more rootsy, more experimental (cheers to Jay Bennett), more whatever. I think there’s no masterplan here, they just make the kind of music that speaks to them. And Wilco (The Album) finds them doing it really well—a world-weary, well-oiled machine, that hasn’t lost its sense of humor.
What a delight the new Handsome Family has proven to be. I very much like the bits and pieces I’ve heard over the years, but somehow never really did much extended listening to their past albums—I think that’s about to change. Honey Moon is described as a celebration of Brett and Rennie Sparks’ marriage of 20 years, and there’s no denying the love is there. It’s a lush world budding with surprises, irony…and well…love.
