Five Songs, 8/25/2023

Elvis Costello, “Alison”

One of the singles off of Costello’s debut album, this song is probably one of the more famous tunes simply because Linda Ronstadt covered it, a cover that really bares the soft-rock heart of the ballad. Anyway, it’s a great tune, one of the standouts in his catalog. I’m old enough to admit that soft rock is fine.

DJ Vadim, “Getting Friendly”

Hm, “Getting Friendly With Music” isn’t a bad name for a blog.

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Five Songs, 9/8/2022

Ghostface Killah, “Run”

On The Pretty Toney Album, Ghostface really broke out from the shadow of the Wu-Tang Clan. Not that he transcended it or anything, but this record is really off on its own thing, it doesn’t really sound like a Wu-Tang record. Other than Ghostface’s presence, of course. But I think that’s a good thing, it’s enabled him to have a great career, with no real barriers to where he wanted to go. Because of that, it’s probably my second favorite Ghostface record.

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Five Songs, 8/12/2021

Pigs, “Bug Boy”

Side project of Unsane bassist Dave Curran, it’s easy to see the lineage here. This is just pure noise rock in the NYC form, all splattered riffs and yelling. So, yeah, of course I like this. Both Pigs albums are totally worth listening to if you’re a noise rock person.

Iron & Wine, “Pagan Angel and a Borrowed Car”

Iron & Wine is one of those acts where I always enjoy listening to his stuff, and simultaneously have trouble distinguishing it. If you asked me what made this album (The Shepherd’s Dog) different from his other work, I’d have to kind of shrug a little bit. It’s all good, but it’s tough to say what my favorite is.

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Five Songs, 6/25/2018

Today? Fun!

Iron & Wine, “Lion’s Mane”

I think it can be easy to dismiss all these neo-folk types as posers, as just boring sensitive white guys with guitars. And yeah, but some of them are clearly playing something pretty inspired as well. Sam Beam, doing business as Iron & Wine, is one of those worth paying attention to. His debut album, The Creek Drank The Cradle, is pretty precious, but it’s just filled with really nice songs. It’s just Beam’s voice and guitar most of the time, with just the occasional touches of slide guitar or banjo, as you can hear on this song. And while obviously, we here at Five Songs go pretty far in to pretty grim and noisy stuff, sometimes you just really need a pretty song, and Iron & Wine delivers.

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