hello.shuffle — Monday Morning Pollution

I had a particularly strong run of songs on my commute this morning, so I thought that I’d share it here for awhile. Don’t always listen to shuffle on my ol’ pod but sometimes it just sounds so good. Here, with only a few exclusions is what I heard this morning while stuffed into the overcrowded sausage casing that is the metro. Enjoy.

1) “Jacknuggetted” by Manitoba from Up In Flames

I think I prefer Dan Snaith’s work much more when he was known as Manitoba rather than Caribou, especially this record which is such a nice mix of 60s pop melodies, glitchtronica and sad bastard melancholy. So many fantastic intertwining melodies and sounds here, yet totally catchy.

2) “Tropical Iceland” by The Fiery Furnaces from EP

This might be one of my favorite songs this duo has ever put out… I often find their hyperactive ADD songs an incredibly difficult listen; as soon as they lock into one motif or idea its already gone and moved on to the next, which I personally find jarring and somewhat alienating… though that might be the appeal.

3) “Shelter From the Storm” by Bob Dylan from Blood On the Tracks

This is one of my favorite songs from possibly my favorite Dylan album. While still folky like his earlier work but to me more introspective and melancholy than those political songs. Just great…At this point, what else can you say about the icon?

4) “The Owl” by Peter and the Wolf from Lightness

Not even really that familiar with this album, but the M.Ward-esque (at first I even thought it was M.Ward) lo-fi, old timey AM radio recording quality set to this folky song has me wanting to revisit this.

5) “American Hearts” by AA Bondy from American Hearts

A very calm and incredibly melancholy alt-country song sometimes is just so beautiful. Simple yet says all you need sometimes. Bondy is a great emerging talent.

6) “Everglade” by Tortoise from TNT

An extremely ethereal and minimalist piece from Tortoise, but the contrapuntal composition is still incredibly thought out and precise. I’d love to hear another album by them at some point soon.

7) “Blossom” by Nick Drake from Family Tree

From last year’s release, this song is one of about thirty-something tracks pulled from home archival recordings. Listening to this song, much like the rest included on the collection, it feels like we’re hearing some intimate, quiet moment that we weren’t necessarily supposed to hear. With Drake’s dark baritone voice occasionally cracking and his dexterous finger work sometimes not perfect, the song itself is quite pretty, even in its unrefined state.

8) “He Needs Me” by Shelley Duvall (arranged by Jon Brion) from Punch Drunk Love soundtrack

I decided to include this song instead of the “He Really Needs Me” instrumental score version that actually came up. I chose this one mostly because Duvall’s fragile voice really compliments the instrumentation here. Not sure how much of this version is actually the song as it originally existed in Robert Altman’s Popeye and how much was re-scored under Brion, but the song is so perfect in P.T. Anderson’s film.

UPDATE — 6\15: I finally found a clip of Shelley Duvall’s original rendition from Popeye. So obviously here you can hear that beyond the churning circus-like organ (or harmonium? mellotron?) most of Jon Brion’s version for Punch Drunk Love was rewritten. It is really cool that Brion incorporated the original motif into not only this new rendition, but the entire score. His score works on another level when Adam Sandler’s character Barry finds the harmonium in the street and occasionally pecks out a few notes coinciding with Brion’s experimental score. Great stuff.

9) “I Don’t Sleep I Dream” by R.E.M. from Monster

Certainly not the best song on an album that is certainly not the group’s best. But I think this record is underrated when it comes to R.E.M. albums, but that also might be a relic buying and loving this album back when I was in middle school. It definitely has it’s rocking moments and many of the guitars sound so crunchy and great. Might be worth a re-evaluation perhaps.

10) “Crosseyed and Painless” by Talking Heads from Remain in Light

Fantastic song on my favorite album by Talking Heads. They were so ahead of their time. I could listen to this song forever.