Julee Cruise

Today is New Year’s Eve — the day Annie and I were married. ❤️

And it also marks the close of this 365 song of the day exercise. I will miss it.

This is one of the most beautiful songs in Twin Peaks. And this morning, it reminds me once again that love is here to stay, even as our world continues spinning. ❤️

Love
Don't go away
Come back this way
Come back and stay
Forever and ever
The world spins.

Roxy Music

AVALON is an album I never tire of. It’s been called one of the most romantic records ever made, and I also find it equally melancholy. I’m not sure how many records out there can cast this kind of spell.

Choosing this track was tricky at first — because I love every song. But something about the way this one kicks off the experience of listening to Avalon. It’s a beauty and the lyrics tee up the magic of the seaside and that there’s nothing more than this right now.

No care in the world
Maybe I'm learning
Why the sea on the tide
Has no way of turning

More than this
You know there's nothing
More than this
Tell me one thing
More than this

Richard Youngs

Death has been lurking more it seems the past few years. It feels like every other day someone falls that I feel emotionally connected to. Perhaps this is par for the course when you keep growing older, and lucky enough to keep on living.

We’ve buried a few of our beloved pets this past decade. Our dog Sedona — who I still dream about. And our cat Rosie, who grew up with Flannery between 4 and 14. Those two hurt bad. Do we weep more easily with pets? Maybe so.

This is a song that is so beautiful and personal. It’s about the death of a dog. It’s the first track on the record SAPHIE and it all feels so pure and uncontrived. The two little paw prints on the cover just kill me. I love the guitar and melody and how Youngs draws out every single word. It’s a marvel and worth following along with the lyrics as you listen.

It’s music, it’s art and it’s also medicine. The howling is mournful, but the beauty and silver lining are lurking. It’s a greiving record that somehow begins to pull you into some kind of acceptance — so we can almost glimpse the healing process that still awaits. This beauty is an absolute keeper and a record I imagine playing every now and then for the rest of my life. ❤️

Electric Light Orchestra

Vissionary Jeff Lynne is still with us — going strong, still touring at 74 in 2023! The man seemed to have a crystal ball in the early seventies, embracing electronic music in a new way — mixing classical music with Beatlesque pop/rock and technology.

This one’s not only the perfect treadmill song — I dare you not to pick up your pace at runnin’ down the avenue… but it’s also a game-changer kind of track that has turned my day around more than once. But you have to play it and listen with undivided attention. I dare you to give in to it’s magic. One of the greatest singles of all time. ♥️

Sun is shinin' in the sky
There ain't a cloud in sight
It's stopped rainin' everybody's in the play
And don't you know
It's a beautiful new day, hey hey

The Go-Betweens

I’ve been reading Robert Forster’s book GRANT AND I: INSIDE AND OUTSIDE THE GO-BETWEENS. It’s the kind of memoir I find myself taking slowly, cherishing each detail. I don’t want it to end.

In 2000, the Go-Betweens got back together after a twelve year hiatus. 1988’s 16 LOVERS LANE was one of my favorite records of all time and I couldn’t quite believe the thrilling news.

This 2000-2005 era of the Go-Betweens is a very underrated body of work. I’m most fond of THE FRIENDS OF RACHEL WORTH, only because it was so unexpected. I still play this one often. It’s just one of those records that makes me feel good. And one where I know every single note/word/moment by heart.

SPIRIT is one of these lovely, stirring tracks — classic Forster vocals and lyrics. Great, melodic acoustic guitar picking. An emotional, esoteric love song I’ve put on so many of my playlists since 2000. ❤️

You’re a spirit
You’re one thing greater
Than all the things that you are together

David Bazan

One last Christmas song for December 26th. I like to play Christmas music on the 26th, because it’s the last day I feel okay about it. Along with our ornaments and decorations, the songs will be packed away now until next year.

The gall for Bazan to write a new verse to this carol penned in 1650. ❤️ ☺️

This is from DARK SACRED NIGHT, a beautiful, haunted Christmas record full of ghosts and demons and an emotional search for peace of mind and truth. I love it and play it every year.

Low

From a favorite EP — it’s one I play every year and it’s especially poignant this Christmas after Mimi Parker passed away too young, too soon.

Listening to it now, remembering her — I love these lyrics. Traveling through Stockholm in the snow doesn’t feel like Christmas. Not until they get to Oslo and feel young again…in their childhood beds.

Snow has little to do with it. It’s about going home and feeling loved. Or feeling the magic of youth again.

It was just like Christmas

Vince Guaraldi Trio

This incredible composition always reminds me of Christmas Eve — of all those memories of anticipating Christmas coming.

The melacholy in this song still kills me. The longing and joy are wrapped up in equal measure which is powerful. That tinkering piano and children’s voices. And the fact Charlie Brown is depressed and trying to find fulfillment during the holiday season is a story worth telling and revisiting over and over.

And the story’s message is clear — which is why this Christmas story is more universal and not as didactic as it could have been. Charlie is as ridiculed as the pathetic tree he picked out. But both are loved in the the end. 🎄

Sufjan Stevens

A bit like Stephin Merritt, Sufjan can write a whole lot of songs in short order, comparatively. And he’s also written some of the best Christmas songs in the past twenty years.

This one has a familiar Sufjan guitar and tempo. The lyrics are honest, iconic, but also ironic. The peace and joy we long for at Christmas?

It takes the end of time
It takes a long long time.

The peace that passes comprehension always eludes us. But if we’re lucky, sometimes during certain moments of our holiday seasons and family get-togethers, we glimpse what it might feel like.

Luke Jenner

Here’s another pandemic record that was so easy to play. I love the little doc style spoken word at the intro/outro of this track.

Another final track on a record that makes the rounds on my playlists. Formerly of the Rapture, this is one of my favorite songs from Luke. Love the directness, the charging tempo and those ringing guitars. Easy on the ears and good for the heart.

I need your love
Oh yeah
I need your love

Pavement

This just might be favorite EP of all time. I’m guessing it’s my most played. It’s perfect. Four album worthy tracks that flow and fit together like a little puzzle or a four course meal.

The songs feel carefree, loose and wild. I love the way these guitars sound and how Malkmus sings these songs. I’ve been a fan through it all, but this is peak Pavement for me.

The lyrics suggest feelings and emotions, but lack clarity. I still don’t know what these songs are about, but I don’t care. I just love the melodies and the youthful details in the lyrics. And I can feel the emotions around hope and loss.

Empty homes
Plastic cones
Stolen rims, are they alloy or chrome?
Well I've got style
Miles and miles
So much style that it's wasted

And this dose of Pavement was a key part of the soundtrack of my life that was being curated. I could’ve picked any of the four tunes, but FRONTWARDS felt right to me today. I love that chord progression and sentiment. The reckless chorus and that little guitar drum riff at 1:30. ❤️

Lori Carson

From EVERYTHING I TOUCH RUNS WILD — this confessional love song sets a wintery, romantic mood, and it’s hard not to think of Keith Gordon’s mesmerizing film. Those chords and that melody…those subtle vocals.

I think you feel the way I feel
Though you don’t want to say
I think you feel the way I feel
Though it’s not the easy way
Wouldn’t you like to be with me?
Watching the snow come down
Watching the snow come down
Watching the snow

I thought I would post Lori’s original video — but seeing Fielding and Sarah again kills me and was hard to resist — like looking through a photo album. A re-watch is in order, because it’s been awhile.

Lykke Li

You can see why David Lynch is a fan — her music and vibe has this dreamy, intoxicating quality that just draws you in.

We live inside a dream.

This one has a groove, but never tries too hard. It’s organic, original, mysterious — never obvious. It breaks rules but still manages to be a catchy, danceable, cinematic track — exactly the kind that’s played in clubs and placed in good movies. Love it!

You're my river running high
Run deep, run wild

I, I follow
I follow you, deep sea, baby
I follow you
I, I follow
I follow you, dark doom, honey
I follow you

Broken Social Scene

Have always loved Anthems for a Seventeen Year Old Girl and Lover’s Spit — but today I’m drawn to something newer. This tune made so many of my pandemic playlists, that I had to get it in here. Love Ariel Engle’s vocal and the energy in this beauty.

We’re dying.

What a thing to get clear on, especially during the pandemic. Sometimes I do, but I don’t like to ignore it. It’s coming. So, best to live well today.

Mount Eerie

A CROW LOOKED AT ME is an emotional song-cycle about profound grief and loss — poetically observed and felt by Phil Elverum after losing the love of his life to cancer.

This song guts me. Just so beautiful — the melody, subtlety. The details. I love the way Phil sings and plays it. There’s something raw and unflinching about it.

I can’t remember
We’re you into Canada geese?
Is it significant
These hundreds on the beach
Or were they just hungry
For mid-migration seaweed

Black Swan Lane

New music Friday — and I wanted to sneak the new record BLIND in from BLACK SWAN LANE — a band who I’ve played a lot the past few years.

They have that global, timeless post punk sound. Love those first bass notes and Jack’s echoing guitars. ❤️

Do you need to go
And run to the sun?
Escape

The Smashing Pumpkins

This debut hit me at just the right time. I was out of the house and in college. Grunge was cathartic, even though I never completely bought in. Some songs have transcended. GISH is still a great listen — what an inspired debut that wasn’t so much a product of grunge but more of a progression of classic rock.

This great tune almost feels slow-core and builds to great heights. At the time I loved that it reflected the independence I was feeling in college. I was going to do what I had to do. The “start today” was a call to action. And so I did.

Advance Base

Yesterday’s Red House Painters track got me thinking about pets. Here’s another one from the Advance Base record ANIMAL COMPANIONSHIP. It has a beautiful premise — our hero happens upon his ex’s dog tied up in front of the coffee shop they used to frequent.

I swear that there were some days
It felt like I was only
Coming around for your dog

Ashworth’s dead-pan story songs have been such a highlight the last four or five years. Key pandemic music for me — the slower pace and reflection with sparse details, beautiful retro keys and emotional payoffs. The final barks kill me. ♥️

Red House Painters

A love song to a house cat. Love this acoustic guitar and serenade. Thoughts of our pets moves me today. That unconditional love, the tenderness — you can feel it in Kozelek’s vocal and in this recording.

And that beautiful little duet refrain at 2:18 in Spanish means:

she is very vital
sadder than sunrise
pure as water ❤️

Close Lobsters

Another Scottish band I fell for after hearing I Kiss the Flower in Bloom — either on 120 Minutes or Live 105’s Modern Music Hour. I went out and bought FOX HEADS STALK THIS LAND on CD in San Francisco and have been a fan ever since.

This early single jumped out at me today — a favorite of mine. I just love the idea of hatching a plan to make something good happen.

Twelve million good reasons against
The mountain, the light bulb, and the lake

Love those jangly guitars and that melody. And the original video was beautiful to see again.