Another Very Cultured Playlist

Something for the weekend

Editor’s Note:

Happy Thursday! If this week has been troublesome, don't despair! Brady has the remedy for your chronic sadness and stress with another certified hit playlist.

What more can I say?

- Frank Theodat

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Oh hey, I didn’t see you there. Just kidding, I did. We do this every week now, don’t we? You’re probably getting used to what to expect now. We’ve got an orchestral work to blast us into a tour through just about every genre of music I can think of. Bangers only, of course. Step into my virtual study and let’s drop the proverbial needle.

The list:

And my listening notes, written just for you:

1. “Piano Concerto No.2” - Sergei Rachmaninoff (Sviatoslav Richter - piano, Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra): A famous and notoriously difficult display of technical wizardry and Romantic-era passion (or bombast, if you like), Rachmoninoff’s second concerto is an exuberant and deeply moving piece of music. Odds are you will recognize the second movement even if you’re not familiar with the piece by name, since it has been used in a lot of film and television and the melody even adapted into a well known pop song. Richter is in the running for my favorite pianist of all time. He plays with tremendous presence. Strong, workmanlike, masculine. Many piano players can get a little dainty and pedantically minute with their technique. Richter attacks the piano with full force and yet can tenderly address the lyrical passages when needed. This is a tour de force. Buckle up.

2. “Rebel Yell” - Billy Idol: Idol just exudes cool. I’m sure the true cult punks think he’s a pop sellout, and certainly his image and demeanor were carefully crafted for commercial success, but you can almost see through the music his lip raised in the “F— the Man” face that Ice Cube would perfect in the 90s. The tones of both guitar and synth are on point here and the opening riff develops in a really interesting way that you wouldn’t expect at first glance. This one rocks hard.

3. “Crop Killer” - Slugdge: For those of you who read my How to Listen to Music article, this one presents a fun challenge. The main riff is in 7/4 time, or alternates between 4/4 and 3/4 if you like. Try counting to seven along with it before the pattern repeats. The whole tune is wild and the facility with which each member of this progressive death metal act plays is marvelous. Enjoy the winding ride through this bizarre fantasy land they’ve constructed.

4. “fineshrine” - Purity Ring: I suppose this is a love song. But, the lyrics deal with a body in a way that, while not vulgar, is strangely unsettling in contrast to the angelic and innocent tone with which the frontwoman delivers them. This is my favorite type of electronic music. With rich timbral qualities to the synths it sounds BIG, but also makes use of space in a way that doesn’t overwhelm.

5. “Bleed the Future” - Archspire: This is technical death metal (what us fans lovingly call “tech death”) at its absolute finest. Archspire leads the field in jaw dropping musicianship and the screams come from the frontman with such machinegun-like assault that it borders on rap. The best term I can think of for this is “controlled insanity”. Not for the faint of heart (or ear).

6. “Tell Me When to Go” - E-40 feat. Keak da Sneak: Perhaps the most famous Yay Area hyphy tune, this song is just a blast. Yeah, there’s nothing particularly deep about it, but if that’s your first thought, I might ask you, “Why do you hate fun, anon?”

7. “Goodnight and Go” - Imogen Heap: This might get me in trouble with the egalitarians, but this is a song I don’t think a man could pull off. Call it a double standard if you wish, but Miss Heap manages to make a song about literally stalking an unawares (imagined) lover sound sweet and close to wholesome. Speak for Yourself is among my favorite albums ever made and in addition to excellent lyrics and vocal performance, Imogen’s true talent and skill is mastery over music production. There is so much going on in this track and the rest of the album that you will find new sounds and melodies to grab ahold of every time you listen to it, some of them only occurring for a few bars and never repeating. It’s a deep well of musical ideas. Bonus trivia, the guitar solo samples were played specifically for this track by the legendary Jeff Beck.

8. “Lured by Knaves” - Wrvth: This is some more tech death of a different stripe from a band that, at least on their self-titled from which this track is drawn, has more or less mastered the extended labyrinthine guitar riff. It’s an exercise just to follow where the guitar parts frantically lead. But ultimately I’m including this here because something happens about halfway through that was a real shocking moment for me (and I’m pretty jaded about hearing very much unique in music). I won’t spoil what it is, but I’ll say it’s not shocking in the sense of being offensive (it’s actually somewhat of a reprieve from the preceding barrage). I just didn’t see it coming at all on the first listen many years ago. Delightful.

9. “Oh Sheila” - Ready for the World: Most people think this is a Prince song, and fair enough. It’s obvious to see why. And nothing here reinvents the wheel but it’s just a killer 80s pop tune with a banging hook and incredible synth and drum sounds. A fun one to bob along to and put on your party playlist.

10. “Drive Home” - Steven Wilson: This ballad (?) is an eerie take from an eerie album by Mr. Wilson called The Raven that Refused to Sing. The record is an incredible progressive rock presentation of the classic ghost story aesthetic. I’ll likely give this whole album a deep dive review at some point, but for now enjoy this one and pay special attention to the last few minutes which feature the incomparable Guthrie Govan using an infinite sustain pickup to lay out the finest Gilmore-esque licks since the man himself graced us with “Comfortably Numb”. This guitar playing is simply stunning.

11. “Introducing the Fearless Flyers” - The Fearless Flyers: On the ballot for when we vote for the funkiest tune ever recorded. The level of rhythmic tightness this band has is near unbelievable. And that bass solo! Good grief (leobitinghisfist.gif).

12. “Keyboard Sonata in D Minor, Kk. 213” - Domenico Scarlatti (Jean Rondeau - Harpsichord): The harpsichord is a sadly underutilized instrument these days but you probably know I have a soft spot for Baroque and early Classical music and Scarlatti always hits the spot for me. The intricacy of this music is something to behold. And Mr. Rondeau has to be the best harpsichordist living. For bonus credit look up his complete performance of Bach’s “Goldberg Variations” on YT. It is the man alone in a big room with his beloved instrument playing the whole hour of music entirely from memory. Sublime.

13. “In the Garden” - Johnny Cash: Mr. Cash needs no introduction. Who doesn’t like Johnny Cash? If you don’t, the question was rhetorical anyway, you utter philistine. This is from a great record called My Mother’s Hymnbook, the content of said record being obvious. The whole album has my strongest recommendation, this just happens to be a favorite cut from it for me.

14. “Snow-Sleep” - Kardashev: This is metal but I'm not sure how to classify it further. Kardashev hails from my hometown and I’ve seen them grow over the years from a fairly decent black metal outfit into something wholly unique and trailblazing. The harshness is here but also a grand and aching melancholy beauty to go along with it. This one just has to be listened to. It is difficult to convey the quality of composition on display here.

15. “Jessica” - The Allman Brothers Band: By and large, jam bands suck. Don’t @ me. There’s typically just too much meandering wankery going on to commend much of anything from the classic rock sub-genre (incidentally this is why the very tightly written “Farmhouse” is far and away Phish’s crowning glory). The Allman Brothers get around this somehow with “Jessica”. How? Honestly, I don’t know. It’s a meandering thing as much as the rest of the genre, but the melodic content and the solos are just too good to dismiss. This one is fire.

16. “Mary Jane” - Rick James (DJ Green Lantern Remix): This is from an album called Motown Remixed that, weirdly, I grabbed randomly from a Target shelf in college. It’s a pretty fun record, but very hit or miss. This DJ Green Lantern remix of an already great song is one of the major hits on the album. I’ll even go so far as to say with the stellar beat and that crazy glissando synth sound that it even improves on James’s original.

17. “Maggie May” - Rod Stewart: This song is just everything, man. The nostalgic recounting of a love affair with an older woman, there is a heartsick innocence that permeates the actually somewhat sordid subject matter. It’s a really beautiful tune. And that mandolin playing on the outro, forget about it. Just incredible. I only sort of play mandolin, but you bet your backside it’s the first thing I learned to play. Iconic. I can’t express strongly enough how good the mandolin part is. Seriously. Amazing.

18. “Tightrope - Live” - Stevie Ray Vaughan: The man who defined electric blues and is a hero to guitar players everywhere was always at his best live. There is something truly magical about literally everything I’ve ever heard from him on a stage. We just sit at the feet of the master here (and if we’re guitar players, snag a few of his licks for later use).

19. “Be Thou My Vision” - Audrey Assad: This is probably my favorite hymn. Updating hymns for a modern sound is incredibly difficult to do well and Miss Assad and her band succeed wildly here. The drum figure is a revelation and the emotional tone of the whole arrangement is spot on. And, praise God, she doesn’t fiddle with the text. Let’s do modern arrangements of hymns to our hearts’ content but nobody should be touching the lyrics that have stood the test of more than a century. I’m sure

    James Carran
    will sympathize with this near-rant, though I can’t say if his curmudgeonly temper will allow him to enjoy this recording.