What’s In My CD Changer, Volume 1

Even though I own roughly a bazillionty CDs and I accumulate more on an almost daily basis, I have habit of leaving the same ten discs in my car CD changer for months on end. In an effort to motivate myself to refresh them more often, I’ve decided to write about what I’ve got in my stereo. Here’s what I’m listening to this week:

1. Jamie Lidell - Multiply
   Every year, there’s usually one or two R&B records I listen to way too much. In 2005, T.P. 3: Reloaded was one; Multiply was the other. On the vintage-sounding tracks like “What Is It This Time,” “Game For Fools,” he sounds like Creedence-era John Fogerty doing an Otis Redding impression, while he shows affection for Fela Kuti on “New Me.” “Yougotmeup” may be my favorite opening track of last year and never fails to make me spazz out. I really need to lay off of this record because the thought of growing tired of it makes me incredibly sad.
2. Sondre Lerche - Two Way Monologue
   It could be the cold weather or work-related stress but I am so in love with comfort right now. Comfort is boring and certainly not sexy, but I find myself drawn to warm blankets and big vats of mashed potatoes and records like this. It’s smooth and buttery and I know it inside and out and I’ll be damned if I don’t need that sometimes.
3. Brendan Benson - One Mississippi
   If man and property could legally marry, there was a time I would have proposed to this disc, but I somehow let over a year pass between spins. Hearing this now only reminds me how weak and lazy his songwriting has become in the years since—and I like his last album. Maybe it was his youth or his partnership with Jason Falkner or the fact that major label machinations hadn’t yet crushed his spirit, but the songs here spark and pop in a way that none of his newer material does.
4. Elvis Costello on Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz
   I only seem to catch Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz show on NPR when I’m driving back to Sacramento from my mom’s house, but I should make it a point to listen more often because I always enjoy it. Several episodes of the show have been released on CD including this one featuring Elvis Costello. Elvis is interesting and entertaining during the interview segments and sounds elegantly melancholy during the songs. I’m especially fond of their versions of “At Last,” “Gloomy Sunday” and “The Very Thought of You.”
5. Diana Krall - Love Scenes
   After listening to Elvis sing some intimate, gentle jazz, I figured it would be appropriate to listen to his lady do the same thing. I would have most likely never listened to or liked this if it hadn’t been one of the only English-language albums we had available for in-store play when I worked at The Nature Company in high school. I’ve got nothing against foreign-language music, but this record became a welcome oasis when sandwiched between several hours of New Age bullshit and terrible World music comps geared towards aging hippies. I still have warm feelings for Love Scenes because of this.
6. Michael Jackson - Thriller
   Has anyone else noticed how Eddie Van Halen’s guitar on “Beat It” is so magically awesome it masks how completely WTF this song is? I mean, “show ‘em how funky strong is your fight?” What does that even mean?
7. Bloc Party - Silent Alarm
   You can hear me say nice things about Bloc Party by clicking this here link.
8. Andrew Bird - And The Mysterious Production of Eggs
   So perfect and wonderful and cathartic and slightly offbeat and so far away from where he started his career and and and and and. My second favorite album of 2005, trailing only Late Registration.
9. Sam Phillips - A Boot and a Shoe
   This may have officially overtaken Rufus Wainwright’s self-titled album as my favorite rainy day record of all time. The songs are concise, the arrangements spare and the lyrics resonant. I would murder upwards of seven hobos to have her smoky voice or the ability to write songs like “If I Could Write,” “I Dreamed I Stopped Dreaming” and “How To Quit.” You might remember the gorgeous “Reflecting Light” as the song playing when Luke and Lorelei had their dance at Luke’s sister’s wedding on “Gilmore Girls.” Then again, you might not. You, unlike me, might actually be a man.
10. The Gap Band - IV
    I love the production on this album and the songs sound like they were given to us as a gift from generous aliens from Planet Awesome, but I have a problem with how the album’s sequenced. I mean, if you start an album with a six-and-a-half-minute sweaty dance party bonanza like “Early In The Morning,” how the hell do you expect anyone to have enough energy to make it through the rest of the album? I know “Outstanding” and “Lonely Like Me” are coming up, so I don’t want to stop listening, but I usually feel like I need a shower or a sandwich after the first track. On an unrelated note, if I ever make it to the major leagues– I HAVE MY FINGERS CROSSED!!!—”You Dropped The Bomb On Me” will be the song you’ll hear on the PA as I walk to the plate.

1 Comment »

What is a URI? Has internet terminology changed? Don’t you mean URL? (I’m talking about your comment form, here.)

Comment by Kaitlin
January 23, 2006 @ 9:53 pm
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