The random ten jumps back

Two things to point out today

First, Blogger added a feature that I've been looking forward to using for a couple of years now.  It's not all that often that I post drastically (and often pointlessly long entries) or something that I want to hide behind a jump link, but these things do pop up from time to time on the blog.  Now - as I learned from Blogger Buzz, and if you're not occasionally checking it, you're a fool - that has become an option.

Plus it also gives me the option to post questions on the mainpage and throw the answer behind a jump link.  I haven't done that this time, but I have decided to put today's random ten behind a jump cut.



Thanks for clicking through the jump, loyal blog readers.

As a reward, check my random ten for the day.

1. Philip Glass "Powaqqatsi: New Cities in Ancient Lands, India" - three stars - I prefer the soundtrack to Koyaanisqatsi.  Powaqqatsi shows Glass including influences from native cultures as the movie explored the relationship of various world cultures to the world they have created for themselves.  I prefer the more technical, almost droning Glass.
2. Avett Brothers "Paranoia in B Major" - four stars - This is one of my favorite Avett songs with its simple, gorgeous harmonies occasionally burbling to the surface in what is largely a very clear vocal performance.  The chorus is a revelation - "The weight of lies will bring you down / and follow you to every town / 'cause nothing happens here that doesn't happen there."
3. Barefoot "crimin' summer" - three stars - I have no idea who Barefoot are or why this song is on my computer.  Seriously.  Listened to it for this post, and I would have sworn up and down that I'd never listened to it before if it weren't for the fact that I had already rated it.  Cute-ish word play...pleasant enough little tune...nothing special here at all...meh.
4. Joni Mitchell "Both Sides, Now" - five stars - This one's a highlight this week.  Great song from an amazing songwriter.  One of her simplest, most truly folk melodies and poignent lyrics.  One of her finest.
5. Terence Blanchard "Hostage Takedown" - four stars - Blanchard's score for Inside Man (one of Spike's underrated masterpieces) is gorgeous and moody, shimmering strings rising to include horns and tympani.  Following the early peak, the music shifts dramatically to a single low tone with sporadic trumpets echoing and fortelling the terror that is to follow in the film.
6. Cheryl Crow "Mississippi" - four stars - This Dylan cover is one of the few Crow songs that I really enjoy.  Generally I find her kind of whiney, and I find the fact that she was dating Eric Clapton (like fifty years her senior) creepy.  She has always seemed like a rock hanger-on to me, the bar band chick who happened to get lucky with a hit then stayed in the picture because she dropped the right names as idols/influences but never really distinguished herself.  That being said, she is one of the few adult rock women, so I'm not at all surprised that she's popular.
7. The Raconteurs "Rich Kid Blues" - three stars - Generally, I don't get it with The Raconteurs.  It's not folk Jack White, but it's not garage rock/freak Jack White.  It's a little bit of both, sort of like the Brat Jack White.  This track fits this model as it has harder guitar passages with White's experimental sound (nearly on par with "Icky Thump"s weird guitar sounds) alternating with very calm, quiet passages.
8. Billy Bragg & Wilco "One by One" - four stars - This one has come into its own with Wilco's live performances of it.  It's a pretty song that is far more Wilco that Bragg (something that I greatly prefer to the more Bragg-centric numbers on both Mermaid Avenue discs.  It's one of the prettiest, most traditional love songs that Wilco has ever done.  Not my favorite Wilco ever, but pretty.
9. Mos Def "May-December" - I grabbed two Mos Def albums - Black on Both Sides and Black Star - from the library to try to round out my collection.  Hey, I like his interviews and his acting.  This one hasn't been rated yet as I try to give most new songs two or tree listens before defining them forever on my iTunes.  It's an instrumental little groove, very calm, very laid back - not even peppy enough to qualify for a Beastie Boys instrumental album.  Not one of my favorites from the album - that'd be track fifteen.
10. Lyle Lovett "Memphis Midnight/Memphis Morning" - five stars - Considering that Lyle Lovett is known as a country singer whose songwriting is quirky and highly original, it's surprising to me that many of my favorite tracks from him are the jazzy numbers on this album composed of covers of Texas artists.  This one is from Eric Taylor and is just a gorgeous tune of a single night spent in Memphis with a beautiful woman.  The melody plays back and forth between dobro, piano, and electric guitar.
11. Sufjan Stevens "Ring Them Bells" - four stars - Bonus cut because I couldn't upload the Terence Blanchard title - something about DRM issues on iTunes, from which I bought that album.  Another Dylan cover, from my one of my favorite Dylan periods - Oh Mercy.  Sufjan's version is - shockingly - almost unrecognizable from Dylan's original.  Lush harmonies and instrumentation are a full and total reworking of the original and the alternate version.