BM – Reinvention & Renewal
Thanks to
@threespires for putting this playlist concept together. I was concerned a bit this would be too similar to the “Associated” playlist, but in all but one I didn’t sense the same overlap.
Of the initial 5 songs,
“I Love Being Here With You” by Queen Latifah and
“When All’s Well” by Everything But The Girl were the standout and different tracks for me. If I’m being honest, at one point when playing the tracks back, I recalled the Pretenders were in the first 5 and mistakenly thought they did this song at the beginning until I realized it was EBTG. Busted…
I also enjoyed Beethoven’s track as it was beautiful, but I didn’t feel the reinvention part as much as it sounded pretty classical to me!
The Big Winner
Thea Gilmore trilogy. Just an amazing progression from A to Z in these 3 tracks. As noted prior, I sampled her entire 2023 self titled album and it was tremendous. Having the backstory on her progression of music was powerful stuff, and I’m glad she’s doing well on the other side. Bravo, again!
My top 5 other new tracks (not yet heard in some or no particular order):
- “48 Roses” – Mariachi El Bronx, if not for Thea, this would have been the big winner!
- “You Wear It Second Hand” - Idlewild, right up my indie/alt rock alley, now following
- “Tell Me How” – Paramore, it would appear to be a band I should really like at some iteration
- “I Make My Own Sunshine" – Steven Tyler, until I heard the vocals, I never would have taken this track as one of his
- "Star or Stone" – Chris Robinson Brotherhood, very nice extended jam departure from the Black Crowes
Best of a song I knew
“Subdivisions” – Rush, just a magical tune I think I appreciated more and more now than I did back then. RIP Neil Peart, and your lyrics were simply amazing here: “Nowhere is the dreamer or the misfit so alone”. I kept hoping “The Analog Kid” would follow this track as I know all too well, but it was back to the playlist!
Top 5 tracks I knew but enjoyed listening to again (in some or no particular order):
- "Longest Day" – Soulsavers, the déjà vu BimboBob stolen special!
- "Can't Let Go" - Robert Plant/Alison Krauss, Plant always likes his blues origins
- "Sleeping By Myself" – Eddie Vedder, quite the departure as a solo artist on ukulele, and just a tremendous vocal track
- "Owner of a Lonely Heart" – Trevor Horn, Rick Astley, the origin of this song is fantastically interesting. Originally written by solo Rabin on the toilet, Horn first heard this song when Rabin was on another toilet break as part of Cinema (prior to Anderson joining, changing lyrics, adding vocals). Amazing history of a song that had many permutations, including this version!
- “Four Out Of Five” - Arctic Monkeys, I’m a fan of theirs, and this is their biggest Bowie-influenced glam album, but somehow not one of my favo(u)rites