4 June 2025 - Lionel Richie - Stuck On You

Lionel Richie's 1983 album Can't Slow Down yielded five US Top 10 hits - all five of them also hits worldwide.   Four of them were blandish 80's pop songs that you likely know.  One was a county-pop masterpiece.

"Stuck on You". written by Richie, was the 4th single from the album, and it was very different.  It would be also his first trip to the US Country Music charts - which is just wild. 

It's a very sweet love song, and the best thing on Can't Slow Down.

So when he performed the song more than 30 years later - and not only sang but played piano - it's not a shock that music fans from all walks know the words. 

But also, Lionel Richie is probably better known by the kids today as an American Idol judge.... and he joined his other two judges on the season finale this year to reprise a song that sounds more country than most modern counrty music.   

And it was pretty amazing. 

3 June 2025 - Courtney Barnett - Nobody Really Cares If You Don't Go To The Party

I was always a little afraid to give Australian artist Courtney Barnett a try.  I can't give you a good reason why.  I think her debut album - Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit - was so universally acclaimed that I was intimidated to even give it a try. 

I need not have been.  As part of my 1000-albums-in-a-year project, I listened to that album.

That album is one of the best I have ever heard, and certainly the best I've heard so far on my list.  This fun song was a highlight for me.

In a first for this blog....

The way a music video usually works is - the artist is lip-syncing and the studio version of the song is dubbed over top - and they certainly did the dubbing for this video...... but it wasn't a lip-sync.  She REALLY performed the song, and posted the original recording as well. 

Shockingly, Barnett and her band have performed this song A LOT, and they all sound impeccable and pretty much the same....

Except for this one, an acoustic version by just her, which is somehow just as thrilling.

28 May 2025 - Cocteau Twins - Pearly Dewdrops' Drops

This was the biggest hit by the Cocteau Twins - making the top 30 in the UK in 1984 - and brought them on import to the US - leading to the release of their first US album, a compilation called The Pink Opaque.  

It's a beautiful, ethereal song.  

I very much understated this song's beauty.  

The vocal performance in this song is considered to be one of the best of all time.

And here's Elizabeth Fraser, singing it live like it's nothing.

27 May 2025 - Vishtèn ft. De Temps Antan - Gaillard

Once upon a time, there was a woman named Pastelle LeBlanc, and she was a folk singer.  She started a band with her sister and her husband called Vishtèn.  They performed great folk music and promoted the niche Acadian culture they grew up in in New Brunswick.

Then Pastelle got breast cancer and died at age 42. 

Rather than roll over, the two remaining members took some of their recordings - yes, Pastelle appears on this and she is CLEARLY playing accordion here, and co-wrote the song with her sister and her husband - and turned them into a collaboration and a tribute - Expansion - as part of a project called Vishtèn Connexions, which I guess makes it distinct, but also it isn't.  

It's celebratory and beautiful, end to end. 

22 May 2025 - Chappell Roan - Femininomenon

So as a lot of you know, I am working on a different musical project that is involving me listening to 1000 albums in a year, and I'm going to do something with it, too.   

This post is about the best of the first 50 albums so far, and that is The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess. I have to admit - Chappell Roan is an artist I did not get.  She makes music for an audience that does not include me, or so I thought.   And there's nothing wrong with that.  

Well, this is the third post of a song from that album, and so I decided to give the whole album a listen..... and the songs, in context, are so much better.   It tells a story, and a good one. 

This song opens the album, and I swear I thought when it started that it was written by Taylor Swift.....

13 May 2025 - Pantayo - V V V (They Lie)

I have mentioned the Spotify DJ here many times.

One day recently, the Spotify DJ decided it was the right time to send this song to me.   

Wow, DJ nailed it.  

Self descibed, and this is not a joke, "queer Filipinx kulintang gong punks", the band is based in Toronto - or, as they call it, Tkaronto (a name that is somewhat indigeneous-derived).  They celebrate their Filipino roots while being punks that play traditional flat bells. Pantayo is literally the Tagalog word meaning "for us".  

The song is a direct assault on the colonialism that the Phillipines has experienced, and the cultural colonialism that occurs in Filipino diasporas worldwide.  It, and the rest of their self-titled album, resonated, as it was short-listed for the Polaris Prize in 2020. 

I personally think the song sounds so much richer live.   But first, listen to them introduce their instuments.

9 May 2025 - Elastica - Annie

When asked what is the best band I have ever seen live, without fail, I say "Elastica".

And the thing is, I saw them twice, in the same year - and they had a different bassist each time.  

I know what you're thinking right now.  "Who cares?"  Well, give me a second.

The second time I saw them, I saw them with Abby Travis, who is an absolute beast and amazing and, on later Lollapalooza dates, played back to back with Elastica and Beck in 1995 (she had already been playing with Beck, so I did see her play, apparently).  

The FIRST time I saw them, I saw them at Lollapalooza 1995.  It was an early date, and so original bassist Annie Holland was still with the band - she left about a week and a half later because of exhaustion.  No, she didn't write this song, which was VERY CLEARLY ABOUT HER.  No, it was primarily written by guitarist Donna Matthews and Jane Oliver and was about going to visit Annie in Brighton, where she spent most of her non-touring time.

By the way, they were EQUALLY solid BOTH times.   

The song is short, but it rocks hard.

This is a pre-Lollapalooza show, with Annie on bass, where they are killing the song live. 

And this is from a 1996 performance, when Annie was away from the band.

Annie did eventually return to the band.... but Donna Matthews left.  Here's one of THOSE performances, from 2000.

I'm not gonna lie - it's great.  It's missing the harmonies at the chorus, but it's still solid.

By the way, if you want to hear the ACTUAL performance - and probably me in the crowd - the audio of this performance is on YouTube.  And I remember it like it was yesterday.

I cued it up to "Annie" for you.  HOWEVER, you should hear the whole thing.