Songs With a Payload
Music that lands an emotion hard
S’up.
I know, it’s been a minute. Been a lot going on this summer, of various types, and while navigating that, less has fallen into my head to say here. I’m sure it’ll swing back, and in the meantime I’d rather not clutter up your inbox with labored “Christ, I should Substack something” material or — worse still — add to the mountainous genre of people writing long Substack posts apologizing for not having Substacked.
I’ve been finding myself drawn to a certain type of music recently — songs that come on upbeat or lightweight but then clinically deliver an emotion that stops you in your tracks. I thought it was started by the first song in this list (which I’ve been playing a lot)… but I realized when looking through old playlists (the Apple watch I use in the gym seems to be going through some issues, and has summarily deleted a lot of more recent music to serve up older choices instead) that it’s evidently always been a thing for me. Anyway, here’s a few great examples you may not have heard.
Good Luck Babe — Chappell Roan
This came out — by my standards — recently, and has been on heavy rotation while I work. The combination of pitch-perfect upbeat pop with the message of the middle eight is pretty fantastic.
By odd co-incidence, there’s a party for a bunch of eight-year-old girls happening next door as I’m putting this Substack together, and this song’s just come on. I’m assuming they’re completely unaware of the deeper message of spurned same-sex romance, but they seem to be enjoying it and bopping along. Some songs operate on more than one level at once.
Bloody Motherfucking Asshole — Martha Wainwright
A growing howl of… everything, somehow contained within folk music of beauty.
“I will not pretend, I will not put on a smile, I will not pretend to be alright for you…”
Hello in There — John Prine
From his first album in 1971, written when he was just twenty five, this is one of those songs that make you realize — and this is kinda the point of it — that age is just a number. Prine was one of Dylan’s favorite songwriters for a reason.
So if you’re walkin' down the street sometime
And spot some hollow, ancient eyes
Please don’t just pass ‘em by and stare
As if you didn’t care
Say, “Hello in there”.
Oof.
And by the way, if you’re a Prine fan, check out this fun live version of Lake Marie.
TV — Billie Eilish
One of those tracks that viscerally reminds you of what it’s like to be in your early twenties, and sincerely glad you’re not any more.
Maybe I’m the problem.
I Drink — Mary Gauthier
Holy cow. As a frank, spare, and nihilistic outlining of a family history and state of mind, this is exceptional. Warning: it’s strong beer — pun intended.
Heaven When We’re Home — The Wailin’ Jennys
Totally aware that most of the above songs are not exactly “Yo, let’s get up on the floor and dance!” material, so I’ll end with this. Which isn’t a dance number either, but hopefully you’ll see my point. It doesn’t quite meet my vague initial criteria, but I do in fact make the rules here, and I love this song for the way it conjures an emotion rarely honored: that of cautious, practical optimism… playing with the notion that who knows, maybe everything is going to turn out okay after all?
“It’s as good a place as any / And it’s probably where we’re best off anyway.”
So ever since I split up with my wife last year I've been listening to singer/songwriter Ruth Theodore like lapsed Catholics thumb a rosary, and so many of her songs are like this.
(I know at some point things will get better again, because memory is an unreliable narrator and grief fades in and out like the signal on a dodgy radio, but in the meantime I have a daughter to raise and bills to pay and cats to feed, so I lift up my chin and carry on and only connect to the wholesome, dreadful fuck of it all through music)
Ruth's pretty special: if you imagine what might have happened had Tom Waits written songs for Kate Bush back in the day, you've probably got a reliable idea in your head of what she sounds like. Her latest album, after an enforced break of several years while she dealt with a round of cancer, came out on Ani Difranco's label earlier this year. Have a listen to 'Captured', and you'll hear her voice flutter, take wing and soar into the sky as she reminds you that "you wanna be paying attention..."
https://youtu.be/0J9kQnAFDOo?si=8qEtzvtBGLA68gNA
She's written a lot of my favourite lyrics. She's clever, and witty; she wears her heart on her sleeve and her voice is bright and nimble and she'll catch your heart as she catches her breath. I have danced around the supermarket with tears spilling onto my shopping listening to hope shining through trauma in the irrepressible 'Kissing In Traffic' ("sadness can eat my dust!") and the gorgeous quadruple meaning in the title of 'Nothing On', as she tries to hold a snapshot in her mind of a perfect afternoon in bed with a partner who's leaving her. But my favourite might still be from the first verse of 'Everything Is Temporary':
"You and me we go up and down with the pound
In this make-believe currency where we are more aloof than we can afford to be
Well, investment is a risky thing when you're not sure what you're worth
Especially if you do business like me, and feed all your chips to the birds."
Her songs have a habit of mugging me out of nowhere. Watch out for her. She'll get you.
One advantage, however, we have extracted: Bitz- files, WARM Recollections. A kind of puzzle of writing, to be inserted into a more complete picture. Small first sketches, which will take shape on the canvas or will remain an waiting to be used.
1. Good Luck Babe — Chappell Roan.
. …A kind of Summer Hit, fun that never bores you, that you can't do without, since it reaches you from every window.
2. Hello in There — John Prine.
For obvious reasons it was an absolute novelty for me . I went to delve deeper (the biography and the songs).
3. TV — Billie Eilish
. Indisputable star. When first I heard of his popularity among young people. I said “But… Anyway, WE- generation have already heard the best”. BRAVISSIMA. “ A Star is born”.
4. Heaven When We’re Home — The Wailin’ Jennys
Ray of sunshine, joy in the middle of summer. A real gift. Thanks for the gift, Michael!!!
P. S. Anyway, intrigued by this absence and very curious to know if it was about the new scripts for the series, or films, or something else. (only, if it is not a trade secret). However, the confidential information will be kept safe within the small and friendly circle of your Book Club readers.
P. S. Here is another very long post. In fact…..too long…..