Music Mash

I don't have an iPod. At this point, I can't justify spending $200 on something I know I will break within weeks. But I do have iTunes. Not the best thing, but decent.

Here's a random 10 songs playing on the "Party Mix" this afternoon (I decided not to repeat artists):

• "How Long" - Ladysmith Black Mambazo - Long Walk to Freedom. I just think they have phenomenal voices. I'm not a big fan of world music as a genre (the world is just too big for me to delve into it without much prior knowledge), but the percussional tendencies of some of the African singers that I have witnessed are mixed with beautifully dry vocals and great pop compositions (many of which are culled from their work on Paul Simon's Graceland, but without Simon's gratuity thrown in to interrupt). "Diamonds on the Soles of Her Feet" is absolutely joyous.
  
• "B Part: A Beautiful Collision" - David Crowder Band - A Collision. It's... I don't know. It's deliberately worship music. But that's kind of like saying something's Christian music - you have in your mind substandard crappola music. But with Crowder (this is really the only thing I have with him), you get the idea that he's in it for all the right reasons. His worship is introspective and resonant (or so I pick up) and the music is genuinely challenging, somewhat reminiscent of Wilco, with some folk, rock, bluegrass and hip hop elements. Thankfully, they decide not to rap.
• "Paranoid Android" - Radiohead - OK Computer. The best Radiohead album. I believe. It also betrays my love of pop produced unconventionally.
• "Ashes to Ashes" - David Bowie - Best of Bowie. Too short an album. But it goes up there with The Best of the Ramones for slaphazard retrospective greatness.
• "Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Raiders' March" - Cincinnati Pops Orchestra - Star Tracs. Don't ask. Please. Ok, I did it for my students as part of a presentation example on heroes. Happy? (And, yes, I skipped over it within twenty seconds.)
• "Evil and a Heathen" - Franz Ferdinand - You Could Have It So Much Better. Not my favorite track on this album. But honesty's the key, eh?
• "Crumbs" - Deepspace 5 - Unique, Just Like Everyone Else. Yes, as my girlfriend has pointed out, I do like the hip and the hop. Of course, this being the first hip hop representation on this list betrays, I believe, other tendencies.
• "Fairpoint Diary" - Over the Rhine - Films for Radio. Some fans hate this record. It's like Dylan's "electric" period. Which I also love. They both belong to the "I-can't-believe-you-made-a-pop/rock-album." A bit like giving Jesus a hard time for having a drink with the guys.
• "She Belongs to Me" - Bob Dylan - Bringing It All Back Home. Speaking of the dever... My favorite record from this iconoclast (who I discovered well into my twenties, despite the hoopla of the Baby Boomer Machine to make everything of their generation The Greatest Ever!) is actually the follow-up, Route 61 Revisited. R61R shared a fate with OtR's Films for Radio and Hezekiah Walker's A Family Affair (The Funkiest black gospel I've ever heard!) and landed somewhere outside route I-94 on a long road trip some years ago. But honestly, this is electric??
• "Plan B" - Mutemath - Reset. I really haven't listened to this much. They're decent. They loooove to mix and mash styles. And their performances seem to be top-notch (not much of a technicalities man. It's just my opnion, what I think I hear.) But I don't care too much for the songs.
  

I don't have too much music on my iTunes, as it turns out. It's hard to negotiate, to be honest, and I'm still an album man. So, next time, from the WMP, m'kay?

Currently reading: Anything I can get my hands on about Mexican history.