My Pandemic Playlist

Just to be clear, listening to full albums is not the way I “naturally” listen to music. Ever since I was a kid, it’s been my habit to get to know four or five songs intimately rather than listen to an album. In this pandemic, I’ve found myself reverting to my natural state. Here are the five songs that I’ve been getting to know these past couple of weeks.

·      “Take It All Back Pt. 1-4” by Ceschi- I was not as complimentary of Sad Fat Luck  in my review as I should have been. The album is a classic, and has been my constant companion for months now. This is the first of two stand out tracks. It’s full of the hopeful rebelliousness that I love so much in Ceschi: “And I’ll fight and scream even if they don’t hear me.” In this time when it feels like so many outside forces are closing in, I need to hear this.

·         “Daybreak” by Ceschi- The second stand out track, this one a love song. Or a break up song. Perhaps more of a sad parting song. “I had to let you go/ as my life leads me to uncertain roads.” Ceschi uses two examples of saints to illustrate why his life is not suitable for this relationship, and that description runs through my mind almost daily because of the elegance of the metaphor:

There’s an oil painting of a martyr with his head

served upon a plate for kings to laugh at

There’s another painting of a forty something saint

Shot for arrows for his faith in one man

·      “Don’t Cry”- by J Dilla- I’ve said it before, but just as a reminder: sampling is awesome. If you can’t accept that axiom, we can’t have a conversation. J Dilla created a masterpiece with Donuts and this is emblematic of his art. He takes a simple soul sample and turns it into something just as soulful, but with a strange edge, as if the sample was an oil painting and he ran his hand through the wet paint. It doesn’t hurt that it’s as catchy as hell.

·      “Everything Must Go!” by The Weakerthans- I’m a sucker for specific images that hint at or evoke something deeper. The key word is “specific.” This song is filled with them, and they go through my mind like banners dragged by airplanes over the beach. “Cutlery and coffee cups I stole from all night restaurants.” “Sense of wonder only slightly used” The conceit is that the singer is having a yard sale “to pay” his “heart’s outstanding bills.” And what does he want? “For a laugh, too loud and too long/ Or a place where awkward belongs/ And a sign “Recovery Comes to the Broken Ones.” Gorgeous. If anyone has that sign, I want it.

·      “Ooh La La”- by Run the Jewels and featuring Greg Nice and DJ Premier- (Formal review of this entire album forthcoming) This entire album is hit after hit after hit, but this one has a music video, so I listen to it more often. It’s hard to criticize Run the Jewels, they’re just that good, and this song is everything you could want in a rap song, with a great beat and so many good lyrics I might as well just quote the entire song. If I had to pick out one example (which is like picking your favorite brick in a wall) it’d be EL-P saying: “I ain’t afraid of nothing but nothingness, ain’t it something?” That lyric always stands out to me, maybe because of the way EL-P uses opposites.

So those are my five songs that I’ve been listening to. This is a distillation of the past couple of months, if I made a list of every song I listened to it’d be much longer, but these are the ones I return to the most.