Rec. #876: Dylan Thomas

What: "Dylan Thomas," by Better Oblivion Community Center (aka Phoebe Bridgers and Conor Oberst), is truly a Song for Our Times.

It also thrives in one of my favorite song configurations -- a hooky melody with devastating lyrics.

Representative lyrics:
These cats are scared and feral
The flag pins on their lapels
The truth is anybody’s guess
These talking heads are saying
"The king is only playing
A game of four-dimensional chess"

How to get it: Watch the video on YouTube.

Rec. #834: Don't Take the Money / I Wanna Get Better

What: I really do like Lena Dunham's direction of music videos for the band Bleachers.

The video for "Don't Take the Money" features --- Alia Shawkat as a marriage officiant; glitz; formal shorts; crowns; leather shorts; a fight scene; the spoken dialogue "is it difficult to make lunch plans?" "no, we eat at home."

The video for "I Wanna Get Better" features --- pool floats; a birdcage; Retta in a power turtleneck; Mary Kay Place as a backup singer; the spoken line "waiting until I get dressed and then putting on the same thing is not 'fixing yourself.'"

Rec. #830: Your Ex-Lover Is Dead

What: Do you feel a chill in the air coming? Are you feeling melancholy yet determined? "Your Ex-Lover Is Dead," from indie pop band Stars, might be just the song for you right now.

First line: "When there's nothing left to burn, you have to set yourself on fire."

Representative lyric: "Live through this, and you won't look back."

How to get it: The song is off the 2004 album Set Yourself on Fire. You can watch this video on YouTube. The band is Canadian. The video is very Canadian.

Rec. #825: Hope to Die

What: What is this glorious nonsense? What is this glorious, fringed-face-cowboy, slow-bone-ready, Elvis-Presley-sounding nonsense? And why can't I stop listening to it?

Representative lyrics:
I'm still undone, not quite young
But I, I still try
Cross my heart, now I hope to die

How to get it: "Hope to Die" is one of the fantastic songs off of pseudonymous artist Orville Peck's debut album, Pony. Watch it --- and more! --- on YouTube. 

Rec. #811: Slow Burning Crimes

What: "Slow Burning Crimes" is from the band East Hundred's 2009 EP (Passenger), but it feels like it's from about 15 years earlier -- in the best possible way. Listen and tell me it doesn't sound like something off the Reality Bites soundtrack.

Representative lyrics:

I waited long ago this time
In the cold and rain
So tell me what the time is now
Before I figure it out

How to get it: Watch the music video on YouTube or Vimeo.

Have a good weekend, all. I wish you excellent hipster blanket forts, if that's the sort of thing that rings your bell.

Rec. #782: Q.U.E.E.N.

What: Janelle Monáe's "Q.U.E.E.N." manages to be a banger, an anthem, and a cooler-than-thou hangout all at the same time. (The video for the song sits heavily in the "cooler-than-thou" realm.) And it ends with some surgically precise, slicing lyrics.

Representative lyrics:
Are we a lost generation of our people?
Add us to equations but they'll never make us equal
She who writes the movie owns the script and the sequel
So why ain't the stealing of my rights made illegal?

And that last rallying cry stanza:

And while you're selling dope, we're gonna keep selling hope
We rising up now, you gotta deal you gotta cope
Will you be electric sheep?
Electric ladies, will you sleep?
Or will you preach?

How to get it: You can watch the video on YouTube.

Happy International Women's Day

Rec. #674: [Nothing But] Flowers

What: This 1988 song from Talking Heads could believably have been written at any point over the last thirty or so years. (Because we've learned nothing.) The video for "[Nothing But] Flowers" is stage managed to within an inch of its life and features the late, great musical genius Kirsty MacColl.


Representative lyrics:
This was a Pizza Hut
Now it's all covered with daisies
(You've got it, you've got it)

I miss the honky tonks
Dairy Queens, and 7-Elevens
(You've got it, you've got it)

And as things fell apart
Nobody paid much attention
(You've got it, you've got it)


How to get it: "[Nothing But] Flowers" was the second single from the album Naked. The video is on YouTube.

Connections to previous Wreckage: Find more Kirsty MacColl with Rec. #259 and Rec. #391. Find more David Byrne with Rec. #187 and Rec. #362.

Rec. #656: Perfect Couples

What: "Perfect Couples" is a great groove with a particularly mesmerizing music video. The song sits snugly in Belle & Sebastian's favorite retro-bop corner of indie pop and, wow, would I like flash mobs to come back into fashion briefly, just so one could recreate the choreography of this video in a public square somewhere.

Representative lyrics:
Thank you for the invite tonight
Perfect snacklets, perfect drinks
I'm getting ideas from your interiors
Perfect apartments, perfect kids

Perfect couples are breaking up
What have they done?
Those perfect couples are breaking up
What have they done?


How to get it: "Perfect Couples" is from Belle & Sebastian's 2015 album Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance. You can watch the video on YouTube.

Rec. #649: Technicolor Dreaming

What: I recently rediscovered Vulture's list of "The 50 Best Modern Songs That Sound Like the 1980s" and have been fuming ever since about the shocking and inexcusable omission of Cardiknox's "Technicolor Dreaming."

Even without the cinematic pop-synch song itself, the music video alone is just [chef's kiss].

Representative lyrics:

I learned everything I know
From watching movies
Why can't my life
Have a Hollywood ending?
I'm a fictional perfection
Can't you see me?

How to get it: "Technicolor Dreaming" is a 2013 song from duo Cardiknox. You can watch the mesmerizing music video on YouTube.  

Rec. #615: Empty Threat

What: In the music video for "Empty Threat," by Scottish group Chvrches, goths have a good day at a water park. It's nice.

Representative lyrics:
Taking back an empty threat
More than you could ever know
Take it back with no regrets

How to get it: "Empty Threat" is from the 2015 album Every Open Eye and is typical of the album's clarity.

Connection to previous Wreckage: Enjoy more music video summer adventures with "Dean's Room" (Rec. #593).

Rec. #593: Dean's Room

What: Have some summer. Have some oscillating fans. Have some dancing in a white dress. Have some tangerine nail polish in an inflatable pool.

Allison Crutchfield, young veteran of many indie bands, gives us all that and more with the video for "Dean's Room." The song itself captures the dreamy hook of summer breezes with the low, dragging pulse of summer humidity.

Representative lyrics:
There are no photographs of us
There's nothing left for us to discuss
You crawl around on your belly
And you ask for forgiveness
All while maintaining your innocence

How to get it: The song "Dean's Room" is from Crutchfield's full-length solo debut, Tourist in This Town.

Rec. #559: On + Off

What: Musical wunderkind Maggie Rogers gives us layered, dreamy downtempo pop with "On + Off." The accompanying video gives us a dorky-coolness that brings to mind Christine and the Queens, grooving backup dancers and all, albeit with more costume changes.

Representative lyrics:
Take me to that place where you always go
When you're sleeping or your day takes you low, so low
When I'm on and off again
On and off again
On and off again, oh

Connection to previous Wreckage: "Tilted," by Christine and the Queens, was Rec. #449.

Rec. #554: Basket Case

What: Join me in a brief bout of '90s nostalgia. Green Day filmed the video for "Basket Case" in black and white (color added later) at an abandoned mental institution. Seems like a good time to revisit it. Anxiety! Queerness! Weed! Therapy! You may be surprised by what resonates.

Representative lyrics:
Sometimes I give myself the creeps
Sometimes my mind plays tricks on me
It all keeps adding up
I think I'm cracking up
Am I just paranoid or am I just stoned?

Rec. #538: New York (St. Vincent)

What: Manhattan, you've just had some seriously surrealistic weather. Here's a surrealistic video for you, with St. Vincent's "New York."

If I had a nit to pick, I'd say the video isn't quite a tonal match for the song, but I do like them both.

Representative lyrics:
And if I called you from First Avenue
Well, you're the only motherfucker in the city
who can handle me

Bonus: A swan almost makes a severe Annie Clark smile around 2:10.

Rec. #517: Infamous

What: Here's how much I enjoy Basia Bulat singing "Infamous" -- I have the song set as an alarm and I still don't hate it.

Representative lyrics:
Come back or not, but call it off
Come back or don't, but turn me down
Don't waste my time pretending
Love is somewhere else

Connections to previous Wreckage: In my usual "before-I-recommend-this-I-will-check-that-this-person-isn't-an-obvious-monster" quick Google search*, I discovered Bulat talking up the great Kate Beaton. We love Kate Beaton! (See List #60.)

How to get it: "Infamous" is from Bulat's 2016 album Good Advice.





* Hey, The Atlantic (and other media outlets)! You should try doing this.

Rec. #509: Try

What: The music video of Michael Penn's "Try" was directed by Paul Thomas Anderson and features blink-and-you-miss-it Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Penn and his wife, Aimee Mann, have each worked with PTA several times (Mann notably on Magnolia), and connections like this make me wonder things like, "Did the Mann-Penn household send congrats to the Anderson-Rudolphs every time they had a child?"


Representative lyrics:
That is why I kept away so
I'd look strange at your door
In my way, in a nutshell
I don't try
I won't try
I don't want to try you anymore

Connection to previous Wreckage: A music video from Aimee Mann was Rec. #414.

P.S. I really hope that at some point Aimee Mann writes a song about how her brother-in-law is such a wanker.

Rec. #480: Let's Have a Kiki

What: The music video can definitely enhance the intensity of your fun with this Scissor Sisters song. First of all, there's the easy-to-follow choreography (which, by all rights, should have expanded beyond drag clubs and made "the kiki" the biggest dance craze since the macarena).

Then, of course, there's Tambourine Boy off to the side, having the time of his life.

Representative lyrics:
A kiki is a party
for calming all your nerves.
We're spilling tea and dishing
just desserts one may deserve.

And though the sun is rising
few may choose to leave.
So shade that lid
and we'll all bid
adieu to your ennui.

Where to get it: Watch it (and dance along) on YouTube here.

Rec. #468: Long Time

What: The band Blondie is still making great music, as heard on their 2017 album Pollinator. And, praise be to the rock gods, Debbie Harry still sounds a-MAZ-ing. (And is also an aspiring beekeeper?)

"Long Time" is a particularly stand-out song.

Representative lyrics: 
Does it take you a long time?
Does it make you upset?
Does it make you think everybody wants to be your friend?
I can give you a heartbeat, I can give you a friend
I can make you think everybody wants to be your friend

How to get it: See the music video on YouTube here. Get the song (and album, while you're at it) wherever you usually get your music.

Rec. #456: Don't You Know How Busy & Important I Am?

What: A very satisfying two-and-a-half minutes of your life -- and the video is a good match for the song.

Representative lyrics:
Don't you know how busy and important I am?
I got so much to do
Ask me to the disco on a Friday night
I can't go, I've got too much to do

How to get it: I pulled this particular video off YouTube, but Tom Rosenthal also has newer work on Vimeo.

Rec. #449: Tilted

What: Christine and the Queens is one person --- Héloïse Letissier --- but it seems fair enough that her stage name implies more. She brings a whole suite of talents to her music, including performance art and distinctive choreography. Plus, she manages a sort of dorky French coolness that we can only hope to emulate.

Representative lyrics: "But I'm actually good / Can't help it if we're tilted"

How to get it: Time for a YouTube rabbit hole! The music video is here, a performance for the BRIT awards is here, and you can see Christine and the Queens cover Beyoncé here. Also, I haven't yet watched Better Things, but they did this cool recreation of the music video on that show.