09/22 - Please Don't Confront Me With My Failures

This is the calm between the storm. Got back from my UK holiday on Monday, heading to Clandestino Festival tomorrow. But these five exquisitely sequenced tracks have been waiting on their turn for a while, so here's for a little breathing hole:

Donovan - The Lullaby of Spring

As I said, this has been in the works for a while. Even since spring, when chiff-chaff eggs were indeed painted by motherbird eating cherries. And Donovan is one of the foremost poets of the kind of child-of-nature bliss I feel when I get to spend some days just romaing about the island.

 

 

Lambchop - Smuckers

Speaking of poets of the everyday, few can turn mundane details into beautiful couplets quite like Kurt Wagner. This little melody is so unassuming, so subtle, that you might not notice how absolutely gorgeous it is until you've listened to it as many times as I have. Just stick with it.

 

 

Kathryn Williams - These Days

Yes I know, Nico's version is the definite. And Jackson Browne's is the ingenious original. But sometimes you just want the sugary warmth of Kathryn Williams' voice to lull you into an afternoon nap, and I have quite the soft spot for this entire album of covers, even though it is predominantly taken up of songs that really shouldn't be covered again.

 

Kings of Convenience - Winning A Battle, Losing The War

Another long time companion, this album, and its gorgeous harmonies.

The sun sets on the war
The day breaks and everything is new

 

Arooj Aftab - Mohabbat

I, and everyone else, have already raved about this fantastic record, but one of the lasting rules of this Top 5-project is that if a song has made me cry recently, it goes on the list. And listening to Arooj speak about this song on the Song Exploder episode for the track, I did indeed start to well up. Not because of any particular personal connection I found with it, but because of the pure beauty of the music, and her reverent treatment of this traditional tune. Learning to listen for the details of the arrangement just makes it all the more stunning.