Shuffle Album, Vol. 6 (The Train Ride)

I recently took a train ride through a portion of Central Pennsylvania and took along the old iPod. Turns out, it made for a pretty cool shuffle album.

 

1. “#1 in G Minor, from Four Mazurkas, Op. 24” – Frederic Chopin (1835)

Absolutely perfect way to start. Two minutes of beautiful classical piano from one of the greats. It appears that he was only 25 when he composed this. Does that make him the Brian Wilson of the Romantics? From the great beyond, Mozart was probably thinking, “25? Whatevs. I was hitting the September of my years then.” But I digress. This music sounds great while looking out of a train window at the Pennsylvania countryside. Catchy title, too.

 

2. “Dead Queen” – Espers (2006)

This works remarkably well following Chopin. Pretty cool being that there’s a difference of 171 years between them. Scott turned me onto this cool Philly folkish band. At eight minutes, it’s very slow, circular, traditional folk with colors and textures coming and going, all to creepy effect. Heavily distorted guitar washes over folk instrumentation while ghostly female vocals tease you along. More great train music.

 

3. “Such a Twat” – The Streets (2004)

Kudos to Mike Skinner for getting that word into a song title. And you gotta love the juxtaposition from the first two songs of the shuffle. His songs work better in the context of his homemade, garage hip-hop recordings than in small doses. This one comes near the end of his great second LP, A Grand Don’t Come for Free where he tells the story of his relationship ending and beginning, fighting for cell phone reception and returning an overdue DVD. Believe me, it’s great.

 

4. “Have I the Right” – The Honeycombs (1964)

Another obscurity introduced by Scott. I still don’t know much about these guys other than this wiry one-hit wonder. In researching them for this, I read that their drummer was female and performed with a giant beehive hairdo and that they employed some unique recording techniques for the time, including the footstomps you hear on this track. Reminds me of the Nuggets stuff.

 

5. “Jackson” – Lucinda Williams (1998)

Another perfect train song. “Jackson” is a breakup travelogue where Lucinda crosses the South, city by city, trying to convince us that she’s not going to miss her ex-love. We know better, though. We can hear it in her voice. It’s simple and beautiful and one of my favorites of hers.

 

6. “Alms” – The Futureheads (2004)

These guys are crazy. Taken from their self-titled debut, this fits right in with their short, sharp songs layered with complex, trading vocals. Parts shift quickly. Choruses are shouted. English accents are relished. Fun is had. I highly recommend the entire album. It will wake up your coworkers, too.

 

7. “All Across the Sands” – The Stone Roses (1987)

B-side to their great “Sally Cinnamon” single. Some b-sides are hidden gems. Some aren’t. This falls under the latter category. Not bad, but I was ready for it to end. Still one of my favorite bands ever.

 

8. “Syeeda’s Song Flute” – John Coltrane (1959)

D’aaaah Coltrane. This is one of the poppier of Coltrane’s tunes. I think it was written for his daughter and has a cool playfulness to it. Still, his solo is pretty fiery and powerful. I also love being able to actually hear the piano and especially the bass solo through headphones. 

 

9. “My Sweet Lord” – George Harrison (1970)

Years ago, a friend of mine said that All Things Must Pass was produced better than any of the Beatles records. Needless to say, he’s no longer my friend but I can kind of see his point. There are some gorgeous parts in this song that benefit from Phil Spector’s huge production. The autoharp (is that what it is?) strums during the first couple of minutes, the fleet of tambourines, the gorgeous backup vocals. It’s all great but Harrison himself still seals it with his gritty vocal (listen to him stretch and sometimes crack for the higher notes) and typically pretty, slide leads. Hare Hare.

 

10. “Trouble” – Coldplay (2000)

I have to admit, Coldplay’s records sound great. Sure, Chris Martin never says much but from my gut, I always enjoy the feeling of their stuff. This is a nice one from their first record, Parachutes, from the time before every song had to be a FLAG WAVING STATEMENT OR GIANT BALLAD. I like the new section introduced late (would this be the “C”) with the “They spun a web fore me” thing.

 

11.) “Hypnotize” – The White Stripes (2003)

Filthy garage rock. This is what I want from the White Stripes. Not this. Listening to it in the car makes me want to punch people.

 

12.) “A Little Duet for Zoot and Chet” – Chet Baker & Zoot Sims (1953)

I love Chet Baker. There was a time when I was buying up everything I could of his but felt I struck a klunker with this album – Chet Baker & Strings. It took Chet’s fragile singing completely out of the picture and replaced it with schmaltzy, gooey strings. Some ok moments but not what I wanted from Chet. So I was surprised when I looked at my iPod and saw that this great little gem was from that record. These two epitomized late 50s California junkie jazz and Chet’s trumpet and Zoot’s tenor seem to walk and talk over each other, fighting for space. But in a fun way. My iPod knew it was my stop and wanted to send me off smiling.

 

Thanks, iPod.