“How to disappear,” Lana Del Rey
One of these months, I’m going to have a lot more to say about Lana Del Rey’s Norman Fucking Rockwell. Some of that is going to be about the feat she pulls off of always making her voice bob and drift along the top of the music, without ever being submerged. This is the track where I first realized what she was doing.
“The Man,” Taylor Swift
Can you really disagree with any of this? It makes a good single; I’m glad she’s released it as one. And the music video is a delight.
“T-Shirt Tux,” The Hold Steady
Plenty of songwriters have written about doomed disconnection between couples. But who other than Craig Finn has written an exchange like this? “A boy and a girl were draining their beers. He said ‘Stalin was a weatherman to start his career. And Johnny Cash was in the service when the news came through the wire. And it’s weird how you feel when bad people die.’ She said ‘Yeah, I guess, whatever. All your fun little facts aren’t going to keep us together.’” Whew! That’s a gun to a knife fight if I’ve ever heard one.
Blue Thumb Music Collective 