WARMER MIXTAPES #908 | by Jack Burnside of Western Lows
1. Bob Dylan | Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues
Highway 61 is my favorite Bob Dylan record. It might be my Favorite Record By Anyone Ever. I love how this song starts. The Piano figure is golden and when you're lost in the Rain in Juarez and it's Easter time too is a perfect Opening Line. You couldn't write a better Opening Line. It transports you, which the best songs often do.
2. Sam Cooke | Bring It On Home To Me
Great song, and the version from his Live Album At The Harlem Square Club is particularly good. I like Sam Cooke's Studio Recordings, but his Live Albums are much better. Pretty much anyone who's ever gotten drunk at my apartment with me has heard this song a time or three. Sometimes even three times consecutively. My mother had a Cassette copy of this Recording in her car years ago and I randomly came across it, popped it in, and was hooked.
3. The Walker Brothers | The Electrician
Epic. Starts out with this weird Atonal Drone and somehow winds its way into a beautiful 2 minute long Orchestral thing before sinking back into the Drone. Particularly fucked up Vocals. Scott Walker sounds like God on downers. I've never really heard anything else like it.
4. Yo La Tengo | From A Motel 6
Painful is my favorite album by Yo La Tengo. It's Dense and Lush and really Cohesive. I like the panned Guitar Interplay on this track. I got the chance to see them Live recently and it was really inspiring. Ira Kaplan is a total Guitar Hero in a really tasteful and cool way. There's a little bit of Neil Young in his Playing.
5. My Bloody Valentine | I Only Said
This has all the ingredients that make MBV so brilliant - propulsive Drums, chain saw Tremolo Arm Guitars, beautiful Vocals. Like a lot of their stuff it walks the line between warm and harsh.
6. Talking Heads | This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody)
A really sweet, weird Love song. It's simple without being obvious. Not subject matter than David Byrne deals with too often, but he just totally nails it.
7. Deerhunter | Hazel St.
I like just about everything Bradford Cox has put out, but Cryptograms holds a special place in my heart. This song gets the Repeat button treatment more often than not. I'm a sucker for songs about Ice or Winter. I like how the Intro gradually picks up speed till the whole band jumps in. Perfect blend of wait and payoff. Super satisfying.
8. The Replacements | Unsatisfied
The Replacements are one of those bands that have a lot of brilliant songs and also a lot of terrible songs, sometimes on the same record. That dichotomy is part of their charm. This is one of the brilliant ones.
9. Nick Drake | Pink Moon
When you hear what a completely shitty place Nick Drake was in when he made this album you almost feel guilty for enjoying it. The Piano line is killer. I think that Piano part is the only non-Guitar Overdub on the whole record.
10. Echo And The Bunnymen | The Cutter
The Chorus just floors me. I don't know if those are real Horns or Keyboard Horns or what, but when that stuff comes in it's like someone just kicked my own Personal Spaceship into warp drive. Ian McCulloch is a really underrated Singer. He's got a lot of different gears for a Vocalist.
