10 Songs: Monday, August 10th, 2015

Aimee Mann, 2005

1 – Mr. Harris – Aimee Mann – Aimee takes on ageism and beats it, spelling out the joys of romance with a man older than her father and Aimee handles it with so much dignity it makes you ache: “and you’ve waited so long and I’ve waited long enough for you” she claims, and a beautiful flute takes you on an instrumental. She can’t do this any more, you know – A

2 – Humpty Dumpty – Aimee Mann – In many ways the album was the beginning of the end of my Aimee Mann romance romance, maybe an album earlier and this saw it off, but this is a lovely piece of deep melancholia either way -B-

3 – I’m Cured – Aimee Mann – Her latest track, from last year, acoustic strummer – B

4 – The Farthest Light – Freedy Johnston – His maybe third greatest moment, never has a man gotten so much out of a story that works slowly as a metaphor. This reminds me indelibly of one of the worst moments in my life, watching a woman I loved drive away from me without looking back, I could see her reach for her cell phone to call the man she would eventually marry and I was standing there as the light changed and I felt this profound sense of loneliness, that never really lifts even now – A+

5 – Ghost World – Aimee Mann – The most perfect summer song ever by any one at any time for the ternal teen in all of us watching the summer waste away – A+

6 – All Summer Long – The Beach Boys – Or do I mean this one? – A+

7 – Fun, Fun, Fun – The Beach Boys – The best intro Chuck Berry never wrote – A+

8 – All Summer Long – Kid Rock – His last great song took a Warren Zevon classic and looked back in nostalgia – A-

9 – Sexy Cutie – Charlie Funk – He is filming the video tomorrow! and if it is half as hot as the song, it should be steaming.

10 – The New Day – Come home to Jesus! Doncker’s genius has never been more apparent to me, the great Iris DeMent has had problems translating poetry to lyric, nobody does it this well – A+