SOMETHING OLD
Tom Waits - Little Trip To Heaven (On The Wings of Your Love)
1973
Tom Waits - Little Trip To Heaven (On The Wings of Your Love)
1973
Closing Time is a kind of funny title for a debut album, huh?
Tom Waits’ prolific career began with Ol’ 55, the opening track of the record. Ten tracks later is Little Trip To Heaven, which wasn’t a rendition of an old jazz standard, despite sounding like it must be. It was fresh and original, but with a classic sound.
The vocal melody of the opening lines bear a pretty uncanny similarity to those of his 1976 I Can’t Wait to Get Off Work. It’s as if Waits revisited and recycled the melody three years later, or maybe just forgot. But it’s an interesting comparison to make, because just three years later his voice is the gravelly growl he’s iconic for, while it’s significantly smoother here. It’s unclear what particularly caused the shift in his style of singing so rapidly, but the subtle changes start appearing by his third studio album.
I love Waits whether smooth or rough, but Closing Time is a great recommendation for those who can’t get on board with the extreme rasp, with Little Trip To Heaven as a standout display of his sonority, romance, as well as gorgeously astute jazz sensibilities.
SOMETHING NEW
Flyte - If You Can’t Be Happy
August 29th, 2025
Flyte - If You Can’t Be Happy
August 29th, 2025
The English duo Flyte, who are new to me, released their fourth studio album late last month after the releases of five singles from February to July (all love to these guys, but anyone else think releasing almost 40% of the album through singles isn’t ideal and is almost definitely a consequence of streaming culture?).
Two of the singles are amongst my favorite from the record, Alabaster featuring the lovely Aimee Mann and Hurt People. But with the album’s full release came If You Can’t Be Happy, which feels like a hug for somewhat perpetually sad people. (Not that I’d know anything about that...)
It’s not “if you can’t be happy, can you go away?”
It’s unabashed acceptance, support, grace, and pure love.
It’s unabashed acceptance, support, grace, and pure love.
It’s melodically light and bright, with some really fun key changes. Maybe I can be happy, and go skip in a meadow listening to this song.
I heard New South Wales, Australia-based Julia Jacklin’s Shivers when it was released and thought, wow, what a tragic and beautiful new song.
...Maybe the Australian memo got lost at sea before it got to me in America?
I was totally ignorant of the original 1979 release by The Boys Next Door, later known as The Birthday Party – the first band of world famous Nick Cave! And it turns out the song has a pretty interesting story.
Guitarist Rowland S. Howard wrote the song when he was 16 as an ironic commentary about teenage relationships and suicide. The song brazenly begins with the lyric, I’ve been contemplating suicide, but it really doesn’t suit my style backed by a slow instrumental. Howard’s tongue-in-cheek lyrics continue through the voice of Cave, whose vocal style was ill-fitting for the song according to Howard. The song comes across as genuinely depressing, and Howard felt this was a serious misinterpretation.
I mean, you know the ridiculous Teen Suicide, Don’t Do It! song from Heathers (1988)? Can you imagine writing that and then Whitney Houston does it and makes everyone cry?
Jacklin takes Cave’s interpretation and moves it potentially even a notch further into the bleakness and tragedy, which she is very good at. Look, I love it. But poor Rowland S. Howard, who just wanted to be ironic and distanced himself from his biggest hit until his passing.
SOMETHING... TO BELIEVE
Weyes Blood - Something to Believe
2019
Weyes Blood - Something to Believe
2019
Guess who found a cheat code to coming up with a theme for this? Just pick a title with “something” already in it.
If you know me, you probably know how much I adore Weyes Blood. So regardless of my imaginative laziness, this song would have probably come up anyway.
One of the finest songwriters and alto voices of our generation, Weyes Blood stands between melancholy and hope in this song.
I just lay down and cry, the waters don’t really go by me is immediately followed by give me something I can see, something bigger and louder than the voices in me.
She poignantly recognizes her faults, the challenging voices in her head, the fire that leaves her and replaces it with emptiness–and she begs for something more; something that overpowers the despair; something to believe.
She carries such a beautiful, self-aware sadness. But in spite of it, she’s going to do all she can.