SOMETHING OLD
Brian Eno - Baby's On Fire
1973
Before Brian Eno became known for pioneering the genre of ambient music, a truly bare and atmospheric musical approach meant to be "as ignorable as it is interesting," he was anything but ignorable. Even on the back of stage while performing with glam rock group Roxy Music, he made the music especially interesting and cross-dressed in extravagant styles. Following his two-year tenure with Roxy Music in 1973, he forged his own path to become even more "out there" with the release of his first solo record, Here Come The Warm Jets.
Brian Eno - Baby's On Fire
1973
Before Brian Eno became known for pioneering the genre of ambient music, a truly bare and atmospheric musical approach meant to be "as ignorable as it is interesting," he was anything but ignorable. Even on the back of stage while performing with glam rock group Roxy Music, he made the music especially interesting and cross-dressed in extravagant styles. Following his two-year tenure with Roxy Music in 1973, he forged his own path to become even more "out there" with the release of his first solo record, Here Come The Warm Jets.
I was around 15 when I discovered this album and I adored it, listening to it on loops. Revisiting it recently shed some light on the sort of ever-present alienation I've felt throughout my life, which I sincerely say with no undertones of a superiority complex. Grasping how different something like this was to everything my peers spent their time with makes me feel like it made me the unfetteredly freakish girl I am.
Three songs into the album, after the very catchy Needles in the Camel's Eye and the strangely named The Paw Paw Negro Blow Torch, is Baby's on Fire. It begins alarmingly. Literally. Its opening notes are evocative of sirens and fire alarms, which I suppose is apt for the poor, burning, titular baby. This song is very, very weird. Two Story Melody described it as "tense, claustrophobic and sinister right from the start." Eno's voice is nasally with attitude, retorting sarcastic lyrics like take your time, she's only burning. His voice bleeds flamboyance and so does the rest of the song.
I've always particularly enjoyed where Eno takes the song, but his duration as the star of it is actually considerably shorter than Robert Fripp: who performs a guitar solo for more than half of the song. When I was younger, people whose opinions I respected very highly said that this was the greatest guitar solo of all time. It's a bit of a cult classic in that way; you read any forum about it and there are people praising Fripp. Frankly, the solo is something of a screeching meltdown. I love it, but these are sounds the fuel psychosis. This is what I mean when I reflect on absorbing this so deeply in my formative adolescence. It's no surprise I'm neurotic, but then again, maybe I was born with the neuroses that made it sound so good to me.
SOMETHING NEW
Slow Pulp - Better Man
June 10th, 2026
Slow Pulp - Better Man
June 10th, 2026
In anticipation of Chicago band Slow Pulp's third album release in September, they've come out with this fantastic lead single. Better Man is trebly, turbulent, and completely full of life. It employs the sort of "wall of sound" production that I'm a sucker for, nearly to the point of overwhelm. But I love it.
Emily Massey's voice soars with fierce emotion yet total control, which isn't unrelated to how the band is approaching this new record. Guitarist and songwriter Henry Stoehr remarked on feeling the disorder and lack of control in his life throughout his adolescence and early 20s until he more recently entered a stasis of the chaos. He says that feeling this newfound adult-like stability led him to "naively" believe that he "could just extinguish that kid that fucked up all the time and couldn’t control himself. This song is [him] both letting go of control but taking control of [himself] in a new way, and accepting [himself] for who [he is], and hoping that can be accepted by everyone else."
Since Massey has typically been the lead songwriter of Slow Pulp, I had initially assumed she wrote this, which changes the lyrical perception a ton. What felt like angry missives toward an ex-lover (who inspires the search for a "better man"), turns out to be an introspective song about Stoehr's self-journey toward improvement. I always love discovering just how different a song and its message can seem based on a detail as simple as the writer's gender.
Either way, Stoehr's slow look in the mirror pairs perfectly with the band's dreamily heavy sound, making for a single that indicates a very promising new album in the indie scene.
SOMETHING BORROWED
Black Country, New Road - The Ballad of El Goodo (Big Star)
2025
Black Country, New Road - The Ballad of El Goodo (Big Star)
2025
A few days ago, I felt my good fortune of living in New York very dearly. I got to enjoy a completely free concert in Central Park for Black Country, New Road — the English group that I only tapped into very late last year. This was one of the greatest shows I've ever seen. Even songs that previously didn't stand out to me sounded holy on that stage. The six band members, all impressive multi instrumentalists, dialed into such a union together. In addition to your typical band instruments, they had a stunning variety of violin, mandolin, harpsichord (at least the effect of it), saxophone, accordion, flute, recorders, and even a cello bow pulled against the strings of the electric bass (à la Jimmy page). These instruments helped define their set of songs that I believe are among the most unique and an idiosyncratic of our time: somehow fresh yet also ancient. The show ranged from feeling like choirs of three cherubs plus a saxophone at the helm of conductor May Kershaw, folkloric piano ballads that transformed into heavy metal, and overall just some kind of orderly cacophony, chock-full of instruments, voices, and seemingly mystical outside forces.
Their small discography, especially after the departure of former band leader Isaac Wood, made it easy for me to hear all of my favorite songs from them, plus a surprise. Their cover of perhaps my favorite Big Star song, The Ballad of El Goodo, nearly brought me to tears. It's a song I've long held close to my heart and that reverberated during this highly emotional phase of my life in this expansive, perfect park. Music had just never sounded better. While never quite officially released as a cover, a live recording of it from Oslo in last December was made available for download upon subscription to the band's newsletter. Although it does feel like something small is missing from the version I heard in the park (probably, you know, the truly live element), this is still spectacular recording.
I've grown to truly admire this band and a special way since that concert. The ranges of the low voice of Tyler Hyde and the high voice of Georgia Ellery and their harmonies with Lewis Evans' sax make it truly magical. I'd re-live those few minutes of it in the flesh any time.
SOMETHING... TO CLOSE OUT PRIDE MONTH
Diana Ross - I'm Coming Out
1980
Diana Ross - I'm Coming Out
1980
This Sunday marks the NYC Pride March, one of the biggest Pride festivities in the world. To bid adieu to June, I wanted to imagine The Dizzy Express as something other than a blog, a radio show, a train, a dream… something else entirely: a disco.
If it were 1980 and I ran a disco club where everyone went to be exactly who they were, what music would I play? I'm Coming Out, of course. It really feels like the anthem for anyone who frees themselves in some way in the name of being true to their spirit. One way associated with the song is famously coming out of "the closet" and honoring one's heart without shame or stigma. This was not an easy venture in the 1980 landscape of the advent of the slowly, silently spreading HIV/AIDS crisis, which placed a profoundly harmful emphasis on othering gay people. People who strayed from heterosexuality were made out to be unseemly, sick, and downright dangerous. The intensity of energy devoted toward hate and fear would have certainly been better spent dancing the night away at the club. The Dizzy Express, perchance?
Though Ross did not intend to make it a gay anthem, its unabashed pride to "come out" as whatever you want to be holds immense power. It also holds one of the single most infectious grooves of all time. Backing band Chic absolutely kills, with one of the finest rhythm sections we've ever heard. Fred Armisen had a good bit poking fun at the slightly disjointed introductory drums, imagining that the recording session was the first time the drummer had heard the song. But he also acknowledges that the drums are brilliant, because they are. They almost sound out of time in the first several bars, but it's sort of like someone stepping into new shoes and realizing who they really are, until the whole band finally locks into the best thing you've ever heard. It's the sort of song you can't just listen to once. Once it comes on, it's going to repeat right after.