SOMETHING OLD
Irma Thomas - He's My Guy
1966
Few voices touch me as deeply as Irma Thomas' gorgeous contralto. The richness in her sound is seemingly effortless in every song, so here's just one of them.
He's My Guy is the slightly less concerning love song counterpart to one of her bigger songs from this 1966 Take a Look album: Anyone Who Knows What Love Is (Will Understand). In that same 60s vein as The Crystals' He Hit Me (And It Felt Like a Kiss), Irma gives her lover permission to blame and shame her and run around and put her down in Anyone Who Knows, because that's just how love goes... for women, of course.
He's My Guy is both lyrically and sonically lighter, but there are parallels that cause some uneasiness. The song immediately begins defensively: He's My Guy / I don't care what they say about him
Girl. What are they saying about him?
I'm nervous when three songs back, in Anyone Who Knows, the world may think you're foolish because they can't see him like you can and that you feel "so sorry" for the ones who pity you. We already know that he's treating you like dirt.
I think there's a lot to be said about staying true to what you know in your personal relationships without letting outside noise and criticism get to you. But these songs paint a picture of a time when it was so normal for boyfriends and husbands to get away with anything they wanted, that these women were unwilling to listen to the few outsiders who saw it for what is was.
Such a stunning vocal performance and classic melody, but aren't you glad these themes are in the "something old" section? Let's keep it in the past.
Irma Thomas - He's My Guy
1966
Few voices touch me as deeply as Irma Thomas' gorgeous contralto. The richness in her sound is seemingly effortless in every song, so here's just one of them.
He's My Guy is the slightly less concerning love song counterpart to one of her bigger songs from this 1966 Take a Look album: Anyone Who Knows What Love Is (Will Understand). In that same 60s vein as The Crystals' He Hit Me (And It Felt Like a Kiss), Irma gives her lover permission to blame and shame her and run around and put her down in Anyone Who Knows, because that's just how love goes... for women, of course.
He's My Guy is both lyrically and sonically lighter, but there are parallels that cause some uneasiness. The song immediately begins defensively: He's My Guy / I don't care what they say about him
Girl. What are they saying about him?
I'm nervous when three songs back, in Anyone Who Knows, the world may think you're foolish because they can't see him like you can and that you feel "so sorry" for the ones who pity you. We already know that he's treating you like dirt.
I think there's a lot to be said about staying true to what you know in your personal relationships without letting outside noise and criticism get to you. But these songs paint a picture of a time when it was so normal for boyfriends and husbands to get away with anything they wanted, that these women were unwilling to listen to the few outsiders who saw it for what is was.
Such a stunning vocal performance and classic melody, but aren't you glad these themes are in the "something old" section? Let's keep it in the past.
SOMETHING NEW
Father John Misty - The Old Law
January 9th, 2026
Father John Misty - The Old Law
January 9th, 2026
There were journalistic whispers that made 2024's Mahashmashana sound like it was potentially Josh Tillman's last project under the Father John Misty moniker; if not simply the soundtrack to the end of the world.
But here he is, and he's looking both forward and back. He may just be looking to reset everything in the midst of it all, with a "year zero."
The lyrics here are among his most abstract, dropping lines like "ass-drawn kamikaze" and backwards idioms like "I couldn't try to you if I lied," which calls back to his "treating acid with anxiety" in Josh Tillman and the Accidental Dose.
The lyrics in this song alone are a lifetime supply to dig through, but they're not the only interesting part. The production is gripping and unique, particularly in the instrumental break midway. From 1:55 to 2:05, there's a guitar solo the employs just the right level of distortion. Then, layered underneath the continuing distorted guitar is something else that I'm not confident identifying. In its first refrain, it sounds like a harpsichord. Then it repeats, and sounds like it's now been combined with perhaps guitar. With each repetition, the refrain comes to life, getting louder and brighter in such a seamless subtle way. Within a moment, it goes from slightly buried in a busy mix to the star of the show. In seconds, it's gone and we're re-introduced to Tillman's voice.
But here he is, and he's looking both forward and back. He may just be looking to reset everything in the midst of it all, with a "year zero."
The lyrics here are among his most abstract, dropping lines like "ass-drawn kamikaze" and backwards idioms like "I couldn't try to you if I lied," which calls back to his "treating acid with anxiety" in Josh Tillman and the Accidental Dose.
The lyrics in this song alone are a lifetime supply to dig through, but they're not the only interesting part. The production is gripping and unique, particularly in the instrumental break midway. From 1:55 to 2:05, there's a guitar solo the employs just the right level of distortion. Then, layered underneath the continuing distorted guitar is something else that I'm not confident identifying. In its first refrain, it sounds like a harpsichord. Then it repeats, and sounds like it's now been combined with perhaps guitar. With each repetition, the refrain comes to life, getting louder and brighter in such a seamless subtle way. Within a moment, it goes from slightly buried in a busy mix to the star of the show. In seconds, it's gone and we're re-introduced to Tillman's voice.
This single makes me very excited for what's coming next.
SOMETHING BORROWED
Dean Blunt - LUSH (Samples For You by Big Star)
2014
Since this series began, "something borrowed" has always been a cover. Today, let's get even more literal about the concept of "borrowing."
A true cover is ultimately an interpretation of someone else's songs. Artists can cover songs as true or wildly different to the original as they choose. A sample, however, a fundamental element in hip hop, is copying and pasting something from another song. It serves to reinvent what that sample can sound like in a different musical setting, but it's ultimately borrowing it directly from the source, typically with mild changes to its pitch, tempo, and/or duration.
Big Star's Third album is a mysterious, haunting piece of music history between a troubled recording process that led to its incompletion and the dark music itself, such as songs like Holocaust.
For You is not dark at all, it's quite a sweet love song. I didn't know it before hearing English musician Dean Blunt's LUSH, and I'm not confident it'd have stuck out to me had I not.
LUSH makes use of Big Star's untouchably beautiful, and might I add very lush, string arrangement. It takes a string motif that's heard only a few times in For You and smoothly loops it as the sole foundation of the song.
I think sampling really takes an acutely musical ear, and has famously brought older and lesser-known songs to the limelight countless times. Through the sample alone, LUSH, which has lyrics I could take or leave, ends up a masterpiece while also giving me deep appreciation for For You.
Dean Blunt - LUSH (Samples For You by Big Star)
2014
Since this series began, "something borrowed" has always been a cover. Today, let's get even more literal about the concept of "borrowing."
A true cover is ultimately an interpretation of someone else's songs. Artists can cover songs as true or wildly different to the original as they choose. A sample, however, a fundamental element in hip hop, is copying and pasting something from another song. It serves to reinvent what that sample can sound like in a different musical setting, but it's ultimately borrowing it directly from the source, typically with mild changes to its pitch, tempo, and/or duration.
Big Star's Third album is a mysterious, haunting piece of music history between a troubled recording process that led to its incompletion and the dark music itself, such as songs like Holocaust.
For You is not dark at all, it's quite a sweet love song. I didn't know it before hearing English musician Dean Blunt's LUSH, and I'm not confident it'd have stuck out to me had I not.
LUSH makes use of Big Star's untouchably beautiful, and might I add very lush, string arrangement. It takes a string motif that's heard only a few times in For You and smoothly loops it as the sole foundation of the song.
I think sampling really takes an acutely musical ear, and has famously brought older and lesser-known songs to the limelight countless times. Through the sample alone, LUSH, which has lyrics I could take or leave, ends up a masterpiece while also giving me deep appreciation for For You.
SOMETHING... HYPNAGOGIC
Bridget St. John - Song To Keep You Company
1969
Bridget St. John - Song To Keep You Company
1969
Hypnagogic is one of my favorite words. It describes the transitional state you're in while falling asleep. It's a state that strips you of your control, and to me, it's a state that has on multiple occasions made music sound its absolute best.
I very well may never forget a memory from a couple years ago of hearing Donny Hathaway's For All We Know in an in-and-out of sleep on of those nights I fell asleep with my headphones on. A song I had known for years suddenly sounded like there was no need for anyone to ever write a song again, because the most impeccably perfect song now existed. The brain and body shut off while we drift off, yet some senses are heightened; perhaps even liberated and more aware than they could ever be while we try to control our every moves while awake. While awake, I'll never be able to hear the song quite the way I did that night, but I'll also never hear it the same as I did before it. Hathaway literally sings "for all we know, this may only be a dream." It's uncanny.
Donny Hathaway wasn't the first or last time I had that experience with a song. The most recent, and probably second most intense, was with Bridget St. John's Song To Keep You Company, which was recorded only once live during a 1969 Peel Session. This song has brought me to tears before while fully awake. It's so simple, yet so stunning. Her gorgeous finger-style guitar backs such profoundly personal and poetic lyrics delivered by her cello-like timbre. (Side note: I was fortunate enough to speak to Bridget, who told me personally she has always loved the sound of cello and sought to mimic its depth in her voice).
Just the other night, I heard this song in a hypnagogic state, drifting in and out of slumber, and wept for how pristinely gorgeous it sounded in my dreams. I wasn't alert enough to think to touch my cheek and check for tears... I can't confirm the weeping. But it certainly felt like I did.