Saturday Songs – Feb. 4

1. “If I Had A Boat” - James Vincent McMorrow

Not a sneaky cover of the famous Lyle Lovett tune, as I initially suspected, McMorrow has crafted a cagey, ominous song with undertones not only of the lush, singer-songwriter territory of Justin Vernon, but also the electronic touch of James Blake. But what McMorrow manages—despite the clear studio production of the tracks—is a raw, unnerving emotion. The final half-minute of the song more than adequately demonstrates McMorrow’s emoting chops.

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2. “Some Things Never Change” - Robert Francis

Everyone rejoice! Robert Francis has a new album due for release on May 22! That might be far away, but Francis has been kind enough to lend us a taste of the album with a free download on his website. The song—“Some Things Never Change”—is breezier than the fare on his 2009 album Before Nightfall. In terms of production values, the song expands on the warm, haunting atmosphere of Francis’s reworking of “One By One” on Before Nightfall (it was also on Francis’s debut album). It’s not quite as catchy as “Junebug”…but, then again, not many songs are.

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3. “Old Pine” - Ben Howard

I love a folk artist who can play guitar. That’s not to say that I dislike anyone who can merely strum chords and write great tunes…just that some guitar chops is always a cherry on top. Howard leads off his debut album Every Kingdom with this nigh-virtuoso acoustic guitar workout. The song would be fine without its epic outro, but the outro—along with the guitar playing in it—separates Howard from the chaff of the folk singer-songwriter world.

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4. “Sun in an Empty Room” – The Weakerthans

It might, in some odd way, be negligent of me to omit this song from Saturday Songs for the fact that I’d like to write about it in more length in another post…because I’ve listened to this song at least 50 times in the past week. It wouldn’t fair to call this song merely good. This song is great. It might be one of the greatest pop songs I’ve ever heard. While I haven’t listened hard (and long) enough to Samson’s work to fairly judge him as one of my favorite songwriters, I do think that he’s one of the best pop songwriters working today. It’s simple: he understands the form. He knows what kind of details to put in this song to make it work; the imagery and emotions do not require immense reflection to “get” the song. Samson’s words and the way he phrases them into a melody make everything crystal clear.

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5. “You Must Go” – John Hiatt

While most people prefer early Hiatt—the “Have A Little Faith In Me” years, as I like to think of them—I prefer Hiatt’s 1995 album Walk On to most other work in his discography. Sure, there are a bunch of weak songs on that album…even some songs that aren’t worth listening to at all. However, there are several cuts that come across to me as so honest and real that I cannot ignore them. Sure, there are pleasures in “Thing Called Love,” but nothing about that song measures up to the fatherly wisdom of a song like “You Must Go.” While “Thing Called Love” sounds like more of an exercise in musical expertise, “You Must Go” sounds more like a barnyard romp with a bunch of friends.