This Year’s Favorites, Pt. 3

And now for the close of the year.

The Ain’t Superstitious But Autumn mix was a thing of beauty and joy, and the two songs I played most from it (you know, over and over, as I do) were Dusty Springfield’s dramatically bombastic Summer Is Over and Paul Weller’s Don’t Make Promises. If there was a song that somehow captured the essence of the sight and sound of dead leaves crunching along the ground, it is Weller’s. I’m probably not making any sense; it’s okay, it happens a lot.

Lyle Lovett released a new album and on it was Pantry, a song close to my heart for several reasons. One, it’s good. Two, it has his usual witty lyrics. Three, it’s about food. Four, it contains the phrase “the sausage of Gdansk.”

I’ve been Netflixing Mission Impossible, seasons four and five, and therefore I’ve been happy to get to hear Schifrin’s theme music for it four times per DVD. Honestly, I think it may be the best TV theme ever. (Except the season five version – they mortally wounded it during season five.)

Speaking of Netflixing, I watched Zodiac last month, and it was great, but I was really impressed with the use of music, especially in the opening scenes. Three Dog Night’s Easy To Be Hard & Donovan’s Hurdy Gurdy Man set the mood and the time period perfectly,and the latter was very effective in the scene where the Zodiac leaves his victims for dead. Between that, the Billy Batt murder scene set to Atlantis in Goodfellas, and the general eerieness of Season of the Witch, if you hear Donovan coming up on the soundtrack, something dark is about to go down.

I’ve mentioned discovering Oliver Nelson through Greg Ferrera’s Cinema Styles already, but have not shared the excellent Complex City until now. It’s 8 minutes and ten seconds long and when it’s done playing, you’ll be sad to hear it end, promise.

If you know me, or have simply hung around here long enough, you know I’m a big fan of the Monkees, but even so, I wasn’t aware of the existence of Mike Nesmith & the First National Band’s Silver Moon until I found it on Echoes Again. I was never a big fan of Mike’s solo country music, but this ended up being part of the soundtrack to a night of Christmas cookie baking and really lightened my mood. Which was good, because that was the night I ended up throwing away three batches of dough in a murderous rage.

As for other now-beloved earworms to round out the year with, I have already linked them; Lily Frost’s I’ve Got My Love To Keep Me Warm, Aretha’s Kissin’ By the Mistletoe, Nelson’s Greensleeves, and The Gerald Wilson Orchestra’s Light My Fire.

It’s been a good year for music and for that I’d like to thank all my CD mixing & mp3 blogging friends – you’ve hooked me up with some terrific stuff. May 2010 be as fruitful!