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The incredible cacophony of the bridge on Wilco’s definitive ballad “Misunderstood” is all the more striking because of its contrast with the rest of the tender, harmonious song. The brilliance of songwriter Jeff Tweedy is on full display here as the speaker laments his own bad attitude with a self-deprecating tone. A quiet and understated […]
...moreYou can get your hair all wet sleeping on the riverbed Kiss a frog and then dissect, gotta find out what’s inside And you can have my bad side too, anything you wanna do Sure anything you wanna do …Conor Oberst sings on “White Shoes,” a slow and beautiful ballad that appears on the record […]
...moreWhen listening to Tom Waits’s stately ballad, “Coney Island Baby,” one pictures an ancient Italian grandfather, standing on a windswept boardwalk, boasting about his granddaughter to anyone who will listen. “When I am with her,” he rattles, “I’m the richest man in the town.” A mournful violin and trumpet provide a lonely reply, a modest counterpoint to this […]
...moreThe resilient R&B singer Esther Mae Jones adopted the stage name of Little Esther Philips at the age of 14, allegedly taking it from a gas station sign in Los Angeles. She had a rough-and-tumble career, a tumultuous relationship with the billboard charts, and ongoing addiction problems that endowed her voice with a worldly authenticity reminiscent […]
...moreBy now Miles Davis has become a cornerstone of modern music. We can’t get rid of him, which is good, because we would never want to. Miles Davis is inside us; he surrounds us, and permeates our collective consciousness. For that reason, it’s easy to take him for granted. But his ballads force us to pause and take in the […]
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