What's your "Gypsy"?
Most of us have had the experience of buying an album after hearing just one song, and we've also likely had the experience of being let down after hearing the rest of the album. Sometimes, though, that one song is so good that we keep going back to the album, looking for the magic we found in that single gem across the other tracks.
This is not quite what happened to Johanna Samuels when she first heard Sparklehorse's It's a Wonderful Life, but it could have happened that way. On the latest You, Me and An Album, Johanna recalled how "Gold Day" was the first Sparklehorse song that she ever heard. She was so taken with it, that she would have given It's a Wonderful Life endless listens, even if the album's quirkiness had been off-putting (which it wasn't).
In talking about how "Gold Day" pulled her towards the other tracks on the album, Johanna brought up something that her friend (and producer/Bonny Light Horseman member) Josh Kaufman once told her. As Johanna put it, with "Gypsy," Fleetwood Mac could say, "We've got this single that is the song. And everything else you're going to listen to because you love 'Gypsy'." For her, "Gold Day" was the "Gypsy" of It's a Wonderful Life.
"Gypsy" struck me as sort of a funny example of a gateway song. Once Rumours came out, I didn't need to be sold on liking a Fleetwood Mac album. (That did change by the time they released Tango in the Night, and I talked about that with Glitterfox guitarist Andrea Walker.) When I bought Mirage, I liked pretty much the whole album right away. But I get Kaufman's point. A song like "Gypsy," which is certainly a standout track on Mirage, could entice listeners to go deeper into whatever album it would be a part of.
I've experienced the "Gypsy" phenomenon with many albums. "Corpse Pose" kept me going back to Unwound's Repetition until I finally "got" the rest of the album. A couple of examples from past YMAAA episodes also stand out. It took repeated listenings of "Christian Brothers" (both the solo and Heatmiser versions) to get me into Elliott Smith's self-titled album, and putting "Silver Civic" on repeat helped me to eventually get into the entirety of Charlotte Cornfield's The Shape of Your Name.
Do you have a "Gypsy" that opened up an album for you that you otherwise might not have explored? Let me know in the comments! As you know, I'm always looking to check out new-t0-me albums...
Given how often I have seen Mark Linkous cited as an influential artist, I had ample opportunity to listen to at least one of the six Sparklehorse albums before my conversation with Johanna. However, I let Sparklehorse slip through the cracks until being introduced to It's a Wonderful Life earlier this month. Just as "Gold Day" prodded Johanna into absorbing the whole album, It's a Wonderful Life has given me the impetus to move on to another Sparklehorse album. (Recommendations are more than welcome!)
More episodes to check out or anticipate
Before talking to Johanna about Sparklehorse, I had the pleasure of chatting with Brooklyn-based classical guitarist and music educator Tomas Rodriguez about Toumani Diabaté's Kaira. Unlike It's a Wonderful Life, Kaira is almost certainly an album I would have never come across on my own. Diabaté's album was my introduction to the kora, and it's a fascinating instrument. Tomas not only made the album accessible for me, but he helped me to appreciate it on both a musical and spiritual level. If you're not familiar with Diabaté (or even if you are), I hope you'll give this episode a listen.
Coming up next, you'll hear my conversation with Americana singer-songwriter Candace Hastings about Adam Carroll's Lookin' Out the Screen Door. Carroll was once a creative writing student of Candace's, and he wrote one of the album's songs ("Errol's Song") as an assignment for her class. After that, it's Kelley Dugan and Mina Walker of Daisy the Great chatting with me about Fiona Apple's Extraordinary Machine. With this episode, I'll have covered three-fifths of the Apple discography! You can warm up for this one by giving the Tidal and The Idler Wheel episodes a listen.
Programming note: The Candace Hastings episode will not be out on the usual Thursday schedule. I will be publishing it either next Friday or Saturday.
In this week's edition of former YMAAA guests doing cool musical things...
It's now been just over five years since Laura Kidd released her first album recorded as Penfriend. (Not to be confused with her four albums as She Makes War or her Obey Robots album made with Rat from Ned's Atomic Dustbin.) She is celebrating the anniversary of Exotic Monsters with a reimagined version of the album called Monstrous Exotic. I hadn't listened to the original version in a while, but I heard Monstrous Exotic for the first time this morning. It's a great album in its own right, and it also made me remember how much I love the songs in their original form. I have a feeling I'll be giving both versions some spins in the coming weeks. If you need a sample of what the new version sounds like (a "Gypsy" to the rest of the album, if you will), Laura has released "Out of the Blue" as a single.