the hits of today

What I’m clamoring for: Bjork, Scratch Acid and weird Brazilian country-western.

Bjork, “Wanderlust” (from the forthcoming Volta): Far and away my favorite song on Volta, “Wanderlust” prickles and shimmers, that horn intersection in the chorus (one line stuttering, the other swooning) next to heavenly. I can’t say I’m quite as thrilled about the rest of the album — she has gotten increasingly distant with each record — but UK subscribers will be able to find out for themselves next week.

Here’s Bjork’s “Wanderlust” performance from Saturday Night Live a couple of weeks back. So good.

Noriel Vilela, “16 Toneladas (16 Tons)”: gregcaz over at Musical Taste had this to say about this song (I don’t disagree with a word):

This, friends, is the swingingest and most bizarre version of this chestnut you will ever hear. Having recently left the Cantores De Ebano (Ebony Singers), sort of a 60s Brazilian version of Sounds Of Blackness, Noriel Vilela, possessor of an impossibly deep, rumbling basso profundo capable of blowing your speakers, embarked on a brief yet fondly-remembered solo career. This witty reworking of the Tennessee Ernie Ford original replaces the country-western-pop of the original with a rollicking samba-rock rhythm and Portuguese lyrics extolling how much fun samba is, sung by a voice from deep in the crypt that swings like crazy. It stops everybody who hears it dead in their tracks and is the guaranteed highlight of any party. What Messrs. Ford and Travis would have made of it is anybody’s guess, but this version refuses to die, having recently become a hit in Brazil all over again, 30 years after its first release. I’ve heard many, many versions of “Sixteen Tons,” but believe me, this one truly runs away with the prize!!

This is the first time I’ve come across Musical Taste, by the way, and I’m very impressed! It’s basically an editorially-based social network built to recommend specific songs via user-reviews, with included sound samples. Very nicely done.

Scratch Acid, “Owner’s Lament”: There was a time that I listened to this song daily, and until seeing Michael’s About a Son, I had nearly forgotten about it. But Michael was awesome enough to get “Owner’s Lament” into the film’s score, and it popped out at me like a whack-a-mole. “Owner’s Lament” is an aberration within the Scratch Acid songbook, a fragile sorta-ballad, David Yow opening up his lungs to belt — not spew — a massive post-punk torch song. It sounds a bit like the Gun Club and the Cramps, but so much better than anything they did.

Here’s “Crazy Dan,” another SA great, at one of their reunion shows: