New Buffalo - "Recovery"

New Buffalo starts her song with rolling hand claps and monotonous metal clangs. In so doing, she promises sugar-coated tweeness. Promises mean nothing to New Buffalo, who delivers something altogether different, beginning with a driving and strangely legato bass line. This other thing - the thing that she gives us in lieu of the pretty little song that she promised - is something much bigger, more complex. It’s a tight cyclical sequence of crescendos that moves, not over great distances, but over significant ones. And it’s just a little bit sinister. Don’t get me wrong, the song sheds a pure light - it’s not at all melancholy or sad - but it’s a bit scary. It’s like the fantasy scenes in Heavenly Creatures in which the girls run around exuberantly, elated by Caruso’s voice, or giddily frightened by Orson Welles lurking around the bend; the sun shines and we laugh with them, despite the thick inevitability of crime and tragedy. Or like a surprising sequel to Dancer in the Dark - Dancer in the Light - in which, guess what?, the hanging didn’t work and Bjork survives and she and her son and Peter Stormare board that train and ride it all the way to Paddington Station, whereupon they are lavished with gifts by sympathetic viewers of the first film, which they sell on eBay, procuring enough money to buy sight-restoring surgeries for all, including Stormare. Though he doesn’t need it, he gets it anyway. Still though, none will soon forget about the framing, or the wrongful conviction, or that Bjork was hanged - these facts still weigh heavy. [Buy]

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Reverend Gary Davis - "Candy Man"

Reverend Gary Davis has some trouble hitting several of the notes in his song. Some might say his elocution leaves something to be desired. I can’t understand most of the words in the song - I get “candy man,” and “fattin’ hog,” “big-leg otter(?)” and “salty dog.” But he communicates surpassingly well, I think, that he’d give anything at all just to have his candy man home. [Buy]