Nina Simone - "Little Girl Blue". Yesterday people were talking about her version of "Who Knows Where the Time Goes," so I felt I ought to pull out my own favourite Nina Simone recording. It was written by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Heart, and it's one of the very saddest things I love. "Good King Wenceslas" tapped out on piano, a romantic twilit jingle that bursts into triumphant noise at the end. Despite this gaiety, however, Nina's slow song exists in a different world; its lachrymose lyrics are the wrenching opposite of the piano-player's ball. In the song's last half, the two meet half-way. She composes herself, lets him play his cabaret blues, and out of her flows a long, trembling melisma, a poised final statement, the sound of a woman who knows she must smile. [buy]

Little Wings - "Random Lee". Little Wings continues to rival Phil Elvrum as the most prolific act on K. Magic Wand is his most collected record yet, with full-band numbers that are almost raucous. Closer to Royal City's Alone at the Microphone, certainly, than Julie Doiron's Desormais. And yet if you ask me, it's the soft-and-sentimental he ought to stick to - light green leaves, worlds of wonder, breezy surf-folk. "Random Lee" is my favourite track on the album, and it reflects my predilections. Kyle duets with Genevieve Elvrum (aka Woelv), just whispering drums, meandering guitar, and the drift of their voices. They fall in and out of harmony, two animals crossing in a wood. (But of course they're singing about driving, "the glamour that is golden in your smile," a radio slowplaying, the windows are down and the light's almost tangible as it hangs in the air.) [buy]

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Pinback's Blameless in Abaddon is one heckuva disappointment. Gone are the ruby melodies, replaced with trimmer, emo'er rock songs. Count me out.

Life of a Spuckle is a nascent musicblog with links to small and noteworthy legal downloads. Gordon's just getting started, but I think he dreams of big things.