Kriofske Mixes

50 Ways To Woo Your Lover

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Happily coupled for some time, I no longer need to make seduction playlists; regardless, here are a few dozen declarations of love, lust, infatuation and devotion that I’ve always kept within reach, most of them spanning my lifetime—a good chunk from those bountiful mix tape/CD years (The Delays’ soaring “Nearer Than Heaven” appeared often) with a select few from beforehand (Ella, Nina) and just as many from the past decade (Alvvays, Years & Years). Revisiting some of these songs again feels like a throwback to that period when I was constantly falling in love (or so I thought in many cases.)

Otherwise, anything that fit thematically was up for grabs here, from stuff everyone knows (Diana, Stevie) to obscurities everyone should (Emm Gryner, Stew). Queer artists are naturally present (Erasure, KD Lang, Pet Shop Boys, Tegan & Sara), as are acts whose general demeanor would initially seem to preclude them from appearing here (Velvet Underground, The Smiths.) My one rule was to include tracks without that overused word “love” in the title, though I made an exception for one song so exquisitely charming and resonant that I couldn’t possibly leave it off.

Listen to/watch this playlist here.

  1. Alphabeat, “Fascination”
  2. Alvvays, “Archie, Mary Me”
  3. The Association, “Everything That Touches You”
  4. Blossom Dearie, “They Say It’s Spring”
  5. Catherine Wheel, “I Want To Touch You”
  6. The Delays, “Nearer Than Heaven”
  7. Diana Ross, “Upside Down”
  8. Echobelly, “Nobody Like You”
  9. Ella Fitzgerald, “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered”
  10. Emm Gryner, “Symphonic”
  11. Erasure, “Let’s Take One More Rocket To The Moon”
  12. Field Music, “Stay Awake”
  13. The Go-Betweens, “Finding You”
  14. Hot Chip, “One Life Stand”
  15. Hunters and Collectors, “Throw Your Arms Around Me”
  16. INXS, “Not Enough Time”
  17. The Judybats, “Ugly On The Outside”
  18. KD Lang & The Siss Boom Bang, “The Water’s Edge”
  19. Living Colour, “Solace Of You”
  20. M People, “Excited”
  21. Marshall Crenshaw, “Whenever You’re On My Mind”
  22. Matthew Sweet, “I’ve Been Waiting”
  23. The Magnetic Fields, “It’s Only Time”
  24. Nina Simone, “My Baby Just Cares For Me”
  25. Pet Shop Boys, “Liberation”
  26. Prince & The Revolution, “Take Me With U”
  27. REM, “At My Most Beautiful”
  28. Roisin Murphy, “Unputdownable”
  29. Roxette, “How Do You Do!”
  30. Roxy Music, “To Turn You On”
  31. Rubber Rodeo, “Anywhere With You”
  32. Saint Etienne, “Nothing Can Stop Us”
  33. Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, “All Over Again”
  34. Shelly Duvall, “He Needs Me”
  35. Sleater-Kinney, “Oh!”
  36. The Smiths, “There Is A Light That Never Goes Out”
  37. Split Enz, “I Got You”
  38. Stars, “Elevator Love Letter”
  39. Steve Wynn, “Out Of This World”
  40. Stevie Wonder, “Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I’m Yours”
  41. Stew, “Reeling”
  42. Sylvester, “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)”
  43. Talking Heads, “This Must Be The Place (Naïve Melody)”
  44. Tegan & Sara, “Closer”
  45. They Might Be Giants, “She’s An Angel”
  46. Van Morrison, “Sweet Thing”
  47. The Velvet Underground, “I’ll Be Your Mirror”
  48. XTC, “Great Fire”
  49. Yeah Yeah Yeahs, “Hysteric”
  50. Years & Years, “Shine”

300 Songs

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When this blog reached its 250th post a little over a year ago, I put together a list of 250 films that I love. Likewise, for post #300, here’s a Spotify playlist of 300 songs I’ll rarely skip over whenever they appear on shuffle or the radio. Obviously, this has more than a few selections you’ll likely never hear on the radio, from the inspired lunacy of Adriano Celentano and Esquivel to relatively obscure artists like Tompaulin, Komeda and Os Mutantes. Conversely, many artists here are known and beloved by millions (Oasis, Fleetwood Mac, The Smiths, Ella Fitzgerald) while others retain devoted cult followings without ever having fully broken into the mainstream (Calexico, Jose Gonzalez, Morcheeba, Saint Etienne.)

As with 250 Films, this is by no means a definitive list of my favorite 300 songs, although tracks from nearly half of my 100 favorite albums are represented. Unlike most of my annual playlists, this one is meant to be listened to on shuffle. Pick a song you love or one that you haven’t heard but sounds intriguing to you and dive right in.

December Will Be Magic Again

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This seasonal playlist is for anyone who just can’t bear another round of “All I Want For Christmas Is You” or “Feliz Navidad” or (horrors) “The Chipmunk Song” or even Nat King Cole’s genuinely lovely “The Christmas Song”. It’s not entirely made up of obscurities—in the age of satellite radio and ever-expansive piped-in music to shop to, such tunes as Elton’s “Step Into Christmas”, Eurythmics’ gloriously synthetic “Winter Wonderland”, Saint Etienne’s ‘90s Eurodance “I Was Born On Christmas Day” and The Three Wise Men’s “Thanks For Christmas” (actually XTC in disguise, and surely now their second most-played song after “Dear God”) get much more airplay than they did when they first came out, thanks to your local J. Crew, Whole Foods or Anthropologie.

Instead, this is a selection of personal favorites I keep in rotation every December that some but not all listeners will know. Naturally, there’s a few beloved songs from my childhood like John Denver and The Muppet’s definitive version of “The Twelve Days of Christmas” (Beeker’s verse sums up everything weird and great about Jim Henson) and of course a track from the Best Christmas Album of All Time. However, many of the older recordings here are 21st century discoveries for me, with multiple cuts from a nifty jazz compilation, Jingle Bell Swing, including Duke Ellington’s wry rendition of Tchaikovsky and Lambert, Hendricks and Ross’ insane take on “Deck The Halls”; jazz also surfaces in Art Carney’s (!) be-bop version of “’Twas The Night Before Christmas” and Billie Holiday warbling a song that has nothing specific to do with the holidays but fits anyway.

Plenty of stuff from this century, too. In addition to Pink Martini’s take on a beloved standard (“Do You Hear What I Hear”), you’ll find new original songs that fit right in with all the perennials: the ease and warmth of Rufus Wainwright’s “Spotlight On Christmas”, Aimee Mann’s Bachelor No. 2 worthy “Calling On Mary”, Sufjan Stevens’ epic, shimmering “Star Of Wonder”, Calexico’s new-for-2020 majestic New Year’s anthem “Hear The Bells” and Tracey Thorn’s gorgeous ballad “Joy”.

Also, don’t forget those one-offs by artists you would never expect to delve into holiday music such as Kate Bush, Erasure, John Cale and best of all, The Staple Singers, whose supremely funky “Who Took The Merry Out Of Christmas” never fails to lift my spirits.

Go here to listen to some of my favorite holiday songs – it is meant to be played on shuffle.

  1. Aimee Mann, “Calling On Mary”
  2. Art Carney, “’Twas The Night Before Christmas”
  3. Billie Holiday, “I’ve Got My Love To Keep Me Warm”
  4. Bing Crosby and The Andrews Sisters, “Mele Kalikimaka”
  5. Calexico, “Hear The Bells”
  6. Claudine Longet, ““I Don’t Intend To Spend Christmas Without You”
  7. Duke Ellington, “Sugar Rum Cherry”
  8. Eartha Kitt, “Santa Baby”
  9. Elton John, “Step Into Christmas”
  10. Erasure, “She Won’t Be Home”
  11. Eurythmics, “Winter Wonderland”
  12. Frank Sinatra, “Mistletoe and Holly”
  13. John Cale, “A Child’s Christmas In Wales”
  14. John Denver and the Muppets, “The Twelve Days Of Christmas”
  15. Kate Bush, “December Will Be Magic Again”*
  16. Lambert, Hendricks & Ross, “Deck Us All With Boston Charlie”
  17. Louis Armstrong & The Commanders, “Cool Yule”
  18. Louis Prima, “Shake Hands With Santa Claus”
  19. Peggy Lee, “I Like A Sleighride (Jingle Bells)”
  20. Pink Martini, “Do You Hear What I Hear”
  21. Rufus Wainwright, “Spotlight On Christmas”
  22. Saint Etienne, “I Was Born On Christmas Day”
  23. The Staple Singers, “Who Took The Merry Out Of Christmas”
  24. Sufjan Stevens, “Star Of Wonder”
  25. Teo Macero and His Orchestra, “Deck The Halls”
  26. Tex Beneke and The Glenn Miller Orchestra, “Snowfall”
  27. The Three Wise Men, “Thanks For Christmas”*
  28. Tony Bennett, “My Favourite Things”
  29. Tracey Thorn, “Joy”
  30. Vince Guaraldi Trio, “Christmas Is Coming”

*not available on Spotify in the US at this writing, so here they are below!

Bruce

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I met Bruce Kingsley in 2004 when he joined Chlotrudis, my film group. We first bonded over our shared love of movies, of course, particularly when we both attended the Toronto Film Festival the following year. However, as I began making periodic visits to see him in New York (where he’d put me up at his West Village condo), we discovered a mutual love of music as well.

In time (about mid-2006), Bruce asked me to make a mix CD for him. He had been a big music fan in the ’80s, but lost touch since then. He was intrigued by our conversations about music and wanted to hear some of the current stuff I’d been listening to. In typically exhaustive Bruce fashion, he sent me a lengthy email detailing all the music he liked, listing not just artists and albums but individual song after song, including a handful even I had never heard of.

The first mix you ever make for someone is always the most fun because you have seemingly infinite options—the ability to delve deep into your entire library and select the twenty or so beloved songs you most want the recipient to hear. Given Bruce’s edict for new music, I mostly picked songs from the past five years, including a few by artists I first encountered while writing for a now-defunct music website (Tompaulin, Marit Bergman), some of my all-time favorites (Belle and Sebastian, Saint Etienne), new, if somewhat obscure singers I thought he’d be receptive to (Nellie McKay, Stew), a few faves from 2005-06 (Sufjan Stevens, Andrew Bird, The New Pornographers) and, for good measure, two tracks from the ’90s I thought he ought to hear (Ivy, Jen Trynin). Its title, “I’ve Never Been Wrong… I Used To Work At A Record Store” came from the LCD Soundsystem track, which I think summed up the music-geek nature of the selections well.

No matter how diligent you are in crafting a first mix so that the recipient will like it, you always run the risk of not quite clinching it. Fortunately, I need not have worried, for Bruce loved it. His favorite track was the Belle and Sebastian one, which was actually a last-minute addition on my part. He’d play the whole thing for various friends whom, when I was introduced to them in New York, would say to me, “Oh, you’re the one who made The Mix!”

In retrospect, I think this mix conveyed how much our friendship had solidified. If we hadn’t connected so well, I’m not sure it would’ve resonated with Bruce as strongly. But then again, Bruce was an easy person to befriend. Intelligent, charismatic, kind and generous, he lit up every room or space he inhabited without dominating it or being overbearing. He was also highly opinionated and often a little snarky, but never, ever off-putting or cruel. Given our 30+ year age difference, he often felt like a mentor to me, not in the professional sense but as someone with a history and wisdom far, far beyond my own, a person who had lived a very full life, the kind of life one aspires to.

He has been on my mind extensively since his sudden passing in June at the Provincetown Film Festival, where he suffered a heart attack in between screenings (while at a restaurant called Cafe Heaven, of all places.) Attending a celebration of his life in New York last weekend, I saw so many photos of him from many eras of his life (projected in a slideshow) that I hadn’t seen before, and heard so many loving, moving testimonials from family and friends. I’ve already said this many times, but it’s still hard to believe he is gone.

I made Bruce a few more mixes over the years, but this first one remains my favorite; I have to believe it was his as well, going back to that notion that the first mix you make for someone is the most fun for the maker, but also the most special for the recipient. Below is the track listing and a link to a re-creation of most of it on Spotify. Rest in peace, my dear friend.

Go here to listen to “I’ve Never Been Wrong… I Used To Work At A Record Store”

  1. Tompaulin, “Slender”
  2. Ivy, “Get Out of the City”
  3. Jen Trynin, “Better than Nothing”
  4. Black Box Recorder, “The Facts of Life”
  5. Nellie McKay, “Ding Dong”
  6. Stew, “Giselle”*
  7. Sufjan Stevens, “Chicago”
  8. The Shins, “Saint Simon”
  9. Weakerthans, “One Great City!”
  10. Marit Bergman, “Tomorrow is Today”
  11. Andrew Bird, “Fake Palindromes”
  12. Belle and Sebastian, “Dress Up in You”
  13. Sam Phillips, “I Wanted to Be Alone”
  14. TV On the Radio, “Young Liars”
  15. LCD Soundsystem, “Losing My Edge”
  16. Goldfrapp, “Number 1”
  17. The New Pornographers, “The Bleeding Heart Show”
  18. Saint Etienne, “Teenage Winter”
  19. The Futureheads, “Hounds of Love”

*Not on Spotify as this writing

50 Down, 50 To Go

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Almost exactly two years ago, I began 100 Albums simply to give myself both a reason to write and a goal to accomplish. Summing up an album in 1,000 words each week initially seemed doable; however, I soon discovered I could easily write closer to twice that length (sometimes more) about particular records, but needed more time to do so. Two years on, and I’ve reached not my original goal, but rather serendipitously the halfway mark.

I chose to write about my favorite albums chronologically, hoping it would allow me to develop an ongoing narrative about how both music and my personal taste has evolved. While there’s not much linking such disparate records as Future Listening! and It’s Heavy In Here together apart from coming out in the same year, if you go to any random entry (particularly past the first ten), you’ll see plenty of links referring to earlier entries. When I write criticism, I usually fall back on that (admittedly useful) trope of comparing and contrasting. Here, it’s especially useful in tracking how one piece of music informs another; I can only see it continuing throughout the remaining 50 entries.

Speaking of which, I suspect it will take longer than two more years to get through them. For starters, I’m off on a brief hiatus to focus on other endeavors, but in general, I find myself increasingly challenged to make each new entry fresh and not a rehash of ideas already explored. As I look over the list (that I’m continuously revising, by the way), I see great opportunities to expand and deepen this partial narrative, so I’m going to take time to put in the effort and keep the bar for myself set high. 100 Albums will continue, but don’t be surprised if the pace slackens intermittently.

When this project (eventually) returns, it will enter 1996 with one of the great Difficult Third Albums. Until then, click here for a playlist of songs from the last 50 albums (with a few substitutions for those records not on Spotify). Also embedded above: a brief history of how we got from there to here as summed up by XTC’s Andy Partridge.