A playlist of songs that intrigued me from Sunday to Saturday. Week of 21 Nov 2021 to 27 Nov 2021.

WILT_2021-47

1. Fastlove, Pt. 1 – George Michael
2. Older – George Michael
3. Would I Lie To You – Charles & Eddie
4. Burning Down The House – Tom Jones, The Cardigans
5. Trouble – Eddie Chacon
6. Hurt – Eddie Chacon
7. Under the Thunder – Reuben Vaun Smith
8. Marimba Theme – D.K.
9. Trip on New Shores – Reuben Vaun Smith
10. Drive (First Gear) – Womack & Womack
11. Josephine – Chris Rea
12. Paradise – Sade
13. Lay Me Down – Renee
14. High On Love – Eddie C

Hyperlink to Spotify playlist: WILT_2021-47

Notes

We are opening with George Michael’s Fastlove because of a conversation I was having with KiDG.

We were discussing about the developments of Japan’s new music/city pop movement from the 70’s, and how they presented a sort of technical mastery alongside extremely melancholic lyrics, and how that deviated from the development of pop music in markets such as US and the UK. From there, he brought my attention to how George Michael’s, Fastlove, is pretty underrated from a technical standpoint, but in actuality has an extremely soulful and funky DNA stemming from George Michael’s impeccable taste. He goes on to share an anecdote about how the saxophone part to Careless Whisper was chosen after multiple tryouts and ultimately went to a more inexperienced sessionist, but was able to nail one of the most iconic arrangements in contemporary music’s history.

Back to Fastlove. I remember not being impressed much when it was released back when I was about 15 years old. Pop music drivel I probably imagined. But now with an appreciation for the artistry and form for more kinds of music, Fastlove is very funky and soulful, but not in an over the top manner, but rather in its tone. From there, it only felt natural that we follow up with Older, and now as a man in his late thirties, the melancholia presented by Older is oddly resonant.

From there, Spotify’s recommendations brought me to the music of Charles & Eddie’s hit, Would I Lie To You, which the rest of this playlist sort of stems from. Before going into that, I did add the recommendation of Tom Jones’ and The Cardigans’ cover of Burning Down The House which I did note for having some great vocal performances, that I would not have otherwise thought to complement the rock genre.

Purely by happenstance, I decided to find out more about the artists Charles & Eddie, and learned that Charles Pettigrew had passed on from cancer, and that the duo were a one-hit wonder in the 80s. There was however, an article by the Guardian about Eddie Chacon, which I just decided to read for knowledge.

Today the hair is shorter, and greyer, the beard salt-and-pepper, but he still looks good, like a tired lion. On one level, he’s just another old soul singer making a comeback – but if you’re expecting Pleasure, Joy and Happiness to be one of those cookie-cutter retro-soul revival albums, you’d be dead wrong. Recorded with Solange and Frank Ocean collaborator John Carroll Kirby, it’s an ethereal, stripped-down collection of haunting confessionals, Chacon’s hypnotic falsetto shrouded in Kirby’s vaporous melodies. It’s also an album of proud middle-age, made by a 56-year-old man revisiting past failures and regrets over blurred synth lines and skeletal drum patterns: Krapp’s Last Tape via Channel Orange. “I always said if I got my head screwed on straight I could make one record where I was honest with myself,” says Chacon. “I’ve wanted to do it my whole life, but it’s taken my whole life to get there.”

Charles & Eddie’s Eddie Chacon: ‘It took me 10 years to recover from being a one-hit wonder’, Andrew Male for The Guardian, 1 Sep 2020

I bought this paragraph hook, line, and sinker. More of us have been defeated by the music industry rather than thrived in it, and here was a person who still found a way to create music, collaborating with an amazing musician like John Carroll Kirby (whom I’m so glad to have listened to thanks to this journey), to create something honest despite the challenges and disappointments. We’re all getting older, remember?

So yes, after coming across Eddie Chocan, the rest of this journey features music of a similar vibe. Melancholic, soulful, minimal, electronic, etc. Nothing seems to go above a certain threshold, content to just languish in a gentle pool resignation and surrender.