The Carter Family - Answer to Weeping Willow

I’ve listened to this track a minimum of 30 times in two days. If you’re going for listen one, increase the volume, close all other browser windows (save for Stylus… you’ll need it later), and give this the reverence it pleads for. A plaintive harmonized lament buoyed by lively strumming and strung up with heartclinching melody.

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Luxury- Mincemeat

One of the last great records of the last millennium, recorded after the band nearly bought it in a van accident outside Chicago. I picked this up on a hunch (read: the cover art was pretty), and upon a couple spins labeled this as a Radiohead straggler. Post hoc ergo propter hoc is the fallacy and all that. A devastating lil’ swim in the
sea of awe.

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Geto Boys- Leanin’ On You

John Darnielle has long since hit up “I Tried,” so I’ll give a brief nod to the other emotional landmine off last year’s The Foundation. Again, Bushwick steals the show with his nonchalant reading of an astounding text (”This ain’t no poor little me story/That’s so phony…”). Scarface puts in a great tale of scrapping with his best friend over some Austin-bought heroin, and Willie D realizes his potential (again) with a look back on himself as a rebellious high schooler. When he raises his voice, as in “To no avail I WAS SCREAMING OUT…” - well, the goosebumps multiply themselves.

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