DISPATCHES by Hank Kalet: Our editor picks some of his favorite warm weather tunes.
By: Hank Kalet
I have always associated summer and great music.
Sitting beside my pool, tape deck or CD player thumping a mix of rock and blues or some twangy country sounds, or riding in my car with the windows rolled down, "Born to Run" booming out a summer soundtrack.
I can remember the summer of 1981, in particular (I must be getting old), for two songs: Phil Collins’ "In the Air" and Squeeze’s "Tempted," one of the greatest singles ever released. Those songs were everywhere that summer it seemed that every morning as I would drive to the tool-and-die shop in Trenton I worked at that summer they would be wedged together on WNEW between the morning "Bruce Juice" and "Breakfast in Bed with the Grateful Dead." (DJ Dave Hermann made it a point to feature at least one song each by Bruce Springsteen and the Dead every morning.)
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Even now, 22 years later, Paul Carrack’s tenor announcing his near-indiscretion brings me back to that summer.
So I offer some thoughts on the best and worst in music as we enter the traditional summer season:
Wilco, one of my favorite bands, is offering its latest E.P. on its Web site, Wilcoweb.com, free to listeners who purchased their last full-length disc, "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot."
"YHF" was a wonderful, atmospheric disc, full of the playfulness that Jeff Tweedy is known for.
The E.P. is more of the same, with a slightly harder edge to some of the songs, especially a crunchy version of "Kamera" ("Camera" on the E.P.)
Check it out.
Lucinda Williams’ latest "World Without Tears" is getting some rave reviews and having listened just once it’s easy to understand why. Ms. Williams is a magnificent songwriter whose voice reeks of exhaustion and despair. Her 1998 disc, "Car Wheels on a Gravel Road," remains her finest, a gritty mix of country, rock and folk that somehow defies all three labels. "Essence," her 2001 effort, was a great follow-up without a weak cut, offering four or five great tracks (including the mesmerizing title song).
The new disc should only enhance her reputation. It features more of the same lyrical brilliance ("Flirt with me don’t keep hurtin’ me / Don’t cause me pain / Be my lover don’t play no game / Just play me John Coltrane" from "Righteously" or "I ain’t got no hot water / and they shut off the heat / Can you loan me some money /for something to eat / Been out here on this corner for about a week / Tryin’ hard to stand on my own two feet" from "American Dream"). And where the strength of "Essence" was its softness, "World Without Tears" finds its strength in its guitars.
(By the way, Ms. Williams is slated to appear on "The Late Show with David Letterman" on June 4.)
Roseanne Cash has released a lush and lovely disc, "Rules of Travel," that is the kind of country people should be listening to these days, but aren’t. Of particular note is a touching duet she does with her father called "September When It Comes" that not only avoids the kind of smarmy sentimentalism these kinds of things tend to fall into, but rises into that rare atmosphere where the greatest of ballads live.
And speaking of Johnny Cash, country music’s greatest living singer and songwriter has the seventh-ranked album on the country-music charts, the brooding and sepulchral "American IV: The Man Comes Around." Like his preceding three discs ("American Recordings," "Cash" and "American 3: Solitary Man"), it is a mix of old country tunes, Cash-penned songs and some current surprises. This disc features songs originally recorded by such modern rock beacons as Depeche Mode ("Personal Jesus") and Nine Inch Nails ("Hurt," a somber tune that sounds as though it is being sung from the grave).
The Jayhawks’ latest "Rainy Day Music" is a good mix of pop and country and some ’70s-era guitar rock. As always the disc hinges on the band’s wonderful vocal harmonies. Buy the special edition double disc to get a great live version of "Waiting for the Sun," one of their best songs (the studio version was released on "Hollywood Town Hall," still their finest disc).
White Stripes’ "Elephant" is a great follow up to their last bluesy, punk disc, "White Blood Cells." Just as bluesy, with what is becoming their trademark feedback and Jack White’s delirious yawp of a voice, it is a collection of songs that demands you turn the volume dial as high as you can possibly stand.
And, of course, there are the singles of note, the songs most likely to embed themselves in our consciousness. I would nominate "Calling All Angels" by Train as the one cut right now that is most likely to dig itself deep into the mind. It is a radio-friendly cut, similar in sound to their last big hit, "Drops of Jupiter," which was a smash hit in 2001.
The best single out there right now is "No One Knows" by Queens of the Stone Age, a loud, guitar- and drum-driven metal romp that always seems to get me pounding on my steering wheel along to the bass line.
Three other great singles, Eminem’s "Sing for the Moment," Coldplay’s "Clocks" and Uncle Kracker’s "Drift Away" are truly great songs, but already are facing diminishing airplay.
Two albums from last summer deserve mention here, because they are likely to have an impact on the airwaves again this summer. First, the Red Hot Chili Peppers continue to issue singles from their stellar "By the Way," a disc that struck me when it was released as one that missed the mark. But, like a Flea bass-line, it kept hammering away, pounding itself into my consciousness until I was forced to ask myself, "How did I miss this when it came out?"
The second is Bruce Springsteen’s "The Rising." All you need to know about Bruce is that he will be playing 10 shows at Giants Stadium, three at Philadelphia’s new Lincoln Financial Field, two at Gillette Stadium in Boston, one in Pittsburgh and one in Washington, D.C,. between July 15 and Sept. 13. That’s 17 stadium shows and somewhere in the neighborhood of a million concert-goers and all sold out.
"I’m driving in my car, I turn on the radio…."
Hank Kalet is managing editor of the South Brunswick Post and the
Cranbury Press. He can be reached via e-mail at
href="mailto:[email protected]">[email protected].

