Mixtape 4: Late February 2005

1. Jonathan Fire*Eater – When the Curtain Calls for You
2. Nina Gordon – Straight Out of Compton
3. The New Pornographers – Mass Romantic
4. Radiohead – Polyethylene (Parts 1 & 2)
5. A.C. Newman – On the Table
6. Subtle – I Love LA
7. Frank Black – Thalassocracy
8. LCD Soundsystem – Daft Punk is Playing at My House
9. Pavement – Brinx Job
10. Spoon – The Beast and Dragon, Adored

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What we've all been waiting for. The first great playlist of 2005. Everything came together in a kind of indefinable way for these couple of weeks. I remember walking through that dumb art installation The Gates in New York City's Central Park, listening to this and just revelling in my own genius. The Walkmen's Bows + Arrows was (and remains) one of my favorite albums of 2004, and I had always been curious about this major label early incarnation. "When the Curtain Calls for You" is maybe the greatest song in the history of music. While I've been told I say that a lot, I mean it this time, or at least I mean it more than I usually do. It has been my leadoff track for dozens of mixes and playlists since its discovery last February. Like Belle and Sebastian and The Smiths, Radiohead is a band renowned for its non-album tracks, considered by many (like me) to be among the best of their catalog. While Airbag/How Am I Driving is closer to an album than an EP or single, it's not generally considered part of the basic Radiohead canon, for what is surely a dumb reason. The Subtle track is part of a continuing trend, that being my growing love for Anticon. They will crop up again soon enough. "Thalassocracy" finds Frank Black in the glorious mad scientist mode that lasted from Bossanova roughly to And the Catholics. And while I don't generally go in for double-half-post-ironic name dropping, LCD Soundsystem's "Daft Punk is Playing at My House" is more infectious than many real life diseases. But the crowning glory, the real reason this playlist is so meaningful to me, is "The Beast and Dragon, Adored". Spoon's 2002 masterpiece Kill the Moonlight quite honestly changed the way I listened to music, and I had spent the three year hiatus waiting with baited breath for any new material. Gimme Fiction's leak satisfied that hunger (or thirst), and even though the album didn't ultimately live up to its predecessor, hearing the sinister descending guitar line in the opening seconds of this opening track for the first time will remain in my memory for a long time into the future.