• Friday Five

    The Friday Five: December 30, 2011

    Friday Five

    Friday Five : ‘frī-(,)dā,-dē ‘fīv : On the sixth day of every week, I hit the shuffle button on my iTunes, then share the first five tracks and thought for each track. Sometimes there is a playlist involved, occasionally we’ll have a guest, but most of the time it’s just me. The rest is up to you, our friends and readers! Fire up your media player of choice and share the first five random track of your shuffle in the comments.

    The Five:

    How about we take a shuffle through 2011?

    The Healing Tree” by Kensington Prairie (from The Healing Tree, 2011)

    This little EP was enough to tide me over, but I’m sincerely hoping for new material from Kensington Prairie in 2012.

    “A Simple Song” by Colin Hay (from Gathering Mercury, 2011)

    Gathering Mercury is easily one of my favorite releases of the last twelve months.

    Maybe Baby” by Justin Townes Earle (from Rave On Buddy Holly, 2011)

    This record has been sitting on my desk for months and I have had no strong urge to actually listen to it. Listening now, I may actually go back and listen to the rest. It could just be the good fit of Justin Townes Earle’s tenor with the material, but this isn’t half bad.

    Anything (feat. Swizz Beatz)” by Musiq (from Musiqinthemagiq, 2011)

    Mr. Soulchild stepped outside of his neo-soul wheelhouse for this one, with mixed results. The addition of a Swizz Beatz feature just makes the whole thing feel contrived. This record didn’t make a whole lot of noise (despite moving 33,000 copies its first week.) Here’s hoping Musiq goes back to the drawing board in 2012.

    Stick Around” by Mayer Hawthorne (from How Do You Do, 2011)

    I don’t know, this Mayer Hawthorne cat leaves me cold. I get what he’s trying to do, but it just feels like he’s trying too damn hard. The arrangements hit all the right markers, the vocals are serviceable, but it’s all too clean.

    What’s on your shuffle today?