Hello and welcome to Work Tunes.
You might have noticed (though probably not) that there was no Work Tunes last week. That's because I didn't take any music to work as ANZAC Day and a day of annual leave left me with just three days. So instead i streamed all the First Listens on NPR and a played a couple of 8Tracks mixes and shuffled my iPhone. With the extra time off, you'd think I'd had plenty of chance to collate a carefully calculated playlist. You'd be wrong; but nice try. None-the-less, I'm happy with what I've chosen.
To set my Jazz Funk senses tingling, I've grabbed Herbie Hancock's classic Headhunters. To compliment it nicely, I've chosen two fairly jazzy Hip Hop albums from Jurassic 5 and Mos Def. Always mindful of not neglecting to slow it down, I've got some Justin Townes Earle and A.A. Bondy for a twang fix. Can't slow it down for too long though, so I have two new albums from alt-rock legends Mudhoney and Meat Puppets. With my recent subscription to Paste Magazine comes a 7 track sampler of new music per week; and I have the first two weeks worth here. The other compilation is Songs in the Key of X, which is music from and inspired by The X Files. Lastly, a soundtrack of sorts from John Lennon, with the music from the documentary Imagine.
Check it out:
You might have noticed (though probably not) that there was no Work Tunes last week. That's because I didn't take any music to work as ANZAC Day and a day of annual leave left me with just three days. So instead i streamed all the First Listens on NPR and a played a couple of 8Tracks mixes and shuffled my iPhone. With the extra time off, you'd think I'd had plenty of chance to collate a carefully calculated playlist. You'd be wrong; but nice try. None-the-less, I'm happy with what I've chosen.
Check it out:
Top Five Artists Last Week
- Best Coast
- A Tribe Called Quest
- Patti Smith
- Josh Rouse
- Bruce Springsteen
Song of the Week : Charles Bradley - Strictly Reserved For You
I have some Soul for your soul. The April NPR sampler had a track from Charles Bradley who I’ve heard before playing with The Menahan Street Band. You know what a sucker I am for Soul music; and to get something that sounds this classic being released in 2013 is blowing my mind.
Bradley’s voice on Strictly Reserved For You is somewhere between James Brown and Otis Redding. The big horns and the crooning backup vocals are like the JBs playing with The Temptations. Did I die and go to 60s Soul heaven? I don’t know anymore. But there is no bad mood that doesn’t disappear when I play tracks like this.
They don’t write ‘em like they used to – or DO THEY?! See for yourself.
Peace Out
There will be another week off at Work Tunes after this week, when I am on annual leave to take care of Mrs Corey J while she recovers from surgery (in my head I just heard Homer's critique of Ned Flanders' chilli in my favourite Simpsons episode - "a bland, timid entry, suitable perhaps for patients recovering from surgery"). I'll be back the week after though, with the second part of the Paste sampler and a bunch of other albums I haven't selected yet.
Hasala malakim.
Hasala malakim.
