VIRTUAL MIX TAPE: "13 Wonderful Will Songs, Vol. 20"

Yes, that’s right, it’s time for another installment of songs that I love and that I hope you’ll love, too. And if you don’t, well, it ain’t like this thing is behind the paywall, so what’d you pay for it, anyway?

In conclusion, listen or don’t, but if you do, I hope you dig it…and if you really dig it, consider upgrading to a paid subscription!

1. Black, “Wonderful Life” (1987 - Wonderful Life)

I first secured a copy of this album through a round of cutout bin digging, and it’s one of those discoveries that made me so happy with the very first track—which was, in case you were wondering, this very song—that it took me awhile to move on and discover how solid the rest of the album was. This song, though, is such a wonderful dichotomy: it’s an upbeat lyric delivered in a very melancholy fashion, perfect for a Morrissey fan like yours truly. I continued to follow Colin Vearncombe’s work over the years, eventually becoming Facebook friends with him, and when he passed away in 2016, I mourned the music world’s loss. He was a great singer-songwriter and very friendly and welcoming to his fans.

2. Kylie Minogue, “Spinning Around” (2000 - Light Years)

As a regular reader of the UK music press, I’ve always had a fascination with artists who’ve started their careers with smash hits on both sides of the pond, only to turn into one-hit wonders in America while regularly delivering hit after hit in England. I didn’t really think twice about Kylie when she first arrived on the scene, mostly because I was pretty meh about her cover of “The Locomotion.” Had I heard “I Should Be So Lucky” at the time, I might’ve paid more attention, but that track got virtually no play on American radio. As the years passed, I found myself fascinated by the way Kylie was working with artists like Nick Cave and the Manic Street Preachers, and I started taking more notice in her music. When she collaborated with Robbie Williams on the song “Kids,” however, that’s when I finally decided to pick up one of her more recent albums, and upon doing so, I became a full-on Kylie fan. This album is just non-stop fun, and it remains my favorite of her full-length releases.

3. The Pursuit of Happiness, “I’m Just Happy to Be Here” (1997 - The Wonderful World Of…)

I’ve been a fan of this Canadian band since their debut album, which found them being produced by Todd Rundgren. You might remember their big hit, “I’m an Adult Now,” which wasn’t nearly as good as the follow-up single, “She’s So Young.” The band worked with Rundgren again on their sophomore LP, and they continued to release albums after that as well, but their profile became to drop significantly in the US over time. I was doing record reviews for a local music rag when this album came out—it was their fifth, if memory serves—and it was so much closer to the music I’d loved on their debut album that it wound up being one of my favorite albums of 1997. There are several songs that I considered including, but this is the one that allows for the cleanest edit on Spotify. (Some of them shift into the next track in rather jarring fashion.) It’s also one of the catchiest.

4. I Monster, “Daydream in Blue” (2003 - neveroddoreven)

This album might’ve come out in 2003, but the single was released in 2001, and I know this because my wife and I heard it while we were on our honeymoon in the UK in November 2001. We were in a store when it was played overhead, and it stopped both of us in our tracks. It was just such a unique musical amalgam that we knew we had to secure a copy immediately. At the time, the only way we could hunt it up was on a compilation called The Classic Chillout Album, and that did the trick until I Monster finally got around to releasing it on a proper album. We still follow their career to this day. That’s just how much of an impact “Daydream in Blue” made on us.

5. Taylor Swift, “Mr. Perfectly Fine” (2021 - Fearless: TAYLOR’S VERSION)

Yes, that’s right: I’ve become a Swiftie. Blame my daughter, who force-fed my wife and I a steady diet of Taylor Swift music to make sure that we were properly indoctrinated before we attended her “Eras” show in Philadelphia a few weeks ago. In fairness, however, it didn’t take me long to gain an appreciation for her music, and I knew I’d eventually include one of her songs on one of these virtual mix tapes, but I decided to go with one that was a little bit off the beaten path.

6. Horse, “The Speed of the Beat of My Heart” (1990 - The Same Sky)

This is a Scottish group that I’m pretty sure I discovered while I was working at the record store, and although I can’t remember the name of the compilation where I discovered it, I do remember that their featured song was called “Careful.” I liked that song enough to pick up their album, at which point I decided that I loved this song. I later discovered that the lead singer’s name is also Horse, specifically Horse McDonald, and she’s still out there, recording music and playing live shows in the UK.

7. Javelin Boot, “Lana Knows” (1994 - For Those About to Pop)

I’m a little fuzzy on the specifics of how I discovered this band, but I think it was through my friend Heather Kaas, who lived in Austin, Texas for awhile. I don’t know if she actually saw them live or if one of her friends recommended them, but it was definitely some sort of connection through her, and it led me to start following them. This is a damned near perfect pop song in my estimation, and it’s a great album opener.

8. Voice of the Beehive, “Monsters and Angels” (1991 - Honey Lingers)

I remember seeing this group on MTV’s 120 Minutes, hearing their song “I Say Nothing” and being fascinated by their look as well as their sound, which was a little bit like the Primitives but quirkier. This track is from their second album, which was decidedly glossier in production and featured songs that were clearly more geared toward chart success. They achieved it to a certain degree in the UK, but not in the US, sadly.

9. The Tender Idols, “Man Out of Season” (2000 - Distressor)

This band was based out of Atlanta, but their lead singer was British, which would probably explain why all of their albums tended to sound much more Britpoppy than the average Georgian group. I always thought they deserved to break out of the indie scene and onto a major label, but it never happened.

10. Oh Wonder, “Crazy in Love” (BBC SESSION) (2016)

Obligatory cover song! To be honest, I don’t really know a lot about this group, I only know that I stumbled upon this cover song in someone else’s collection of great covers, and I loved it immediately. So here’s hoping you enjoy it as much as I do.

11. Dogs Die in Hot Cars, “I Love You ‘Cause I Have To” (2004 - Please Describe Yourself)

There’s nothing that disappoints me more than a British band that arrives on the scene with a great debut album, only to never release a follow-up. This group sounded like they could’ve been the second coming of XTC, and I was excited to see where they’d go, but they in fact went nowhere after this. Sigh.

12. Ghost of an American Airman, “When the Whistle Blows” (1992 - Life Under Giants)

Despite their name, this is actually an Irish band, one who put out their debut album in 1988 and apparently scored enough in the way of plaudits with the independent release that they found their way into a major label deal. Unfortunately, that label was Hollywood Records, who basically spent all of their marketing budget on the Queen catalog and very little on anyone else on their roster, which meant that it was mostly record store employees and cutout bin diggers who discovered and fell in love with the band.

13. Reckless Sleepers, “If We Never Meet Again” (1988 - Big Boss Sounds)

This was a short-lived band led by Jules Shear, a singer-songwriter who I still remember fondly as the original host of MTV Unplugged, a gig which always amused me because he invariably used it as an opportunity to croon one of his own tunes with whoever the guest of the week might’ve been. I used to do an impression of him that basically just involved me saying, “Hey, that was great! Now let’s do one of my songs!” The thing is, his songs were pretty fucking great, too, and this is a perfect example of such.