It’s raining here, so for this week, here are four tunes to brood by:

“Old Shoes (& Picture Postcards),” by Tom Waits.

Actually, you could just put in Closing Time or Heart of Saturday Night for a full CD’s worth of brooding. This or “Martha” is probably my favorite Tom Waits song.

“The Ship Song,” by Nick Cave

A darkly beautiful love song, filled with Cave’s trademark surreal images and contemplative metaphors. I actually like the live version below quite a lot. But the best version of this song is the one Cave did with Concrete Blonde, which you can find on the latter’s greatest hits album (that CD, by the way, is worth the price if only for that song and a killer acoustic version of “Joey”). Cave’s stark, devilish baritone and Johnette Napolitano’s choir-girl vocals provide for a nice contrast. Seductive, romantic, and a little bit gothic.

“Little Silver Ring,” by the Samples

First got into the Samples in college. This is one of my favorites.

“Down,” by Suede

I’m pretty sure this song is about drug addiction. But it’s pretty dramatic, and moving. The electronica vibe is good if you’re in one of those get-lost-in-your-thoughts moods. I’m not sure the song really fits the images in this YouTube spot, but I’m just posting it for the song.

I have lots more. I’m sure we’ll return to this category of Five Star Fridays at a later date. And please, by all means, send your own suggestions.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 27th, 2007 at 7:31 pm by Radley Balko and is filed under Five-Star Fridays/Music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.