Nina Simone- To Love Somebody

This month’s national anthem, courtesy of the late High Priestess of Soul. While I hold the Bee Gees’ original dear, Ms. Simone trumps them here by parsing the maudlin from the heartwrenching, filtering the latter through a strident strip of Philly soul. The result: pure magic. Ms. Simone’s smoky rhinal doesn’t dwell overlong on her words, opting instead for a literal reading that falls between anguished and regretful. And the production suits her mightily. Check out that ringing, two-note bass figure after the chorus!

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Yma Sumac- Shou Condor (Giant Condor)

In my household, exotica is just that, an alien style. I picked up a Mexican Yma Sumac comp for a buck at Half Price Books, having just read her name in the liners to 69 Love Songs as a singer “with a gimmick” that Stephin Merritt admired. I’m still digesting the disc, but this 1957 song made the most immediate impression. Very tastefully arranged and sung in an unusually low register for a woman who could sound like a theremin when the situation called for it. There are some really neat moments here, including Sumac’s vocal restatement of the flute theme at about the 1:18 mark and a vocal leap that sounds, for all the world, like Crass’ Eve Libertine. You can find out more here; I tried to link to the “Shou Condor” review, but the site’s creators have prevented that. Hunt for it.

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Scritti Politti- Absolute

After ten listens, I consider Cupid & Psyche 85 to be a quite listenable album with a couple transcendent singles. Sort of like the Adverts’ Crossing the Red Sea or Mariah Carey’s #1’s. But “Absolute”! I want to build a skating rink for this song alone. Everything hits right; from the crisp, propulsive production courtesy of Arif Mardin and SC evil genius Green Gartside, to the shiny backup singers, who get more mileage out of the words “love you” than anyone else in the history of recorded music. Sure, they’re a bit on the polished side, but that just provides the cool underline to Gartside’s “principle:/To make your heart invincible/To love.” Plus, he coins the phrase “vodka-clear”. Do you hear this too? Is this slice of crystallized New Wave magnificence the greatest song ever?

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