Alphabet Soup Week 14: The G Tracks

The third consecutive installment coming from the UK and the second from remote mid-Wales.

Apr 03, 2024

Welcome to week 14 of Alphabet Soup. If it’s your first time here, welcome, thanks for stopping by! If you’re a repeat visitor, thanks for coming back, I’m happy to have you here!

As was last week’s, this week’s installment is coming to you from the middle of Wales. Today my wife and I completed another of the UK’s National Trails, the Glyndwr’s Way. Over the course of the past 12 days we’ve traversed 144 miles with 23,900 feet of elevation gain. From above we’ve faced rain, hail, freezing rain, snow, and hail and from below we’ve faced incredibly challenging trail conditions with extremely muddy sections, energy-sucking bogs and slippery ascents and descents. But we’ve loved every moment of it!

Over the course of last few evenings I’ve managed to pull together some thoughts on the tracks that appear in this week’s playlist. There’s some real gems this week, so let’s jump right in!

ALPHABET SOUP WEEK 14: The G Tracks

This week’s selections:

TRACK: “Gramarye” from Stigmata OST (1999)

ARTIST: Remy Zero

Gramarye, which appeared on Remy Zero’s second album, 1998’s Villa Elaine, also appeared on the soundtrack to the (what I recall to be) very scary 1999 possession movie Stigmata. While it’s a great song, for some reason it never inspired me to check out the rest of their catalog, something I’ll try to rectify at some point (too much music, too little time!)

TRACK: “Gorecki” from Lamb (1996)

ARTIST: Lamb

This song will always be incredibly special to me. In 1998 my then girlfriend, now wife had flown me over to Houston for a week (I was dead broke, deep in debt in fact) to join her as she visited friends. Late one evening she played this for me and told me it reminded her of the depth of her feelings for me. We were young and in love. Now we’re old(er) and in love and this song remains a favorite.

The music builds slowly with keyboards, vocals and strings before the drums tentatively kick in; by the halfway point the song is at fever pitch with the beats front and center, supported by the strings (sampled from the second movement of Henryk Goreki’s third symphony) and carried forward by Louise Rhodes’ sublime vocals.

The lyrics express the bliss of the true love we were both feeling in that moment, love that’s only deepened over close to 25 years of marriage. It’s become one of “our songs”, probably the one closest to our hearts.

“All this time I've loved you And never known your face All this time I've missed you And searched this human race Here is true peace Here my heart knows calm Safe in your soul Bathed in your sighs Wanna stay right here Till the end of time Till the earth stops turning Gonna love you until the seas run dry I've found the one I've waited for”

TRACK: “Gratitude” from Like I Said (1993)

ARTIST: Ani DiFranco

For a short period in the late 90s and early 2000s I was a HUGE fan of Ani DiFranco. I’d been aware of her for several years but hadn’t listened to her music until her track Untouchable Face appeared on the sampler CD included with the March 1997 edition of CMJ New Music Monthly. On the back of hearing that track, I bought the album Dilate, which then led me to fill in my collection with her seven prior releases.

On the records released on her own Righteous Babe label, founded when she was just 19, she sang truth to power in a way that I hadn’t heard before. She sang of topics that I, as a man still fairly ignorant of the patriarchal system (in which I’d been steeped for my entire life), just hadn’t really thought about before. Because I’d never had to think about them (a privilege, that). In what I’d consider a formative period of my life (despite already being in my mid-20s), DiFranco’s lyrics helped open my eyes and my heart to gender issues, patriarchy, misogyny, and rape culture.

The uncomfortable reality is that when I first heard Gratitude (from 1993’s Like I Said), I could imagine a younger version of myself on the other side of the situation playing out on the song. I’ve always honored consent and respected the fact that no means no (I know, these things should be basic but unfortunately, even now, that attitude is far from universal). But in my college days it wouldn’t have been beyond the realm of possibility that being “Mr Nice Guy” would’ve come with some sort of, if not expectation, then perhaps a hope for some sort of physical or sexual quid pro quo for my kindness. That realization was a tough pill to swallow, but it was an important step on a journey that I’m still on today.

As you make your way through this week’s playlist, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Do any of these tracks really stand out for you? What do you like? What don’t you like?

Please click the button below to leave a comment.

TRACK: “Guess I'm Doing Fine” from Sea Change (2002)

ARTIST: Beck

I consider Beck’s 2002 album Sea Change, from which Guess I’m Doing Fine is drawn, to be a masterpiece, and it’s firmly entrenched as one of my Desert Island Discs. Beck’s eighth album, written in response to a painful breakup from his long time girlfriend, reflected a shift in tone from his earlier work. A directness and an earnestness is evident throughout the album which is dominated by themes of sadness, loneliness and melancholy.

I was lucky enough to catch him live at Brooklyn’s Prospect Park in August 2013, a concert which included the original lineup from the Sea Change album. It was a stunning show, 100 minutes of pure entertainment with his characteristic range of styles and genres, performed with an almost boyish energy. His impromptu performances of Billie Jean, Tainted Love, and Donna Summer’s I Feel Love, folded into other songs was a joy to behold. One of the highlights of that show for me was his performance of The Korgis’ track Everybody’s Got To Learn Sometime, one of my favorite covers ever.

2014’s Morning Phase, often cited as a “companion piece” to Sea Change, is another absolutely gorgeous album and I’ve always hoped that there’d be another similar release coming to round out a trilogy of like-sounding albums from an artist that I’d argue is approaching musical genius territory.

TRACK: “Garden Of Delight (Hereafter)” from God's Own Medicine (1986)

ARTIST: The Mission

In the mid to late 80s I was introduced to an expanded universe of goth music in the form of bands like Killing Joke, Sisters of Mercy and The Mission. I’d already been listening to The Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees, the two earlier iterations of The Cult and some Bauhaus, but this newer batch of bands just seemed to hit differently. The Mission’s 1986 release God’s Own Medicine is probably the album from that era that’s stayed with me the longest (hence why it was in my CD collection 20+ years later). Garden of Delight (Hereafter) isn’t one of the better known tracks, and wasn’t released as a single, but it’s one of my favorite songs on the album.

TRACK: “Grace, Too” from Day For Night (1994)

ARTIST: The Tragically Hip

This is the second appearance on Alphabet Soup for the legendary Canadian band The Tragically Hip. Grace, Too is the lead single from the Hip’s fourth studio album, 1994’s Day For Night. Sadly, I never managed to catch them live in concert, a fact I rue to this day given that they performed in Halifax a couple times while I was studying there.

I did manage to catch their 1995 performance of this song on SNL and have always found it captivating. The band is on point and lead singer Gord Downie’s intensity is infectious, making for a compelling watch.

TRACK: “Gravedigger” from The Gorge (2004)

ARTIST: Dave Matthews Band

I gotta be honest, I’ve never really been a big Dave Matthews fan. While I kinda liked some of 1996’s Crash, that’s probably more related to the fact that I couldn’t get away from it as the album seemed to be the disc du jour at just about every coffee shop I frequented. But in 2003 I fell in love with the song Gravedigger, primarily on the back of the compelling music video. The track was the lead single from Matthews’ first (and only) solo album Some Devil, and earned him a Grammy award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance.

Somehow (a mystery, because I know I never purchased it), The Gorge double CD album of the DMB’s 2002 concert at The Gorge Amphitheater in Washington state ended up in my collection (hence making it eligible for this playlist). I’m almost positive I never played anything from either of those discs except this one song, which is by far my favorite track of his and an excellent live performance.

TRACK: “Glory Box” from Dummy (1994)

ARTIST: Portishead

I currently have a few open slots left on my Desert Island Discs list (the radio show rules stipulate eight tracks; I’m going with eight albums). I’ve not yet been willing to firmly slot Portishead’s 1994 debut album Dummy into the list, but it’s probably the closest to making it of the half dozen remaining contenders (with three slots left to fill). A trip hop classic and arguably one of the most influential releases in the popularization of the genre, Dummy was critically acclaimed upon release, winning the Mercury Music Prize and going on to achieve triple platinum certification in the UK.

I spent the better part of a decade fairly deep into trip hop, chillout and downtempo music and Dummy was foundational to establishing that musical season of my life. Glory Box is the third and final single from the album and one of my favorite tracks, probably second only to Roads.

TRACK: “Guinnevere” from So Far (1974)

ARTIST: Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young

This is the second appearance on Alphabet Soup for Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young as they showed up in week 5 with Wooden Ships from the same album, the 1974 compilation album So Far. The track originally appeared on the self-titled 1969 debut album of Crosby, Stills and Nash (sans Young). So Far was my first CSNY album and is a long time favorite with Guinnevere being one of their top five tracks for me. It’s hard to beat the harmonies these gentlemen are able to conjure; they’re absolutely magical.

TRACK: “Good Enough” from Fumbling Towards Ecstasy (1993)

ARTIST: Sarah McLachlan

Good Enough is the third single from Sarah Maclachlan’s third studio album, 1993’s Fumbling Towards Ecstasy. This was the first album of hers I ever owned (Tina later brought the first two albums into our joint collection) and it remains my favorite. It was critically acclaimed and was a huge hit upon release in Canada where it’s been certified 5x platinum.

Life in the key of G: Glyndwr’s Way Part 2

My wife and I have been doing 2-3 long distance walks per year for over a decade. Glyndwr’s Way, which were just completed today, is right up there near the top, certainly in the top 5, of the most challenging walks we’ve ever undertaken. Between the weather, the trail conditions (after months of rain in Wales), the daily mileage and the elevation gain, there wasn’t an easy day to be found. But in terms of enjoyment, it was an absolutely stunning walk, worth the effort, and a very memorable adventure.

As I did in last week’s installment, I’m posting below one photo from each day of the hike (starting from where I left off last week).

Day six:

Day seven:

Day eight:

Day nine:

Day ten:

Day eleven:

Day twelve (today):

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Here’s the link to the running playlist which is updated on a weekly basis as each new installment is published:

ALPHABET SOUP RUNNING PLAYLIST

Tracks missing from the Spotify playlist:

Allegory by Murray Attaway (Week 02)
Face Me and Smile by The Lover Speaks (Week 12)

From Your Mouth by God Lives Underwater(Week 13)

Thank you for reading Joy in the Journey, I appreciate you being here! If there’s someone in your life you think may enjoy this post, feel free to share it.