Alphabet Soup Week 32: The P Tracks

A change in plans for the second half of this transitional period of our lives brings excitement and gratitude.

My wife Tina and I are continuing our journey on the UK's South West Coast Path. On Tuesday we passed the official halfway point of the trail and with 26 days of hiking left we have about 270 miles to go before we reach Poole on September 8th. Thankfully the physical challenges that were plaguing me a few weeks ago remain in the rear view mirror and haven't resurfaced. But we've now decided that embarking on another long distance hike at the end of this one, 700 miles in 66 days, might just be a bridge too far.

Before we embarked on this adventure we anticipated that something like this might happen and we agreed that we would be flexible and adapt as needed. The deposit for our next long hike was fully refundable so we took the opportunity to cancel that and I began working on a Plan B, a task which has taken up much of my free time over the last week to ten days.

Our travel plans for the next few months are now starting to come into focus. Rather than one long walk, we've decided to cobble together a new itinerary that includes five separate hiking trips that include visits to the Isle of Man, Ireland, and Scotland. I'm grateful that Tina and I are on the same page and that we'd discussed in advance our desire to stay flexible. We've been planning this transitional period of our lives for a long time and we made sure to build a contingency into our budget to accommodate potential changes.

I'm feeling incredibly blessed in so many ways right now: my body's ability to overcome some of its earlier physical challenges, the financial independence we've been able to establish at a relatively young age, the next few months of exciting adventures, and the life we look forward to building once we relocate to the UK to live in January. I don't take anything for granted and I do my best to spend some time each day centering myself in gratitude. The joy continues to be in the journey...

It's hard to believe that we're on to week 32 already. Let's jump straight into the P Tracks!

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ALPHABET SOUP WEEK 32: The P Tracks

This week’s selections:

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TRACK: “Plainsong” from Disintegration (1989)

ARTIST: The Cure

Last week we had a track from The Police, which I noted had been my first favorite band starting in the early 80s. By the late 80s they had been supplanted by The Cure, a band that continues to be my favorite band of all time despite having only released three albums in the last quarter century.

Plainsong was the opening track of their stunning eighth album, Disintegration, released in 1989. That album was their most commercially successful, peaking at number 3 in the UK album chart and at number 12 on the Billboard 200.

For over a year I've been waiting for the long-anticipated album Songs of a Lost World  to be released. Hopefully that will happen later this year, but you just never know with Robert Smith; he might decide never to formally release it. Five tracks have been released so far and I was lucky enough to hear four of them (Alone,  A Fragile Thing, And Nothing Is Forever, Endsong) performed live in Philadelphia when I saw the band at the Wells Fargo Center last summer. Fingers crossed that the album drops later this year!

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TRACK: “Porcelain” from Deluxe (1995)

ARTIST: Better Than Ezra

I'll always rep for Better Than Ezra's major label debut Deluxe, released in 1993 by Swell Records. It was the 1995 release by Elektra Records that made its way into my CD library, most likely as a result of me hearing one of their songs on the Empire Records OST. Back in the day soundtracks were a great source of musical discovery for me and that particular soundtrack introduced me to several other artists, including Edwyn Collins, Gin Blossoms, Toad the Wet Sprocket, and Cracker.

There's really not a bad track to be found on Deluxe and Porcelain is one of my favorites. The album peaked at 35 on the Billboard 200 and was certified platinum in the US and gold in Canada.

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TRACK: “Pure Morning” from Without You I'm Nothing (1998)

ARTIST: Placebo

Pure Morning, the lead single from the Placebo's second album, 1998's Without You I'm Nothing, was the first track I heard by the band, likely by way of the music video which saw heavy airplay that year. I was sufficiently intrigued and entertained to buy the album; I'd end up sticking with them for a few albums before losing touch with their music after 2006's Meds.

I had completely forgotten about the band and certainly had no idea they were making music until late 2021 when, much to my surprise, Beautiful James was released as the lead single from their forthcoming album. That album, Never Let Me Go, which was released in March 2022 grabbed my attention and kept me coming back for more. By the end of the year it had wormed its way into my psyche enough to rank as my number one AOTY.

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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.

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TRACK: “Push” from Silver (1994)

ARTIST: Moist

We've seen Moist before in Alphabet Soup as their track Freaky Be Beautiful from the same album appeared in week 12. But it was this song, Push, the lead single from 1994's Silver, that originally brought the band to my attention. The track peaked at number 35 in the band's native country of Canada and was nominated for Single of the Year in the 1995 Juno Awards, losing out to Could I Be Your Girl by Jann Arden (not a bad choice). The album itself reached number 12 in Canada and went on to be certified four times platinum.

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TRACK: “Paranoid Android” from OK Computer (1997)

ARTIST: Radiohead

I wouldn't have expected to see so much Radiohead appearing in Alphabet Soup but this is already their third appearance in the series; indeed, they were there at the very beginning with Airbag appearing in the first installment (a double feauture covering the 'A Artists' and the 'A Tracks'). The fact that all three songs are from 1997's OK Computer speaks as much to the brilliance of that album as it does to the band. Although I've softened on the subsequent release Kid A (I hated it when it was released), I still consider OK Computer to be their finest album and Paranoid Android to be the defining track.

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TRACK: “Pardon Me” from Make Yourself (1999)

ARTIST: Incubus

The late 90s were such a good time for music for me with triphop/downtempo/chillout appetizing its zenith and nu metal beginning to come into its own (for better or worse depending on your viewpoint). Enter Incubus, who were part of the nu metal scene prior to transitioning into more melodic alt-rock territory in the 2000s. With their third album, 1999's Make Yourself, the band produced the first of three consecutive albums certified platinum in the US. Pardon Me was the lead single from the album and found success on the US Billboard charts, peaking at number three and seven on the Modern Rock Tracks and Mainstream Rock Tracks charts respectively.

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TRACK: “Pure Massacre” from Frogstomp (1995)

ARTIST: Silverchair

It's amazing to look back and see what this trio of Aussie teenagers accomplished back in the mid-90s with their debut album Frogstomp. The band members were only 15 when the album was released and I remember being amazed by just how much sound these three young kids were capable of producing. After the success of the lead single Tomorrow, Pure Massacre was released in January 1995 and found global success, peaking at number 2 on the album charts in both Australia and New Zealand and at number 12 and 17 respectively on Billboard's Album Rock Chart and Modern Rock Chart. The band would release five albums in twelve years before disbanding after 2007's Young Modern.

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TRACK: “Pretty Noose” from Down On The Upside (1996)

ARTIST: Soundgarden

I was a little late getting into Soundgarden as they were just too heavy for my tastes back in the late 80s when they were first emerging. But a musical education in 1990 from one of my floor mates in residence at Saint Mary's University opened my ears to music that I'd previously under appreciated. My friend Blair (R.I.P.), a headbanger through and through, invested much time trying to explain his favorite music to me, music that sounded just like noise to my ears. After one particularly fruitful afternoon and evening of sampling his comprehensive collection, it was Metallica's And Justice For All that broke through my resistance.

A few years later, with heavier music in regular rotation for me, I was all in on Superunknown, Soundgarden's breakthrough fourth album which while perhaps not as heavy as their earlier albums was still crunchy in its own right. That album remains my favorite of theirs, but the follow-up Down On The Upside was also a solid outing buttressed by the lead single Pretty Noose which reached number two on the US Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart and topped the UK's Rock & Metal Singles chart.

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TRACK: “Plush” from Thank You (2003)

ARTIST: Stone Temple Pilots

I'm not sure I ever actually owned any of Stone Temple Pilots' studio releases prior to their third and fourth albums. My wife Tina added Purple to our joint CD collection when we started dating, but it was their 2003 greatest hits comp Thank You that brought all their prior musical gems into one place, including Plush which originally appeared on their 1992 debut album Core.

Plush topped the US Billboard Album Rock Tracks chart and would go on to win the Grammy for Best Hard Rock Performance.

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TRACK: “Pretty Vacant” from Never Mind The Bollocks (1977)

ARTIST: Sex Pistols

I probably first got my hands on a cassette copy of Never Mind The Bollocks in the early 80s. I'm not gonna pretend I really understood what I was listening to, but as a juvenile and a bit of a delinquent I certainly loved the profanity (even as I couldn't play it loudly enough at home for fear of having it confiscated). Over time I came to appreciate the album much more than was possible during the innocence of my pre-teen years.

I can't say I loved the album in its entirety (Bodies is particularly jarring given the subject matter and its openly misogynistic overtones) but there are a few standout tracks, one of which is Pretty Vacant. This was the first song ever written by the band, primarily by bassist Glen Matlock prior to his replacement by Sid Vicious; it was released as their third single and reached number 6 on the UK Singles chart.

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Week 5 on the South West Coast Path

Here’s a batch of photos taken over our six days of walking since the last installment of Alphabet Soup:

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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)

• This Can’t Go On! by The Lover Speaks (Week 23)

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