Alphabet Soup Week 35: Artists Filed Under R

After another week of walking on the South West Coast Path we’re back with the next installment of Alphabet Soup!

Welcome to Week 35 of Alphabet Soup, the weekly series that highlights songs from albums I used to physically own on CD (remember those?). With over a week since the last installment, and with a rest day today (our last of our ten week hiking trip), I was determined to write and publish this week's edition before the week ends (i.e. while we're actually still in week 35).

Last week's edition was drafted while I was relaxing on the second of two unplanned rest days taken in the hopes that my intermittent ankle tendonitis would calm down enough for me to continue walking. I'm happy to say that a couple days of rest seems to have done the trick and since last week I've managed another seven days out on the trail, during which time we covered about 60 miles with another 9,000 feet of ups and downs. That takes our total mileage up to nearly 530 miles in 54 days of walking, leaving us with another 90 or so miles left until we arrive at Poole, our final destination, on September 8th.

It hasn't really hit me yet that we're so close to ticking off a bucket list item for me - the through hike of the UK's longest waymarked national trail. It's been on my mental to do list for close to a decade and it's the first thing we decided to do upon retirement. It's been an amazing journey so far and I've learned an awful lot about myself over the last couple months. Over the next week I'm planning to take a little time each day to look back and reflect on the journey; I'll include some of those observations in the intro to next week's entry.

Until then, let's get into this week's picks!

---

ALPHABET SOUP WEEK 35: Artists Filed Under R

This week’s selections:

---

ARTIST: R.E.M

TRACK: “At My Most Beautiful” from Up (1998)

I know that some of my Substack subscribers are huge fans of R.E.M. I am not. That doesn't mean that I dislike them, only that I really haven't spent enough time with their music to have an opinion. For the most part I've liked much of what I've heard. But the fact is that, with perhaps one exception, I never heard an R.E.M. song until I reached university in 1989 by which point they were already five albums into their career. I did ultimately come to own the trio of albums released between 1994 and 1998 (Monster, New Adventures in Hi-Fi and Up).

To start this week's playlist we dip into an emotional favorite with At My Most Beautiful from 1998's Up. This was one of the tracks included on the compilation CD my wife and I provided as a takeaway gift for guests at our wedding in July 1999. It may seem laughable now, but back then having a CD custom made with proper printed jewel case inserts and a full printed picture on the CD itself was cutting edge! My wife and I agonized over the selection of songs and ended up with a lovely collection of love songs. I'm planning to cover that CD and its playlist in a column next year.

---

ARTIST: Radiohead

TRACK: “High And Dry” from The Bends (1995)

High And Dry, from 1995's The Bends, represents the band's fourth appearance in Alphabet Soup. In the mid-90s this was probably one of my most frequently played albums, supplanted in 1997 by the followup OK Computer. Those two albums still represent the band's high point for me. Not to say that their later releases were bad, more that they weren't what I'd hoped for. One of the biggest ever musical letdowns for me came in the form of 2000's Kid A. It felt so different from the trajectory begun with The Bends and OK Computer, and was so out of left field, that it left me very disappointed and alienated from the band (a little harsh? yes. a little personal? perhaps).

Despite not really digging deeply into much of their output from the 2000s, I have since warmed to Kid A. As my musical tastes have evolved, so has my appreciation for their broader catalogue and I highly rated 2016's A Moon Shaped Pool, with it appearing at number 6 on my AOTY list that year. I've also been enjoying the recent work of Jonny Greenwood, Thom Yorke and Tom Skinner as The Smile, particularly on this year's Wall Of Eyes.

---

ARTIST: Rymes With Orange

TRACK: “Taking Of David” from Trapped In The Machine (1994)

I was drawn into this Canadian rock band by the arresting and compelling music video for the track The Taking of David from their 1994 album Trapped In The Machine. Formed in the late 80s in British Columbia, the band released four albums with multiple lineups between 1992 and 2003. While Toy Train from the same album was the band's biggest hit, this will always be their signature song for me.

---

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.

---

ARTIST: Ron Hawkins

TRACK: “The Tame, The Half-Born, The Wild And You” from The Secret Of My Excess (1995)

From one Canadian artist to another, this time Ron Hawkins, the lead singer of The Lowest of The Low, with The Tame, The Half-Born, The Wild And You from his excellent 1995 solo debut The Secret of My Excess. I vividly recall discovering this album in the second hand music store I frequented on Barrington Street in Halifax, NS during my last couple years at university. I've always loved the gravelly sound of Hawkins' baritone voice and it's on fine display here with several standout tracks. My favorite from the album, Blur, appeared in week 4 and for this week's selection it came down to Hey Valerie, Three Penny Operator, Lulu or this track.

I chose this track because I love a great story song, and the vignettes painted by the lyrics provide just the sort of mental scaffolding upon which I can craft imaginary tales of the three characters, Caroline (the tame), Peter (the half-born) and Christopher (the wild):

Carolyn is tamed

All those years and all those tears

Cuddling her insecure

And shaking like a child and feeling helpless

But maybe I share the blame

Peter is half-born

With one foot in and one foot out

A princess on a barstool

Anarcho- Commun- Liberat- ingratiating stranger to me now

Christopher is wild

With fire-escape guitar afflictions

Different lives but shared addictions

Late night taxi, Frank Black happy birthdays

And blood-pact butchers knives

Hawkins is a wonderful lyricist and songwriter and he really hits it out of the park on this entire album.

---

ARTIST: Red Hot Chili Peppers

TRACK: “Under The Bridge” from Greatest Hits (2003)

I vividly remember the first time I ever heard the Red Hot Chili Peppers. During my freshman year at university I emerged from the elevator onto the tenth floor of the Loyola Residence at Saint Mary's University and became aware that most of the guys in the floor were excitedly rushing toward the room of one of the upperclassmen. Naturally, I followed to see what all the fuss was about. "He's got the latest chili peppers album!" my friend Hervé exclaimed. The what? While I had no clue what he was talking about, the music I heard coming out of that dorm room was new and exciting and heralded the start of a new chapter in my musical education.

While I only ever owned a few of their albums on CD, and not the aforementioned Mother's Milk, I did enjoy much of their music. I had a handful of their albums from the late 90s into the early 2000s and their Greatest Hits compilation from 2003, on which Under The Bridge appears. I completely lost track of the band after 2006's Stadium Arcadium and, perhaps harshly, had assumed they were becoming increasingly irrelevant. I see that each their last four albums have made it into the top three in the charts in multiple countries, so my take is clearly wrong. If they've released anything you've loved in the past 20 years, please point me in the right direction!

---

ARTIST: The Rolling Stones

TRACK: “Under My Thumb” from Hot Rocks 1964-1971 (1971)

I've only ever had a passing interest in The Rolling Stones; while I can't recall actively disliking any of their songs, and I've more or less enjoyed all of their more popular songs, I've never actually owned a studio album. I have however owned, on both double cassette and CD, their compilation Hot Rocks containing 21 tracks released between 1964 and 1971. Surprisingly, Under My Thumb, while very popular, was never actually released as a single. The song originally appeared on the band's fourth studio album, 1966's Aftermath, which produced the singles Paint It Black and Mother's Little Helper.

---

ARTIST: The Rosebuds

TRACK: “Woods” from Loud Planes Fly Low (2011)

American indie rock band The Rosebuds, hailing from Raleigh, North Carolina, released eight studio  albums between 2003 and 2014. Woods is from the band's fifth album Loud Planes Fly Low released in 2011 on Merge Records. This was the first album released after the divorce of founding members Kelly Crisp and Howard Ivan. I can't even fathom how two halves of a creative duo could possibly manage to put their marital differences aside to continue their musical partnership. But somehow they managed to do so and produced an upbeat yet melancholy album that was generally well received by critics, with the album receiving a metascore of 77 by review aggregation site Metacritic.

---

ARTIST: The Raconteurs

TRACK: “Level” from Broken Boy Soldiers (2006)

Jack White is nothing if not prolific. Over the last thirty years he's released close to twenty studio albums - six solo, six with the White Stripes, three with The Dead Weather and three with The Raconteurs - along with numerous guest appearances (his work with Danger Mouse and Daniele Luppi on 2011's Rome is a highlight). For this week's playlist we dip into his work with The Raconteurs with Level from their 2006 album Broken Boy Soldiers. While not achieving the success of lead single Steady As She Goes (54 on the Billboard 100 and top 10 in the UK and Denmark), Level is for me the better track. It was released as a US radio single and peaked at number seven on the Billboard Hot Modern Rock Tracks chart.

---

ARTIST: Raine Maida

TRACK: “Careful What You Wish For” from The Hunter's Lullaby (2007)

Raine Maida is the lead vocalist and primary songwriter for the band Our Lady Peace, one of my favorite Canadian bands from the 90s (and into the early 2000s). In addition to the 13 albums released as OLP, Maida has also released two albums and three EPs as a solo artist. Careful What You Wish For, composed by his wife Canadian singer-songwriter Chantal Kreviazuk, was the opening track from Maida's first solo effort, 2007's The Hunter's Lullaby.

---

ARTIST: Retribution Gospel Choir

TRACK: “Hide It Away” from 2 (2010)

We wrap up this week's playlist with Hide It Away, the opening track from the imaginatively entitled 2, the second album released by Minnesota's Retribution Gospel Choir. The band, an offshoot of Low, released three studio albums between 2008 and 2013. By all accounts the music produced by Retribution Gospel Choir differs greatly from their work as Low, a band I know very little about. This was the only album I owned by the band and was purchased solely on the strength of this specific track, the video for which was suggested to me back when the YouTube algorithm was actually good. Listening to the album again over the past week it became clear to me that it didn't receive much airplay as I don't recall any tracks outside the opener.

---

Week 8 on the South West Coast Path

With another week of walking under my belt since last week’s installment, here’s a new batch of photos from my last seven days out on the trail:

---

If you like what you read here, please go ahead and subscribe to have this sort of content delivered directly to your inbox!

---

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)

---

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.