Alphabet Soup Week 38: The S Tracks

As Joy in the Journey celebrates its first anniversary, I offer a few reflections and make a writing commitment for 2025. Oh yeah, there's a playlist here too, come inside and give it a listen!!

It's hard to believe, but yesterday marked the one year anniversary of Joy in the Journey. On September 21, 2023, as my first published post on Substack, I repurposed a Facebook post from over a decade ago about the 15 Albums That Shaped My Life and a new journey began. Somehow, over the course of a year and 52 posts, I've managed to attract 111 subscribers, which is a little unexpected to be honest. I'm so grateful for the people that popped by this little corner of Substack and decided to stick around.

While I'm proud of myself for abandoning caution and diving into the Substack pool, I'm even more proud of myself for being consistent and for sticking with it. I have a pretty solid track record of starting but not finishing things. Whether that's a function of my ADHD or the result of an inability/unwillingness to consistently put in the hard work is kinda beside the point. But it's definitely been a thing: over the years I've been a great starter but a less than stellar finisher. Somewhere in Bermuda people continue to enjoy the fruits of my aborted exploits: the half dozen books on how to run a bed and breakfast, the artwork framing books and equipment, the camera and photography equipment, the mountain bike(s); the list goes on...

For much of this year, and especially during the last three months of traveling, I've been grateful for the structure afforded by the weekly Alphabet Soup series. But I never intended for this Substack to become a weekly playlist project and I'm looking forward to wrapping up the series and moving on to something else. I was about to write that I'm not sure yet what that "something else" is, but in my heart I've long been aware of exactly where I want to go next.

Last summer I was laying outside in the hammock listening to music and reading Ann Patchett's incredible essay collection These Precious Days. The music soundtracking that afternoon was my Spotify playlist "My All-Time Favorite Songs" which currently comprises 33 tracks. These aren't just tracks that I "love"; each one carries some sort of significance, some emotional weight, or a hook in the music or lyrics that moves me deeply.

As I read Ann Patchett's beautiful and thought-provoking prose, I thought to myself, "wouldn't it be amazing if I could write an essay for each of the songs on this playlist, explaining exactly how and why it ended up on this list?" And that, that, is what I want to do next. To truly do it justice will require me to further develop my writing skills, to delve more deeply into some of the more uncomfortable corners of my past, and to make myself extremely vulnerable. My commitment to myself, and to you Dear Reader, is that I will make it there at some point in 2025.

One last thing before we get into the S Tracks. The single greatest joy that has come from being on Substack over the last year is the community I've stumbled upon here. While there are incredible posts/articles, particularly in the music appreciation space, being published every single day, it's in comment sections where I find the greatest joy. The bully pulpit of traditional social media doesn't seem to exist here, at least not on the Substacks I subscribe to. There's an authenticity, a camaraderie, a shared passion and a real desire to engage. While Substack's recent updates seem to be pushing the platform in the direction of some of the more enshittified social media apps out there (I see you Substack Summer), as long as the sense of community remains intact, I'll be here awhile.

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ALPHABET SOUP WEEK 38: The S Tracks

This week’s selections:

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TRACK: “Stupid Thing” from Whatever (1993)

ARTIST: Aimee Mann

I've been on the Aimee Mann train since the beginning (of her solo career). Like any artist, I've enjoyed some of her albums more than others, but it all started with 1993's Whatever on which Stupid Thing appears. The track was the second single from Mann's debut album and saw modest success on the UK charts, peaking at number 47, but failed to gain traction in the US. Mann has since rightfully been recognized as one of our generation's great songwriters; she's certainly one of my favorites.

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TRACK: “Setting The Old House On Fire” from Lucky Shoe (1996)

ARTIST: September 67

Charlottesville, Virginia's Shannon Worrell has released four albums, three as a solo artist and one as half of the band September 67, which is how she came to my attention. Busy Building, from the same album, the band's 1996 self-titled debut, was included on the February 1997 CMJ New Music Monthly CD sampler. This isn't an album that I've given much airplay in the streaming era, but listening to it over the last week I think I need to start finding a little more space for it.

« no YouTube video for this track »

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TRACK: “Stand Tall” from Various - Oh What a Feeling (1996)

ARTIST: Burton Cummings

While best known for his role as vocalist for the Guess Who during their golden era of 1965-75, Burton Cummings has also released seven studio albums (with another coming later this year). Stand Tall, the lead single from his 1976 self-titled solo debut, remains his most commercially successful recording. The single sold over a million copies in the US and spent 21 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number ten. The track was included in the wonderful 1996 3-CD collection Oh What a Feeling!, the first of three such compilations celebrating Canada's Juno Award winners.

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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: “Secret Smile” from Feeling Strangely Fine (1998)

ARTIST: Semisonic

After R.E.M's At My Most Beautiful appeared in week 35, this is the second track from the compilation CD my wife and I provided to guests at our wedding in July 1999. Secret Smile was the third single from the band's second album, 1998's Feeling Strangely Fine. While it didn't achieve the success of the smash breakout hit produced by the lead single Closing Time, it nonetheless saw modest success in global charts, making the top 50 in several European countries and on a few of Billboard's US charts.

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TRACK: “Save A Prayer” from Decade (1989)

ARTIST: Duran Duran

It's almost hard to believe that Duran Duran has been releasing music for over 40 years. With 16 studio albums under their belt, and over 100 million albums sold, this is a band that rarely disappoints. Having said that, I've only ever physically owned a handful of their records, including 1982's Rio, their singles box set, and Decade, the 1989 greatest hits compilation from which this track is drawn. Save A Prayer is one of my favorite songs of all time, sitting on a list that currently numbers 33 tracks. The track was never released as a single in the US but was the third single released from Rio in the UK where it became their biggest hit (at that point), peaking at number two on the UK Singles Chart.

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TRACK: “Shake The Disease” from The Singles 81-85 (1985)

ARTIST: Depeche Mode

Shake The Disease is the first Depeche Mode track I ever heard and I remember being absolutely blown away. Within days I'd added the compilation Catching Up With Depeche Mode to my vinyl collection. I damn near played the grooves off that record! While I've dipped in and out of their releases over the years, I wouldn't necessarily consider myself a huge fan. But this track, and the others from that marvelous collection, will always hold a special place in my heart.

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TRACK: “Stratford-On-Guy” from Exile In Guyville (1993)

ARTIST: Liz Phair

Stratford-On-Guy was the second single released from Liz Phair's critically acclaimed 1993 debut album Exile In Guyville. It's easy (especially for a man) to forget how male-dominated the music industry still was 30 years and this album was a big fuck you to that world order. While there may not be a direct line from Phair to some of the female artists that have dominated my AOTY lists over the last decade (Mitski, Sharon Van Etten, TORRES, Lucy Davis, Japanese Breakfast, Soccer Mommy and so many others), it's clear that she was one of a relative handful of influential female artists blazing a trail in indie rock for the many that would follow.

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TRACK: “Sex & Candy” from Marcy Playground (1997)

ARTIST: Marcy Playground

Marcy Playground is yet another artist that I first heard through CMJ New Music Monthly as Sex & Candy appeared on the CD included with the March 1997 edition. Given the outsized critical and commercial success of the single, the band is widely considered a one-hit wonder which is a real shame. Even today, almost thirty years after its release, their self-titled debut is still a no skip album for me. No filler at all. Despite not releasing any new music since their fourth album in 2009, the band does seem to still be touring from time to time.

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TRACK: “Save Me” from Splender Solis (1993)

ARTIST: The Tea Party

While they've had a few releases since reforming in 2011, the Canadian rock band The Tea Party were primarily active between 1991 and 2005, a period during which they released eight albums. Save Me was the second single released from the band's major label debut, Splendor Solis. The album was very successful in Canada, peaking at number 20 on the album chart, attaining platinum certification, and earning a Juno nomination for Best Hard Rock Album.

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TRACK: “Schizophrenic Conversations” from Chapter V (2005)

ARTIST: Staind

The second consecutive week with a Staind track on the playlist (sorry Steve); this time it's Schizophrenic Conversations from their 2005 release Chapter V. Aaron Lewis considers this to be the band's best album and I'm inclined to agree. Although I don't tend to go back and listen to much of the numetal I was so into in the late 90s and early 2000s, a lot of it still stands the test of time for me.

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Cloudbusting on The Isle of Man

We’ve had seven days of wonderful hiking so far on the Isle of Man, walking 50 miles and bagging over twenty 1000+ summits with a total of almost 11,000 feet of ascent. Rather than the usual photo dump, I’m instead posting an Instagram reel from our favorite day so far. On Wednesday we spent much of the day in the clouds, traversing an undulating series of 1800+ foot summits on what was an absolutely glorious day of hiking. Sometimes the experience you have is better than the views you miss and that was certainly the case on Wednesday!

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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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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.