Alphabet Soup Week 46: The W Tracks

The best decade for music (yes, folks, that would be the 80s) dominates this week’s installment.

Welcome to week 46 of Alphabet Soup, which brings us to the W Tracks. As the year has progressed I've begun using this series as a marker for where we are in the year. Earlier this week I realized that there were only three letters left in the alphabet, meaning six installments of the series left and, more importantly, only six weeks left in 2024! I'm amazed at how quickly this year has flown by.

If you've been reading Joy in the Journey for a while, you'll know that I retired from work at the end of June and that my wife and I have now been hiking for four and a half months. Our scheduled hiking period came to a close on Friday as we wrapped up our fourth and final day of hiking in the Tramuntana Mountains on the northern coast of Mallorca. After a couple days enjoying Palma, Mallorca's capital, tomorrow we’ll set off on the remainder of our retirement travels. We’ll spend about a week relaxing in London and then head to "the continent" for some sightseeing and to enjoy the Christmas Markets in four European capitals (Stockholm, Copenhagen, Vienna, and Prague) before heading home to Bermuda for the holiday season. Definitely a change in pace from the last 4+ months and something my ailing body is looking forward to!

The last six months have been A LOT and I'm not sure I've really had the time to digest all that we've actually accomplished. My hope is that, given a bit more space and time, and a little less of a frenetic schedule (particularly once we hit the new year), I'll be able to more fully reflect on and appreciate what a gift this has been.

While I'm proud of myself for the fact that I've still managed to pump out a new installment every week, I'm very much looking forward to freeing myself from the constraints that come with this series. I'm excited to see where my writing, and this Substack, will go in 2025. Between now and then, though, there are six more weekly playlists to compile and installments to write as well as a number of AOTY posts to think about. Although I've continued to listen to heaps of new music this year (another amazing year for music), I'm honestly not sure what my year-end roundups will look like, or how robust they'll be. But we can worry about that when December rolls around.

This week's playlist leans very much into the 80s with fully half the tracks from that decade along with one from 1990. One track from the 70s, two more from the 90s and one from 2006 round out the playlist.

Let's jump in!!

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ALPHABET SOUP WEEK 46: The W Tracks

This week’s selections:

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TRACK: "When You're Gone" from To The Faithful Departed  (1996)

ARTIST: The Cranberries

I was all in on The Cranberries from the moment I first heard their stunning 1993 debut Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We? Two albums later the band were bona fide global superstars after the success of 1994's No Need To Argue and its smash hit single Zombie. Their 1996 album To The Faithful Departed, which would reach the top five in over a dozen countries, included a few heavier, more rock-oriented songs in the mold of Zombie (Salvation, Hollywood, I Just Shot John Lennon) but I've always been partial to the softer, indie folk side of the band and this album delivered on that front as well. When You're Gone, the album's third single, peaked in the top 30 in multiple countries. In the US, where the CD single was released alongside the gorgeous Free To Decide, it peaked at number 22 on the Billboard Hot 100.

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TRACK: "Winter Time" from Greatest Hits 1974-1978 (1978)

ARTIST: Steve Miller Band

As greatest hits albums go, the Steve Miller Band's 14-track 1978 compilation ranks among my favorites. Winter Time originally appeared on the band's 1977 album Book of Dreams, an album which is well represented on the compilation, comprising fully half of the tracks. The opening swirling sound of what one imagines to be a biting winter wind gives way to gentle guitar picking for a few bars before Norton Buffalo's haunting harmonica begins, shortly followed by Miller on the electric sitar. Miller's plaintive opening vocal, which begins at the 45 second mark,"In the winter time when all the leaves are brown and the wind blows (so chill)", completes what I consider to be one of the most atmospheric and beautiful opening minutes of a song.

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TRACK: "What Was Going Through My Head" from Now and Again (1989)

ARTIST: The Grapes of Wrath

Little did I know at the time, but my arrival in Halifax, NS in the late summer 1989 heralded a period during which my musical universe would be expanded considerably. Growing up in Bermuda, particularly in the mid to late 80s, I'd primarily been listening to music from the US and UK (in addition to the ubiquitous reggae). The only time we'd hear Canadian music was when an artist made it big on the US charts (think Corey Hart, Bryan Adams, Glass Tiger). In September 1989 I suddenly found myself exposed to media that was bound by the "CanCon" requirement that local broadcasters' programming contain a certain percentage of Canadian content (35% for radio, 50% for television). Suddenly I was surrounded by peers that were well versed in, and in love with, Canadian music. It's no surprise, then, that much of my physical CD library, possibly as much as a quarter, comprised Canadian artists, which also helps explain why so much Canadian music appears on Alphabet Soup.

One of the first new-to-me Canadian bands I remember hearing was The Grapes of Wrath whose third album, Now and Again, was released in July 1989. All the Things I Wasn't, the lead single from the album (included in the Week 13 installment), was absolutely huge when I arrived on campus. This week's playlist includes the third single from that album, What Was Going Through My Head, which peaked at number 33 on the Canadian singles chart.

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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: "What Differnce Does It Make?" from Hatful of Hollow (1984)

ARTIST: The Smiths

I'm pretty sure I've mentioned this before, but I never physically owned any studio albums by The Smiths, instead relying on the compilations Hatful of Hollow and Louder Than Bombs and the live album Rank. For this week's playlist I've selected the live version of What Difference Does It Make? recorded on the John Peel show in May 1983 and included on the 1984 compilation Hatful of Hollow. The track originally appeared on the band's 1984 self-titled debut album and was their third single. After the modest success of the prior single, This Charming Man, which peaked at number 25 (the 1992 re-issue would hit number 8) on the UK single chart, What Difference Does It Make? reached number 12, the first of four consecutive top 25 singles for the band on the UK chart. Unbelievably (to me at least) this album celebrated its 40th anniversary this past week, making me feel a little like like a modern day Methuselah.

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TRACK: "Wasteland" from God's Own Medicine (1986)

ARTIST: The Mission

This is the second appearance from the English gothic rock band The Mission after Garden of Delight from the same album, 1986's God's Own Medicine, appeared way back in week 14. Wasteland was the second single released from the album and peaked at number 11 on the UK singles chart. The album peaked at number 14 in the UK and at number 108 on the US Billboard 200. Although the band would go on to release another nine studio albums, with varying degrees of success, I quite quickly lost interest in their music and this was the only album of theirs I ever owned.

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TRACK: "Winter in my Heart" from Turquoise & Crimson (2006)

ARTIST: VAST

I've previously written about my love for VAST, an artist that's previously appeared three times on Alphabet Soup. Winter in my Heart originally appeared on the 2004 album Nude and then again in a remastered form on the double album Turquose & Crimson. I prefer this version from Turquoise & Crimson as it has more clarity and somehow seems to have more of a sense of immediacy than the version on Nude. Both of these albums serve as transitional records between the more industrial sound of VAST's debut album and April, his fifth studio album released in 2007, which leaned much more into an acoustic sound.

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TRACK: "World in my Eyes" from Violator (1990)

ARTIST: Depeche Mode

After first discovering and falling in love with the amazing compilation Catching Up With Depeche Mode in the mid-80s, I only ever dipped in and out of the band's music. While I enjoyed many of their more popular songs and music videos from the late 80s and early 90s, I could only ever classify myself as a casual fan. My wife Tina was a much bigger fan and she brought a handful of their albums into our joint CD collection when we got together, including their seventh album 1990's Violator. World in my Eyes, the album's final single, peaked at number 52 on the Billboard Hot 100, the only of the album's four singles not to make it into the top 15 in the US.

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TRACK: "Woke Up This Morning" from Exile on Coldharbour Lane (1997)

ARTIST: Alabama 3 (A3 in the US)

For many people Woke Up This Morning from Alabama 3's fantastic debut album, 1997's Exile on Coldharbour Lane, will only ever be known as the opening song from David Chase's brilliant HBO show The Sopranos. I first heard of the band in April 1998. I was browsing around an independent record shop in Alphabet City, New York and came across an album by A3 that sounded quite unlike anything I'd heard in some time. Only years later would I discover that the UK band was originally named Alabama 3 but recast as A3 in the US to avoid a copyright clash with the country band Alabama. The album received generally favorable reviews, including an 8.9 rating on Pitchfork, but saw little in the way of commercial or chart success.

Rather than going with the mix of the song used for The Sopranos, I've gone with the album cut, which includes a sprawling spoken word intro during which vocalist Rob Spragg calls out a handful of influential blues musicians, finishing up with Howlin' Wolf, whose song Tell Me is sampled on the song. If you like this track then I'd highly recommend checking out the entire album as it's fantastic with only a couple mediocre tracks.

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TRACK: "When Doves Cry" from Purple Rain (1984)

ARTIST: Prince and the Revolution

Another track from an album that celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2024 and this one is a banger. The first of Prince's five singles to reach number 1  on the Billboard Hot 100, When Doves Cry has to be the most well-known song from his entire catalog. The track appeared on Purple Rain, the soundtrack to the film of the same name, a film I vaguely remember watching (and enjoying) as a kid. While I don't remember much of the film, I do remember that 13-year old Mark may have slightly fallen in love with Apollonia (not my first musical crush, that belongs to Debbie Boone who had a hit in 1977 with You Light Up My Life).

I've listened to very little of Prince's musical output and only ever owned two of his albums (Purple Rain and Around The World). He's on a shortlist of artists whose catalogs I want to dive into in 2025. If you're a Prince fan I'd love to hear from you: please jump into the comments with some of your favorite songs and albums and any suggestions on where to start with his vast catalog.

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TRACK: "When You Were Mine" from The Essential Cyndi Lauper (2003)

ARTIST: Cyndi Lauper

We end this week's playlist with one of my favorite tracks from an album that, in my view, despite its critical and commercial success, still remains underrated and under appreciated. If you only know Cyndi Lauper's debut album She's So Unusual from the hit singles Girls Just Wanna Have Fun and Time After Time, do yourself a favor and give the entire album a listen. After the failure of her band Blue Angel (for an INCREDIBLE vocal check out I'm Gonna Be Strong) and her subsequent bankruptcy, Lauper was playing clubs in New York where she was discovered by David Wolff who became her manager and got her signed to Portrait Records for this, her solo debut.

This is an iconic and pioneering album, one that spent 65 weeks in the top 40, peaking at number four on the Billboard 200 and sold over 17 million albums worldwide. Lauper became the first female artist to have four top five singles from the same album and she won the Grammy for Best New Artist at the 1985 awards. When You Were Mine was written by Prince and originally appeared on his 1980 album Dirty Mind.

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Four Days in the Mountains

While Tina and I did have a couple rest days in Mallorca we also had four fabulous days of hiking in the mountains, logging a little over 6,000 feet of elevation gain. Here’s one photo from each of those days:

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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)

• Two for the Show by Trooper (Week 40)

• Twenty One by Marry Me Jane (Week 40)

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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.