Five Songs, Chapter Sixteen

“Why Don’t You Love Me” by Hank Williams

Because you’ve got to love a song that includes the lyric “Why don’t you love me like you used to do / How come you treat me like a worn-out shoe?”

“Elevator Love Letter” by Stars

I think this is literally a love letter to an elevator, which is more than a bit bizarre, but the song’s awful purty.

“Daysleeper” by Longwave

By the time Longwave released The Strangest Things, Interpol and the Strokes had already beat them to the position of reigning buzzmakers in New York, but I’d put it up against the work of those two bands. That’s not saying too much, given how I feel about those bands (it doesn't hurt that Longwave is more shoegazey and more early U2-y, influences that do more for me than Interpol's Joy Division fixation and the Strokes'...recycled hook fixation). "Daysleeper" is an instrumental, and it’s got satisfyingly spacey guitar work over a more grounded, determined drum part. Plus, it builds up to a point, with fifty-four seconds left, where a drill-like guitar loudly interrupts the proceedings -- and I hate to say, but it’s the perfect match for the sound going through my head quite often these days, which sound I can blame almost entirely on the R train.

“Daysleeper” by R.E.M.

Same title as the previous song, and a weirdly appropriate companion to it. Moody, pretty, and one of the four or five songs R.E.M. has recorded since Bill Berry left that might deserve a place on a “best of” collection. It would probably have to be a two-disc collection, but still. (OK, since you’re dying to know, the others I’d consider would be “Why Not Smile,” “Beat a Drum,” “Imitation of Life,” and “Leaving New York.”)

“Moonshiner” by Uncle Tupelo

You might think you know a better version of this traditional song (Bob Dylan and Cat Power have recorded it, among others). If so, you are wrong. Very, very wrong.