It started when I saw La Double vie de Veronique a few weeks ago at Florida Avalon Theatre.
The movie takes a look at the lives of identical twins (played by Irène Jacob) living separate lives in Poland and France. After seeing it, like in the movie Paterson, when the girlfriend character described having a dream in which she gives birth to twins, and Paterson begins seeing twins everywhere in going about his daily routines, I started “hearing things, seeing double,” to quote The Ergs.
A collection of songs formed in twos, that had uncannily similar melodies, lyrics that borrowed from each other, or just seemed to pair well together for various reasons. Some were obvious, some not so obvious.
As this is playlist no. 2 for me, it just felt right to explore the theme of duality, or doubles (listen to Jensen's first playlist for CL here). Read some explanations and listen to the playlist below. Download or follow it via Spotify.
Khruangbin - “White Gloves” This one came out of nowhere and surprised me to hear how much the rain, guitar tones and reverbed vocals reminded me of the next band.
The Clientele - “Five Day Morning” Burned for me by a coworker and played in heavy rotation when I was still new to Tampa, this debut (and every album since, really) is exactly what you need If you want to have the aural experience of exploring London streets and suburbs.
Beck - “Paper Tiger” Track two from Sea Change, always seemed like a low point to me, or maybe just the black sheep track on a record with so many classic bedtime jams, but couldn’t really skip over it either. Playing it in succession with the next track gives it new light. Also, go for the two-fer of "Morning Phase" if you can’t get enough of Sea Change.
Serge Gainsbourg - “Melody” Imitation is the highest form of flattery, right? Beck says this album is one of his favorites (obviously).
Julee Cruise - “Floating” Those low, slow horns almost (closely enough) syncing up with...
Jackie Shane - “Any Other Way” A compellingly cool and ahead of the times artist in their own right, this live version’s slower tempo and Jackie’s “preaching” at the end makes it one of the best interpretations of a classic song.
The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra, Zbigniew Preisner - “Concerto in E-minor” In La double vie de Veronique, this piece was said to be written by a Dutch composer “Van Den Budenmayer” who died two centuries before. This was a purely fictional character, and it was actually written by the Polish composer (& director Krzysztof Kieslowski’s best friend) Zbigniew Preisner.
Leos Janacek, Leon Botstein, American Symphony Orchestra - “Sinfonietta: I. Allegretto - Allegro maestoso (Fanfare) In another occurrence of dualism, I’m currently reading 1Q84, a book that takes turns with every other chapter furthering its two protagonists plots that are on a parallel path. No spoilers here, but this symphony piece opens the story, and is referenced a few other times throughout.
Foxygen - “On Blue Mountain” At first written off by me as another indie fave flavor of the week, it wasn’t until I saw Jonathan Rado and Tim Heidecker on Amoeba Records’ "What’s In My Bag" that I reassessed the band (or at least Rado). He teamed up with Heidecker to release and tour for the album In Glendale which (along with the "What’s In My Bag" segment) displays their knowledge and appreciation of all things 70s-era singer-songwriters. This particular song pretty overtly borrows melodies of "Under My Thumb", but bonus points if you catch "Suspicious Minds" vibes in there too.
The Rolling Stones - “Under My Thumb” The controversial song that the Stones were playing at Altamont when Meredith Hunter got stabbed.
Boards of Canada - “Twoism” Two brothers in the band born in the months June and July, just like my brother and me.
Spoon - “The Two Sides of Monsieur Valentine” Lots of double meanings to explore in this one. After finally seeing them play in Ybor after years of listening to them, and possibly seeing them again on my birthday, two times in a year is a good start to making up for lost time.
Allen Toussaint “Soul Sister” and “Hey You” Here are two soul songs back-to-back to put you on to the high possibility that I’ll played them both for my guest DJ set at this month’s Rock & Soul at the Hub. And yes, it was the 2 year anniversary celebration.
Swamp Dogg - “Synthetic World” The deeper of the two songs, lyrically, which may come as a surprise from an artist who’s hilariously pictured triumphantly riding a rat on the cover of Rat On!.
Alex Izenberg - “To Move On” “That fine, fine music”
The Velvet Underground - “Rock & Roll” Two TV sets, and two Cadillac cars, and a life saved by rock & roll.
El Ten Eleven - “Connie” This and the following track included solely to point out the similarities of the two album covers that have always jumped out at me.
Heatmiser “Half Right” From Elliott Smith’s former band’s third and final album, Mic City Sons, this track quietly closes out the album, sounding closer to his solo work than any other.
