"Northern Sky," Nick Drake, from "Bryter Layter"
If you haven't heard Nick Drake's music, or have only heard it in the context of a Volkswagen commercial, take advantage of this free download, a rarity from a major-label artist. The song is "Northern Sky," one of Drake's most beautiful compositions. Unfortunately, like all of Drake's work except for the songs on the flawless "Pink Moon," it was marred by producer Joe Boyd's insipid and utterly tasteless light-rock production. This is far from Boyd's worst, but it's still a shame that the song can't be heard with just Drake's voice and guitar, and without John Cale's absurd, noodly piano-playing (yes, Velvet Underground John Cale, who should have known better). No matter -- just bask in the beautiful melody, and then go buy "Pink Moon." Free Download: "Northern Sky"
"Prices," Damien Jurado, from "Just in Time for Something"
Some artists go lo-fi out of financial necessity, some because of a misguided indie aesthetic that equates "authenticity" with bad recording quality. Others genuinely like a degraded sound, are interested in the disruptive possibilities of white noise, in the delicate nostalgia that can be conjured by tape hiss and analog crackle. That path has its pitfalls -- too often it can be like the musical equivalent of stripping some of the paint off a piece of furniture to artificially age it -- but it can also produce powerfully evocative music. On his new five-song EP, "Just in Time for Something," Seattle indie-folker Damien Jurado is clearly taking the atmospheric power of lo-fi sound quite seriously: To record the EP, he bought a '67 tube-powered reel-to-reel, through which he ran tape salvaged from thrift stores. The effect is to render Jurado's already delicate acoustic balladry positively spectral. Free Download: "Prices"
"Spiders," Wilco, live recording
I haven't had the pleasure of hearing Wilco perform live since alterna-guitar god Nels Cline joined the band's lineup, but by all accounts he's been a brilliant addition. The whole band sounds pretty great on this live recording of "Spiders," from a show last June at the Vic in Chicago. The song was one of the real highlights of the largely dull "Ghost," but it's even better live, as it's essentially a tight, minimalist frame for extended guitar solos. I'm not entirely sure which guitar parts are being played by frontman Jeff Tweedy and which by Cline, but it's probably a safe bet that the stuff that sounds like Neil Young in full spaz-out mode is Tweedy, while the more abstract, non-guitarish guitar sounds are being made by Cline. Whatever the case, the full effect is thrilling. Also available on the band's Web site is a beautiful live version of "Cars Can't Escape" (free download here), an outtake from the "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" sessions. Free Download: "Spiders"
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Have an opinion about this week's downloads? Check out the Wednesday Morning Download thread on Table Talk.
About the writer
Thomas Bartlett is a writer and musician in New York. He maintains a blog called doveman.
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