Muzak from Beck to Beach Boys

The video for Beck's "Up All Night" reminded me of nothing so much as Fiona Apple's "Criminal".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tj08Ni3tklw

(Remember the incredible buzz surrounding Fiona back in the late 90s?  I love how one person explained Fiona's "disappearance" by noting that she didn't go anywhere, we just stopped listening.)  I don't have space for both of these videos, so cue them up back to back and convince yourself.  I wanted to instead expose any forgotten Fiona fans to her underappreciated cover of the Beatles' "Across the Universe", whose obvious drug-induced lyrics reminded me of nothing so much as the mind-warping, way overlooked Beach Boys anthem "Feel Flows", which Cameron Crowe was spot on in hand-selecting for the "Almost Famous" end credits.
The vandalism of the soda shop in "Across the Universe" is an obvious oblique reference to "Pleasantville" (this song anchored that soundtrack, in case you stopped remembering)  - In places, and for once, Fiona wasn't so artificially brooding, and seemed to actually be having fun.
There are moving picture versions of the "Feel Flows" video out there, but the title card with the adolescent (well, she was 21 at the time, but looks like a preternatural Betty Boop) yet all-too-aware Kate Hudson parted-lips visage is the clear visual winner.  Aphrodisiac indeed.  (Get back to YouTube if you need to decipher more than half of these lyrics, or just put any album in the back window of a car with the windows rolled up on a hot day and write your own, based on a description of what you find.) "Feel Flows", naturally, triggered the memory (drug-induced lyrics are apparently good for something) of my all-time favorite Brian Wilson song "Caroline No".  If you're a Brian Wilson fan, you've worn out the needle on his heart-wrenchingly perfect version, so instead, here's a less painful cover performed by the harmonically-blessed trio America.  Enjoy at work, kind of an apologetic mishmash mix-tape .

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