Music and Lyrics covers albums to write to. This series* covers albums to drink to, not ratchetly (though we can go there eventually, if you’d like), but rather in a civilized manner, with a bowl of olives or popcorn or the snack of your choice at hand.
Research suggests that drinking is bad but lest I state the obvious, it’s also fun and delicious. Marijuana and I don’t mix. I’m not in my micro-dosing era. So, cocktail hour it is!
I know what you’re wondering: CAN you DRINK to albums that you write to? (A better writer would not end a sentence with a preposition, you can find her elsewhere.) Short answer: yes. But in the same way that experts suggest reserving your bed for sleeping and whatever else you do horizontal (wild that there are experts for such things, amiright?), I like to reserve certain albums for certain occasions, with room for crossover. For example: Kind of Blue recently moved from “work” to “bath time” as well as “when I’ve returned home from a weird night and need a vibe shift.”
Without further ado:
One good thing about the frat boy I went on a single date with freshman year of college who took me to a Thai restaurant off campus and asked to split the check and put his palm against mine and mentioned what beautiful children we’d have (LITERALLY WTF) — he gave me a Hôtel Costes CD. He called it acid jazz, I call it simply the best French lounge music known to man.
There is a real Hôtel Costes and if you want to go, make a reservation so that you don’t get shunted to a drab side room by a blithe hostess who almost makes you lose your taste for the eponymous series of albums. They are all excellent, as are the playlists (though not the Apple/Spotify curated “radio stations,” like Big Sean, I don’t F with those). If I had to pick one, I’d go with Hôtel Costes: A Decade 1999-2009. If I had to pick a second, it would be Hôtel Costes, Vol. 15. Every single track is a banger (again, not in a head banging way).
Should you be seeking something different: how about Stan Getz? Getz/Gilberto hails all the way from 1964 and contains The Girl From Ipanema which I bet you’ve heard before. This is the little black dress of albums, it never goes out of style. I’d pair it with an al fresco 50/50 on a warm eve as the sun sets.
One Good Thing: the 50/50
My current cocktail fixation is a 50/50. It’s a variation on a martini — half gin (or vodka), half dry vermouth. The classic martini calls for mostly hard liquor and just a splash of vermouth, or, if ordered extra dry, barely any vermouth at all. I don’t remember where I first heard about the 50/50 but after teaching an Emirates Airlines bartender how t…
I’ve lately been on a Dave Brubeck kick. At the Hollywood Bowl (1958) is pretty perfect, not least because it contains a live, peppy rendition of Take Five. To drink with this: a Manhattan, if that’s your speed, or a gin and tonic if it’s not.
Finally, The Italian Sessions, by Chet Baker. Zippy and fresh, it makes me want to tap my feet and sip a Negroni with a big ‘ol block of ice.
One good thing: the Holy Trinity Negroni
For a long time, the Negroni, to quoth Shania Twain, did not impress me much. The versions that I ordered at bars often arrived watery and separated, with cloyingly sweet Campari at the bottom, a lethal layer of gin at the top, and a tiny, red, good for nothing straw.
Cheers, friends!
*If you’ve been here long enough, you know how good I am at keeping up with series. Bear with me … it might be worth it (: