To paraphrase Clark Gable, “You should have your mind blown, and often, and by someone who knows how.”

Here are a few of the things that have been blowing my mind lately (in the area of music, that is; there are other things, too, that need not be gotten into here; The Prestige was one of them).

We Are the Dead

I plucked this song off David Bowie’s Diamond Dogs for a Halloween mix I was making, and I’m all, like, wow…. It’s funny, on an album full of great songs, no one song stands out so much. But take any one of them out of context, and you realize just how phenomenal it is. This particular tune starts off sweet and lyrical, then turns metallically ominous, then changes back, then changes back again, all so seamlessly that it really seems like one song. Check it out and tell me I’m wrong. I dare you.

Osmium

This album, vintage 1971, was the first release from Parliament after George Clinton broke away from the other Parliaments to explore the possibilites inherent in the combination of soul music and LSD. As you might expect, it is a truly widescreen psychedelic funk experience, grounded in the heavier side of soul but branching off in all sorts of strange directions. Its breadth is such that it can encompass a country song built around the Jew’s harp (“Little Ole Country Boy”), a gospel song built around the harpsichord (“Oh Lord, Why Lord”), and a song Pink Floyd would have written if they’d been from Detroit (“The Silent Boatman”). The CD adds a bunch of great bonus tracks, including two monster-hits-that-should-have-been, “Come in Out of the Rain” and “Fantasy Is Reality.”