Currently on heavy rotation at Chez Branwyn: Fiona Apple's cover of The Waterboys' brilliant "The Whole of the Moon." She covered the 1985 classic for the season finale of the Showtime series, The Affair.

Apple had written the show's theme song five years earlier and came back to close out the series. The trademark "big music" sweep of the track and Apple's intense performance are perfect for a curtain-closing ending.

And the lyrics to this song are among my all-time favorites:

I pictured a rainbow You held it in your hands I had flashes But you saw the plan I wandered out in the world for years While you just stayed in your room I saw the crescent You saw the whole of the moon The whole of the moon

Here's The Waterboys doing their original version.

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When he's not playing drums for bands like Motion City Soundtrack and Tiny Stills, Tony Thaxton hosts a number of wacky podcasts — including a series of weekly Star Wars comedy music videos. Over the course of two years, Thaxton cranked out more than 100 Star Wars-themed songs under the name "Cloud City Soundtrack." While he's finally burnt-out on Tibana gas and has moved onto other Patreon projects, he has released a "best of" Cloud City Soundtrack compilation on BandCamp, with 19 songs featuring fan favorites such as Lando, Greedo, and Admiral Ackbar, as well as some deeper cuts into Star Wars lore like Bor Gullet and Ric Olié.

And honestly the songs are just delightful in that Weird Al-kinda way, so it's absolutely worth a listen.

Star Wars Songs by Cloud City Soundtrack

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You're looking at Dorothy Studio's beautiful map of the history of alternative music, available as a poster from their website. Read the rest