Here’s a playlist to add to your Spotify répertoire to completely confuse your Weekly Discover.

• Just (After Song of Songs) — David Lang and the Trio Mediaeval

  I met this song the first time during the closing credits of Paolo Sorrentino’s Youth, an (at least in my eyes and 75% of critics’ eyes) exceptional film that tracks the life of a conductor (Michael Caine) and his daughter (Rachel Weisz, who committed the crime of being a woman and so didn’t make it to the first page of IMDB listings, despite her spectacular performance). The piece perfectly closed up the film and maintained the somber, existential-romantic feel so perfectly that I had to seek it out. And here it is.

• Summer Spliffs — Broke for Free

  Great instrumentation in this song, but no spectacular story behind how I found it. I just think we all need a pick-me-up after Just.

• Rita — [re:jazz]

  Another song for which I have no good backstory or interesting trivia — but it’s a good sort of thing, and it’ll get us up-to-tempo for the next piece.

• J’ai peur parfois — Adele

  No, not that Adele. A different Adele! An Adele that dresses up in fluorescent furs and sings in French, which is arguably more interesting anyhow. Thanks to the giftshop in The Cooper Hewitt Design Museum in NYC for this song that makes you want to be a 1960s fashion designer and court Astrud Gilberto for a living.

• Ruins (Live) — The Portico Quartet

  By far one of my favorite bands, and possibly one of my favorite pieces of theirs. This live mix differs significantly from the original, and I’m very up-in-the-air as to which I prefer. It’s also a significant deviation from their older albums like Knee-Deep in the North Sea, where the hang drum (a cross of a steel drum with a baby UFO) dominates their still-otherworldly sound. Listen to Clipper from Isla for what I consider to be the musical precursor to Ruins, and then listen to Prickly Pear, something totally different that relies on the sound of the hang so heavily that I can’t name any other instruments in it without listening to it first. And then finish it off with *Zavodovski Island, which always makes me want to drive a speedboat really fast.

• Chiome d’oro — N. Rial & P. Jaroussky (Monteverdi)

  Two unbelievably talented singers make literal musical magic in this piece by Monteverdi, whose syncopated timing and interesting variations on a theme are a great example of the “ciaconna” style of music. If you’re not a fan of opera…still give it a shot. And if you’re looking for a good time, wait until about forty seconds into Zefiro Torna for what may take you by surprise. Many thanks to Jon Fuller for being an all-around great dude and leaving Zefiro Torna in what can only be described as the most eclectic mixtape I’ve ever received.

• Kong — Bonobo

  This is such a motivational song if for no other reason than its relentless beat and new, novel treatments of its same constant chord-progression every few seconds. Simon Green (“Bonobo” on stage) is a brilliant mixologist, if the term can be applied to music. Take Nightlite, the vocals to which are so characteristically Bajka (say with me — “bai-ka”). Or listen to and watch the music video for Cirrus, which is just a really good experience overall.

• Familiarity — Punch Brothers

  I couldn’t bring myself to make a mix without at least one song by Chris Thile, a master of the mandolin and also probably anything else he does. Familiarity evokes the same sort of epic-poem-style of composing as Sufjan Stevens’ Impossible Soul. Certainly Impossible Soul is a 25-minute behemoth and Familiarity is only a (measly) 10. But the Punch Brothers traverse a wide range of sounds, from quick-picking right from the start; to 1:30, when stringed instruments become percussive; to 3:00, where we get as close as a string ensemble can get to headbanging without getting tacky (I won’t even link to the godawful affront unto the world of music that is the 2Cellos arrangement of Thunderstruck for fear of it being considered an endorsement); to 5:00, overarching, mantra-like shouting-I-Love-You-from-a-mountaintop; and back again. Art in every way. I discovered Chris Thile from one of his Tiny Desk Concerts, a YouTube channel that, if you’re not already following, you ought to. Here’s his collaboration with Yo-yo Ma, and here’s Julep, which I’ve been known to describe as ‘godly,’ despite myself.

• Unsquare Dance — Dave Brubeck

  Another all-time favorite. In characteristic (ever wonder why Take Five is called that? It’s in ⁵/₄) Dave Brubeck style, this piece follows an uncommon timing in western music — ⁷/₄ (one-two-three-four-one(!)-two-three) — but still keeps you as a safe passenger. It also toys with some common motifs in square-dance and country music, but — at the very last moment, as soon as you recognize that shave-and-a-haircut theme — it pulls it right out from under you and you’re left with an extra “and-a-haircut, two-bits” as a final farewell.