Stephen King Didn't Like Many Records This Year (And Apparently Changed His Mind About Ryan Adams)
Stephen King's Entertainment Weekly column gives the horror master a place to unleash his cultural musings, which run the gamut from calling TV a wasteland ("all is not LOST"!) to calling for Jon Stewart to head up a US Department of Fun. It follows that EW also provides King safe harbor to pontificate on the year in music, which is fair enough given how masterfully Christine seduced Arnie with choice music selections, and how much ink King gave over to Roland's fascination with the "Hey Jude" jukebox in The Dark Towers (yep, King factored into our adolescence just a little). But for a man profferring his expertise on the new sounds of the day, Stephen's musical tastes seem to have ossified some. He writes in the 12/7 issue of EW (via MSNBC), "In truth, your Uncle Stevie was disappointed with this year’s new music, very disappointed indeed, and his year-end list reflects that. I could only find seven albums I wanted to mention..." Only seven albums worth speaking of! Well that's OK, suppose it's better and more paper-saving than rattling off an all-inclusive annotated list of 101 or whatever. Economical. Cool. Let's have 'em:
07 Southern Culture On The Skids - Countrypolitan FavoritesFogerty, Lovett, Steve Earle, Ozzy. Ozzy? King calls Black Rain the "finest heavy metal record of the year; a true speaker-buster." Brandon, you need to YouSend him a copy of that Watain. Yes Stephen if these are the only records worth mentioning than this hasn't been a good year for music -- or really, your listening of it. But most puzzling of all, what happened to all that love for Easy Tiger? If Ryan's "the best North American singer-songwriter since Neil Young," and "there has never been a Ryan Adams record quite as strong and together as Easy Tiger" ... you must not have a very high opinion of Neil Young.
06 John Fogerty - Revival
05 Ozzy Osbourne - Black Rain
04 Lyle Lovett And His Large Band - It's Not Big It's Large
03 Mika - Life In Cartoon Motion
02 Wilco - Sky Blue Sky
01 Steve Earle - Washington Square Serenade
UPDATE: Having got our paws on a physical copy of the issue, Stephen tries to make amends with some mitigating language ("Might I add, while I'm at it, that I'm haunted ... by all the good stuff I may have missed?") and acknowledges there were at least 11more singles than albums that he dug. So a shot at redemption! But then he had to include Avril and James Blunt on it. The list of his Top 18 tracks after the jump.
18 "Radio Nowhere" - Bruce SpringsteenSK signs off: "This is as honest as I can be. So there. And let's hope next year is a little bit better."
17 "1973" - James Blunt
16 "Nothing Changes Around Here" - The Thrills"
15 "Girlfriend" - Avril Lavigne
14 "Homo Erectus" - Ray Benson and Reckless Kelly
13 "Bring It On Home To Me" - Tab Benoit
12 "I'm Shipping Up To Boston" - Dropkick Murphys
11 "Radar Gun" - The Bottle Rockets
10 "Online" - Brad Paisley
09 "Same Mistake" - James Blunt
08 "Up In Indiana" - Lyle Lovett And His Large Band
07 "Right Moves" - Josh Ritter
06 "Wait For Love" - Josh Ritter
05 "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" - Miranda Lambert
04 "Jericho Road" - Steve Earle
03 "Get Your Biscuits In The Oven (And Your Buns In Bed)" - Kevin Fowler
02"Down The Road Tonight" - Hayes Carll
"Either Way" - Wilco
Posted at 3:44 PM in Shit List, Year-End List
Tags: Stephen King
wtf no Acrade Fire?//1???!!
Score = 0
OMG WHERZ ANIMAL COLLECTIVEZ?
Score = 0
Stephen King doesn't like much of anything. Not since... the accident.
Score = 0
This list is total shit. Stephen King has lost his cred.
Score = 0
I'm all for personal taste, but when you believe a long past his prime Ozzy Osbourne is one of only seven good things about a year in music, something is seriously wrong. And I didn't even know Southern Culture On The Skids still existed.
Score = 0
Stephen King is so irrelevant.
Score = 0
Clearly this means Stephen King should lose all of his cred as an authority on music. Oh wait, he never had any, so WHO GIVES A SHIT? Let the guy take a break from writing horror novels for a day and talk about music.
Score = 0
The only book i read this year was Everybody Poops. Therefore it was the only good book of the year.
Score = 0
You would think that, for someone who has the option of listening to music for several hours a day while he writes, he'd have heard more than 10 or 15 records this year.
Score = 0
what a bloody joke - stick to writing boaring horror movies you loser
Score = 0
That is hilarious. Someone needs to email him and remind him about that Easy Tiger review. Obviously his praise of it contained as much fiction as one of his books or he's losing his memory. Which accounts for him only remembering seven good albums this year.
Score = 0
The best thing about Stephen King's list was the absence of that Arcade Fire album from this year that every indie hipster/scene kid/Myspace queen/TRL fangirl loves to orgasm to.
I assume he was supposed to put Easy Tiger at number three instead of Mika's.
I'm sure he wasn't serious about placing Ozzy's latest in the list.
Score = 1
Stephen King just lost what little credibility he had with me. That Steve Earle album is easily one of the worst albums of the year, if not the decade. (And it was even worse live -- Most of the people around me at ACL this year were outright mocking Steve's new tunes.)
Stephen better just stick to writing his little horror stories.
Score = 0
Are people really saying that Stephen King has lost his music cred over this list? Greg, who posted earlier, is right: he never had any to begin with! But he's certainly entitled to voice his opinion on what music he likes, just like any of us. I think his list is okay if a bit dull, apart from Mika, who is just awful, but then the thought of Stephen King, horror writer extraordinaire, listening to the girly-voiced, sickly sweet, kitch-fest that is Mika kinda amuses me. I personally find Mika scarier than Pennywise or any King character.
Score = 0
Who cares what Stephen King likes? It's bad enough that EW sucks up to him and gives him a biweekly column that he fills with his pointless musings. I love his (early) books as much as the next guy, but a pop-culture columnist he is NOT.
Score = 0
karl rove's album list of the year, in Newsweek on newsstands Tuesday:
1) Dixie Chicks -- etc.
2) Spoon - Don't make me a target etc.
Score = 0
"The Dark Towers?" That would be The Dark Tower. Or The Dark Tower series, if you prefer.
Score = 0
umm that's probably why The Dark Tower is italiziced and the pluralising s isn't, moopdog. if you want to edit you have to learn to be a more careful reader first. since I don't want this just to be a chastise the idiot comment i'll add that EW ought to rescind their pop culture column offer to King for next year based in this list. he put one together for the mag last year, he's given the platform, and so the Reader should be allowed to take his opinion with a reasonable expectation of some research and reliability. this list is simply ignorant. a pink slip in Stephen's stocking.
Score = 0
I take it he was including stuff from years ago that he just now heard (like the Bottle Rockets and Dropkick Murphys songs)?
Score = 0
moopdog is right. Italicized or not, it is The Dark Tower series to pluralize.
And, yeah. I am kind of sad about that list.
Score = 0
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
EXCELLENT
Score = 0
Thankee, sai but no Thankee. Sigh...
Score = 0
Never knew King was a Dropkick Murphys fan. Sweet. ;-)
Score = 0
Steven King digs music LOL ROFL HAUS.
I heard he has the smallest poops.
Score = 0