Barry seems to legitimately love Courtney Barnett judging by how often she pops up in these lists.
(Btw, I feel like "things take time" didn't really get a fair shake—it's great. Then again I'm in the distinct minority that prefers "tell me how you really feel" to "sometimes I sit...").
Michael Hurley is a true original, one of our greatest living songwriters. I'll be excited to have this in my hands as soon as the USPS allows it.
By the way, if any of you have the opportunity to see him play live, jump on it. I went to one of his shows just a little over three years ago and it was one of the most delightful and life-affirming experiences I've ever had.
After further thought, here are some others that also deserve mention: Marisa Anderson/William Tyler; Brendan Elder Ensemble; Mega Bog; Rosali; Bill MacKay/Nathan Bowles; Courtney Barnett; Sam Gendel/Sam Wilkes; Chuck Johnson; Phil Cook, probably others I'm forgetting. Music's great.
Here's my top, um, 12? Why not. A lot of great music has come out in the past two months that I'm still catching up with. Kinda feel bad that these year-end lists give short shrift to that stuff. Pretty sure I'll end up listening to the new Michael Hurley and Jeff Parker albums as much as anything, but so it goes.
1) The Weather Station—Ignorance
2) Yasmin Williams—Urban Driftwood
3) Matt Sweeney & Bonnie “Prince” Billy—Superwolves
4) Steve Gunn—Other You
5) Green-House—Songs for Living Spaces
6) Mdou Moctar—Afrique Victime
7) Nathan Salsburg—Psalms
8) Dinosaur Jr.—Sweep it into Space
9) The War on Drugs—I Don’t Live Here Anymore
10) Hayden Pedigo—Letting Go
11) Wau Wau Collectif—Yaral sa Doom
12) Grouper—Shade
As a fun-loving person, I often amuse myself/ruin titles by changing the second noun in a "noun of noun" title to an attributive noun, i.e. "Rain Buckets" or "Thrones Game."
Once I could bear to revisit Purple Mountains a few months after DCB died, I was struck by how similar it was to Bright Flight in some key ways. Both records feature some of Berman's darkest and lightest writing, often within the course of the same song. And, of course, both can be hard to take, knowing what we know now. But lately, I've just tried to focus on how goddamn good it all is: the words, the music, everything. I'm grateful for every note, every joke, every shred of wisdom, every heartbreaking line he gave us. And Bright Flight is chock-full of each of those things.
Not that weird considering this was one of the tracks on Now That's What I Call Music! Vol. 1, sandwiched between "Barbie Girl" and "I Will Buy You a New Life." Frankly it'd be far stranger if Kelly Clarkson did "Barbie Girl."
"A Movie Script Ending" was the first Death Cab song I heard (thanx MTV2) and I still think it's the best one. Quite a few tracks from this one were staples on my high school mix cds.
I've heard "Jesus, Etc." approximately 50,000 times, but it came up on shuffle when I was driving to work yesterday and I got all choked up. What an album. (And a great write-up here—thanks Chris).
I'll have to check it out. I kinda get annoyed with Vish because he's always asking people what their lyrics are about, but he generally picks great interview subjects.
In some ways I can't believe it's been twenty years. But then I see that belt she's wearing on the album cover and realize it's definitely been twenty years.
How many Nirvana songs are actively depressing? Like, maybe 5 or 6? There's quite a bit of humor and general playfulness on all of those albums. They've been made out to be these grim slabs of doom in retrospect and I don't really think that's fair.
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