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1. "Boys in the Better Land" by Fontaines D.C. 2. "Drinkin' Days" by Pkew Pkew Pkew 3. "This Life" by Vampire Weekend 4. "Drunk II" by Mannequin Pussy 5. "Born to Stay" by Future Teens 6. "I Feel Emotion" by Operators 7. "Visions" by Strand of Oaks 8. "4AM" by Spielbergs 9. "Uncomfortably Numb" by American Football 10. "Kids" by PUP Sidenote: Am I the only crazy person who thinks the Best of the Decade lists should've been after the Best of 2019 lists? That's how I thought it was gonna go, which really just means that I've had this list ready to go for a month and I totally missed out on the decade discussion when it went down. Anyways! Thanks as always to Stereogum and the comment community here for keeping me up to date with music way more than I'd be otherwise.
Alright, yesterday totally caught me off guard, but I was prepared for today. 20. "One Trick Ponies" by Kurt Vile 19. "Boys in the Better Land" by Fontaines D.C. 18. "Little of Your Love" by Haim 17. "Dimed Out" by Titus Andronicus 16. "To Know Your Mission" by Jens Lekman 15. "Down Down the Deep River" by Okkervil River 14. "Younger Us" by Japandroids 13. "Queen of Hearts" by Fucked Up 12. "God in Chicago" by Craig Finn 11. "Fear and Trembling" by Gang of Youths 10. "Swan Dive" by Waxahatchee 9. "Four Score and Seven" by Titus Andronicus 8. "Total Football" by Parquet Courts 7. "DVP" by PUP 6. "Simple Song" by the Shins 5. "Sunday Candy" by Nico Segal & the Social Experiment 4. "Waitress" by Hop Along 3. "Casey" by the Menzingers 2. "Stay Useless" by Cloud Nothings 1. "4th of July, Philadelphia (Sandy)" by Cymbals Eat Guitars
This is one of those songs from my youth that I acted like I only liked ironically but now that I'm a little older I can be comfortable enough to just say that it's straight-up fucking great.
I don't know how to embed, apparently. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCQ7trw3Vwg
BONUS BONUS BONUS BONUS BEATS There's a radical religious group in Philly called the Black Israelites. They get permits to set up shop on center city sidewalks and yell loudly at passersby. One group of stores combated their obnoxiousness by hiring a DJ to play music even louder than the yelling.
I love when reviews spend a paragraph talking about specific songs, and compare each song to a whole range of other artists and genres and sounds, and every. single. one. of those references exactly applies to the type of music you love. That's what happens in this review's second to last paragraph, and it makes me so damn excited for this album.
Have you ever been to a meeting in your office of employment, and there's a group meeting that goes on way too long, and at the tail end of the meeting, the boss says, okay, any questions? And some idiot raises his/her hand and asks an incredibly specific question that only pertains to him/her? Happens all the time at my work, and every time, I hate that person intensely for even asking the question. It's like, okay, the question might be legit, but why waste everyone else's time with it? Why muddle the original point of the meeting with some bullshit adjacent question? This is how I feel re: the gun problem vs. a very specific amount of hogs for one specific person.
How many weeks does this have to stay at number one for The Number Ones to catch up? It might be a great way for Tom to end his column, to have to write about "Old Town Road" in 2022 in its 171st week atop the charts.
I'm weirdly offended that "Tuesday's Gone" was referenced as the song at the end of Happy Gilmore, as opposed to the song at the end of the keg party in Dazed and Confused.
Holy shit, they play the beginning of this song during Phillies radio broadcasts when they are coming back from commercial. I've literally heard the opening to this song hundreds of times in the past decade, and I never knew it was an actual song until right now.
Anyways, I'm definitely going to check out this new Insignificant Other album.
So weird, AVClub just posted a video about Heathers. I guess I'm watching it tonight.
Second mention of Heathers on Stereogum today. I've never seen it, is it worth the watch?
I don't believe in skipping songs when I'm listening to an album, but I've only made it through "The Bark and Below It" once. I can't do it again. But I absolutely adore this album in general, tolerating the sound experiments that are shorter than ELEVEN MINUTES.
I don't really hear too much Free Energy here. Not knocking either band (Free Energy is so, so good). But call me crazy, I am kind of getting... Guster vibes here? The vocals for sure. Maybe if Guster decided to stop being lame and strived to be a hard rock band?
Count me among the many here apparently who have dislike Girlpool's output so far, and I wasn't planning on even bothering with this one. But between my new year's resolution of listening to every Heavy Rotation album at least once, the AotW win, and my love for the general idea of a band I've hated in the past finally giving me an album I like, count me in to try this one.
As a diehard Eagles fan, it's my #1 of the year (but not BECAUSE I'm a diehard Eagles fan, though it certainly didn't hurt).
10. “Forget Me Not” by Brian Fallon 9. “Suck the Blood from My Wounds” by Ezra Furman 8. “Number One (in New York)” by Titus Andronicus 7. “Short Court Style” by Natalie Prass 6. “Sober to Death” by Car Seat Headrest 5. “New Birth in New England” by Phosphorescent 4. “Semicircle Song” by the Go! Team 3. “The Fire” by the Lemon Twigs 2. “One Trick Ponies” by Kurt Vile 1. “Total Football” by Parquet Courts
I've legitimately never heard of H.E.R. Is that an indictment of the Grammys or me?
As always, thanks to all the staff and commenters here on Stereogum for helping me out and keeping me in the know. We had another good year of music. 1. Dose Your Dreams by Fucked Up 2. Bell House by Shy Boys 3. Hope Downs by Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever 4. what people call self-esteem is really just seeing yourself the way others see you by awakebutstillinbed 5. LONER by Caroline Rose 6. Wide Awake! by Parquet Courts 7. Virtue by the Voidz 8. Bark Your Head Off, Dog by Hop Along 9. Truth in Comedy by Steady Hands 10. Smote Reverser by Oh Sees 11. AT WORK by DARK THOUGHTS 12. Future Me Hates Me by the Beths 13. Superorganism by Superorganism 14. I'll Be Your Girl by the Decemberists 15. Freedom by Amen Dunes 16. Twin Fantasy by Car Seat Headrest 17. Master Volume by the Dirty Nil 18. Freedom's Goblin by Ty Segall 19. And Nothing Hurt by Spritiualized 20. Skylight by Pinegrove
musicfan, in the year 2023, after Zayn's "Pillowtalk" gets a 4/10: "Are you serious?!? No way is that pile of crap better than The Beatles' 'All You Need Is Love'. No fucking way!" The comment will receive a score of -4.
Damn, no shout out for the new Tokyo Police Club album? In a week with an insane amount of potentially great music coming out, I'm probably the most excited about TPC (well, okay, after reading this review, Fucked Up might have nudged into the lead). I thought their last two albums (Forcefield, Champ) were super fun, and am pumped to see if they can keep it up.
As someone who is turning 30 in a couple months, this article hit me hard.
I hate Maroon 5's music as much as the next Gummer, but I'm struggling to come up with an artist who 1) could in a realistic scenario be booked for the Super Bowl Halftime, and 2) appeals to the sensibilities of the music listeners who frequent Stereogum (and, okay, maybe 3, avoid going into the "rolodex of classic rock relics"). Are there any answers? I'd love to see, like, Dark Thoughts or Okkervil River or Brockhampton on that stage, but is there a world in which the NFL would actually book these acts? As music fans of a certain genre, are we destined to be disappointed by halftime for the rest of our lives??
I'll probably be checking this album out based on the hilarious sorghum digression alone.
I had an hour-long drive last weekend by myself - no wife, no baby - and took that opportunity to play this album at full blast. It was a fucking trip.
BIG NIGHT hanging in with the three month old while my wife is out (she deserves a night on the town). best albums to change diapers to GO
All of this nonsense combined still isn't as bad as those messages she DM'd that poor blogger. That shit was just nasty and Minaj has seemed like a genuinely terrible person in my eyes since.
I wish that whenever I get blackout drunk, my wife would describe me as "delightfully loopy" and "slaphappy," instead of threatening divorce.
I think that anyone that waves this behavior away as "well, he's obviously mentally is" is wrong. No room for that apologetic behavior here. Kanye's a grown man, I'm going to take him at his word. But let's say for arguments sake that it does come out that Kanye is seriously ill and he gets put in the figurative straightjacket, etc., and it was clear that his trump support was coming from a mentally unstable place. Is it forgivable at that point? Personally, I don't think it is. Even though that would make me like Tony in the Sopranos when a demented Uncle Junior keeps telling him that he never had the makings of a varsity athlete.
Same! We played this song after every game when our team lost ("Louie Louie" was the winning anthem). Eventually we were banned from playing this song at women's basketball games, I guess just in case anyone was familiar with the titles of shitty early-'60s one-off hits?
I feel like I can never tell how famous (or not famous) Dr. Dog is. Isn't their new album out Friday? Am I just stuck in a Philly bubble more than I originally realized?
Okay but what would Stillwater think about it
said "people-watching" twice, probably a bit too many gin and seltzers already
Sitting out front on one of those old retro thatched lawn chairs, drinking gin and seltzers, listening to the new Hop Along, and people-watching in a almost-but-not-quite-gentrified neighborhood in Philly, people-watching on a beautiful Friday night. Happy weekend, y'all.
I thought it sounded fun? Like, I'm not gonna argue profusely with anyone that hates it, but I've listened to it a few times and enjoyed it a little more each time.
That being said, don't come to my house if you're trying to avoid hearing 12 hours of indie rock.
Yea I mean I guess I'm preaching to the choir here, as far as making playlists go. I'm glad those are the two National songs you suggested, because to me they represent the dichotomy of songs I want for this playlist vs. songs I'm trying to avoid. "All the Wine" is perfect background music for this type of shindig - midtempo with no tempo changes, classic 4/4 feel, nothing that's going to make any attendee stop and make a baffled face and go, "kazooie, what the fuck is this music?" Whereas "Mr. November," while arguably the better song in general, is a song that I don't think I'd want playing at a party. I fucking LOVE this motherfucking song, but 90% of the party is going to hear all the screaming-then-quiet-then-screaming and the drum rolls, etc., and have something to say about it, distracting from the pleasant atmosphere I'm trying to cultivate. Which, right, I wouldn't have these restrictions if it was a different crowd, but most of my favorite family and friends don't listen to music seriously.