In lieu of a baby shower, me and the wife are hosting a house party tomorrow. So I've spent the last hour or so putting together a playlist for the background of the shindig.
I'm not going to say it's difficult, but there is a certain art to picking good background-party music. Like, each song can't be too "weird" (according to less indie-rock-minded listeners, anyway), too fast or too slow, too long of an intro, or I'd even argue too popular (don't want to distract from the booze and conversation).
Anyone else nerd out over making playlists? Just me? Alrighty. I also have exactly 300 beers stacked in front of me in the kitchen.
Thanks for this. I couldn't really find anything about awakebutstillinbed on the internet when I first started listening to this album a few weeks ago. Really fucking great album, if you guys haven't heard it yet. Not to repeat the points made above, but the vocals really are something special.
One specific thing that bothers me about his statement is his use of "safe space" as an insult. I know this is a standard conservative media insult toward liberals, but it still bothers me every time someone uses it in this manner. Like, Nazis are responsible for a literal genocide. If you're gonna wear a Nazi symbol on your chest, then, yes, I would like to be in a space that is safe from that.
The wink she gives to directly the camera toward the end of the "Little of Your Love" music video is probably the sexiest thing I have ever seen in any music video ever.
Always bums me out when I discover an artist I appreciate turns out to be wacky politically. Even if the artist is an obscure drummer who hasn't played the drums in decades.
I'm excited to see "In Chains" on here. It was my favorite song of 2017, and I didn't see a whole lot of love for it in the Best Song of 2017 discussions last month.
I guess that's one sign of a really good album, though, that there is such a wide variety of tracks off the album that one could consider "the best."
My problem has always been that I can't just have one or two, it's always gotta be like 15, or nothing. SOME PEOPLE might call that alcoholism. I don't!
Listened to this album pretty much non-stop through my second semester of college. So many Natty Lights drank to the sounds of "Oxford Comma" etc. The actual parties themselves that we were pregaming for featured "Crank That (Soudja Boy)" on repeat, if I recall correctly, so it was nice listening to this album during the parts I could actually remember.
Anyways, I don't drink Natty Light anymore or feel the need to get drunk BEFORE going to parties anymore, but I still listen to Vampire Weekend's s/t often.
The "Hitler was a good painter" argument is definitely too far-fetched for me to agree with, but it did set me off on a 5-minute, self-reflective journey here at my work desk.
Namely: should there be a limit to human empathy? I don't think I can empathize with anything Hitler did. What about the confederate flag-loving white men Badu mentions in the article? I find myself struggling with seeing any of their points of view. There's strong evidence that supporting the Confederacy is the WRONG opinion to have. Why empathize with people like that?
Is it worth trying to empathize, even? Is it a case-by-case basis, or should we try to empathize with ALL people, like Badu says (and, come to think of it, like Jesus says - "love your enemies" and all that)??
This has fuck all to do with music, but it's something I've been struggling to wrap my brain around.
Thanks! I actually have that Neil Young album on my list of albums I want to try. The only album I'm familiar with from him already is After the Gold Rush, so I definitely want to dig a little deeper.
I love Blood on the Tracks and I feel like I have the big Dylan albums (Highway 61 Revisited, Blonde on Blonde, Another Side..., etc.). I feel like there's a lot more ground to cover though without even needing to listening to any Frank Sinatra bullshit cover albums. New Morning maybe?
Thanks!
I get this as well, and it's exactly how I've felt the past couple years. It was really important to me to listen to albums when they came out, even if that meant there was no time for older albums.
Maybe it's a matter of finding a balance. There was a decent amount of albums that I listened to 2017 that were mediocre and that I formed no connection with. I would've rather spent that time forming a connection with albums that I missed in decades past, ya know?
Though I guess I would have no way of knowing whether an album is worth listening to without actually, um, listening to it? So I dunno, we'll see how it goes this year, stepping back and putting less pressure on myself to listen to music as it's being released.
For the last two years, every album I added to my iPod was newly released that year (got a lot of help here at Stereogum/the comments). That amounted to getting acquainted last year with about 170 albums that came out in 2017. Which was really fun! But a little exhausting? Like, I feel like I'm doing a disservice to myself in basically ignoring the musical canon. I only started to like really SERIOUSLY listen to music about a decade ago, so I have a lot of musical gaps prior to the mid '00s. So I think I'm gonna calm down with the new music this year (though still listening to any new music from my favorite bands, or music that is HIGHLY recommended on this site), and focus on filling in the gaps. Cheers to a new year.
Sure! From 1-10: The National, Gang of Youths, Dave Hause, SUSTO, Waxahatchee, Sheer Mag, Menzingers, Dan Auerbach, Paramore, Telethon. Like, I can understand that about half of my picks didn't have a chance because I haven't seen them on any other list, unfortunately. But still, NONE of my top ten? It was just weird.
Makes me think that maybe I'm not in P4K's targeted readership anymore?
This was the first time in my young life that not a single album from my personal Top 10 was featured on Pitchfork's Top 50 of the year. I'm not sure if that says more about me or about Pitchfork...
1. In Chains – The War on Drugs
2. God in Chicago – Craig Finn
3. To Know Your Mission – Jens Lekman
4. Tara – BNQT
5. Bobby – (Sandy) Alex G
6. Lower Order (A Good Laugh) – Propaghandi
7. call the police – LCD Soundsystem
8. Day I Die – The National
9. Would You Rather – Phoebe Bridgers
10. Lookers – The Menzingers
11. I Miss Those Days – Bleachers
12. DNA – Kendrick Lamar
13. The Flinch – Dave Hause
14. Silver – Waxahatchee
15. You’re Dreaming – Wolf Parade
16. Want You Back – Haim
17. Amen, So Be It – John Moreland
18. Let ‘Em Talk – Kesha
19. Creature Comfort – Arcade Fire
20. Follow the Leader – Foxygen
Also didn't realize we're doing 20. I'm going to read the rest of the comments before posting next year, promise.
11. We All Want the Same Things by Craig Finn
12. A Deeper Understanding by the War on Drugs
13. Beast Epic by Iron & Wine
14. Cry Cry Cry by Wolf Parade
15. Guppy by Charly Bliss
16. Rocket by (Sandy) Alex G
17. The World's Best American Band by White Reaper
18. Near to the Wild Heart of Life by Japandroids
19. Visions of a Life by Wolf Alice
20. Life Will See You Now by Jens Lekman
As always, thanks to the Stereogum staff and commentators. I wouldn’t have listened to half the music I did this year with y’all.
10. The Great Spontanean by Telethon
9. After Laughter by Paramore
8. Waiting on a Song by Dan Auerbach
7. After the Party by the Menzingers
6. Need to Feel Your Love by Sheer Mag
5. Out in the Storm by Waxahatchee
4. & I’m Fine Today by SUSTO
3. Bury Me in Philly by Dave Hause
2. Go Farther in Lightness by Gang of Youths
1. Sleep Well Beast by the National
I definitely get (and always have) the love for Blue Album and Pinkerton. They are great records. But nothing Weezer has ever done has blown me away quite like EWBAITE. So I guess I'm happy it's at #3, though I wish it was even higher.
I played drums in a shitty little cover band in high school with my two best friends, and "Beverly Hills" was always in our repertoire, so I was actually a little blindsided by it being #1 on this list. I'm not claiming it's a "good song" and I won't go to bat for it here, but it definitely holds a special place in my heart, to the point that I never even considered the idea that people hated it until this very moment.
I'm a social worker, and the law in my city specifically defines "child abuse" as abuse from a caretaker, or someone who is specifically in charge of the child's well-being. So if a Mother gives a child a black eye, that's child abuse. If a random neighbor gives the same child a black eye, that is legally NOT child abuse. It's still a crime, and should be punishable through the police, but it's not child abuse because the neighbor was not originally in charge of the child's well-being. So viewing and distributing child porn is not child abuse, per the law, in my state anyway. Semantics? Perhaps.
Matt Tong is probably my favorite drummer right now, he was so, so tight on the old Bloc Party albums, but I feel like his talents go to waste a bit in Algiers.
Saw Waxahatchee this afternoon at local radio station WXPN's "Free at Noon" concert. It was a short set (30 minutes), but it was still pretty fucking great. Ripped through about 80% of the new album. The band (all women) really brought it.
I'm kind of shocked that "The Underdog" wasn't mentioned in the article at all (besides the embedded video. My "favorite song of all time" is tough to nail down, but gun to my head I'd probably choose "The Underdog." It's a song that works in any context, and it makes me so happy.
"My Little Japanese Cigarette Case" is also a favorite in a music category I like to call "Songs That Are Good/Decent But Seem Way Worse Than They Are Simply Because They Immediately Follow an All-Time Great Song." Wolf Parade's "It's a Curse" is another good example of this type of song.
Anyways, great article, great album!
This article made me watch Pinegrove's NPR Tiny Desk Concert for the Nth time. This band is probably my favorite band of the past two years. I'm gonna be honest, watching the NPR video made me appreciate Nandi's contribution to the band so much more! She just seems so passionate. Fuck anyone that thinks she's "furniture." Jesus Christ.
Hey guys, this is my first ever comment, and it's getting buried under 600 other comments, but I'm okay with that. I just wanted to thank y'all for all your help in pointing this lurker in the right direction toward new and great music all year 'round. I was able to listen to and find a lot of great shit out there that I wouldn't have been able to without checking out the comments here on the 'Gum. Cheers to a good year.
Anyways, here's my top 10.
1 Car Seat Headrest, Teens of Denial
2 Pinegrove, Cardinal
3 Whitney, Light upon the Lake
4 King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, Nonagon Infinity
5 David Bowie, Blackstar
6 Conor Obert, Ruminations
7 Beach Slang, A Loud Bash of Teenage Feelings
8 The Sun Days, Album
9 Woods, City Sun Eater in the River of Light
10 Cymbals Eat Guitars, Pretty Years
Comments