2017 Music Revisited: Turn Out The Lights

Julien Baker – Turn Out The Lights

Unsurprisingly, this was a year where I was a little more prone to sad bastard music. Not because I necessarily found it good to wallow in some sort of depressive state. But more because, not unlike the feeling of listening to Vince Guaraldi around Christmas time, sometimes you need some contended “sad time”, and to remind yourself that music is a place where indulging life’s more morose feelings can be a source of comfort. Granted, it’s a little hard to pin down what Julien Baker, a supremely talented 22-year-old, would have to be sad about, but she sure has a way of expressing it in a very pure way. Continue reading →

C.A.T.: A Charlie Brown Christmas

Vince Guaraldi – A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965)

In the nearly 10 years we’ve been doing this blog, usually looking for pop culture to write about tied to whatever season we’re going through, I’m not sure how I’ve never done a Classic Album Thursday for this album. But, maybe it’s just the nature of this particular season. You get caught up in end-of-year madness, trying to catch up with movies and music from the year’s past. Meanwhile, you end up scrambling to make sense of the holidays, busy trying to buy whatever things you can to make it seem like you hadn’t been neglecting the people around you the rest of the year. Continue reading →

2017 Music Revisited: Soft Sounds From Another Planet

Japanese Breakfast – Soft Sounds From Another Planet

I’m noticing that a lot of the artists I’m writing about in these year-end music reviews seem to be indie artists so ubiquitous that I didn’t feel the need to comment on. Japanese Breakfast is not one of those artists, though this solo project of Michelle Zauner might put her on her way, after delivering one of the more aptly titled albums of 2017. Because there’s something quite otherworldly about these songs, yet they’re raw and human enough to cut towards something a little deeper, and a little more Earthly. Continue reading →

2017 Music Revisited: A Deeper Understanding

The War On Drugs – A Deeper Understanding

How is it that I never got around to reviewing this album? Was it because it came out during that two month period on the blog in between Criterion months, where we were all a bit too exhausted to write about anything? Was it because we talked about it on that end-of-summer wrap-up podcast, and that was review enough? Or was it because this album is ultimately an uninteresting one to write about, because it’s somehow great and unsurprising at the same time? Well, we’ll see about that last one, but I’m gonna say it’s probably a combination of all three. Continue reading →

2017 Music Revisited: ken

Destroyer – ken

In the one time I’ve written about Destroyer in the past, it seemed like despite a few stand-out tracks, I was having a bit of a struggle connecting with the band’s then-latest album, Poison Season. Destroyer’s now-latest album ken, however, is a different story, as it might be my favorite Dan Bejar-helmed release since 2006’s Destroyer’s Rubies. This is in no part due to Bejar returning to a more concise and airtight approach to pop songwriting, but while in true Destroyer style, also putting out an album unlike anything the artist has released before. Continue reading →

2017 Music Revisited: Guppy

Charly Bliss – Guppy

So finally, we’re staring down the barrel of finally putting this god awful year to rest, but with the joyful respite of yearly top 10 lists. As the resident music critic (I guess) on the blog, I reviewed way more new music this year than anyone else, and I don’t know if anyone else will chime in with these posts revisiting 2017 in music. But for me, there was still a lot of great music this year that I never got around to reviewing, though some of it I probably mentioned on a podcast, and therefore never got to go in-depth with. Not that these bite-size catch-up posts are really meant to do that. But I guess we’re just trying to give some credit where credit’s due. Continue reading →

C.A.T.: Rocket to Russia

Ramones – Rocket to Russia (1977)

Now that you’re finally done blowing up your grandma’s outhouse courtesy of the good folks at Butterball, how about you blow out your ear-drums? Can you believe it’s been 40 years since Rocket to Russia hit record shelves? 40! That’s a whole Maggie Gyllenhaal. But gabba, gabba hey, have the years been good—as they have also been to Ms. Gyllenhaal—and Rocket to Russia is as explosive as ever.

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