Decade: Ours

Don't Say I Didn't Warn You: 

Anyone searching for the Ultimate Truth in Music by looking at the many Best Albums of the Year, Decade, Century, etc., lists out there is probably wasting their time.

But here are some of them anyway. Have at it. There's plenty more:
Pitchfork
Billboard
Stereogum
Rolling Stone
New Musical Express
VICE
Consequence of Sound
Variety

There is a remarkable consistency to these lists, but if you check the music itself out you may or may not be impressed.

Not only are Best of Anything lists (mine included) subjective, they’re personal. Meaning that my favorites moved me in a way that they may never move you. So there’s a risk you’ll be baffled by what I love. Who would blame you for thinking There I go, trying to learn about good music but end up only learning about Jaybee. I should sell t-shirts that say “I Went to Jaybee’s Blog and All I Got Was a Lousy CD”.

Also, after perusing a couple of dozen best of the decade lists, I see that my personal favorites rarely appear at the top. I was much more likely to find them somewhere in the middle. This is not because I’m especially unique but rather because I’m somewhat unique. Just like you. All together now, “We are all individuals!”

Polls are compiled by people whose job is to listen to as much pop music as possible. I couldn’t possibly have heard as much music as they did, but they couldn't possibly have heard some music as much as me.

To put it another way, while the pollsters, having heard more music than me, can judge it all in a wider context that enables them to do so in a more intellectual way, I’m judging mine in a narrower one, and have the opportunity to be more emotionally moved by it than they have the time to be.

So, here’s some guidance to my lists and to all those other ones you’re bound to see:

• “Great” records are somewhat overrated: You'll hear a lot of hype or enthusiasm directed at some records. If you decide to check them out, don't be shocked if they leave you a little cold. There's a million reason for this, not the least of which is that rush one feels when we think we're seeing an emperor not fully clothed.  Don't get too mad, though. I might be you. Give it some time and you may eventually deem it "good".
• “Good” records are somewhat underrated: These are the ones in the middle of the list. They tend to make the list after all the other more famous artists get (more than) their due and it's kind of where I live. I'm not saying you'll love the same ones I do but the ones you would love are hidden here.

And finally, there are all those records that consistently topped those polls that I’d not gotten around to hearing yet. Normally, I'd be excited to get to those records asap, but, sadly, this time around I have no illusions about how much I’ll end up liking them once I do hear them. This is because they’re not in my go-to genres, like pop or rock 'n roll.

That’s okay. I will get to them, and give them the time to sink in. And when something does click it’s the sound of a new door opening. And that, people, is why I do this.

My attitude is the exact opposite of that tired old “Music Sucks These Days” attitude geezers like me are prone to.

No, music doesn't suck these days. But maybe we do. Oh, not you or me. Some other guy.


This Decade:

The good news is that there were plenty of albums to love, if not to be completely obsessed by. Ask me tomorrow and the order will be completely different:

1. Car Seat Headrest: Teens of Denial (2016) 🌶 Yes, it's a little too long, a little too sloppy. Yes, the songs end a little too abruptly. Yes, Will Toledo's nasally voice isn't...welcoming. But damn if this isn't the most bracing rock n' roll I've heard in maybe decades.
2. tUnE-yArDs: W H O K I L L (2010) 🌶
3. Tame Impala: Lonerism (2012)    🌶
4. Courtney Barnett: Sometimes I Just Sit and Think and Sometimes I Just Sit (2015)  
5. Robbie Fulks: Upland Stories (2016)
6. Arcade Fire: The Suburbs (2010) 
7. Courtney Barnett: The Double EP: A Sea of Split Peas (2013) 
8. Sufjan Stevens: Carrie and Lowell (2015)
9. Beach House: Bloom (2012) 
10. Jon Hopkins: Immunity  (2013)
11. Beach House: Teen Dream (2010) 
12. Deerhunter: Halcyon Digest (2010) 🌶
13. Max Richter: Infra (2010) 🌶
14. Angel Olsen: My Woman (2016) 🌶
15. King Creosote/John Hopkins: Diamond Mine  (2011)
16. Snail Mail: Lush (2018)  
17. Beck: Morning Phase  (2014)
18. Grimes: Art Angels  (2015)
19. The New Pornographers: Whiteout Conditions  (2017)
20. Kacey Musgraves: Golden Hour (2018)  
21. The Roots: How I Got Over  (2010)
22. Superchunk: Majesty Shredding (2010)  
23. Janelle Monae: Dirty Computer  (2018)
24. Alvvays: Anti-Socialites (2017)
25. Kacey Musgraves: Same Trailer, Different Park (2013)
26. Mike Burns: Mountain Mover EP (2015)
27. Tallest Man on Earth: The Wild Hunt (2010) 
28. Loudon Wainwright III: Older Thank My Old Man Now  (2012) 
29. Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit: The Nashville Sound (2017) 
30. Waxahatchee: Out from the Storm (2017)
31. Leonard Cohen: You Want it Darker (2018)  
32. Best Coast: Crazy for You   (2010)
33. Jens Lekman: Life Will See You Now (2017) 
34. Robyn: Body Talk  (2010)
35. Cloud Nothings: Attack On Memory  (2012)
36. Lori McKenna: The Bird and the Rifle (2016)
37. Kanye West: My Dark Beautiful Twisted Fantasy  (2010)
38. Yo La Tengo: Stuff Like That There (2015)  
39. Paul Simon: So Beautiful or So What? (2011)   
40. Withered Hand: New Gods (2014)
41. Forlorne: The Old and Weathered Glass  (2017)
42. Arca: Arca  (2017)
43. Soccer Mommy: Clean (2018)  
44. Father John Misty: I Love You, Honeybear  (2010)
45. Mbongwana Star: From Kinshasa (2015)
46. Parquet Courts: Light Up Gold/Tally Up the Things You Broke (2013)
47. Japandroids: Celebration Rock (2012)  
48. Destroyer: Kaputt (2011)
49. Fiona Apple: The Idler Wheel (2012) 
50. Todd Snyder: Agnostic Hymns and Stoner Fables (2012)

Okay, I'll stop here. Yes, it was THAT good a decade.

Here's a Spotify list of my favorite songs from the 2010s, which, by the way, I'm constantly adding to. Like most of my lists, it starts out quiet and gets louder and faster, but then gets quiet again. (Hey, that sounds like when I get drunk...)

It might help you figure out which of the above are worth checking out. 

Decade: Mine

We’re closing in on the end of the decade, and I’ve been busy trying to catch up on the music I’d missed, and revisit what I’d already gotten, with the ultimate aim of - what else? - compiling a "Best Albums of the Decade" list.

But when I buy albums I don’t confine myself to music from the current decade. So a lot of the music I heard during this decade actually came from a prior one. And thus, a large part of my experience of music during this decade includes that older music What to do?

Compiling a list that combines all of this music isn't a good idea because the current decade would almost certainly get short shrift.

So I compile two lists: one comprised of the best music released this decade, but also another one with the best music from prior ones. The first list is the Best of THE Decade, which I'll deal with next time.

The second is the best of MY Decade, which I have below.

But first, some observations:


Meh Decade: 

Throughout the decade I’d repeatedly experienced fatigue from trying to absorb more music than my little brain could handle. The good news is that this catching up has finally allowed me to “hear” records that I’d previously only been scratching my head about.

One great example of Disappointments That Didn’t Last was Radiohead: The Bends. At first, I felt suffocated by this, but I eventually caught up to it one. The guitars are simply undeniable and Thom York sings pretty. A-

But sometimes it went the other way. There were albums I kind of liked when I first got them, but that I’m not too keen on now. Two of those Albums That Didn’t Stand the Test of Time were Animal Collective's Merriwether Post Pavillion and Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians: Fegmania!

Then there were those Records Whose Bad First Impression Lasted, like:

• Pixies: Bossanova 
• Portishead: Dummy 
• Wild Flag: Wild Flag  
• Young Marble Giants: Colossal Youth
• Elliott Smith: Either /Or  
• Speedy Ortiz: Foil Deer  
• Ex Hex: Rips
• The Smiths: The Queen is Dead
• The Clean: Anthology
• Superchunk: What a Time to Be Alive 

And sorry to say, David Bowie just didn’t bring it. Blackstar is pretty good but I was expecting more. And Lodger didn’t measure up to its two Berlin Trilogy predecessors.

And speaking of dead heroes, my nominee for Worst Record of MY Decade is Phil Ochs' Pleasures of the Harbor  Phil, I love you man, but Jeez!


My Decade:

Anyway, here's a list of my favorite records from prior decades that I finally got to hear this decade in very rough order:

1. Bright Eyes: I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning (2005) 🌶 If I really give it a lot of thought I could probably rank a dozen or so records higher, but we’ve got a President to impeach, so...
2. Sufjan Stevens: Greetings from Michigan (2003) 
3. Beck: Sea Change (2002) 
4. Andrew Bird: And the Mysterious Production of Eggs (2005)  
5. Grandaddy: The Sophtware Slump (2000) 🌶  
6. Small Faces: Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake (Extended Version) (1967) 🌶 
7. The Dandy Warhols: Thirteen Tales of Urban Bohemia (2000)  
8. Sufjan Stevens: Seven Swans (2004)  
9. Imperial Teen: On (2002) 
10. Clean: Vehicle (1990) 
11. The Innocence Mission: Glow (1995)
12. Yo La Tengo: And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out (2000) 🌶
13. The Grateful Dead: Anthem of the Sun (1968)  
14. Fairport Convention: Leige and Lief  (1969)  
15. Belle and Sebastian: The Boy With the Arab Strap (1998) 
16. Procol Harum: A Salty Dog (1969)  
17. Imperial Teen: Seasick (1996)
18. Brian Eno: Music for Airports (1978) 🌶
19. Willie Nelson: Stardust  (1978)
20. Brian Eno/John Cale: Wrong Way Up? (1990)  
21. The Go! Team: Thunder, Lightning, Strike (2004)
22. Errol Garner: The Complete Concert by the Sea 
23. The Go-Betweens: The Friends of Rachel Worth  (2000)
24. The Apples in Stereo: New Magnetic Wonder (2007)  
25. Amadou and Miriam: Welcome to Mali (2008)
26. John Prine: In Spite of Ourselves (1999)
27. Bob Marley and the Wailers: Catch a Fire (1973)
28. Death Cab for Cutie: The Open Door (EP) (2009)
29. Philip Glass: Glassworks (1982)
30. Jimmie Dale Gilmore: Spinning Around the Sun (1993) 
31. Bright Eyes: Lifted (2002) 
32. Radiohead: The Bends (1995) 
33. Yo La Tengo: Fakebook (1990) 
34. Yeah Yeah Yeahs: It’s Blitz (2009) 
35. Liz Phair: Whitechocolatespacegg (1998) 
36. Roxy Music: Country Life (1974) 
37. Spoon: Kill the Moonlight (2002) 
38. Pink Floyd: Piper at the Gates of Dawn (1967) 
39. Brian Eno: Apollo (1983) 
40. Nick Drake: Bryter Layter (1970)

Next Time: Our Decade

Decade: More Fun in the Old World

Last time out I gave you some lame post about the decade in genres. It was really just my way of putting off compiling my Actual Best of the Decade List(s).

Well, I’m doing it again. I will persist in my procrastination by now providing you with a couple of lists that almost by definition are about music from prior decades, but the point is that they happened to me in this decade.


Best Throwbacks:

These are albums I’m somewhat familiar with but never got around to actually owning until now. I don’t like judging them against records that I’m hearing for the first time because, on the one hand, they’re somewhat better for having been around this long. But, weirdly, they sometimes contain filler - the parts you didn’t hear on the radio, and the good parts are a bit played out - and that makes them mortal. I don’t want to overreact to those flaws.

Because of these ad/disadvantages, I’d rather just judge them now by how much fun they provided me this time around:

1. Rolling Stones - Singles Collection  This could easily have ended up on top of the list below, but I’m familiar with so much of it already, that wouldn’t have been fair. This is great for long car trips.
2. Joni Mitchell: Court And Spark  (1974) A fantastic album. The songs I hadn’t gotten into before are almost all great.
3. The Who - Live at Leeds (Expanded Edition)  This expanded edition gives a fuller picture of the Who than the original. They were a POP band, people!
4. Harry Nilsson: Nilsson Schmilsson (1971) Harry comes through big time on his less well-known songs.
5. The Kinks: Lola  (1970) Ray does, too. And Dave.
6. The Monkees: The Best of  What can I say? Of course the version in my head is better, but so is yours.
7. Brian Eno: Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy) (1974)  The sound on the CD isn’t much better than the original vinyl but that’s okay. Time may have finally caught up to this deeply weird record.  🌶🌶 
8. Tom Verlaine: Tom Verlaine (1979)  It’s not Television but it’s very good.
9. Jefferson Airplane: The Worst of  I really needed to hear this, even after having chipped away at it with Volunteers and Baxters. A very consistent record from a very good, but I’m not convinced, great band.
10. And tied for 10th: 
• Aretha Franklin: I Never Loved a Man Like You, Or Lady Soul, or Aretha Now. The experience is much the same. Some filler but mostly galvanic.
• Yes: Fragile/Close to the Edge  My first 8 Track tape, and just so much fun.
• Traffic: John Barleycorn Must Die (Expanded) (1970)  Great album, lousy live songs on the extended version.
• Graham Nash: Songs for Beginners (1971) As lovely a record as I remember. Joni must have run over him like a truck. His loss. Our gain. Thanks, Joni!
• David Crosby: If I Could Only Remember My Name (1971) A lot of people hated this record when it first came out. I liked it then. I like it now. What’s NOT to like, I wonder. He didn’t even have a gun then.

Compilations:

1. Belle and Sebastian: Push Barman to Open Old Wounds So fragile, so beautiful.
2. Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians: Greatest Hits The album that proves this alleged weirdo should have been an FM staple.
3. The Chills: Kaleidoscope World  Ah, if only the internet was around then, these super melodic, chiming songs would have gone viral. 
4. James Brown: Star Time This is daunting for an old white guy but worth the effort. If you think it all sounds the same why do you like the Ramones?? 
5. Brian Jonestown Massacre: Tepid Peppermint Wonderland  If you can forget what a narcissistic junkie asshole the guy leads the band is you can really enjoy this late sixties-style psychedelic rock 'n roll.
6. Various Artists: Ocean of Sound Yeah, weird as hell. I love it but know what you’re getting into!  🌶🌶🌶 
7. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds: Lovely Creatures Another purported British weirdo who does some pretty straightforward, passionate rock 'n roll.
8. Leonard Cohen: Essential   A lot to take in one sitting but great for studying.
9. Various Artists: American Epic  Basically another version of An Anthology of American Folk Music, but with better liner notes and sound.
10. And tied for 10th: 
• Taj Mahal: The Best of 
• Blur: Best of 
• Robert Forster: Intermission 
• The Chantels: The Best of 
• Grin: The Best of 
• King Sunny Ade: The Best of the Classic Years  🌶
• Franco and Le Tpok Jazz: Francophonic  🌶

Okay, so much for genres, compilations and throwbacks. Next time it gets real(er).