Ninth Annual Jaybee-bies: The Best of 2019, But Not Really

Well, This Is Embarrassing.

Despite my best efforts to stay current, I got so focused on catching up on the decade that I never actually got to 2019. Thus, my 2019 list has no 2019 records on it! Nutboy would be mortified.

It’s people like Nutboy - by focusing on the here and the now and yet somehow absorbing the latest 30-CD Bob Dylan Bootleg release - who keep me humble. I’m waiting for your 2019 list NB!

I was tempted to check out the 2019 records that appeared on the many decade lists I perused, but I didn’t trust the rankings. The value of decade lists is that they give people years to process what they heard. But you only get a few months for the 2019 records. Hence there’s a temptation to overrate what you happen to like at that moment.


Resolutions: 

So, I will - again - resolve to get 2020 music during actual 2020. And, I guess, catch up on, um, 2019. A new decade and I’m already behind the f*cking 8-ball. Or in my case maybe the 7-ball.

Aside from that, I won’t bore you yet again with my pathetic attempts at personal resolutions. They’re going about as well as you’d expect.

But as far as music goes, I’ve made some adjustments. I had previously resolved to get more mp3s. I’m now hearing that the sound quality of CDs (and vinyl) is better. (Any advice on this would be appreciated.) So I may go back to CDs. We’ll just have to add an extension to the house.

Oh, I’ve been (re)learning guitar, and have resolved to practice “more”, whatever that means.


Awards:

Most Work (But Worth it): Arca

Most Work (And Possibly Not Worth It): tUnE yArDs

Most Surprising: Lykki Li

Most Disappointing: tUnE yArDs

Best Artist: Nobody, but that's okay.


Best Books:

This was not a great year for finishing books, but for those that I did, here are my favorites.

Any Old Way You Choose It by Robert Christgau
Just so much fun to read a person's first-hand reaction to events and music from decades ago. A

Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Very entertaining and I learned a lot. But I couldn't have the latter without the former. A-

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
Jane’s always reliable for a good yarn. A-

Susan Sontag: The Complete Rolling Stone Interview, Cott, Jonathan
I enjoyed Sontag’s answers a lot more than Cott’s questions.  A-


Oh, Yeah. Music:

I didn’t hear anything that absolutely floored me, but all of the below rewarded repeated listening.

Last year, of my top ten, five were either lead or co-led by a woman. This year makes that year look like a case of testosterone poisoning.

There was also a struggle between fun and seriousness. In a pinch, the former won.

In terms of quality 1-4 are very close, as are 5-6 and 7-9 and - of course - 10.

1. Snail Mail: Lush (2018)  Compared to the ladies below, she’s a bit of a sad sack, but she wants what’s best for you.
2. Alvvays: Anti-Socialites (2017)  She’s pretty level headed about love. And outright serious about catchiness.
3. Best Coast: Crazy for You (2010)  Not only do the songs sound similar, but their themes are also similar. She loves him, he drives her crazy. What might drive you crazy in a friend can be very entertaining in an artist.
4. Janelle Monae: Dirty Computer  (2018)  Yes, Prince is dead, but she is filling the hole pretty nicely so far.
5. Leonard Cohen: You Want it Darker (2018)  He may have been a young hedonist but he worked and worked and worked until the very end.
6. Kacey Musgraves: Golden Hour (2018) The songs are not all uniformly great, but that voice! 
7. Soccer Mommy: Clean (2018)  Sometimes irritatingly weird but I keep listening to it.
8. Pusha T: Daytona (2018)  Grim realities right in your face. Compelling.
9. Noname: Room 25 (2018) This flows beautifully from beginning to end.
10. And tied for 10th: Arca: Arca (2017), Lykki Li: Wounded Rhymes (2011), Father John Misty: I Love You Honeybear (2010), Tom Waits: Bad As Me (2011), Bon Iver: Bon Iver (2011)

Some of the best songs I heard this year can be found here.

Here's to the New Year! 

Are we in a war yet?

James and the Giant Bag of CDs

I’m Gonna Say About...1973?:

“You have to get Rock and Roll by Foghat,” said childhood friend Tony. “You’ll love it!”

For some reason, I wasn’t convinced. Tony was sixteen at the time, which would make me about fifteen. A music snob (snot?) even then, I passed. I didn’t say that to him, of course. I nodded, smiled and said something along the lines of Oh yes, I’ll have to do that.

And I don’t have the slightest inclination to check it out. Sorry, Tony! It’s not you, it’s me. Well, actually it is you because you recommended a record I believed then - and believe still - will be awful. (So I guess it is me, after all.)


1983:

“Human Sexual Response is pretty good. You should check it out.”

Friend Mike was in town for a visit, and since my idea of a good time is going to the record store, we ended up at J&R Music World.

I was looking for Human Switchboard’s first record and were in the H section when he showed me the HSR album.

Mike was speaking in his usual laid back - almost indifferent - tone, which undercut any enthusiasm he seemed to have for the record (mine, too). I somehow wormed my way out of it.


1990:

“You have to check out Be Bop Deluxe,” the moving guy said. (I only remember the year because we were moving into our house.)

No, I don’t. When I see phrases like “art rock” and “progressive rock” I fear I’m going to get a lot of technique and not enough joy. That worked when I was fifteen, but I doubt it still will.

I did come close, though.  And I still might, but it’s been nearly thirty years.


Your Music Sucks:

These are just a few of the many incidents over the years of my not taking the musical advice of others. I'm afraid I have profoundly different tastes than the suggester.

Tony was convinced Foghat was undeniably great. This is a variant of the "We've got both types of music here, Country AND Western" syndrome.

Moving man was a BBD enthusiast, and definitely older than Tony, but older folks do form their own  “enthusiasms”, don't they? Like Ted Kaczinsky. And if you partake in someone else's enthusiasm, you’re almost obligated to sign up for the cult.

Mike was just being laid back Mike. When Mike gets enthusiastic I sit up in listen, but it wasn’t that day.

So in these and most other cases, I managed what the young people call a “soft pass”.

However, a hard pass may not have been a bad idea. One opportunity for growth that not enough people experience is to have someone tell them that the music they like is terrible. It’s happened to me many times and has taken many forms.

My parents hating the Beatles.

My Led Zeppelin fans telling me how much the Grateful Dead sucked.

Robert Christgau sh*tting on Jackson Browne and the Allman Brothers.

Before Born to Run came out, more than one person told me they hated “that Jew” Bruce Springsteen. (Clearly, the critique quality varied greatly.)

I’m not saying they were wrong and I was right. I’m saying we were both right. (Well, not the anti-Semites. They were wrong on every possible level.)

So I’m not big on people’s suggestions.

And it’s only gotten worse as I get older because I’m painfully aware that I DONT HAVE ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD - on a given day (no hanging around with friends in the middle of the day like a normal fifteen-year-old) or in my lifespan (I'm sixty-two for god sake.)


James:

So along comes Son Michael’s friend James, who I’ve connected with on a couple of levels, music being just one. He burned a CD for Mike once, and because of the time frame it covered (1969-1980) I liked it at least as much as Michael, who was, to his credit, pretty enthusiastic about it.

It gets better.

For Christmas, James gets me and Mrs. Jaybe four vinyl albums! I haven’t bought vinyl in nearly thirty years.

And now he’s lent me a big bag o’ CDs. Good ones, too. There’s got to be thirty or forty in there.

So somehow I’ve got to give these CDs their due. But how am I gonna do that with my World History Project, Decade Project and 2019 piling up in front of me?


But Let Me Digress:

So before I dive into the bag, I should report on a few records I have gotten a chance to listen to.

The year got off in two unexpected directions, one being hip hop, a genre I suspect I’ll never love, but I at least I got reassurance that I can really like it


Pusha T: Daytona (2018)

There’s no getting around it. This is a rap record. And a real good one. The key, for me, is that there has to be music to go with the rapping. Or the music has to be in the rapping. This one is the former.

But the rapping is good, too. The subject matter isn’t family friendly - he’s not going to win any humanitarian awards - but he seems genuine.

A-

“Hard Piano”





Noname: Room 25 (2018)

Here’s another one, this time with a female point of view.  The music is more (warning, annoying musical description word ahead) sinuous and subtle.

Jazzy, smooth and easy on the ear, which brings you back to it again and again. But once you start to really hear the words you have to confront the pain

A-

“Self”


And it's suddenly possible to love hip hop!

Then there are a couple of more female artists - one disappointing (slightly) and one definitely not.



Mitski: Be the Cowboy (2018)

Mrs. Jaybee liked this one right off the bat. And I thought it was an improvement, too, over her last record, which I liked but didn’t love.

But that stentorian voice that, at first, pulls you in also keeps you from really loving it.

B+

But, I've got to admit this video really pulls me in!

“Geyser”



Janelle Monae - Dirty Computer (2018)

I’ve had my eye on this young woman for a while (okay, that sounded really bad, but you know what I mean, right? In case the police come?)

The first spin is all surface and enjoyable enough, but now after at least a dozen listens I hear an artist with some vision, and talent to burn.

Good songwriting. Kind of Prince-y.  But I like her voice more. And a little sci-fi for good measure.

And while I still prefer Kacey Musgraves, this one gives her a run for the money.

A-

“Crazy Classic Life”


So at some point, I'll report on the actual contents of James' Bag of CDs.

Just one last question. What do normal people do with their time?