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?

Sponges

Ah, the 62-year old brain!

It just doesn’t process music the way a 15-year old one does. The latter hears a tune and it instantly experiences ecstasy. And maybe that 15-year old’s life is transformed. And then it happens again the next day.

This is because - as we say - their brains are like sponges. Brand new, right out of the package ones, mind you. But they’re always ready to soak it all up.

The 62-year old brain, however, is that sponge over there by your kitchen sink which you've been meaning to replace because it's been there for months and has those stains and hard brown edges. It’ll work, but you’ve got to run it under the tap for a minute or two to loosen it up.

Which is my way of saying I don’t know what I think of some records until I’ve listened to them for weeks, or even months. I guess it’s my version of running the tap.


Take this record:


Soccer Mommy: Clean (2018)

I was struggling with it because here is yet another example of the female indie rock singer-guitarist with less than upbeat songs.

At first, I didn’t care for it. It resembled Snail Mail, which I liked a lot because it was sad but sweet. This one is simultaneously more commercial and yet stranger and darker (people eating each other, or treating them like dogs, etc.)

But now, after these few months, I can say it’s also more subtle and varied than SN.  And my official verdict is Almost Just Not Quite But Really Almost Just As Good.

And Snail Mail - for all her heart - doesn’t come up with a winner like “Last Girl”.

A-

“Last Girl”


Or this one: 


Father John Misty: I Love You Honeybear (2010)

I held off a long time before getting anything by FJM.  I felt I’d given the guys enough opportunities over the years. And the chances of another young man having enough talent and wisdom without ruining it with some bullshit seemed kind of low.

But I saw it for a good price at Barnes and Noble and said what the hell.

First impressions:

• Not-lame tunes
• Not overwrought
• Not (too) nasty. 

Notice that these are not good qualities but merely the absence of bad ones. So it became an issue of whether or not he brought something to the table.

Well, there’s that lovely tenor, which could easily be misused, but isn’t here. So putting the record on was a not-unpleasant experience. (At this point, one could reasonably ask, Jaybee, do you even like music? Do you hate men? The answers are yes, but not as much as when I was 15, and all too many.

Now, after a couple of months of putting it on regularly, I put it on again. And every single song has something to offer. And sometimes more than one thing.

I think it may have moved into the Active Pleasure phase. How rare!

A-

Christ, when did music get to be so much work?

Slow Burns, or How Not to Listen to Music

I always have a hard time getting started on the new year, since I’m still processing my records from last year.

Once I’ve done that, I’ll also try to catch up on records from the prior year that I missed.

The new year also tempts me to reset in some way - maybe re-assess some older records. And, since this is the last year of the decade, why not give another listen to all the music I heard since 2010?

Then there’s the whole World History Project, which will probably go on until I’m dead.

There’s rarely a time when I don’t have some kind of program going on. And right now I’ve got at least three.

So unlike normal people whose decision tree for listening to music may go something like this:

1. Do I want to hear this record?
1. Yes, then put on it on.
2. No, then find another one.

Mine is slightly different:

1. Is this record part of WHP and are we up to that year yet? 
1. Yes, then
1. Do I feel like hearing it? 
2. Yes, then put it on.
2. No, then
2. Is it part of my Decade review? 
1. Yes, then
1. Do I feel like hearing it? 
2. Yes, then put it on.
2. No, then
3. Did I buy it recently?
1. Am I really enjoying it, or do I need to get to know it better? 
1. Yes, then
1. Do I feel like hearing it? 
2. Yes, then put it on.
2. No, then
4. Do I JUST FEEL LIKE HEARING IT? 
1. Yes, then put it on.
2. No, then go back to the shelf and find another.

I’m not even going to go into whether or not the record would drive another family member nuts...

As embarrassing at this all sounds when written down, I still strangely proud - to the point I find it odd other people don’t do something like it.

So, dear reader, I ask you, do you simply slap on a disc (or play your mp3) a la example one above, or do you have a method?

No?

No all-night “night music” festival?

No stacking of all your live Grateful Dead (or Allman Brothers) albums to simulate an actual show?

No featuring one artist, playing one album after another - no matter how bad the later ones were - until you were done?

So I'll then assume you never have a hip hop weekend?

No blues summer?

No classical winter?

No jazz winter?

Don’t you realize there is layer upon layer of theme, duty, timing, segue, time of day, and time of year to consider??

Don’t you impose any rules on yourself, like: No drastic segues, or don’t play post-Beatle John Lennon on the same day as Post-Beatle George or Paul? (Ringo is fine. He doesn’t count.)

Or only Post Beatles?


All of this is to explain what's taking me so long to keep up. I’m awash in music while simultaneously navigating numerous musical agendas.

But at some point, I must come up for air and report back on what I’ve heard. And I’ve always found the ass-backward approach useful, so let’s deal with some of the new music I’ve just gotten, in descending order of how much Mrs. Jaybee hates it.  (What, you don’t think that matters?!)

These records all come from 2018, and all happen to be female artists, none of whom are disappointing:


Snail Mail: Lush (2018)

Mrs. Jaybee hates this record. I barely got to the second song when she said to please stop. When I protested, she put it on to make sure she hated it. And she did.

It’s the voice she said.

But I like it a lot - voice included - so I’m not sure what the problem is. There is a low key whiny-ness to it, and a sameness of tone, but I’ve always been a sucker for that. And the weird-chord droning is cool, too.

Sounds enticing, doesn’t it?

We caught her a few weeks ago when she opened for Interpol and Car Seat Headrest, and she didn’t disappoint. Not me, ‘cause I liked her and not Mrs. Jaybee, because she didn’t.

So I gave it another spin, and I was impressed that the overall sadness didn’t get me down, the guitar playing was agile and the voice committed to each and every song.

Sounds like she’s pretty good-hearted, too. That can help during the cold weather.

A-

“Pristine”




Cardi B: Invasion of Privacy (2018)

Being more involved in the actual world that I am, Mrs. Jaybee already heard - and liked - some of this.

Weirdly fun. Over the top, brassy, obscene as hell, but pretty honest in a real housewives kind of way.

This woman has personality to spare, but I can only take so much.

B+

"Went Through Your Phone Last Night"



Kacey Musgraves: Golden Hour (2018)

Grammy and Pazz and Jop winning and who am I to argue? (Hey, the Grammy’s haven’t been horrible lately. What, with The Suburbs, Morning Phase and Golden Hour winning during this decade. I’m used to them sucking ALL the time.)

This is a real pretty record, sometimes beautiful and snob that I am, it's really only that Grammy imprimatur that's keeping me from loving it.

And Mrs. Jaybee admits to liking it.  So it looks like I've bought myself more time.

A-