Okay, gang, it's time to sign up for the Best of 2020 series. It will be first come first served. Just volunteer below and I will set up the schedule shortly.
Also, it's been awhile since we all dropped a list, so let's do that too!
Okay, gang, it's time to sign up for the Best of 2020 series. It will be first come first served. Just volunteer below and I will set up the schedule shortly.
Also, it's been awhile since we all dropped a list, so let's do that too!
I should pop in a few of my favorites of 2019 quick. This album was definitely up there for me.
Alright, as promised (or threatened?), here's part 2 of the best of the decade. Let's have those lists, eh?
Here's my first pass, to get things started (in no order):
1. "Royals" - Lorde
2. "No Roots" - Alice Merton
3. "Shake it Off" - Taylor Swift
4. "Get Lucky" - Daft Punk
5. "Hold On" - Alabama Shakes
6. "Life Ain't Fair & The World Is Mean" - Sturgill Simpson
7. "S.O.B." - Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats
8. "Feel It Still" - Portugal The Man
9. "Where the Night Goes" - Josh Ritter
10. "Word Crimes" - Weird Al Yankovic
There's something about "best of" lists that I - and obviously lots of people - love. I think it's that there's a low-stakes challenge to the task. It's enough that you can be invested in it, while at the same time, it's just opinion, so... fun. Anyway, in that vein, I was thinking we'd look back over the past decade and put together some lists.
I'm making this a 2-part post, since, frankly, I don't think I could complete my list today. And I'm sure people will list other songs that appeal to me, and such.
So my thought process was this - today, let's just heap up a pile of favorite songs, albums, artists, etc., from the 2010s. And next week (and I've not run this by anyone else, but I'm guessing they'll be okay with it? Free? HJ?) we'll try to actually carve out some top 10 lists.
Unless everyone else already has those 10 ready to go... then just drop 'em. Also, drop your random lists.
My Best of 2019 is without question Otoboke Beaver. In fact, they should be hitting the stage about the same time this video posts.
https://youtu.be/inD9x_iCcUY
I find LDR's live performances hard to watch and her recent videos only OK. I think it's that her voice sells so much irony that her face doesn't convey.
But her record is fantastic, so here's a fan video (despite the "official" in the video title). Song selection driven in part by wanting to keep it clean.
This is better than what I usually would play on Sundays so you folks better listen to it
More often than not, Hozier hits the sweet spot for me.
Angélique Kidjo‘s Celia, a contemplation of Celia Cruz’s African roots, might be my favorite album of the year. Maybe I should’ve chosen a video of her singing “La Vida es un Carnaval” or “Bemba Colorá” or “Sahara” for this, but I wanted to showcase Kidjo’s interaction with her audience at her BBC Proms debut this year. I can’t help but smile every time I watch it. This music, this kind of performance draws hearts together. In the weeks to come, I think we could all use a good reason to smile together.
I’m pretty glad that 2019 is finally coming to an end. I don’t feel like recapping in here (gotta save some material for Festivus eh?), but I will say that the events of the year made it really hard for me to really connect to a lot of music.
Music has been a huge part of my life for 25 years. The last few years, I can easily think of 50 albums I enjoyed. This year it’s honestly hard for me to identify 10 things I listened to that were new. I desperately needed normalcy and spent a lot of time revisiting the same things over and over, mostly albums I loved from a dozen years ago and that last Lil Peep album.
Anyway, the new Nots record, 3, was the closest to that kind of thing out of new stuff I heard this year. I love this kind of raw, urgent, punk. I liked the other Nots records but this one really sank its hooks into me. Given how damn hard that was this year, it says a lot about this record.
Also, I’m going to cheat and add a second, totally unrelated, song here. I couldn’t find a live video of it (which is super unfortunate, I saw her last year and she was incredible!), but it’s my favorite song of the year so you’re welcome.