Must Hear Tracks: "10,000 Emerald Pools" "Electric Love" "Past Lives" I'm not sure whether Marc Bolan would be proud or not, but Garrett Borns (known onstage as BØRNS) certainly did his part to keep glam rock alive in 2015. Borns looks the part, too. With long, wavy brown hair and a thin figure, he admits... Continue Reading →
Tis the season for an endless torrent of top ten lists! I know Pitchfork and Rolling Stone are the heavy hitters and my list is by no means definitive, but I figured it'd be proper for me to be part of the stream. Before we get into this, though, a disclaimer: I haven't listened to... Continue Reading →
Am I allowed to coin a new subgenre? . . . That was rhetorical. I'm doing it either way. It will be called Can-Pop, which is an abbreviation for "Canada Pop," and it will serve as the umbrella term for the delightful pop-leaning slacker rock concocted by Mac Demarco and anyone in his extended musical... Continue Reading →
The last spotlight was made for very specific occasions. Endless White by Flying Lotus is a meditation song, an enveloping sonic experiment. With no structure, melody, or vocals, the song is more of a commodity than a tried and true favorite. This time, I decided to go the other way and choose a song with... Continue Reading →
Do you like Christmas music but hate the garbage radio commercials and the cheesy "timeless classics" that you don't particularly like? What about your collection of 50 Christmas CD's, on which there's only 20 songs you actually want to hear? Boy, do I have news for you: you don't have to deal with it! Spend... Continue Reading →
Must Hear Tracks: "Ride" "Tear In My Heart" "We Don't Believe What's On TV" I wanted so very badly to give this album a one out of five. I wanted to laugh ironically at every song. I wanted to listen to Blurryface and shake my head at overly-serious lyrics masquerading as motivation. Going into it,... Continue Reading →
This is the introduction of a new "segment," on the site. As the name implies, Spotlight is when I choose a particular track which I find especially interesting and point out why it stands out to me. These tracks could be noteworthy for any reason but they will certainly represent a creative triumph for the... Continue Reading →
Top Track: "Feelin' Lovely" The phrase "intimate set" has always intrigued me, mostly because it's so relative. A friend of mine recently purchased a ticket for an "intimate" Kendrick Lamar show at Concord Music Hall in Chicago. Concord has a capacity of 1500 and general admission tickets are already sold out. To me, that's not... Continue Reading →
Must Hear Tracks: "Coming Down" "Young God" "Ghost" Halsey's music is garbage. It's not the unlistenable kind of garbage, its the kind of garbage that exists to fill some musical niche created by the success of other artists. File her under "trendy pop music." My theory on Halsey is that she is a temporary substitute... Continue Reading →
Bridge Over Troubled Water by Simon and Garfunkel is a timeless album. Just the highlights (Cecilia, El Condor Pasa, Bridge Over Troubled Water, The Only Living Boy in New York and The Boxer) can give it that distinction. Having said that, I can't stand the order of the songs. I'll admit that I don't know... Continue Reading →
The Healthy Alternative 