boygenius

Playlist #145: Grammy Edition

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Happy Monday, folks! Yesterday they had the Grammy awards, and once again I was shunned by the RIAA. Soon, very soon, they shall feel my revenge. It will be swift, subtle, and probably completely unnoticed by anyone in any position of authority or power. Anyway, here’s a bunch of Grammy-related songs.

  1. Tracy Chapman, “Fast Car”: If you missed seeing her perform this song with Luke Combs last night, you need to find it and watch it. That woman has not lost a single step. If you’re not crying joyous tears by the end, your heart is harder than mine. Or maybe it’s missing, I dunno.
  2. Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit, “This Ain’t It”: He won for best Americana album last night for Weathervanes, as well as best Americana song for “Cast Iron Skillet.” Hard to disagree with either of those choices, honestly.
  3. Taylor Swift, “Anti-Hero”: And apparent she has a new album dropping in April, with the dope title Tortured Poets Department. Can’t say this woman doesn’t bust her ass getting things done.
  4. boygenius, “Satanist”: These three are just flat-out awesome. Spent a good chunk of the weekend listening to this album again, and it slaps.
  5. Foo Fighters, “Nothing At All”: The Foos continue to rock my face off.
  6. Joni Mitchell, “Down To You”: Joni Mitchell is an institution and the fact that she performed last night is a thing we should all be so very thankful for.
  7. Noah Kahan, “Dial Drunk”: Folks, don’t drunk dial your ex. Nothing good ever comes of it.
  8. The Rolling Stones, “Angry”: Kinda nice to see the old fogies still getting a mention.
  9. SZA, “Ghost in the Machine”: Hadn’t ever listened to anything SZA has ever done, but this song sounds nice. I kinda dig it.
  10. Luke Combs, “Fast Car”: And we round things up with the Luke Combs version of this song, which sorta kicked this whole thing off.

Best Albums of 2023

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Ignore all of those other best-of lists you’ve seen around. This ain’t those. It is, however, my ten favorite albums from this year.

It was a tricky list to put together, if for no other reason than the fact that my sense of time has gotten all out of whack over the past few years. “Wasn’t that new Wallflowers album from early this year? Wait, it was 2021? What?” Or, “Oh, that new Taylor Swift album – not one of the re-records – was…no, that was last year. Damn.” I kinda had to scrabble around to find 10 albums I really liked.

And it shouldn’t have been that hard! Both the National and Josh Ritter had new albums out this year. Those are usually shoo-ins. But this year…eh. Neither of them really wowed me.

Anyway, here are ten albums that did wow me, in no particular order.

  1. boygenius, the record: I kinda low-key love this album. Three brilliant musicians coming together and just showing everyone how it ought to be done.
  2. Peter Gabriel, i/o: If an album takes twenty years to complete and comes out in not one, not two, but three slightly different mixes, you’d be understandably trepidatious about the album. But no, it’s really damn good. It’s vital and deep and rewards relistens.
  3. Wilco, Cousins: While not as essential as their best work, it’s more cohesive and concise than last year’s Cruel Country. Good, but also kinda forgettable.
  4. The Gaslight Anthem, History Books: A damn sight better than their last album, Get Hurt. It’s energetic and loud and exciting.
  5. Slowdive, everything is alive: I’m not usually one for shoegaze, but these songs are great. It’s slow and pensive and gets under your skin.
  6. New Pornographers, Continue as a Guest: I love the band, I hate the name. That will always be the case. But with A.C. Newman and Neko Case on the roster, you know the songs are going to be good and the vocals are going to be stellar. And they are.
  7. M. Ward, supernatural thing: M. Ward just cranks out good stuff whenever he decides to drop into the recording studio. Nothing spectacular or mind-altering, just really good songs that you can listen to over and over again.
  8. Noah Kahan, Stick Season: Vermont Hozier, as he’s apparently known, puts out some somber, low-key songs that stick to your brain and just burrow in.
  9. The Mountain Goats, Jenny From Thebes: I love me some Mountain Goats. This one is heavier on the piano and keyboards than previous entries, and the usage of horn sections and strings (freakin’ strings! On a Mountain Goats record!) add some new flair and textures to the always-excellent songwriting.
  10. Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit, Weathervanes: I know I said this list isn’t in any particular order, but this is my absolute favorite album of the year. The more I listen to the work of Jason Isbell, the more I’m convinced he’s the best songwriter of the current generation. He creates characters and situations full of anger, fear, distrust, love, longing, a sense of loneliness, isolation, and rising above it all. All in a single record. Soaring choruses, thoughtful verses, and a band that is as simpatico as humanly possible just makes this one of the best records out there.

Playlist #109

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It’s a rather gloomy Tuesday here in Northern Virginia, or maybe that’s just my interpretation of things. I’ll admit I’m currently looking at the world through shit-colored glasses, but that has less to do with the weather than it does some family stuff that’s going on. That being said, I’m headed to Oklahoma this afternoon, and it’s not a fun or pleasant trip that I’m embarking on.

  1. boygenius, “True Blue”: “When you don’t know who you are/You fuck around and find out,” is one of my favorite couplets this year.
  2. Adeem the Artist, “ICU”: Another in a string of thoughtful, heartfelt country songs from Adeem the Artist. I love their work. Songs like this always come around right when I need them.
  3. Bjork, “Army of Me”: “And if you complain once more/You’ll meet an army of me” sounds no less menacing given Bjork’s adorable accent. She really sounds like she could fuck you up if she wanted to.
  4. The Offspring, “Come Out And Play (Keep ‘Em Separated)”: Yeah, it’s a little left-field, given the general tenor and tone of the songs on this playlist so far, but I like to change things up from time to time.
  5. Peter Gabriel, “Love To Be Loved”: Whenever there’s a rough situation, I turn to Peter Gabriel, not so much because he speaks to the human condition (thought he does), but because he speaks so elliptically about things that are universal and deeply, deeply personal.
  6. Ray LaMontagne, “Trouble”: I dig this guy’s stuff, though I think I dug it more before I found out what a tremendous asshole he apparently is. How are all the sensitive singer-songwriter types just absolute jerks?
  7. Steve Earle, “Hard-Core Troubadour”: It’d be hard to imagine 2023 Steve Earle, with his almost-bald head and the long, long fringe of hair that hangs around that shiny peak, being considered a sex symbol and an iconoclastic rebel, but 1996 Steve Earle could get it.
  8. Taylor Swift, “Style”: She’s sold more records than I’ve had hot lunches. She could release an album that’s just her making fart noises with her armpits and it’d probably go platinum at least. The woman knows what she’s about.
  9. Toad the Wet Sprocket, “Last To Fall”: Latter-day Toad is kinda hit-and-miss, I think, but when it hits, it hits good and hard.
  10. Tom Waits, “Ice Cream Man”: With summer just around the corner, the ice cream guy has started coming around again. We’ve heard his truck playing “Turkey in the Hay” two or three times just over this past weekend. So I asked if our ice cream man was maybe Tom Waits, and my sister-in-law just gave me a weird look. She does that a lot.