Posted in Listed

10 Favourite Songs of 2019

Posted on by Michael

10. Lala Lala & WHY? – Siren 042:  A few Lala Lala tracks caught our ear in 2018 but not like this one with WHY?.  The atmosphere on “Siren 042” is a bit sad as Lala Lala apologizes and explains herself in the lyrics but at the same time loses her personality as she makes changes.  This got played a lot in the early mornings.

9. Loma – Half Silences:  The sound is haunting when members from Shearwater and Cross Records get together to record.  The only thing that would make this track better is extending the first instrumental passage for a few more minutes before the vocals appear. This is also our favourite video of 2019.

8. Bleached – Shitty Ballet:  After the release of their debut in 2013, we lost track of Bleached until this first track from their latest album was released in April. The band has a knack of getting songs lodged in the head and this one was no different as we sang, “don’t want to pretend it’s OK when it’s not” throughout the year.

7. Lizzo (Feat. Missy Elliott) – Tempo:  Easily one of the coolest tracks of the year. The steady groove never gets too hyped but always keeps the head nodding along. Lizzo has received all kinds of attention in 2019 and when you can get the queen Missy Elliott on your track, you know you’re doing something right.

6. Sharon Van Etten – Seventeen:  When Van Etten released her newest album, this is the track that everyone latched onto.  It sounds like a female Bruce Springsteen looking back on her younger self while screaming that “I know what you’re going to be”.  In this case, that’s a great place to be.

5.  Billie Eilish & Justin Bieber – bad guy:  Always liked this track but our ears really perked up on the Interrupters version which made us go back and listen to the original even more.  Eilish’s vocals are hushed like she’s hiding in a closet while the simple beat gives Bieber room to really roll with a great vocal performance.

4. Fontaines D.C. – Boys In The Better Land:  Hearing the slower “Roy’s Tune” did not prepare us for this energetic anthem that blared out of our car speakers all summer. Name checking James Joyce, this one also had us Googling what “only smokes Carrolls” means.  This one makes us believe that the (rock) kids are alright.

3. Haim – Summer Girl:  An early morning drive to work and hearing this on CBC Radio 2 had us hooked immediately. Missed this one for the summer but it made our autumn a lot brighter with the mesmerizing saxophone hook.  Almost makes us want to book a trip to LA and have this on repeat.

2. Lil Nas X (Feat. Billy Ray Cyrus) – Old Town Road:  One late evening on stereogum.com we read about the country chart controversy with “Old Town Road” then watched about 20 TikTok videos afterwards. Being purists, we liked the original better but the Billy Ray Cyrus version is fine too.  The “can’t nobody tell me nothing” is the lyric of the year and the fact that the track gets in and out as fast as possible gives the listener whiplash as they hit the repeat button 5x.

1. Vampire Weekend – Harmony Hall:  This was instantly one of our favourite songs of 2019 from the first time we heard it. Listening to the feature on Song Exploder recently, we got the original meaning of the song slightly wrong the first time around but found the actual meaning of beautiful plantation houses being used for weddings fascinating. The sound recalls early VW tracks but is musically far more complex and nuanced.  It may not be the lyric of the year, see above, but “I don’t want to live like this, but I don’t want to die” is certainly right up there.

Posted in Album Reviews

Pet Shop Boys – Behaviour/Further Listening 1990-1991 (2018)

Posted on by Michael

Pet Shop Boys fourth album Behaviour was released in October 1990 but I did not pick up the original release until the mid-90s.  By then BritPop was in full swing and it was all “lager lager lager”.  The mature electronic songs of betrayal that Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe presented here seemed out of step with other pop music when I bought it the first time around.  Co-Produced by Harold Faltermeyer, this was the release I was most interested in for the Further Listening series to see what I missed the first time around.

The first disc presents the remastered version of the original album with most of the songs touching on love but from different angles.  “To Face The Truth” is an excellent album track with genuinely moving lyrics.  “You know it hurts me when you lie, sometimes it even makes me cry, cause I’m so in love with you”. “When we fall in love there’s confusion” is the excellent chorus in “This Must be the Place I waited Years to Leave”.  “The End of the World” downplays romantic quarrels over a crisp drum beat.

The songs that pulled from here for the Discography Complete Singles Collection released in 1991 are the best tracks and a step up from the Introspective album singles that precedes them.  “So Hard” is one of Pet Shop Boys hardest driving songs as two lovers fight over whether one has started smoking again. Mostly just percussion during the verses, the synths get expansive for a few seconds when Tennant sings “tell me why, don’t we try?”   “Jealousy” was one of the first tracks the duo wrote back in 1982 and features a devastating chorus as one person sits and waits up for his/her partner to come back home again.  The true centerpiece of the album is first song, “Being Boring”.  Barely scraping into the UK top 20 at the time, it has been a firm fan favourite ever since including for this writer who used in a poetry assignment in grade 11. Updating the nostalgia of The Beatles’ “In My Life” for the HIV epidemic era, the lyrics of “all the people that I was kissing, some are here and some are missing” are particularly heartbreaking.

As with other releases in the Further Listening re-releases the second disc is devoted to different mixes of the hits and corresponding B-sides.  For Behaviour, the second disc often outshines the original album by extending “Being Boring” to nearly 11 minutes and adding a new middle section to “So Hard”.  Sweeping strings and a Beatlesque trumpet announce the beginning of “Jealousy” before it goes into the more familiar track. Also included is the 1991 cover of U2’s “Where The Streets Have No Name (I Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You)” that amps up the tension by extending the beginning of the track. 

The Morrissey baiting “Miserablism” was to be put on the original album but wrongly held off as it would have been one of the better album tracks and act as a perfect foil after “So Hard”. “Bet She’s Not Your Girlfriend” could have been a single and would have been a floor filler at clubs in the early 90s. Two versions of “DJ Culture” appear at the end as does the 12” version of “Was It Worth It” both of which made their debut on Discography. The latter fairs better but two versions of “DJ Culture” is not needed.  Better is the throbbing bassline in the Chris Lowe sung/talked “We All Feel Better In the Dark (Extended Mix)”.

Going back and reevaluating Behaviour to discover some very good album tracks is the great thing about these types of re-releases.  The Further Listening disc is the best one released thus far in the series and is at times a more engaging listen than the actual album.  The B-sides are superb and the extended versions mostly improve but never takeaway from the originals.  This was another fine release for Tennant/Lowe.

Behaviour – 8.5/10

Further Listening – 9/10

Posted in Paper Chase

Q4 Read It 2019

Posted on by Michael

I’ve been listening to The Watch podcast since it’s inception way back when on the old Grantland website.  Over the past year co-host Andy Greenwald has taken time away from the pod to be the show runner for his adaptation of Ross Thomas’ 1984 murder mystery, Briarpatch.  Upon hearing of his sister’s murder, Benjamin Dill returns to his small hometown to settle her affairs and look into what happened. Turns out she had a $250K life insurance policy, many questions about a possible double life she was leading and several suspects.

Before his death in 1995, Thomas had published 25 books and won an Edgar award for Briarpatch.  This is not life changing stuff but a solid read with several funny bits, interesting characters, a story that keeps things moving along swiftly.

7.5/10

I’m fairly certain Ryan Holiday came onto my radar through the Tim Ferriss podcast a few years ago and have been subscribing to his newsletter for about as long.  Every month Holiday sends out his reading list with lots of great suggestions.  Like James Clear, since we’ve consumed so much of his content, we wanted to support Holiday with his latest book entitled Stillness Is The Key. 

The book is laid out in three sections on mind, soul, and body with several short chapters devoted to each. Stories through the centuries come from Marcus Aurelius, John F Kennedy, Winston Churchill, Anne Frank, Tiger Woods, etc.  This book is a great jumping off point to dive further into teachings and philosophies that have been preached throughout the world.  It is a book that I will certainly return to throughout the years.

10/10

George Saunders’ first novel, Lincoln in the Bardo, won several awards including the Man Book prize in 2017.  The book tells the story of Abraham Lincoln’s son, William, who passes away and who for a time is caught between heaven and earth.  The writing switches from written historical accounts of the events surrounding his death and fantasy of what happened after he had passed on. Several times when reading I found myself stopping and thinking about what was written. Certainly not an easy read, I’m sure I missed a few things but feel like this is one that I would re-read again someday.

9/10

Tayari Jones’ fourth novel, An American Marriage, was selected as an Opera’s book club and has won a couple of awards including the Women’s Prize for Fiction in 2019.  The book takes place in Georgia with African American Roy marrying Celestial.  A year into the marriage, Roy is accused of raping a woman in her hotel room and is sent to jail for several years.  Much of the book takes place in letters written between Roy and the outside world.

When picked for my fiancé’s book club, this was not a fan favourite so even though I knew it has been well received, I was not expecting to like it as much as I did. The characters are flawed but likeable in their own ways.  Everyone is just trying to get through life the best they can which added to the realness of the story.  As an added bonus, the southern expressions and teachings were nice additions for this Northern reader.

8.5/10

Posted in Album Reviews

Angel Olsen – All Mirrors (2019)

Posted on by Michael

In 2016 we rated Angel Olsen’s last album, My Woman, as our favourite album of the year.  To quote part of that review, “we can’t wait to see where Angel Olsen goes next”.  We finally got our chance to hear the follow up and like Sharon Van Etten earlier in 2019, Olsen has incorporated more synths and electronics into her work along with a lot of orchestral strings.  The six minute “Lark” has a pulsating beat through the verses before the chorus roars and the second verse accuses “the way you scream like something else is the matter”.

“Too Easy” has a dreamy chorus with whispered vocals expressing that “some things happen for a reason; cancel all these plans I’m dreaming”.  “Spring” sees Olsen singing about how friends are growing older and priorities are changing to the sound of a broken carousel. First single “All Mirrors” could have been released in the early 80s with its brittle percussion and 80s synths.  “New Love Cassette” captures the best of the album’s moments with a minimal beat and synth stabs, Olsen’s voice is haunting and creates a dark/moody atmosphere.

On the flipside, “Impasse” is harsher musically and “Endgame” is a bit slow and sluggish. Better is the acoustic guitar on “Summer” that sounds a bit like First Aid Kit at their best. Olsen has always had a touch of nostalgia in her sound and that shines on tracks like “Tonight” and album closer “Chance” that sounds like a 60s torch song. In the course of expanding her sound, Angel Olsen has released another compelling album that takes several listens to uncover all that she is doing.

8/10