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I mentioned before that I stopped my subscription to Emusic. That gives me time to actually listen to the albums I download and maybe listened to once or twice.
in 7th grade I also listened to classical music on my city’s NPR station — though it was maddening having to wait for the end of the piece for the DJ to announce what we had just heard. (Amazing fact: did you know that many classical pieces were longer than the usual 3 minute pop song?) I remembered my joy and frustration at hearing a magical orchestral melody on the radio and then never finding out the name of the piece. I remember waiting months before I heard that same melody on the radio again — this time, I made sure to listen to the very end — turns out the piece was Beethoven’s Pastorale Symphony…. That was a year before I received a tape recorder which gave me the ability to record random things from the radio onto a 60 minute 2 sided cassette. I still remember what was on that first cassette I made — Barber’s Piano Concerto played by Robert Browning (YT) . It rocked my world!
You may not know that I have a nephew at music school who is playing for a well known university jazz band. He plays trombone and tuba, so my ears perk up whenever I hear a good part in a song for one of those instruments. Some faves:
- Vehicle by Ides of March (YT).
- Breakfast in America by Supertramp (YT). Heard this hundreds of times, but I never noticed the tuba until recently.
- Age of Aquarius/Let the Sun Shine In by 5th dimension. (YT) Actually this is backed by multiple Wrecking Crew stars; the arrangement and recording is incredible! I read on the wiki page that the instruments and vocals were recording separately, which made it so power-packed.
Articles, Interviews & Lists
Here’s a list compiled by a redditor about best albums of the year from the 1960s to the present. Even though these lists are kind of boring, I have missed a lot of the albums although I have generally heard of all the musicians.
Reddit favorite albums of the year from 1970 to 2024. That may simply reveal the demographics of reddit users, but some unusual choices here: lots of Tool, Green Day and Radiohead. Still, surprising to see Rage Against the Machine, Gorillaz, Smashing Pumpkins.
Reviews
Youtubey/Podcasty Things
Lynsey De Paul does a comic interview with a very famous musician (YT).
From my days living in Albania, I learned about some great Albanian singers. I was particularly taken by Eli Fara, who sang at folk festivals in the 1980s. There was one really amazing folk melody which she sang from that era. I spent a long time trying to find it again and found it –only to lose it again. I could have sworn that I had ripped one of her CDs and downloaded some versions of the song I liked, I can’t find anything.
Here’s a mini-playlist (YT) of Eli Fara‘s songs — mostly her older stuff. Aha, I found a medley with the song in it. It’s on the first track — for the first two minutes.
I just spent almost an hour trying to find a Cantopop song by Joey Yung that I listened to over and over 20 years ago. It took viewing almost 100 music vids on YouTube, but I finally found it (I recognized it in the first 2 seconds). Ahh, relief. (YT)
EPIC DANCE NUMBER. I really dig Sports Car song by Tate McRae and the amazing dance routine which was performed live on SNL last week. (YB) This dance number is brilliant in so many ways — singer is hot too. The Official video (which is interesting but strange) uses this theme of the voyeur/stripper and the “sports car” is a reference to the voyeur’s wealth. The live performance takes a totally different (and totally appropriate) tack! Here’s a 10 minute discussion with the singer/songwriter and the music producer.
80s DADA-PUNK SONG: This is the first time I’ve heard of the Flying Lizards. Where were songs like this when I was growing up? If I had seen this music video during the early years of MTV, I would have FREAKED OUT! (YT) Here’s an early interview (YT) and a later interview with the lead singer (YT1 and YT2)
I listen to a lot of random musical tracks that I get from various places (legally). I usually hate Christian rap/gospel songs, but I found a song which has stuck in my head. I searched for it and found this fun and upbeat dance video. (YT) The singer Josiah Caleb lives in Dallas, and apparently, he got a group of teenagers to dance along. (He runs a catering business).
I admit, I expected already to know a lot of these “secretly German” songs. But this enjoyable 20 minute vid mentions a lot of cool songs and musicians that were brand new to me. (YT)
UPCOMING MUSICAL DISTRACTION: Exactly 1 month from today will be the Eurovision Song Contest finals (Saturday May 17). (For a single afternoon at least, I will not have to think about a Russian war or my own country’s increasingly autocratic behavior). I cannot wait! (YT)
This handy guide is for music lovers who want to avoid using Spotify. My two tips are 1) getmusic..fm for codes to get free albums on bandcamp and 2)upload your music collection to ibroadcast.com to stream it any way you want. (Free + Freemium versions) . I never really have had a problem with Spotify (although the premium versions are too expensive). They are good ways to sample albums before buying digital versions. Bandcamp is a much better way to support musicians –especially for Name Your Price (NYP) albums, but many of the albums on bandcamp are very expensive — costs too much unless you’re 100% sure you want it or want to buy it as a way to support your musician. I wish that more albums cost less than 5$, but they’re more like 10-20$.
Acquisitions (Bandcamp, etc)
See also my rateyourmusic profile and my review spreadsheet.in Google Docs.
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