The Year(s) In Music (2020 – 2024)

(By Richard Goodman, 7 June 2025)

Hello!  It has been a while since I last talked to you.  Has anything significant happened lately?  I did not plan to send you the box set of music you are holding in your hands.  It just sort of happened.  When I last sent you a Year In Music CD back in the beginning of 2020, Donald Trump was running a presidential campaign despite concerns about his fitness for office, Elon Musk was making waves in the business world and exerting his social influencer muscle, Brexit was causing turmoil in Europe, the United States exited many global alliances like the Paris Accords, weather patterns were changing and causing unprecedented natural disasters, the Kansas City Chiefs - America’s new favorite sports team - were Superbowl bound, and when someone said the word “Corona”, the first thing you thought of was a beer.

And now, um, well, all those things are still kind of true, but in completely different ways than before.  Part of the delay in sending music to you was because of my procrastination but a lot of it has been a lack of new music coming out in the last few years for some reason.  It almost seems like the world has been concentrating on other things from 2020 through 2023. 

The culprit, COVID-19, has affected public health, global supply chains, political agendas, education, social activities, and yes, even the music scene.  Since streaming music services have killed album sales and they pay out pennies to the artists in return, musicians depend on touring revenue to make a living.  Artists now release albums to help promote their tours, not because they expect to earn gobs of money from selling albums.  

Touring is needed to bring in money to pay the bills, since streaming revenue is negligible.  So if an artist can’t use a new album to generate ticket sales, many feel there is no point in releasing anything new.  When people were unable to safely gather and listen to a concert, musicians stayed at home and had to find other ways to earn a living.

As a result, there was not much new music coming out during the peak COVID years.  Heck, it seems like there were more corona variants coming out then there were hit albums.  We started with the big names in COVID - Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Omicron and then moved on to other “less deadly” variants like Epsilon, Zeta, Kappa, Lambda, and now there are so many we don’t have any fun Greek fraternity names to give them and have just started numbering them like iPhone updates (BA.2.86, JN.1, JN.1.7, JN.1.18, KP.2, KP.3, KP.3.1.1, and LB.1.)

Usually, I have no problem finding two or three CDs worth of material that I want to share but the Covid era made worthwhile new music much harder to find.  There were a few notable exceptions though.  Dua Lipa put out her glorious second album, full of insanely catchy feel-good songs that distracted us from a glum world.  Taylor Swift went in the other direction and released two (two!!) million-selling albums of comfortable, soothing, folk-leaning pop that made you want to stay home, wrapped up in a blanket, drinking a glass of wine.  A lot of us did that very thing, when we could find wine and cheese in stock at the grocery store.  Of course, Taylor Swift could release anything and it would do well- I’m looking forward to her putting out an album during the post-apocalyptic zombie outbreak.  It will probably feature a sequel to “Cardigan”, called “Kevlar Sweater”.

So for 2020 I barely found one CDs’ worth of music and didn’t feel motivated to send anything out.  Then as the pandemic dragged on into 2021, the lack of new music continued.  I explored the back catalog of artists I liked but hadn’t extensively listened to before and I re-listened to past favorites but that doesn’t really let me find unknown treasures for you.  I mean, you all know Belinda Carlisle’s songs, you’ve heard Henry Mancini before, you probably don’t care about Jefferson Starship, and you likely have heard all of Transvision Vamp’s good songs already - there are only two of them.  On the plus side, I got to fully evaluate some legacy artists to whom I had not paid proper attention, for example the whole output of The Bangles, Journey, The Cars, Foreigner, Veruca Salt, Lush, and U2. 

So 2021 also resulted in just one CDs worth of songs.  Still, that means I had two CDs worth of things I found worthwhile that you might appreciate.  It seems fitting that I would send both years at the same time because doesn’t it feel like 2020 and 2021 blurred into one long, long span of time where it was hard to tell one month apart from another and you weren’t motivated to do all the things you normally do?  Yes, yes it did. 

Then, as Covid started to wane and become less deadly and vaccines became widely available and utilized by those who understood how medicine works, I lost a couple of people that were really important to me.  My friend John passed away as did my mother.  Ironically, neither was a Covid victim but they were gone just the same and I was dealing with those losses and the emotions that went with them.  So that lethargy carried on into 2022 and 2023.  Since the music scene had picked back up again in 2023 and 2024, touring resumed and new album releases were coming out on a regular basis from people other than Taylor Swift, I figured I might as well wait until 2024 ended and include that year too and send everything at once.   

That’s not to say there weren’t some positive side effects of the pandemic.  Since everything has been anguish about COVID since it showed its’ face, I wanted to take a moment to recognize a few good things about what we experienced. This is not intended in any way to disregard or minimize the terrible death toll and the social impact of the virus but rather to celebrate the urge to look for silver linings and cheer on the adaptability that comes from adversity.

So first, traffic was amazing during the pandemic period.  It took almost no time to get to work and on days when I didn’t want to drive into the office, I could work remotely from home.  This meant more sleep time, less need for gas, and I could eat lunch from my own fridge with no need to pack a lunch or get take-out from a restaurant.  Gas prices were really low - I mean like 1980’s low.  Global emissions and carbon output dropped drastically, and some notoriously smoggy cities had clear skies for the first time in decades. 

There were no new television shows being produced so there was time to catch up on things that were backlogged on my DVR.  Clearing that backlog was bittersweet though.  Many of the episodes that I had waiting for me were the final episodes of series that had been cancelled and I was saving them because I didn’t want the show to be over because I loved it so much.  I watched the last season or final few episodes of The 100, Wynonna Earp, Last Man Standing, Agents Of Shield, High Fidelity, Silicon Valley, The Good Place, Modern Family, Brooklyn 99, and The Magicians.

Then there were the streaming services that exploded in the last four years. Everyone stuck at home, unable to go to concerts, or movies, or dinner out with friends, or sports events, or on vacations or dates, instead watched stuff on streaming services.  Yes, some of it was garbage like Tiger King but there was also The Queen’s Gambit.  I was amazed at how much I loved this drama about chess.  Everyone watched this show and talked about it, and it even kickstarted a public resurgence of interest in chess.  On the opposite end of the spectrum, I also loved Teenage Bounty Hunters, a dramatic comedy about some teenage girls who are, as you would guess, bounty hunters.  No one I know watched this show, which is why Netflix cancelled it, and I was crushed that I never got a chance to talk about it with anyone.  It was hilarious, heart-warming, satirical, soapy, sexy, and thrilling and no one will ever know it existed, except for me.   

People got to explore everything on streaming that they had never watched before or to revisit old favorites, which made Friends and The Office hugely popular shows again. 

Drive-in movies became a thing again.  While theaters were closed, pop-up drive-ins, um, popped up because people could isolate in their cars and still a see a movie on the big screen.  When theaters did reopen, they were not as crowded, and people could reserve their seats.  I enjoy having an audience when watching a movie, but I don’t want people in the seats on both sides of me, boxing me in and crowding my armrest.  Theaters were pro-active and enforced spacing so there were certain seats blocked off to maintain distance between patrons. 

Once COVID restrictions were lifted, reserved seating stayed.  At first, I wasn’t a fan of reserved seating because I was used to getting to the theater early and finding a good seat but I eventually came around because a little planning ahead meant I didn’t have to spend time waiting around in the theater lobby, reading a book or fiddling around on my phone.  Ever since the Merrifield Multiplex theater closed and the Area 51 arcade game was gone, I haven’t really wanted to hang out in the lobby because it isn’t as fun anymore.  Sometimes I saw a movie with friends, so I could talk to them while waiting to get seated, but about 50% of the movies I see are by myself so hanging out in the lobby isn’t that much fun post-Area 51. 

Another forced benefit of the pandemic was that buying groceries was a breeze.  Not because there was an abundance of choices but because there were none.  Supply chain issues meant a shortage of almost everything.  Because many factories are specialized, they could make commercial paper products but couldn’t quickly switch to consumer paper items like toilet paper, even assuming there were enough healthy workers to staff the factory.  If you wanted toilet paper, eggs, bread, or vegetables, you grabbed whatever was there, as quickly as you could before someone else got it and the shelves were empty again.  Shortages even extended to metal used for coins and aluminum cans.  Gone were the days where I could choose whether I wanted Cherry Coke Zero, Cherry Vanilla Coke Zero, or Minute Maid Zero Lemonade.  Coca Cola cut back to just their core products so I got to choose from Coke, Diet Coke, Coke Zero or nothing.

There was also a renewed appreciation for simply going outside and taking a walk.  People who didn’t normally bother doing that in the “before time”, realized how enjoyable it was to get outside for some fresh air, opens spaces, and physical activity.  When you see the same four walls for weeks on end, you learn to appreciate different views and surroundings. 

Economically, there was lots of hardship, so I was happy for the little breaks that we got.  Income tax deadlines were pushed from April until July for the first year of the Corona virus, and then we also got three stimulus checks in the next couple of years.  It was nowhere near enough to replace a salary for people who lost their jobs, but it was a nice bit of relief for those still working who were struggling with the unexpected costs arising from the difficult circumstances.  Libraries stopped charging late fees for overdue books, and that stayed in place to this day. While I have always considered late fees as a way of supporting the library system, I’m happy to do that other ways instead of worrying when I need to return a book that I haven’t finished yet.  I would much rather give them money by going to library book sales. 

Another economic break was restaurant delivery fees.  Since restaurants weren’t doing dine-in service, they relied on pickup orders and deliveries.  To encourage people to order from restaurants, delivery fees were waived.  Owners wanted your food order and weren’t going to discourage that by charging you $5.00 to deliver it.  You got to feel like a hero for ordering food and not spending time cooking for yourself.  For me, that is an amazing plus.  I could order cooked food from a restaurant and feel like I’m supporting my community and being a good neighbor.  Granted, waived delivery fees just went back to the drivers as tips because they were being even bigger heroes, by bringing the food and interacting with people they didn’t know who might be contagious with a deadly virus, and possibly not wearing a mask.

Zoom was a gamechanger because it enabled you to stay in touch with people outside your household, conduct business, attend school, see concerts, and remain connected to the world.  This remained the case after the pandemic ended, and I’m very happy that I no longer have to travel to attend meetings or do training.  People can work remotely and be productive.  The time and expense saved by conducting gatherings electronically is a major plus.    

Finally, the pandemic likely forced you to spend lots of quality time with family.  You learned a lot about them because there was nowhere to go and nothing else to do.  This forced people to get better acquainted.  Even though you sometimes got on each other’s nerves, you later appreciated the time together, especially if you lost a loved one to the virus.  I’m so thankful that all my family and friends made it through the pandemic.  Although some of them are no longer here, at least they all survived the biggest health crisis of the last 50 years.

So that is a very roundabout way of telling you why I wasn’t prioritizing the delivery of my Year In Music CDs.  Now though I don’t any such excuses, other than laziness or spending too much time watching YouTube, which doesn’t sound like a reasonable excuse.  Thus, you now hold five CDs in your hands, covering my music obsessions from 2020 to 2024.

Looking at what I had sent out in 2018 and 2019, it felt like I was a bit too inclined towards pop and dance-y songs so I checked out more rock-based artists.  I already mentioned going through the back catalog for Journey and Foreigner, and gained newfound appreciation for them, although none of their stuff is on the CDs since they aren’t undiscovered artists who need promotion.  If you look at the 2020 track list, you might say “So why is Huey Lewis on here?  We all know him (them?)”  Yes, but during the pandemic, I learned that Huey Lewis has an ear condition and is going deaf. 

As a musician, it is very hard to play or write music if you are deaf.  (Yes, there was Beethoven - 250 years ago! - but can you name anyone else?)  Huey and his band put out what may be their final album of new material.  It was a decent album and I really connected with the song “While We’re Young”, which I am not, and neither is he.  The song is about making the most of what you have while you have the chance to do so and that was a very impactful sentiment considering what the world was going through that year. 

I also enjoying Green Day’s take on a Joan Jett song, Royal Blood’s latest monsoon of rock, and an album from a long time favorite – Local H – who is long overdue for recognition of their great work since their one hit twenty years ago.  I listened to a spinoff band (liarflower) from another huge favorite (Queen Adreena), a couple industry veterans (Dion and The Fleshtones) who re-emerged to share great new music, and some mid-level artists taking the next step up in their career (Tennis, Tame Impala, Avalanches, Travis, Dua Lipa).  I found yet another great Tom Jones song, an interesting acoustic cover of a Guns & Roses song, and multiple collaborations. 

The most unusual thing I came across this year was an artist called Poppy, who started out as a You Tuber called That Poppy.  She made bizarre videos on YouTube, some involving her mannequin friend Charlotte, others with her doing performance art, like the one where the whole video is her saying “I’m Poppy”, and some which were straight up music videos of her original songs.  The music had a bubble gum pop sound, but the subversive lyrics were razor sharp satire.  Most bizarre of all were interviews I found online where she went through the interview in character as a robot pop artist.  (See  one here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2J5WqyJFbVs.)  Her answers, her affect and vocal inflection were as if an AI chatbot were doing the interview, but this was a couple years before chatbots and AI tools were a thing. 

There are even some reaction videos online where kids are reacting to her personae and then she reacts to their reactions, culminating in her appearing in person, inside a box to talk to the kids and the kids just freak out!  (you can see the thing here: Poppy Reacts To & MEETS Kids React Cast: The ENTIRE Saga https://youtu.be/QJORKxYYrhQ?si=n3JriiYT0z9MUQ0q).         

Even more interesting than whether Poppy is a real robot, or just a normally manufactured YouTube star, is her musical evolution.  I included three consecutive songs for this year so you can see her change from a satirical pop princess to a message driven artist, to an alternative metal singer.  Her last few albums have been very metal-edged, and the videos and songs remind me of Nine Inch Nails.  Then she will suddenly throw a curveball come out with something like “Stagger” (https://youtu.be/yp5A8awHfas).  I’ve just been fascinated watching this.  It is like a documentary of music history, or the Spinal Tap of pop music, or the blueprint for becoming internet famous.    

So that was 2020.  In 2021, I retreated further back into the past while listening to new releases.  By that I mean a lot of legacy artists put out new music.  So I heard stuff from Paul McCartney, Lindsey Buckingham, Pixies, Edie Brickell, Duran Duran, Sting, ABBA, and Barry Gibb but it wasn’t their oldies.  It was recent music that sounded like their oldies, which turned out to be a good thing.  Barry Gibb put out a covers album of his own songs done as duets with country artists.  It might sound like a weird combination, but it works.  The track he does with Alison Krauss is amazing.  While I think his vocals on the original version of “Too Much Heaven” are jaw-dropping, what Krauss does on this cover duet with him is equally magnificent. 

ABBA put out a new album some, let me check here…, FORTY YEARS LATER!  It was not worth the wait, but it was a nice bookend for their career and there were three songs on it that I quite liked.

There were a couple of throwback songs too. Ones that had been around for decades until I finally heard them this year.  I discovered Paul Anka’s “Times Of Your Life” - a sappy, over-produced, but surprisingly emotional and touching late career hit. Plus an old techno-industrial hit by My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult, and a Bryan Adams Christmas song that I first heard this Christmas even though it had been around awhile.

There were exciting songs and albums from alternative favorites (Pretty Reckless, Royal Blood, Dandy Warhols, Courtney Barnett, Julianna Hatfield, and a full-on nu metal song from Poppy) and newly discovered favorites, specifically The Beaches, Zella Day, and Wet Leg.  Wet Leg was the biggest surprise for me, and the most exciting find.  The reason for the surprise is because I heard their first single, "Chaise Longue", and was not impressed.  I couldn’t understand why people were digging the song so I dismissed them.  Then I heard their second single, “Wet Dream”, and loved it.  That song deserved all the praise that it received.  Then I heard a few other songs of theirs, and they were all pretty good but not as good as “Wet Dream”.  When their album was finally released, I was not expecting it to be anything other than a collection of the singles I’d already heard plus some more filler.  Boy am I glad I was wrong!

The album came out in 2022, so let’s move on to that year’s disc.  I included Wet Leg’s “Angelica” and “Ur Mum” because they were awesome – equal or better than “Wet Dream”.  Their whole album was amazing, ending up as my favorite of the year. 

Also carrying over from 2021 was Zella Day.  I liked “Dance For Love” in 2021, so in 2022 I dove into her whole catalog, finding several favorites, including this disc’s feisty “Mushroom Punch” and shimmery “Golden”.  Writing this in 2025, I know what she has done next, which is an almost a Poppy-level switch-up, but I will discuss that when I do the 2025 disc since her new incarnation will have an entry on it.    

In fact, the 2022 CD is mostly filled with surprises and unexpected resurrections.  For example, who expected Elton John to have a major hit again by covering an old song of his?   During quarantine, Elton ended up doing a duets cover album thing as well, just like Barry Gibb did the year before.  Elton teamed up with Dua Lipa for a modernized mash-up of four of his songs.  As Wikipedia puts it, “The song is a medley of four songs written by Elton John and Bernie Taupin, as well as Andrew Meecham, Dean Meredith, Nicholas Littlemore, Peter Mayes and Sam Littlemore, with the production completed by the latter three as part of the dance music group Pnau. Interpolating John's songs "Rocket Man" (1972), "Kiss the Bride" (1983), "Sacrifice" (1989) and "Where's the Shoorah?" (1976), the remix is an upbeat contemporary synth-pop, dance, dance-pop and pop song describing the decline of a relationship.”   Interestingly, I had also been unrelatedly listening to PNAU since they were connected to Empire Of The Sun and Sleepy Jackson, bands I found enjoyable in a slightly over the top way.  “Cold Heart” was a major pop hit for Elton John and Dua Lipa, a big surprise for Elton John fans and no surprise to Dua Lipa fans.

Another unexpected release came from Tears For Fears.  Their previous album had come out in 2004 and was long-time mainstay Roland Orzabal’s reunion with original member Curt Smith.  That 2004 album was also unexpected at the time since Orzabal had been basically doing solo work, just under the Tears For Fears name, since 1990.  With Orzabal and Smith’s exemplary reunion release being named “Everyone Loves A Happy Ending”, I expected that to be the end of their recording career, and for 18 years I was correct. 

Then in 2022 came “The Tipping Point”.  It was another new Orzabal and Smith TFT album, 18 years later.  Not quite an ABBA length absence, but still a long time gone since releasing new material.  The first couple of songs I heard on the radio were not encouraging though.  They seemed slow and melancholy.  When the whole album came out, I learned that the genesis of the album was Roland trying to work through his grief over his wife’s illness and subsequent death. 

I can understand how that would affect the songwriting process and become a more meditative work without the usual energy I attribute to them.  There was no “Shout” or “Sowing The Seeds Of Love” on this album.  After an initial listen, I set aside the album.  Later on, after continuing to think about the album and feel disappointment after such a long wait, I pulled it back out to give it another try in case I had dismissed too casually.  I listened to it again, with no expectations since I knew what it wasn’t.  After two or three listens, the songs made their way into my brain, and I appreciated what the album was and how it unwound as a slow burn and not an explosion.  The trademark TFT choruses were there, as was the impeccable production and the baroque chamber pop flourishes, and I fell for the album.  I ended up loving some five or six tracks and I really had a hard time deciding whether to include “My Demon” or “End Of Night” on this compilation since both are excellent.        

Another unexpected treat was a new Tom Jones album, with a bunch of unexpected covers that seem tailor made for Jones as an 84-year-old man, who had lost his wife in 2016.  He was unsure if he would ever perform again because she had been his rock, his love, and his emotional support for sixty years.  The songs reflected the relevant topics of aging, anguish, legacy and social consciousness he had been exploring on his last few albums in the 2010’s but this one had an extra dose of sadness.  Then there is his voice – it is still the Tom Jones voice that sends shivers down your spine.  The thing I included here is an oddity from the album.  Basically, it is like spoken word poetry in time with a rough beat.  It is too slow to be considered a rap; it sounds more like a monologue from a fervent and slightly sarcastic clergyman, and (trigger warning) it concerns a political figure.

The surprises continued this year with Gorillaz putting out a really good album after a couple of dull ones.  The Cult, Black Keys, Mitski, and Pixies did the same- a good album after a couple yawners- so I plucked a standout track from each to include here.  A magazine column from David Crosby (R.I.P.) got me to hear the Sarah Jarosz song, and I loved a super old song I heard from a 1972 Bee Gees album, released during their “lost years” phase when they were past their Beatle-ish and ballad years but before their disco resurgence, when they could not get a song or album on the charts.  After listening to this song, I just don’t understand how the public decides what to like.  This song is a banger.   

Moving on to 2023, I am mostly back in the present day, musically.  There are current songs, although from artists old and new.  Jason Mraz has a new hit, the impossibly upbeat “I Feel Like Dancing” which makes you feel just that.  Spoon, The Hives, Metric, and Juliana Hatfield- some of my favorite alternative rock artists- are back with new albums. 

Metric are icy, alternative pop, and are hit and miss but I included the album highlight.  The Hives are The Hives, which means – as they will tongue-in-cheekily tell you- they are greatest rock and rock band ever.  To describe them I would say to imagine the Ramones if they were brasher, catchier, more cinematic, and could write more than one song.  Spoon is an oddity.  When people say something is lo-fi, I imagine a guy sitting in a rocking chair playing a banjo, or a three-piece band doing one take into a small microphone in a bedroom or garage and refusing to do overdubs or multi-tracking. 

As someone who first heard music by listening to the radio in the 1970’s, a period ruled by artists like ELO, Pink Floyd, the Bee Gees, Chicago, Rod Stewart, Earth Wind & Fire, and Billy Joel, songs with a DIY feel or lack of strong production skills take some getting used to.  Granted, the 1970’s also had America, Olivia Newton John, and John Denver, which leaned more acoustic, but they were still perfectly produced.  They didn’t sound like they were sloppily recorded in someone’s bathroom.  This is why I’m surprised that I like Spoon.  They are definitely not overproduced.  You can clearly hear every instrument playing, there are no backing beats or electronic flourishes.  What makes them so enjoyable is the song construction and passionate delivery.  I read a review for the album “Kill The Moonlight” and decided to give it a try.  I went into it not expecting to be impressed but several songs hooked me and I’ve been listening to them ever since.  Every album is pretty much guaranteed to have four or five terrific tracks.          

Then there is Juliana Hatfield, an artist I have been listening to since 1992.  Every album is a treat, a present to unwrap and see what has been going through her mind lately.  On the 2021 mix CD, you got her gory and glorious “Chunks”, from her oddball, riff-y political leaning album “Blood”.  For her follow-up, she does one of her covers albums, this time focusing on Electric Light Orchestra (ELO).  Not exactly a straight line from one to the other. 

While I enjoyed the ELO covers album, I didn’t love it. It was too-straight forward and if it sounds almost like the originals, why bother.  There is no way anyone else can replicate ELO’s production.  That said, I wanted you to have a taste of the album, so I shared one of the lesser-known songs that I enjoyed.  Then for good measure, I included her cover of Neil Young’s “Lotta Love”, one of my all-time favorite songs.  It has been covered by many people and I love them all, from Nicolette Larson to She & Him to Juliana Hatfield to Courtney Barnett.  Incidentally, I feel the same way about covers of Neil Young’s "Only Love Can Break Your Heart", covered by artists such as Saint Etienne, I Blame Coco, Natalie Imbruglia, and Juliana Hatfield.

Speaking of covers, I included Dennis DeYoung’s “Hello Goodbye” which isn’t exactly a cover although it does include parts of that Beatles song. This is more of a pastiche of various Beatles songs and lyrics.  See how many Beatles references you can spot in this one song.  Similarly, I came across some mashups on YouTube by Wax Audio that combined multiple songs into one new Frankenstein song.  Those are actually on the 2022 disc but I wanted to mention them now.  Listen to “Blue Jump” and see how many songs you can hear.  I count four distinct songs that were combined into this one.

The other mashup song on the 2022 disc is “Stayin’Alive In The Wall”, a combination of “Another Brick In The Wall” and “Staying Alive”.  You might not think they go well together but once you hear the combo, you can’t imagine them not together, like a Reese’s Peanut Butter cup.  Chocolate is quite good by itself but you will always consider whether you want it with peanuts or peanut butter after having had a Reese’s peanut butter cup. 

The movie “Barbie” came out in 2023, and I know that because two of the songs on this disc are from that soundtrack, which is just as great as the movie is.  First, Dua Lipa, who is having her moment in case you didn’t already realize that, had a highlight song in the movie, during the dance party segment where Barbie (a terrific Margot Robbie) asks “Do you ever think about dying?”  Then at the end of the movie, when Barbie meets her creator, the Billie Eilish song “What Was I Made For” plays.  I got a little misty eyed during that scene in no small part due to that song so how can I not include it here? 

There are two songs on the disc from the band Sorry, a recommendation from Elizabeth that I’m glad I took to heart.  They are an English band I’d never heard of, but I ended up loving their two albums.  There is a Little Steven song I’d loved since seeing the video on MTV in the 1980’s and finally got around to buying the digital single.  The video was stupid- Little Steven riding around on a bicycle- but the music was anthemic. 

What else is left?  Some songs from Therapy?, Chemical Brothers, and Herb Alpert as I worked through my accumulated backlog of albums from those artists.  A representative Veruca Salt song as I delved into their catalog via John’s collection.  A hazy, dreamy, hypnotic song from Bakar, the Dutch band The Art Company with their UK Top Ten sing-along song “Susanna” from an 80’s collection, and a pair of instrumentals from Neil Richardson that give me happy 1960’s jet-set vibes every time I listen to them, which is only when I play this 2023 collection because I don’t think they were ever heard by the general public and are near impossible to buy now.      

That leaves three more songs on the 2023 collection.  There is the Billy Joel song “Turn The Lights Back On”, written and released 30 years after his last pop album.  It is neither a good nor bad song.  It would fit in reasonably well on the “Streetlife Serenade” album.  I include it here simply because it is Billy Joel, one of my top ten all-time favorites, and I think people should listen to it and decide its’ merits for themselves.

Another all-time top ten favorite is Kylie Minogue and in 2023, she was having another moment.  These seem to come along for her every 20 years.  She burst onto the music scene in 1987 with “The Locomotion”, a top ten U.S. hit, and then the UK # 1 hit “I Should Be So Lucky”, also a top forty hit the United States.  She was then completely ignored by the U.S. (but not the rest of the world) until 2001 when “Can’t Get You Out Of My Head” went to # 7, and #1 everywhere else in the world.  The U.S. went back to ignoring her again until 2023 when “Padam Padam” would become another worldwide hit, selling millions of copies, and winning her a second Grammy award.

Finally, we come to Midlake, a band that appears to have one excellent album among the half dozen they recorded.  I heard the song “Young Bride” on a Sirius channel and fell in love with the mournful, melancholy, ballad.  Even though it came out in 2017, I can imagine it being played by a guy in a tavern in coal country in the 1800’s.  It is the violin the gets me the most.  The vocals are sad and bitter but when the violin kicks in for emphasis, it just devastates me.  Let me know what you think.  I paired this song and the Billie Eilish “Barbie” song to close out the 2023 collection and leave you weeping sadly, a perfect way to end the pandemic.

By 2024, COVID was behind us, maybe not in actuality since it continues to hang around and infect several thousand people a month, but its lethality is greatly decreased, and people no longer take any precautions to protect themselves from it any more than they do to avoid getting the flu.  So we are now in the new normal, in society and the music industry.  That means concerts are going on, new albums and singles are coming out, late night shows are promoting artists, and I can hear large amounts of new music.  As a result, I ….. have retreated to the past.

It wasn’t intentional but during the pandemic, I started getting hooked on a compilation series called “Now”.  I’m sure you have heard of them since they have been popular in England for decades and about 15 years ago, the U.S. started doing their own version.  A couple of times a year, “Now” collects the biggest songs that were released since the last collection came out.  I had picked up a few of the CDs when the series first rolled out, but I stopped pretty quickly because, to sound old man-ish, a lot of the music sucked, and I was better off just cherry picking the singles I liked and buying them individually.  Paying for $3 worth of singles sounded better to me than spending on $14 to get those same songs and 14 others I didn’t like.                

In the last five or six years though, the people who put out the “Now” series got clever and started releasing a “Now Yearbook” series.  This is a four-volume collection of the biggest and best songs of a specific year.  So each year’s release had around 80 songs, and they included British hits too.  That means some of my favorite hard to find 1970’s and 1980’s hit singles like Sheila E’s “Love Bizarre”, Alexander O’Neal’s new jack swing classic “Fake”, and John Paul Young’s “Love Is In The Air” were available without having to buy a whole album just for one song.  As a plus, I got to hear what was hot in England during the same time, including a lot of songs I’d never heard before because I was not buying imports of S Club 7 or Deacon Blue.     

Even more insidious, the company started releasing a “Now Yearbook Extra” series consisting of three discs of additional and lesser-known songs from that year. I decided I would get all the “Yearbook” And “Yearbook Extra” volumes for 1973 to 2000 and then stop collecting anything before or after that since my music collection was pretty well stocked on both sides of that time period.  Heck, it is well stocked even within those years, but I was enjoying getting some of the rare selections and hearing what was on the British charts at that time. There is no pattern to the release schedule, so in a given year they might put out volumes for “Now Yearbook 1974” and “Now Yearbook 1992” and “Now Yearbook Extra 1998.  I’ll be done once 1975, 1976, 1989, and 1994-1997 get released. 

Then the bastards started a “Now Yearbook Vault” series.

It is meant to fill in the gaps in the years that are not covered by the seven volumes already released for each year.  You would rightly be skeptically of the merits for the “Vault” series.  The problem is that the five released so far have covered 1980-1984 and 1976-1984 is my favorite period of music, without question.  Can I live without them?  Yes, I could.  Did I want to have them so I could hear additional songs from one hit wonders like Dexys Midnight Runners, M, Rupert Holmes, Fun Boy Three, and Yello?  Yes, I did.  Plus getting them, I’ve built up a nice collection of hits by Shalamar, Madness, OMD, Gary Numan, Japan, The Tourists, and The Stranglers that I wouldn’t otherwise have sought out.  So I’ll wait and see how far the “Vault” series expands but unless it covers 1976-1984, I should be able to pass on those, like I have on the “Now Millenium” series for the post-2000’s years.  

This is my meandering way of apologizing for and explaining why you might recognize some older songs on my “Year In Music 2024” collection.  I’ve included several selections from the “Now” volumes, but they are likely to be new to you, like the bonkers spoken word UK song “Hole In My Shoe” by Neil, Matt Bianco’s festive groove “Half A Minute”, or the humorous female empowerment anthem that never became an anthem, Carole Bayer Sager’s “You’re Moving Out Today”.    There are also personal oldies favorites, like UB40’s cheerful “Rat In Mi Kitchen”, Paul Young’s booming vocals on “I’m Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down”, Robert Plant’s moody dirge “Big Log”, and Tina Turner’s “Let’s Stay Together”, included simply because it is a great song and to recognize the passing of Tina Turner during this year.

Some other older favorites here that are not from the “Now” series are included here.  Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s “Murder On the Dancefloor” had a resurgence due to being included in a pivotal moment of the recent movie “Saltburn”.  I’ve enjoyed Sophie’s music ever since randomly buying a CD of hers on a trip abroad fifteen years ago and I was glad to see her get some attention stateside.  The song is always a pleasure to hear.  New Order apparently has too many great songs to bother releasing them all.  “Touched By The Hand Of God” was released as the B-Side of their remake “Blue Monday 1988” and wasn’t released on an album except a 1994 best-of collection and as a remix on a couple remix collections.  Give it a listen and see if you think it sounds like a hit. 

Tears For Fears had a few studio leftovers from their recent album so they put them on a live greatest hits album.  The live album was okay but if it wasn’t for the four new studio songs, you could ignore it in favor of the original versions of the songs on the albums.  Of the four new songs, two are nice and two are blah.  I did give them a thorough listening though to make sure I didn’t initially ignore TFT stuff a second time in a row.  I put my favorite of the four on this compilation.

Don’t worry- there is also a lot of recent stuff too.  Billie Eilish continues to turn out touching ballads like “Birds Of A Feather” so I included that standout from her recent album.  I also liked “Lunch” but that is a bit too metaphorically raunchy to include.  When I was watching a morning show, I heard a band called Guster doing a live song that captivated me.  After playing their most recent album, I found that song and a few others that charmed me with their melodic wistfulness.  Two of them are included here and tissues may be needed since they are a little downbeat.      

Last year I shared Kylie Minogue’s “Padam Padam” from her new album “Tension”, and normally that means I’d have to wait another couple of years for the next album, but she surprised me and released “Tension 2” in 2024.  Kylie is often opaque with her lyrics, touching on universal themes rather than explicitly linking them to her personal experiences but “Someone For Me” sounds like she might be trying to say something about herself and that sentiment resonated with me since I sometimes feel the same way.   

The Dandy Warhols are another long-time favorite artist, possibly top 25, and after a stretch of mediocre albums, their last two have reminded of what I love about them.  Their songs have a distinct vibe, a fuzzy, slightly psychedelic, groove driven sound.  If I was a stoner, I would love these songs for this reason.  As a music fan, I love them for their unique texture and clever lyrics.  “Root Of All Evil” is representative of their recent output.  Still, nothing will match their first three albums, but this recent album is a welcome throwback to that style.    

Mysteries Of Life are an offshoot of The Blake Babies, an earlier band of Juliana Hatfield.  The two Blake Babies who are not Juliana formed Mysteries Of Life so I was curious to give them a listen and I liked the pleasant “Going Through The Motions”.  Dicte’s “You Wanna Dance” was discovered by letting Spotify play me stuff chosen by their algorithm after the album I had selected was over.  That is often a way that I find artists to check out further.  Susanna Hoffs has become a favorite artist of mine.  I love the smoky, soothing sound of her voice and generally enjoy hearing her sing anything.  Given that she either covers classics or write engaging new material, she has a high percentage of good songs.  “City Girl” was a B-side on a single but I feel it deserves to be judged on its’ own merits.              

Speaking of smooth and seductive voices, we are down to the last two songs on my 2024 collection.  Clairo is an indie-leaning artist that I just recently noticed, and I need to go listen to her previous work beyond what I’m hearing on Sirius XM but “Sexy To Someone” immediately struck me and put her on my radar as someone to pay attention to.  The song has a seductive feel while echoing the longing sentiments in Kylie Minogue’s “Someone For Me” of wishing someone would notice her.  On the other end of that scale is Sabrina Carpenter’s Espresso.  She knows that everyone is noticing her, and they all want her, like a caffeine addict needing their shot of espresso. Both of the songs discuss desire but from different perspectives, but both do it with a voice so smooth and seductive that you cannot imagine either of them having a problem capturing someone’s attention.  They certainly did that with me, at least musically.  

So that has been my musical journey in the last few years.  I used the framework of the COVID pandemic to give it some form of context, but looking back at my selections, I notice some other commonalities emerging.  I see that I responded to songs about having a purpose in life (Clairo’s “Sexy To Someone”, Billie Eilish’s “What Was I Made For”, Billy Joel’s “Turn The Lights Back On”, Paul McCartney & Beck’s “Find My Way”, Mysteries Of Life’s “Going Through The Motions” ), about death and aging (Paul Anka’s “Times Of Your Life”, Huey Lewis “While We’re Young”, Guster’s “When We Were Stars”, Pretty Reckless’ “Death By Rock And Rock”, everything by Tears For Fears), and political and social unrest (Ministry’s “Alert Level”, Tom Jones’ “Talking Reality Television Blues”, Dandy Warhols’ “Root Of All Evil”, Poppy “Time Is Up”, Edie Brickell’s “Horses Mouth”.) 

Maybe subconsciously I’m trying to find answers to these unspoken questions?  Maybe listening to pretty and catchy songs on these subjects will let me avoid thinking about them?  Maybe it is a coincidence?  I think that will be a topic for another day because this is already long enough. 

Thanks to those of you who read through to here.  Let me know what you think of the music.  It isn’t a good collection if I don’t have at least a couple of songs that people absolutely love and a couple that make them want to punch me in the arm for subjecting them to such a stupid song.  

Do you have things you can recommend to me?  It doesn’t have to be just music either.  That’s why I like doing this- I want to start conversations that are not about the serious topics I just mentioned.  Sometimes you just want to enjoy yourself and clear your head.  Since there are forms of entertainment besides music, I’ve included some recommendations below in case you are interested in the other things I appreciated in the last few years. 

So that’s a wrap on 2020 -2024.  I’m eager to see what surprises 2025 has in store for us.  I hope that they are mostly positive and that life treats you well until next time.

The Year In Music 2005

  When it comes to entertainment, I’m ashamed to admit that I’m a bit of a hypocrite.  In normal circumstances, I encourage people to take risks and try to be innovative and experimental.  With pop culture though, like music and movies, I am almost adamantly opposed to it.  So even though I like all kinds of things and almost every genre of music, I don’t want my favorite artists to have the same broad tastes.  The reason for this is because most of the time when an artist tries to alter their style or expand the limits of their abilities, they fall flat on their face.  The music usually sucks, the albums sell poorly and the artists try to recapture their previous success the next time around but generally end up recycling their earlier efforts into a bland mainstream mess that satisfies no one.  That means not only am I stuck with a crappy album that I likely paid too much for, but once a band starts on that downward spiral of failed artistic growth, they have ruined themselves for future endeavors because they can’t seem to get back to what I enjoyed about them in the first place.  I look to certain bands for certain types of music.  Once they stray too far from what interested me in the first place, they become pointless and expendable because I probably already listen to some other, superior, artist for that type of music.  If you want some specific clarification about what I mean, I can give you historic examples and then also point out who attempted, and failed, this growth in 2005.  One person that immediately springs to mind is Elton John.  In the 1970’s everyone loved him and his songs were great.  He faltered in the 1980’s until his “comeback” with the song I’m Still Standing, followed by Empty Garden, I Guess That’s Why They Call It The Blues and so forth until we get to Circle Of Life from the Lion King movie.  The song was decent but by trying to write things for a kiddie cartoon movie, Elton simplified his style, making it more grandiose and broadly appealing.  Once he started on that road, all of his subsequent efforts became bland ballads and lifeless mid-tempo pop songs. 

  A more extreme example, since Elton John naturally leads me to thoughts of Billy Joel, is Billy’s abrupt departure from pop music while he was still near the height of his abilities.  After massive sales for his River Of Dreams album, he decided to make classical music.  Yes, classical music- that stuff that is incredibly far removed from the pop/rock style that Billy Joel epitomized.  Not only that, to me it was the worst kind of classical.  It was the kind I can’t stand- the light, airy style that brings to mind Handel or Mozart.  It was so contrary to the darkness and lingering sadness that lurked in most of Joel’s songs.  The classical stuff was so hollow and boring that I still haven’t listened to the album all the way through even though I’ve had it for some 5 years.  I expected him to at least do something heavier and slightly melancholy like Beethoven, whom he’s sampled in some of his pop songs, or Carl Orff or Mussorgsky.  Why do we need a pointless classical album from one of pop’s best songwriters?  There is enough classical music out there already- lots of other people have been making it for hundreds of years but very few people are writing songs like Piano Man, Tell Her About It, All For Leyna or Scandinavian Skies.  Worse than that, after this dull album thudded, he has not done anything else what so ever.  Dropped off the face of the earth, except for brief appearances in the news when he crashes his car into something.  Another example is Rod Stewart.  At first, Rod Stewart might seem to be an example of successful experimentation.  He started out as a blues-based rocker.  His voice, as many people described it then, was a whiskey-soaked raspy growl that perfectly suited a blues rock style.  From there, he expanded a bit to become a more straight forward rocker, followed by his pinnacle, from which he almost hung himself.  I’m talking, of course, about the disco era. 

  Rod was a monster success in the Seventies.  Once the dance era died out though, he was stuck trying to figure out what to do.  He had branched out so far from where he had started that he stranded himself.  Now I will admit I am a big fan of his 1970’s stuff and I was curious about what he would do.  I was willing to give him a chance because I liked where he was now more than where he came from although I’m sure people who loved his Maggie May/Gasoline Alley period hated his disco stuff.  Rod succeeded far better than I would have expected, to everyone’s happiness except my own.  He first became a workman-like rocker, with some moderately enjoyable songs, although even then he too frequently tended towards maudlin sap like Downtown Train and My Heart Can’t Tell You No.  Then in 1987, he magnificently amalgamated all of his previous efforts into the album Out Of Control.  His voice worked perfectly with the rock songs, his ballads were heartfelt and touching but with enough of an edge to make him seem like a roguish Casanova, and his pop-leaning stuff had some of the melodic thrust of his disco era without any of the cheesiness.  He collaborated with musicians that perfectly framed his strengths and pushed him to excel. 

I was hoping he would continue in that vein for decades.  Alas, he reverted back to his mediocre transition period and when that petered out, he made an abrupt left turn and recorded an album of standards, The Great American Songbook, that became a smash hit.  Now, four Standards albums later, the guy known for his bluesy rasp of a voice is working as a smooth crooner.  If I wanted to hear a crooner, I would listen to Harry Connick or Michael Buble.  I’d put on some Frank Sinatra  (well, I personally wouldn’t but other “crooner inclined” listeners might.) Or if I wanted a rock-leaning crooner, I’d put on some Boz Scaggs, who I think Rod Stewart is unknowingly imitating.  See, I don’t need Rod Steward to croon for me- I have other people who can do it better.  I need Rod to deliver arena-shaking disco pop or at least front the consummate rock band.  When he stretches too far from what he does well, he becomes expendable and even a bit ridiculous.

  Now you might be thinking that all these examples are from dinosaur rock acts.  Wrong.  This year alone, there were handfuls of contemporary artists who did this and gravely disappointed me.  Most of the artists I like, I like because of their own particular style.  They fill a niche I enjoy.  I have certain bands for certain niches and if they stray elsewhere, I am left with a void in that niche and a half-hearted effort in some other niche that is already filled by other artists.  If a band is going to try something new, they need to do it better than the other people who already do it.  If you can’t be good at something new, you shouldn’t abandon what already works well for you.  Some recent examples are The Dandy Warhols, Aimee Mann and the Black Eyed Peas.  The Dandy Warhols have, over their last three albums, perfected a hazy, heavy vibe that calls to mind the best of David Bowie’s work.  Even though they come across as stuporous slackers, they are really limber musicians who understand the balance between hitting a groove and beating a dead horse.  The last album was a bit shaky and showed signs off falling of that precarious balance beam but they salvaged themselves with three excellent songs.  This time around, they departed a bit from their Bowie influence and went more for the Velvet Underground.  Now why would they do that?  First of all, they can’t do it as well as VU and second of all, I don’t particularly like the Velvet Underground.  Lots of people play stoner noise but no one else was able to channel the Bowie sound quite the way the Dandy Warhols did.  So instead of something unique, I get an album of boring stuff that anyone can do.  How am I going to get my pseudo-Bowie fix?  Even if I get a Bowie album instead, I have to wait 2 years in-between his stuff.  My niche is going unfilled in the meantime. 

  The Black Eyed Peas did the same thing.  They ignored their strengths- the male/female vocal interplay, the dance-pop vibe and the catchy hooks.  Instead, they leaned more towards rap. I don’t think I need to tell you that there are a lot of people already doing rap, and they are certainly doing it better than songs like My Humps.  Aimee Mann’s detour was slightly less intentional or cynical.  She has always been an introspective musician and she channeled that tendency into her lyrics this time around.  She made a concept album, The Forgotten Arm, about a transitory alcoholic who is also meant as a metaphor for America. Also, Aimee’s lyrics were somewhat generic so I never would have stumbled onto the concept had the reviews not talked about it and the CD booklet not included pictures that were obvious allusions to the lyrics.  The problem is that Aimee Mann spent so much time working on her concept and the unimpressive lyrics that she forgot to include any new melodies on the album.  There are some melodies on there but they are very dull.  The only ones that have any life are those that she cribs from her earlier songs.  Almost every song on the album reminds me of one she did earlier, and better.  Now I have to look elsewhere for wistful, bittersweet but catchy music because Aimee stopped doing it this time.  Again, another small niche is left unfilled because one of the few purveyors of this style decided to try something else.  Aimee’s strength is songwriting, not creating a concept album.  If you want a concept album, you go buy something by Yes, Pink Floyd or the Beatles.  Heck, Styx already tried something similar, with Paradise Theater as a metaphor for America and that was much better than The Forgotten Arm.
 
By now, you might think the year has been a bust.  It almost was because most of my favorite acts made unwelcome or unsuccessful detours  (Styx, Aimee Mann, Adrian Belew, Nada Surf, Moody Blues, Sheryl Crow) or failed to live up to par  (Bloodhound Gang, Nine Inch Nails, Garbage, Weezer, The Cardigans).  What makes this year such a success, however, is the unexpected return of one of my all-time favorite acts, who oddly enough were also a one-hit wonder. Back in 1992, Daisy Chainsaw came out with an EP and album that captivated me.  From the moment I heard Love Your Money I succumbed to their particular style.  It was a raw mix of punk elements and fractured melodies, in the vein of Nirvana or Sonic Youth, but with a more intense feeling of psychotic danger.  When I saw them play live, the lead singer, Katie Jane Garside, had a shaved head and torn dress and would wail and scream into the microphone- when she wasn’t busy banging it on her head.  Daisy Chainsaw sort of scared me at the same time they connected with my lingering feelings of alienation and aimlessness.  By the following year, the band had disappeared.  It was just another of the many alternative rock acts that were chewed up and spit out by the pressures of the music industry.  Even so, during the subsequent years I would periodically pull out the CDs and remind myself what a unique act they were.  Their style perfectly meshed with my interests in industrial, alternative, rock and techno music.  I would sometimes look in their bin at the music store or check music websites for news of them but nothing came of it.  They were gone. 

  Thirteen years later, I was still carrying the torch  (I’m nothing if not loyal beyond reason) and happened to see something about a spin-off band called Queen Adreena.  Katie Jane left Daisy Chainsaw because she was burned out from the pressures of fame  (and probably hurt by banging her head with a mike) which is why the band fell apart.  Ten years later though, she rejoined Crispin Gray, Daisy’s principal songwriter and guitarist, to create a new band called Queen Adreena.  I couldn’t find the CDs anywhere though.  When I went overseas, I check there too but to no avail.  Then one day, I saw that there was a new Daisy Chainsaw album.  Oddly enough it featured all the original members except Katie Jane Garside, although she had by this time done 3 albums with Crispin Gray in Queen Adreena.  What’s that about?  Why not just re-form as Daisy Chainsaw?  Did she hate one of the other members or something?  Regardless, it was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up.  Not only did I order the Daisy album from Barnes & Noble, I decided to take a chance and order the last two Adreena albums directly from their label’s website.  It was a UK based firm and I wasn’t sure how it would work out because it was a no name label and in a different country.  A couple months later, the first Adreena album came back into print and I was able to get it from Amazon.  This means that 13 years after first hearing my favorite one hit wonder band, in a span of 5 months I had 4 new albums from the principals of that band.  Now it was time to find out if I had wasted a bunch of money by importing CDs from a band featuring a burnt-out singer and has-been songwriter. Not to mention a new album from a decade old band with most of the original members but without the charismatic singer who brought them recognition in the first place.  If they were bad, like many of the other performers I heard this year, I was going to be not only broke but also heartbroken. 

  With trepidation, I put on the first CD.  I decided to start with a Queen Adreena one because I knew what I expected from Daisy Chainsaw and if that album wasn’t up to par, I had no other ones to look forward to.  Adreena was an unknown quantity.  Three songs into the album, I was in love again.  They had everything I loved about Daisy.  The fractured melodies, the chunky fuzzy guitars, the psychotic vocalizations, the menacing lullabies.  It was all there.  When I played the Daisy album, it was like 1993, like the second album had come out the year after the first one, just like expected.  These two bands were some bipolar version of the original Daisy Chainsaw.  They had the same essence but took different approaches to get there.  Adreena is more of an experimental, goth based band.  If Siouxsie And The Banshees rocked a bit harder, they would be Adreena.  Daisy Chainsaw was more melodic and catchier but they dirtied up their songs with an element of danger and surprise.  If Sonic Youth were more pop-leaning, they would be Daisy Chainsaw.  The only thing I was disappointed about was the fact that the entire time I was listening to the new Daisy album, I imagined what Katie Jane Garside would have brought to it.  The songs were really good, and her unique style would have elevated them to sublime, instead of merely terrific. 

Even though all four albums were terrific, Daisy/Adreena would still have single-handedly salvaged the entire year in music because each of the albums had one song that was phenomenal and far above the quality of the rest of them.  I can’t count the number of times I listened to the lacerating stomp of Pretty Like Drugs, the deranged scream of FM Doll, the perfect cacophony of Sleeping With Heaven or the ominous muttering of X-ing Off The Days.  Finding such gems as these are why I listen to music, why I allow myself to be hopeful about things, why I love entertainment.  Finding something that rings true and provokes an emotional response within me is priceless.  Looking at a painting that resonates or hearing a song that stirs me tells me I’m still alive, that my hardened wall can be breached by something magical.  Of course, I’m not necessarily recommending these albums to anyone.  It’s possible I’m the only one in the world who would appreciate them.  They are very dense, scary and noisy to say nothing of schizophrenic, offbeat and twisted.  All I know is they work for me, like very few things did this year.  With that lead-in, let’s look at the rest of the competition this year.
 

I Buy Anything They Do

Adrian Belew   Side Two (2005); Adrian BelewSide One (2005)- Belew did his part in making experimental music this year.  These albums sound like someone recorded a guitar tuning session. There aren’t really any songs in here, just random sounds that sometimes make a pleasant pattern but more often don’t.

Aimee Mann   Forgotten Arm, The (2005)- I said everything important above.  A big disappointment because normally she is so good.  Guess after this album and the previous Lost In Space one, I need to permanently lower my expectations.

Styx   Big Bang Theory (2005)- This is a cover album.  Styx has always written their own stuff.  They don’t even do covers in concert so what’s the deal here?  They aren’t bad, in fact they are quite well done but did I really need to know what it would sound like if Styx did “I Am The Walrus”?

Therapy?   High Anxiety (2003)- One of my favorite bands.  A solid album but not a milestone.

Berlin   4Play (2005)- The first three albums generated such great music and fond memories that I’ll give them a pass for a couple bad or average albums.  This is their first one of those.

Bloodhound Gang   Hefty Fine (2005)- I don’t know what to make of this.  The Gang forgot to create some good beats and they buried their lyrics, normally a strongpoint, under those weak beats.  If you can’t hear the Bloodhound Gang and rhythms are dull, what do you have?  Just a clever album cover and that’s not worth $13.

Chris Isaak   Christmas (2004)- Hey, it’s Chris Isaak.  I like the guy’s style and I need a few more Christmas albums.

Daisy Chainsaw   …For They Know Not What They Do (2004)- Unbelievable.

Dandy Warhols   Odditorium Or Warlords Of Mars (2005)- Are they washed up or is this a fluke?

Garbage   Bleed Like Me (2005)- Each album gets less distinctive and less memorable.

Jayhawks, The   Blue Earth (1989)- I can see where their roots-pop style started from but not surprisingly this debut album is very weak when comparing it to their follow-up stuff.  It’s more of a historical artifact from a great band than it is an enjoyable album on its own.

Juliana Hatfield   Made In China (2005)- The only bad thing about this album is that this is the one that made me realize Juliana has moved from being one of those performers where I love every song she does to one that has some really good songs on an okay album.  The same happened when I heard Billy Joel’s The Bridge or Styx’s Edge Of The Century.  I loved the songs What Do I Care and My Pet Lion because they paid more attention to her rock inclination than some previous efforts and Digital Penetration was catchy in a way that had been missing for a bit.  I think this may be a bridging album for her- one that gets her spark going again to where next time she recaptures what made her great, like Ministry did with Animositisomina.  She is selling it directly from her website and therefore eliminating record label pressures to sound a certain way to get released.  It sort of worked for Aimee Mann- she’s now free to release whatever crap she feels like.  Aimee and Juliana need to collaborate again.  They could both learn something from each other.

Kylie Minogue   Ultimate Kylie (2004)- Two new Kylie songs and several new pictures adorning the CD booklet.  How could I not get it?

Madonna   Confessions On a Dance Floor (2005)- Madonna returns to her dance roots, regaining her gay cache and in the process alienating me, the only person in America who seemed to like her last two rock/electronica albums.  The songs are okay, but they go on for too long and don’t show the same creative flair that was on display on those two previous albums.  They are begging for remixes.

Michael Penn   Mr. Hollywood 1947 (2004)- Oh goodness.  Where to start with this one?  I had such high hopes because Penn is four for four in terms of making a great album.  Unfortunately, he caught his wife’s  (Aimee Mann) unfortunate affliction- focusing his efforts on making a concept album at the expense of good songwriting.  I’m not even sure what the exact concept of this is, I just know it supposedly has one.  Maybe golden age Hollywood as a metaphor for America?  His, and Mann’s, albums are usually very rich and take several listens to properly sink in but this time the several listens made the experience more painful, not deeper.  My Beatles-esque pop niche is going unfilled.

Ministry   Side Trax (2004)- A collection of side projects from Ministry and Al Jourgensen.  It’s good to have since many of the items are from out of print singles and EPs.

Moody Blues   December (2003)- The Moody Blues do a Christmas album.  It’s not a bad album, as Christmas albums go, but why why why?  The Moody Blues are all about being mysterious, cosmic and, well, moody.  Writing a song like Don’t Need A Reindeer sort of takes away that edge.

Nada Surf   The Weight Is A Gift (2005)- Another band that changed their sound.  They lightened up and lost their identity in the process.  I can’t think of any songs from this album when normally I find myself humming songs days later after I’ve heard one of their albums.

Nine Inch Nails   With Teeth (2005)- NIN had a nice comeback.  Granted, it was a comeback to The Downward Spiral rather than Pretty Hate Machine but it’s a step in the right direction.  This CD sounds more like what Trent Reznor promised for The Fragile, which is a funkier, R&B leaning sound. Overall, there are too many similar songs and some generic filler, but there are two fantastic songs, ones that can be considered classic NIN songs- Hand That Feeds and Only- and a couple others that are memorable.  This is another album that I hope is a transitional one.

Paul McCartney   Chaos & Creation In The Backyard (2005)- Paul teamed up with the producer from Radiohead and it shows.  Where Paul used to have a couple excellent rockers every album, now he has none, which is the same thing that happened to Radiohead.  It doesn’t make for a bad album though, it’s just not typical McCartney.  The whole album has a mournful, introspective feel and the rhythms are very subdued.  Paul normally has a very happy sound, so this takes getting used to.  It’s like he did a whole album in the vein of Yesterday.  The standouts are How Kind Of You, Too Much Rain, Riding To Vanity Fair and the title track.  I would like to see the two of them collaborate again, because I think Paul would tailor his songs to the producer’s style rather than the other way around, like this time.  The material would probably turn out better because Paul is at his best when he has someone challenging him to excel.

Placebo   Once More With Feeling  (Greatest Hits) (2004)- One new song.

Prince   Rainbow Children (2001)- Have you ever wondered what Prince would sound like if he wrote like Steely Dan?  Oddly enough, one of the selections on this album answers that question.  The title track had me checking the liner notes to see who wrote it or if Becker and Fagin did backup vocals.  Neither of those seems to be the case but it is the best Steely Dan song in the last 5 years.   (Yes, I know they have done two albums in the last 5 years, but this song is better than any on the first album and I haven’t yet listened to the second album.  That’s for next year. As of this moment though, it’s a great de facto Steely Dan song.)  The rest of the stuff is okay but nothing I would look forward to hearing if I was at a Prince concert.  Plus, there are some stupid voice interludes where it sounds like God is narrating the album while speaking through a tin can.

Queen Adreena   Taxidermy (1999); Drink Me (2002); Butcher And The Butterfly, The (2005)

Shakespears Sister   # 3 (2005)- You probably didn’t realize that there was ever a third Shakespear’s Sister album.  That’s because there wasn’t.  This is something I ordered directly from Siobhan Fahey’s website.  It was material that was intended for the third album until Marcella Detroit left the band and pretty much sunk their record contract.  I don’t know why because she hasn’t since done anything on her own, so why leave a successful band? As I write this, I understand the irony of it because Siobhan left Bananarama to start this band, but it least there was some purpose for her departure.  Siobhan doesn’t have a label right now and instead is spending her time DJ-ing and writing stuff for future solo albums.  I also get the sense that some of the songs that ended up on # 3 were written after Detroit left, because Fahey’s lyrics seem like direct slams on her former partner.  Nothing here quite lives up to the previous two S.S. albums but they are good enough to be released. 

I can imagine what they would have sounded like had the two continued working together.  I think it would have been a great album.  As it is now, it is an interesting artifact to have  (and my CD booklet came signed by Siobhan) and there are several songs worth listening to even if they aren’t proper Shakespear’s Sister songs.  The noteworthy ones are Do I Scare You, Opportunity Knockers and Can U Wait That Long.  A side note about the website- it is one of the weirdest artist run sites I’ve ever seen.  There are a few pages where I can’t even figure out what I’m supposed to do there.  Check it out sometime- I thinks it is siobhanfahey.com.

Sheryl Crow   Wildflowers (2005)- She’s slipping.  She did the same introspective thing that Paul McCartney did, but the results weren’t as good.  This is a very forgettable album.

Weezer   Make Believe (2005)- Rivers, why don’t you rock anymore?  Where is the metal-pop I’ve come to expect?  Maladroit and the green Weezer albums were so good.  They were perfect power pop, like the Raspberries teamed up with Nine Inch Nails to create a perfect fusion just for me.  This album has one good song- no, not Beverly Hills, the O.C. theme song wannabe, but rather We Are All On Drugs, a song that would have been a cool B-side to a single from the two earlier albums.

White Stripes, The   Get Behind Me Satan (2005)- Their worst album, which means it’s still one of the 10 best albums of the year.  I loved My Doorbell  (“When you gonna ring it, when you gonna ring it?”) and Blue Orchid, a rave-up similar to Seven Nation Army from Elephant.  A friend of mine really got into Appalachian music this year  (Don’t ask me why- I have no earthly idea.) and this album seemed to have been made just for her.  It is sparse and spooky, as epitomized by the song Little Ghost.  Jack White seems to have taken his role in Cold Mountain to heart- he looks hillbilly.

I Liked The Last Album/Love The Current Single

Barbra Streisand   Guilty Pleasures (2005)- She teamed up with Barry Gibb for a follow-up to 1980’s Guilty album which explains why I now own two Barbara Streisand albums.  Nothing here is as good as the best things from Guilty but I’m happy to see Barry Gibb working and writing again.  I consider this a better than normal Streisand album and a worse than normal Bee Gees effort.

Ben Folds   Songs For Silverman (2005)- I like the Ben Folds style so I bought this.

Billy Idol   Devil's Playground (2005)- Billy, congratulations.  You are one of the few artists who changed things up this year and actually succeeded at it.  A couple of your rockers sound really good, and I give you special thanks for writing a better Cult song  (Evil Eye) than anything that band has done in 10 years.  Then your almost acoustic stuff, like Lady Do Or Die is quite melodic and very catchy.  If this was a just world, you’d have had a couple radio hits from this album instead of having your generic prototypical Billy Idol song Scream die on the vine.  Even your Christmas song was startling good and very amusing.  I’m adding it to my line-up of songs I play at Christmas.

Black Eyed Peas   Monkey Business (2005)

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club   Take Them On, On Your Own (2003)- A second offering, just as good as the first.

Foo Fighters   In  Your Honor (2005)- For a two disc offering  (one CD of hard stuff, one of softer stuff), I’m surprised I only like three or four things.

Fountains Of Wayne   Welcome Interstate Managers (2003)- Stacy’s mom has got it going on, so I bought this CD.  Several good things here, but much of it is more downbeat that the hit song.

Franz Ferdinand  You Could Have It So Much Better (2005)- Two albums from now, I really think I’m going to like this band.  The CD has a plethora of hooks but none of them quite turn into successful songs. The effort is there but the results don’t show it.  Keep trying because I like where you are headed.  Also, you had the year’s coolest cover.  I fell in love with that yelling girl and would have bought the album regardless of what it sounded like.

Hives, The   Tyrannosaurus Hives (2004)- What I said for Franz Ferdinand also applies to these guys.

Mitch Hedberg   Mitch All Together (2003)- This is a spoken word comedy album.  It is fall-on-the-floor funny.  Since it is comedy, I can’t really describe it, you’d just have to hear it.  The secret is all in the delivery.  Just telling you the jokes wouldn’t convey what makes them funny.  Even so, I’ll still try. Elsewhere in this year’s review is a section with many of Hedberg’s best jokes.  I got this shortly before the guy died so unfortunately there is no more new Mitch to look forward to.  I’ll have to get his first album and then be done with him.

Modest Mouse   The Moon & Antarctica (2000)- After hearing Good News, I got this album.  It is more of the same stuff which means I love it.  Barren soundscapes periodically littered with beautiful harmonies and melodies.

Pulp   His 'N Hers (1994)

Impulse Purchase

Al Green   Your Heart's In Good Hands (1995)

Annie   Anniemal (2004)- The reviews touted this Swedish starlet as the new Kylie or new Madonna.  She’s neither and that’s the bad news.  Her voice is too wispy and the production is too repetitious to live up to those icons and her songs liberally crib from Tom Tom Club, Lisa Lisa, Human League and New Order in addition to Kylie and Madonna.  The good news is that she sounds like a knock-off of several bands that I like.  It’s a good way to pass the time between releases from the originals.

Bijou Phillips   I'd Rather Eat Glass (1998)

Heart   Jupiter's Darling (2004)- Heart is staging a comeback and they did it the smart way- by writing good songs and letting the production showcase the strength of the songs instead of burying it.  Like Billy Idol, they changed things up a bit, being more subtle and restrained  in order to highlight the songwriting.  Several of the things here are almost acoustic but that actually is what makes them work, because they accentuate the skill of the band.  Even at sixteen songs, this album is over too soon.

Dane Cook   Retaliation (2005)- Another comedy album, but unlike Mitch Hedberg, the jokes wear out after repeat playing.  I got this because Dane Cook did one of the best stand-up TV specials I’ve ever seen.  He was like a wild man, a rock star of a comedian, like Sam Kinison. I still like him but not as much as I did after seeing the special.

Irish Rovers   Best Of Irish Rovers (1999)- I had to get this because an old girlfriend used to play it and I have some nostalgic memories about some of these songs, like The Unicorn.  Besides, everyone needs some traditional Irish music in their collection.

Johnny Maar   Boomslang (2003)- I liked his work with Electonic but this is sort of bland.

Julee Cruise   Voice Of Love (1993)- More like the typical torch-singer or balladeer, and not the Twin Peaks style I was hoping for.

Music, The   The Music (2003)- Like Jane’s Addiction with more balls.

Spoon   Kill The Moonlight (2002)

Stevie Nicks   Trouble In Shangri-La (2001)- A nice return for Nicks.  Several good songs on here, that sound like Stevie Nicks circa Other Side Of The Mirror.  From the copyright dates, it looks like some of these had been hanging around since the Fleetwood Mac years.  Don’t know if that’s why they sound good or if it’s because Stevie has regained her writing talents. Hopefully a transition to even better future work

Tears For Fears   Everybody Loves A Happy Ending (2004)- I was hesitant when I bought this because most bands can’t get back together after 20 years and still sound good.  Plus, Tears For Fears was never one of my favorite bands.  I usually liked their stuff but I didn’t normally buy it- they were a radio only band.  After hearing these songs though, I went back to listen to some of their other albums and was amazed to find that I owned nothing by Tears For Fears except their greatest hits album.  If they could make an album this good this far into their career, how good is their stuff from their peak years?  Even when I narrowed down what I liked from this album so I could put it on my monthly car tape, I ended up with five songs.  What makes me sad is that this is supposed to be a one shot deal- a kiss-and-make-up album from the two principals, after years of going their own way.  If the title didn’t make it obvious, many of the lyrics allude to the temporary nature of the reunion.  Either that or they are commenting on the shortness of mortality.  Actually, I think it’s both because although the songs have a happy sound, they also have an undercurrent of melancholy, mortality, and bittersweet feeling.

Transcendence   Sleep With You (2003)- Crap.  Sometimes I wonder why I listen to reviews.  The only good thing on this album, and also the only time they aren’t talking about sex and/or “pussy” is when they abruptly decide to sing about the actress Minnie Driver.

Various Artists   Rock Against Bush, Vol. 1 (2004)- A bunch of artists singing about how bad George Bush is.  All proceeds go towards the Democratic Party so that they can defeat Bush in the 2004 election.  Turns out they didn’t succeed but some of the music, from Ministry, Sum 41, Offspring, Social Distortion, etc…, is pretty good.

Wild Orchid   Wild Orchid (1996)- The first band Fergie  (Black Eyed Peas) was in.  Generic pop.

Rounding Out My Collection

Bee Gees   Horizontal (1968)

Charlatans   Up To Our Hips (1994)

Chris Rea   God's Great Banana Skin (1992)

Daft Punk   Human After All (2005)

Duran Duran   Rio (1982); Duran Duran   (1981)- The band is even better than I remember.  The first two albums are more Euro-pop than teenie-bopper pop.

Edie Brickell   Volcano (2003)- Time to give up on her.  A one hit wonder.

Kid Creole & The Coconuts   Kiss Me Before The Light Changes (1994)

Kinks   Give The People What They Want (1999)- It’s time I started listening to more Kinks since several of the bands this year were copying their formula  (Franz Ferdinand, et al).  The problem is where to start.  There is no authoritative greatest hits collection and many of their albums are out of print.  I’ll just have to pick up CDs as I come across them cheap.

Mariah Carey   # 1s (1998)

Mark O'Connor   American Seasons (2001)

New Order   Waiting For The Siren's Call (2005);  Power, Corruption & Lies (1983)- I’m done with New Order.  None of the older albums hold up in comparison to their singles and it’s not worth the cost for the new albums. 

Pavement   Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain (1994)- I never listened to Pavement before so I gave them  a chance this year.  It’s not bad, but I don’t know if it’s good enough to buy too many more.  Maybe I’ll try one more album.  I don’t want to be ignorant about the heyday of college/alternative rock.

Robert Plant   Mighty Rearranger (2005); Principle Of Moments, The (1983); Dreamland (2002)- I think I like Plant better than Led Zeppelin.  These albums are awesome, especially Rearranger.  I love the Eastern flourishes and mysticism.  The sound is dreamy, erotic and transcendent.

Rush   Hold Your Fire (1987)- Aimee Mann sings backup on one song.

Sam Phillips   Fan Dance (2001)

Soundtrack   On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969); You Only Live Twice (1967)

Soundtrack   Stuart Little (2002)- It has a Holly Knight song on it, sung by Shawn Colvin.

Various Artists   Entertainment Weekly 80's On Edge (1999)- Free with my renewal.  You can never have too many 80’s collections.

 

Burned A Copy

Kelly Clarkson   Breakaway (2004)- I, like all of America, love the song Since U Been Gone.

Neutral Milk Hotel   In the Aeroplane Over the Sea (1998)- An interesting album, sort of like Wilco or Modest Mouse in the way they merge multiple styles and have a stream of consciousness feel.

Stiff Little Fingers   Anthology (2002)- Mike liked a song I burned on one of my Year In Music CDs so he got this collection, which I borrowed and liked so I then burned a copy.  I’ll resist putting it on this year’s CD since I don’t want to create an endless loop that tears a hole in the time-space continuum.  The band wants to be the Clash but they fall short of that ambition, naturally.  They are good enough though to merit favorable comparison to other Clash pretenders, like The Alarm or Rage Against The Machine.

On Thin Ice

Cardigans, The   Long Gone Before Daylight (2002)- I paid to import this CD a couple years ago but naturally it wasn’t that good.  By the time I properly listened to it, this year, it had come out domestically.  It still wouldn’t have justified the price.  I know their hit Love Fool was a fluke and contrary to most of their other songs, but here is one time where I wish a band would recycle their hit endlessly.  Kind of like Robert Palmer did with Addicted To Love.  At least they could repeat the formula of their more typical sound, like Favorite Game or Erase/Rewind.

Never Again

Download   Effector (2000)- I have not heard any good solo stuff from former Skinny Puppy members.  I’ve tried several different permutations and it is all unlistenable crap so I’m giving up.

Rinocerose   Music Kills Me (2002)- I wouldn’t have guessed that this band would decide to record a

Euro-disco album but unfortunately, it’s too generic to catch my fancy.  Anything by other disco-era bands is better so why waste my money buying this when I can just play something I already own.

Richard’s 20 Favorite Albums Of 2005

 

20)  Stiff Little Fingers- Anthology

19)  Black Rebel Motorcycle Club- Take Them On, On Your Own

18)  Therapy?- High Anxiety

17)  Madonna- Confessions On A Dance Floor

16)  Paul McCartney- Chaos & Creation In The Backyard

15)  Stevie Nicks- Trouble In Paradise

14)  Robert Plant- Mighty Rearranger

13)  Modest Mouse- The Moon & Antarctica

12)  Billy Idol- Devil’s Playground

11)  Shakespears Sister- # 3

10)  White Stripes- Get Behind Me Satan

9)    Nine Inch Nails- With Teeth

8)    Mitch Hedberg- Mitch All Together

7)    Juliana Hatfield- Made In China

6)    Heart- Jupiter’s Darling

5)    Tears For Fears- Everybody Loves A Happy Ending

4)    Queen Adreena- Taxidermy

3)    Queen Adreena- Drink Me

2)    Daisy Chainsaw- …For They Know Not What They Do

1)    Queen Adreena- The Butcher & The Butterfly

 

Richard’s 10 Most Disappointing Albums 

 

10) Foo Fighters- In Your Honor

9)   Black Eyed Peas- Monkey Business

8)   Bloodhound Gang- Hefty Fine

7)   Nada Surf- The Weight Is The Gift

6)   Jayhawks- Blue Earth

5)   The Cardigans- Long Gone Before Daylight

4)   Rinocerose- Music Kills Me

3)   Download- Effector        

2)   Aimee Mann- The Forgotten Arm           

1)   Michael Penn- Mr. Hollywood 1947