I didn’t realize Mr. McGroove was back doing stuff on YouTube again. I will be checking that all out tonight. My son always liked watching his stuff just to see when his cat would pop up.
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Today it hit me with Van Halen, this one is a challenge for me. I can appreciate how influential and talented Eddie Van Halen was as a guitarist, but everything else about the band just feels so overwhelmingly… cheesy? I dunno, I’ve heard much worse versions of this “hard rock” style, but that album listen was a bit agonizing anyway.
On a completely different topic, Sufjan’s new album came out, and it’s gorgeous. I don’t think it’s my favorite from him, but I do like how it’s a distillation of sounds from throughout his career. In this album I can hear the nostalgic mood of his 2000s music, the cacophonous electronica of Age of Adz, the confessional lyrics from Carrie & Lowell. Great stuff.
Another thing is that he dedicated the album’s release to his late partner.- “This album is dedicated to the light of my life, my beloved partner and best friend Evans Richardson, who passed away in April. He was an absolute gem of a person, full of life, love, laughter, curiosity, integrity, and joy. He was one of those rare and beautiful ones you find only once in a lifetime—precious, impeccable, and absolutely exceptional in every way.”
After the many, many years of speculation online about Sufjan’s sexuality, there’s something so touching about the fact that he only confirmed it in order to publically honor his love. He really seems to be going through it right now. 
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Madman Across The Water - Elton John - 1971
I was 5 years old when this came out.
Madman was John’s first foray into progressive rock, and it did not sell well.
On release, Alex Dubro of Rolling Stone was not especially enthusiastic about the album and found it inferior to its two predecessors. Although he commended “Tiny Dancer” and “Levon”, he found the lyrics throughout the record confusing, concluding that it is a “difficult, sometimes impossibly dense record” that would not upset John’s current fans, but not gain new ones either.
I am glad its not just me being confused by most of the lyrics. Indian Sunset is not a song a British artist would want to sing today, isn’t the word “squaw” now declared to be racist?
I find it funny to hear his voice sounding so young, so just for that it was interesting to listen to this album.
The song I liked most is the name giving song for the album. I have no idea what to make out of the lyrics, I just like the presentation, the band and his voice are amazing. It seems no one at the time got the meaning right either:
Dispelling rumours that the song’s lyric referred to then US President Richard Nixon Bernie Taupin had this to say:
Back in the seventies, when people were saying that “Madman Across the Water” was about Richard Nixon, I thought, That is genius. I could never have thought of that.
The song:
I had to look behind the meaning of this song some more…
… aaand it stays a mystery. Maybe as a madwoman this just speaks to me. 
Also 11 minutes and not a second too much. This were the times when a song got the time to do its magic.
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I was really into him for a long time, but something about him just started to bug me and around the Age of Adz, though I liked some of it, I lost interest in him. The religious stuff wasn’t my cup of tea, but also I was never sure if he was just always kind of queer baiting or not. It (was, at least) hard to tell what was real or superficial, if the kitschy facade meant anything (or was even that)… like his whole thing seems like an act while at the same time he seems like one of the most sincere people ever. I don’t know, he was always hard to reconcile for me, and I stopped liking the music and stopped caring.
So now it’s interesting and very sad that he comes out like this. I get that people can come out on their own terms, or not at all, and that doesn’t negate their queerness. At the same time, I’m bothered by the always-hinting-at-it-but-never-just-saying-it style he adopted. It would have meant a tremendous amount to me, and I’m sure many others, knowing that, yes, he was actually gay, singing about gay shit.
This all made me think about this, though, which despite everything I’ve just said, is one of my all time favorite songs and makes me cry every damn time I listen to it.
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I’ve been listening to Mac DeMarco’s One Wayne G. It is an album in the loosest of definitions. The experience comes in just shy of 9 hours and contains 199 songs. The songs are mostly Mac’s groovy beats with a little guitar overtop and occasionally some lyrics. This is less like a B-sides collection and more like an E-sides collection. That being said, I like it! Just chilling with your musically inclined buddy as they fiddle around keeping the vibes smooth. If you like DeMarco’s schtick, you’ll probably like this. But if you aren’t enjoying his fully produced songs, One Wayne G won’t be for you.
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I get it, I always took it as a desire to be private and to let the art speak for itself, but I totally understand how it could be more impactful without the ambiguity. Given his Christian upbringing, and that he was in his late 20s/early 30s in the first half of the 2000s when he was coming out with Michigan and Illinois, my thought was always that he comes from a time and place where he built up that ambiguity as a self-defense mechanism. I think it was somewhere around the mid 2010s that it became much less ambiguous to me, given his involvement with Call Me by Your Name’s soundtrack and him releasing a bunch of Pride Month songs.
“Casimir Pulaski Day” is one of my favorite songs ever too. Illinois as a whole is just a total masterpiece of a record. I don’t really like much of his electronic-leaning material in the 2010s, but Carrie & Lowell was another record that turns me into an emotional wreck.
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Ah, see, I didn’t know this since I wasn’t paying attention.
I think COFTI is a great album, a little weird that it’s basically a beat for beat remix of Michigan, but ultimately a stronger album. I remember thinking songs like The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades felt super gay.
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The new Jamila Woods album is good but forgettable. The lack of dynamism in her vocals does create a laid-back vibe that is great for a lazy day around the house, but doesn’t lead to the ear worms I’m looking for.
5/10
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Sampha’s Lahai is an ethereal beautiful experience. His voice is both angelic and haunted. His songs are optimistic and pained. Spirit 2.0, Only, and Evidence are all bangers, but he never really misses on this album. I was excited for this release, but I did not expect to listen to something that surpassed his wonderful 2017 LP Process. But Lahai is here, and it is one of my favorite albums of the year. The wait was worth it.
9/10
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I tend to turn to music at moments when my emotions reach great magnitudes high and low, and slowly fade into podcasts and other spoken material as the normalcy of life returns. This wasn’t always the case, but I imagine the lack of adult interaction in an office job with a 4 year old vs young adult, college, and teenage life has something to do with it.
That being said, in celebration of completing another quarterly filing completed today, I will be listening to the newest album from what has been one of my favorite bands at many points in life: My Big Day by Bombay Bicycle Club. I have really enjoyed some of the singles while others felt like misses, but I can hear a lot of diverse sounds from their previous albums wrapped up in what they did release ahead of the album. I knew I was not going to have the time last week to really sit and listen (or drive and listen), so I am hoping the tracks I have not heard will flesh out the album to an enjoyable listening experience.
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The new re-recording of Taylor Swift’s 1989 came out today, and I’m having mixed feelings. The original album, despite not being perfect, had some of my favorite pop songs of the last decade. This new version has a significantly quieter and less compressed mix, which… Not terrible in theory to get away from those loudness war-era practices, but it feels like the rawness of the original mixes is toned down. Case in point, this new version of “Blank Space” feels like it lacks some punch, and worse yet it brings out the unflattering snare sound which I find a bit distracting. It may sound nitpicky, but since this is supposed to replace the original version, those small details make the difference on which one I end up gravitating to when I go to put on some of her songs.
The slight changes actually help some of the tracks that benefit from being a little more understated, like “How You Get the Girl,” “Wildest Dreams” and “All You Had To Do Was Stay,” but man, I am really not liking these new versions of “Blank Space,” “Style” and “Shake It Off.” Maybe they’ll grow on me, but I’m quite torn on this one.
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@WerqKween. Frankly I agree. I still think their best song is ‘It’s okay to leave your dog in a hot car’. Sorry for @ing you.
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Great rec. Hadn’t heard of these guys and put this album on. Real versatile stuff. Always love a Damon Albarn feature too.
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I wish we still had trials to prove oneself to his/her peers and a code of honour. Those guys in 3050 know what’s up.
MechWarrior 2 - Clan Wolf intro - YouTube
Deus Ex - 045 - The Synapse - Combat - YouTube
haha society game soundtrack go hard.
Listened to this over the weekend because the album was very much the background of my social circle’s life for a time period. I preferred Taylor’s version of Style, but agree entirely with your thoughts and analysis otherwise. I remember finding a thumb-drive laying in a common study room with a friend at college and plugging it into my laptop against all recommendations. We were rewarded with the album plus the 3 bonus tracks that were only available by purchasing the disc at Target if I remember correctly. This was especially sweet since her music was not on spotify at the time, and that was our app of choice. I wonder to this day if it was some type of grassroots marketing, if I had a laptop infested with viruses I never noticed from that point forward, or just plain dumb luck. It felt right out of a sit-com, but we were in wonderland for sure!
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I listened to it in the car over the weekend, and in that context, I found it doesn’t matter as much, it’s still listenable.
That’s a fun theory! Though, Taylor Swift was already a huge artist by the time 1989 was released, it’s just as likely there was someone who forgot their flash drive filled with their favorite study tunes lol.
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New song from MGMT! Always been admirer of them, one of the more fun Neo Psychedelia groups to follow for how hard they are to predict. Never thought they would go into a 90s Britpop-inspired phase, but here we are (And I’m all aboard for it). On initial listen, this new song is not as hooky as their best music, but that peak from 2:25 to 3:00 hits so well. They’re so good at putting together this kind of huge crescendo that feels almost mystical to me. Gonna be a hard wait for the new album.
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Ohhh ill have to check this out…im a big fan of them
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