2023 - A Musical Diary

August 06, 2023

2023 - A Musical Diary

An experiment to name a song every day that made me feel. Something, anything. Some new, some old. All beloved for either a moment or a lifetime.

January 2023

My Morning Jacket, One Big Holiday - Waking up feeling good and limber. I'd venture 365 days from now there will be no songs with a greater number of guitars.
The Flying Burrito Brothers, Hot Burrito #1 - On days when the sun never quite came up, the gilded palace of sin isn't a terrible place to live.
Lady Lamb, Bird Balloons - I swear there are 7 different songs in 6 minutes, ending with a cackle and speed to burn.
Built to Spill, Car - The best singalong an aging VW station wagon shall ever know.
Black Thought & Danger Mouse, Belize (ft. MF Doom) - the shock and joy of Doom coming back for one last verse was a 2021 high. BT's precision fades into a lazy Doom haze.
Willie Nelson, Señor (Tales of Yankee Power) - Like a recipe where every ingredient adds to the mix. Dylan needed Wille. Willie needed Calexico. Then Salvador Duran sends it all to the heavens.
El-P, Deep Space 9MM - That beat. The fear what's to come. For the love of God, run.
Magnetic Fields, Papa Was a Rodeo - Proof that Nashville doesn't produce the best country songs.
D'Angelo, The Charade - The almost twenty year wait was fully worth this.
Vivian Girls, Never See Me Again - What if the Mamas and Papas hit hard?
Will Oldham, New Partner - Every version is beautiful, but this one from "Songs of Love and Horror" is exquisite.
(tie) Neneh Cherry, Buffalo Stance and LCD Soundsystem, Losing my Edge - A banner morning on KEXP punctuated by a song reminding me of Babe Ruth League baseball and one reminding me of how long ago and iterations of cool that was.
Lee "Scratch" Perry & The Upsetters, Black Panta - Feels like spring all around.
Uncle Tupelo, Sauget Wind - windows down when it kicks in.
SZA, Nobody Gets Me - only like 50% of these songs are about psyches on a knife's edge, but SZA is doing it best right now.
Erykah Badu, The Healer/Hip Hop - this was the future then. This is still the future. It will always be.
TV on the Radio, Wolf Like Me - all coiled-up energy just waiting to go.
The Kinks, This Time Tomorrow - sad it tool me so long to come to such a perfect song. From takeoff to landing, perfect.
Little Simz, Gorilla - For ten years, just about the best in the game. Never misses.
Gang of Four, Damaged Goods - All angles and sweet kisses and sour sweat. Thank god we didn't know about umami yet.
Thin Lizzy, Dancing in the Moonlight - scary as a kid, but this just swings. Even the dogs can dance to that groove.
Flaming Lips, Fight Test - I have a dog named for this album and this mission statement is brilliant.
Blood Orange, Time Will Tell - absolutely slept on R&B.
Amy Winehouse, Love is a Losing Game (Live at the Mercury MusiSeldac Awards) - a performance that stops time dead in its tracks.
Bright Eyes, Land Locked Blues - I've lived with this album for 18 years today. As always, everything is made better with Emmylou.
Phosphorescent, At Death, A Proclamation - as Jason Isbell sang about Centro-Matic, "and somehow you put down my fears on a page / when I still had nothing to say"
Public Enemy, Rebel Without a Pause - still sounds as fresh and insistent today as ever. The first hip-hop album I ever bought and first my mom ever took away.
The Clash, Rudie Can't Fail - for those who like their punk with a horn section
The Gaslight Anthem, Miles Davis & the Cool - this song rattled through my bones through all of 2022. On how one desperate move can change the present and the future.
Silver Jews, Punks in the Beerlight - two burnouts in love. Berman was the best we had.
Clipse, Grindin' - Best beat ever, but is it the best beat from Virginia?

February 2023

Antony & the Johnsons, Fistfull of Love - Lou Reed banging on a guitar while an angel sings over a full horn section. Some real reese's peanut butter cup shit.
The Felice Brothers, Don't Wake the Scarecrow - for my money the best song about running away and starting a new life with a hooker.
Girls, Jamie Marie - good, old-fashioned indie soul all leading to a devastating "whatever" and then ascending from there.
Bill Callahan, Too Many Birds - that climbing verse, "if/if you/if you could/if you could only/if you could only stop/if you could only stop your/if you could only stop your heart/if you could only stop your heart beat/if you could only stop your heart beat for one heart/if you could only stop your heart beat for one heart beat". Colossal.
Deltron 3030, 3030 - other planets deserve hip-hop too.
Selda Bacan, Ince Ince - I knew those samples were from a 1970s Turkish psych-folk song.
Baby Huey, Hard Times - another one introduced via sample
Tricky, Hell is Round the Corner (2009 Remix) - It was a rough week. Welcome home, Tricky Kid
Big Star, The Ballad of El Goodo - Perfect power pop. Just perfect.
Dijon, Many Times - my favorite discovery of the past few years. Frantic, joyful, fun R&B with just a little bite.
Beastie Boys, Egg Man - For that day when its suddenly 60 degrees in mid-February and you can roll down the windows again.
De La Soul, Eye Know - RIP Plug 2. The joy of hip-hop is across their catalog, but particularly here.
Joy Division, Transmission - Something that sounds this dark shouldn't be this easy to dance to. If what that was was, in fact, dance.
Josh Ritter, Thin Blue Flame - it takes a storyteller to foresee where the world was going - both good and bad - and to lay it out so beautifully over ten minutes. Fear and joy in equal measure.
Wilco, Jesus, Etc. - from the first time I heard it on a ripped CD in the front seat of Eddie Davila's car driving weird loops around Phoenix to get the whole album in - wow, that chorus.
The Modern Lovers, Girlfriend - this whole album is a revelation and Jonathan Richman is a silly genius.
Magnetic Fields, Papa was a Rodeo - the best country song of my lifetime is not, in fact, a country song.
William Onyeabor, Fantastic Man - likely my favorite funk song by a Nigerian businessman with little interest in his music.
John Moreland, Break My Heart Sweetly - good love is hard to kill and sometimes it needs to be.
Eels, Things the Grandchildren Should Know - from the first time I heard it, this felt like me. It only becomes realer and truer as time passes.
Craig Finn, Western Pier - wandering the beach, searching for redemption.
Kevin Morby & Waxahatchee - the first of the couples saving country from the outside.
Kasey Chambers, Abraham - fathers and daughters saving country.
How to Dress Well, Cold Nites - as the tech steps up, his beats become even more insane.
The Hold Steady, Stevie Nix - probably the song I have heard the most times as an adult. The bar-riest of the bar tunes.
Royal Headache, Down the Lane - Australian punk via 1968 California.
Sleater-Kinney, Night Light - S-K at their heaviest. Corin at her howliest.
Shabazz Palaces, 32 Leaves Dipped In Blackness Making Clouds Forming Altered Carbon - Ish Butler came to us bringing the 50's back and somehow ended up in the 3000s

March

Okkervil River, The Velocity of Saul at the Time of His Conversion - OR questioning their faith, soaring through a chorus and resolving in a singalong.
Old 97's, Doreen -the third verse is everything they ever did right distilled into a few lines "Well, I'm pulling into Cleveland in a 7-seater tour van/There's eight of us, so I'm sleeping on the floor/The guy the plays the banjo keeps on handing me the Old Crow/Which multiplies my sorrows, I can't take it anymore"
De La Soul, Keeping' the Faith - celebrating De La finally streaming.
Neutral Milk Hotel, In the Airplane Over the Sea - Heavenly lyrics, singing saws and a sing-along, This is how it should be done.
Pinegrove, Aphasia - Sadder than yesterday, but still ends in a sing-along.
Bubba Sparxx, Ugly - that Timbaland beat will likely re-appear sometime, but the playfulness and confidence is full on display.
Bully, I Remember - just a ripshit remembrance of the early 90s.
Japandroids, Fire's Highway - One night to have and to hold. To let live and never let go.
Bruce Springsteen, For You (Live at the Hammersmith Odeon) - Bruce stripped all the way back to piano musically and to the studs emotionally.
Cornershop, Good to be on the Road Back Home Again - another wonderful country song by a decidedly un-country artist.
The Lemonheads, Rudderless - peak 90s grunge-pop with a sweet, Juliana kiss.
Pavement, Summer Babe (Winter Version)- Lyrically inscrutable. Musically, a hammer. Pavement at its best.
The Kinks, This Time Tomorrow - I remember hearing this two days after surgery and realized that if nothing else, I would live so I could hear this over and over.
Iron & Wine, Resurrection Fern - All of the beauty and difficuklties of America in the form of a southerner's prayer.
George Michael, Waiting (Reprise) - most-loved as a pop star, he was his best stripped back and yearning.
Leonard Cohen, Chelsea Hotel #2 - I don't feel like saying more adds anything.
Cat Power, I Don't Blame You - Chan knows the pain and empathizes all the way.
John Moreland, Break My Heart Sweetly - the front porch of the album cover sprung to life.
John Prine, Bruised Orange (Chain of Sorrow) - it ain't such a long drop, don't stammer, don't stutter / from the diamonds in the sidewalk to the dirt in the gutter.
PJ Harvey, Long Snake Moan - an absolute hammer and wail.
The Roots, You Got Me - if just for that drum break, that would be enough.
Bruce Springsteen, Lost in the Flood (Live @ Hammersmith Odeon) - on the drum break theme, the way Bruce says "everything stops, you hear 5 quick shots" and Max Weinberg fires them from his snare.
Townes Van Zandt, Two Girls (Live at Old Quarter) - maybe his best, but I'll say that five more times.
Waxahatchee, Half Moon - again, country coming from all corners.
FKA Twigs, Two Weeks - in a headphone age, this is the closest you get to ascension between your ears.
Koffee, Shine - a reminder that the power of reggae lives on and to shine through
Richard and Linda Thompson, Walking on a Wire - as fine a breakup song as ever made and unquestionably that from two perspectives
Me'Shell Ndegeocello, Shirk -Me'Shell at her very best which is a high bar
Elvis Costello and the Attractions, Watching the Detectives (Live at Hollywood High) - Elvis is many things, but rarely this skanky.
Beastie Boys, So Wat'cha Want - sunroof open. Volume up.
Terius Nash, Wedding Crasher - the rare wedding anthem starring an ex, a bottle of tequila and a whole heap of regret.

April

Leonard Cohen, Chelsea Hotel #2 - That I waited until April to get to Cohen, a man who embodies the winter ethos is my bad.
Peter Laughner, Amphetamine - a Clevelander with a guitar and a tambourine and not much else. It took some time to recognize the lo-fi genius on display.
Fatlip, What's Up Fatlip - Can 90s slacker energy peak? Trough? I say coolin'.
Tom Tom Club, Genius of Love - that beat.They saw something coming that the rest of the world missed.
Le Tigre, Eau De Bedroom Dancing - Much like genius of love, the infectiousness is real.
Afghan Whigs, Faded - yes, one of my top ten songs of all time is a straight ripoff of Purple Rain, another top 10.
Skeeter Davis, The End of the World - I feel like my grandparents probably had this on a cheap transistor radio at some point. If they didn't, they should have.
Best Coast, Storms - no one was more purpose built to cover Fleetwood Mac
The Bottle Rockets, Smokin' 100s Alone - typical bottle rocket trailer park songs of woe
Tim Hardin, Black Sheep Boy - it came to me via Okkervil River, but this is 70s songwriting simplicity
Belle & Sebastian, Fox in the Snow - twee in not an insult when it is this delightful
D'Angelo & the Vanguard, Really Love - picking a D single is impossible. Is this an album? Just a vibe? Just stretch out and let it wash over.
Smog, I Break Horses - this is one I deeply feel in my bones. Tonight I'm swimming to my favorite island.
Randy Newman, Feels Like Home - He can be funny and silly, but he can also write about love in the most thoughtful terms possible
Creedence Clearwater Revival, Have You Ever Seen the Rain? - didn't know it at the time, but maybe the most influential song and band on what would hit me 25 years down the road.
Phosphorescent, Song for Zula - he appears a lot here. He's earned it with imagery than no one else quite hits.
The Clash, Rudie Can't Fail - The horns. The call and response. This certainly can't be punk.
Titus Andronicus, A Pot in which to Piss - 10 minutes. Like 6 movements. Again, this can't be punk.
Method Man, Release Yo Delf - Another windows down banger
Bad Brains, Banned in D.C. - as hard and as fast as it gets. Music as a dead sprint.
The Antlers, Two - Harrowing story of conflicted emotions where every word counts.
Mulatu Astatke, Tezeta (Nostalgia) - even though this wakes me way too early 5 days a week, its a the calm and warmth just envelopes you.
Jason Isbell, Cover Me Up - it could be anything he's written. They just keep coming, but this is him at his sharpest.
The Paragons, The Tide is High - oh, that's where that came from...
Vivian Girls, The End - Cali punk, surf rock or beach music? Who cares, more like this.
Sunset Rubdown, Silver Moons - just a lovely album that jumps from gentle to bombast with every movement.
Run the Jewels, a few words for the firing squad - felt like a documentary in the summer of 2020, but it was written prior. Hate is predictable.
The Distillers, I am a Revenant - I think this is the date 8 years ago that I had surgery on my lungs. This reminds me that I am, in fact, back to reclaim my stolen breath.
Natalie Maines, Lover, You Should Have Come Over -Jeff Buckley deserves all of the credit for writing a song infused with so much longing, but this interpretation really reminds you of the soulhe put into this.
Jackson C. Frank, Blues Run the Game - late night Sunday radio sending you sprinting to Shazam. How is this new to me? What if John Denver walked me through his pain?

May

Prince, Nothing Compares 2U - that this was hidden from the light for so long makes it so more special that it finally found its way
Songs : Ohia, Just Be Simple - I just didn't get busted.
Talking Heads, Psycho Killer - psycho bass line.
Billy Bragg, Waiting for the Great Leap Forward - we're still waiting for that leap, re-hashing the same things he's said ever since.
Wednesday, Bull Believer - eight minutes of breathlessness that releases into an acoustic guitar letting some light back in
The National, Once Upon a Poolside - everything good about The National. Darkness. Light. The hope that we all find our way.
Son Volt, Windfall - its gotta be in my top 10. That verse - "Catching an all-night station / somewhere in Louisiana / it sounds like 1963 / but for now it sounds like heaven"
Jackson Browne, These Days - so many to chose from, but this is tip-top. Don't confront me with my failures. I had not forgotten them.
Evan Dando, The Ballad of El Goodo - The best power pop song gets the full power pop slacks treatment.
Kurt Vile, Wakin on a Pretty Day - more power poppiness as the sun rises over the mountains. The day didn't turn out all that pretty, but KV did his damndest.
Sons of Kemet, My Queen is Albertina Sisulu - the way that tuba on the bottom shakes everything around me makes the time pass quicker
Toots & the Maytals, Pomps and Pride - unbridled joy .
Benjamin Booker, Violent Shiver - the title fulfills its promise. 3 furious minutes of pleasure.
Charles Wright and the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm, Comment (If All Men Are Truly Brothers) - a constant reminder that we're all in this together
The Flying Burrito Brothers, Wild Horses - I'll die undecided on which version is better. They're both perfect.
Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Flavor Pt.2 - Things Gen-Z won't understand: Beck was a rapper. Recording said raps to answering machine tapes. Gutbuckets.
The Grateful Dead, Box of Rain - this shaped what I would listen to for the next 35 years and going. The Dead not being Dead-y.
Hey Marseilles, Rio - Handclaps. Horns.The promise there is more to see
Creeper, Crickets - so, yeah I'm emo if this is emo. And this is very emo.
Cat Power, Dark End of the Street - Again, versions can be argued, but Chan at like 3bpm is honey on a hot summer night.
The Menzingers, Sun Hotel - emo punk by way of Leonard Cohen.
The Pogues, A Rainy Night in Soho - Still there's a light before me, you're the measure of my dreams. Their reputation and that tenderness don't line up.
Centro-Matic, Flashes & Cables - this is country power pop
Drive-By Truckers, Women Without Whiskey - Starting with Cooley's best. Dry and furious at once.
Drive-By Truckers, Danko/Manuel - On to Isbell, you can feel the heat and the heartache from beginning to end.
Drive-By Truckers, Tornados - Patterson's day. The attention to detail puts you on the scene. At one point, you feel the wind.
Jason Molina, North Star - another of his greats. No matter the name.
Neil Young, Cowgirl in the Sand - another walking at sunrise banger.
Drive-By Truckers, Decoration Day - should have planned better, but only one song fits the holiday.
Strand of Oaks, JM - back to Molina, a full-throated tribute to him and the impact of music on Midwestern kids - "Now it's hard to hear you sing/the crow has lost its wings/I got your sweet tunes to play/I'm getting older every day/Still making the same mistakes/I got your sweet tunes to play"
Teenage Fanclub, The Concept - the concept is that power pop is this fu.

June

John Prine, Bruised Orange (Chain of Sorrow) - a constant reminder to shake it off for years before someone said to shake it off more emphatically
MJ Lenderman, TLC Cagematch - a tender ode to professional wraasling and doing what it takes to survive
The Monklees, Daydream Believer - just dang bliss
Old 97's, Won't Be Home- the relationship was doomed from the very start in the backseat of a Mustang on a cold night in a hard rain
Deer Tick, Ashamed - Another race to the finish line. A broken man in love, just hanging on.
Low Cut Connie, Diane (Don't Point That Thing at Me) - Another ripper with a little more 60s sprinkled in for joy.
Dirty Beaches, True Blue - more 60s nostalgia filtered through a dark, rainy night and walls of static
Big Red Machine, Latter Days - Even when he's barely there, a Justin Vernon production is deniably him.
Bon Iver, 715-Creeks - the triumph of latter-day Bon Iver - so human even when run through 1,000 machines
Big Thief, Not - probably the best song of the 2020s.
Burial, Come Down to Us - my airplane song for a decade. Burial, but with hope for brighter days ahead. There's soul samples, then Indian percussion, then a shot at redemption.
At the Drive-In, Lopsided - everything ATDI does is great, but this adds an insane cowbell
The Twilight Singers, The Lure Would Prove Too Much - Dulli turning on the charm but knowing he's doomed to repeat every old mistake
Frank Ocean, Bad Religion - fighting demons the only place safe from the world, the backseat of a cab
MJ Lenderman, Under Control - even Lenderman song can be summed up by ending with "ain't that a bitch?"
The Strokes, Under Control - had to do it. A Strokes song that just crosses 3:00 which costs it a little love.
Nick Cave, People They Ain't No Good - sometimes he's right
Japandroids, Continuous Thunder - making a strong case that all rock songs should be only guitar, drums and fireworks
Titus Andronicus, The Battle of Hampton Roads - 15 full minutes of frustration getting funnier and funnier
Brian Eno, 1/1 (from Music for Airports) - pure relaxation, maybe not enough to want to wait for a flight, but he tried very hard
Leonard Cohen, The Partisan - name a more haunting verse than "there were three of us this morning/I'm the only one this evening/but I must go on/the frontiers are my prison"
Makaya McCraven, In These Times- is it improvised or is it sliced and sampled? whatever it is, it works.
Bob Dylan, Idiot Wind - his snarling best
Craig Finn, Jeremiah's Blues - he comes to California with a proposition, to live with Jeremiah's girl until he gets out of prison
Bloc Party, This Modern Love - updating Joy Division for the 2010s was exactly what the world needed
Outkast, Aquemini - I have no idea what the best song on this album is or what Anne's best verse on this album is, but this competes (exception: SpottieOttie horns rule all)
Pusha T, The Story of Adidon - Push in kill mode is at his best when he laughs at how good his own bars are
Neil Finn, Don't Dream Its Over (Live) - stripping away the (for its time, pretty good) 80s production and focusing on the song is a revelation
Jason Isbell, To a Band That I Loved - a whole list of songs about loving someone else's music could be made (see: Strand of Oaks, JM), but Jason extolling Centro-Matic is gold
Centro-Matic, Flashes & Cables - its a perfect country pop song and then just goes into "da da di do" mode and its even betterJuly

July

Billy Bragg, Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards - his opus, if you've got a blacklist, I wanna be on it.
Buddy Holly & the Crickets, Not Fade Away - the simplicity of its brilliance - the birth of so many things to come
Arcade Fire, Wake Up - they went on to great things but never reached this level of chant-along brilliance again
Cher, Just Like Jesse James - only Cher could take production this cheesy and make it such an anthem
Sleater-Kiney, One Beat - Corin wails, Carrie chants, Janet pounds. The perfect S-K song.
Damien Jurado, Everything Trying - more like everything crying
Danny Brown, XXX - when Danny Brown was on top, this was a peak
Aaliyah, Are You That Somebody - Timbo's beats are fantastic, but Aaliyah's cool just oozes everywhere.
Fleet Foxes, Mykonos - At their most Steely Dan, its like if Insta was a music site
Blitzen Trapper, Furr - I think this came before Fleet Foxes or birthed Fleet Foxes or maybe that was Midlake - the mid-2000s are a blur
The Monkees, Daydream Believer - the world has been trying to make something this catchy, this ear worm-y ever since
The Beta Band, Dry the Rain - High Fidelity hasn't aged great, but this song remains as catchy as when Rob sold albums
Jenny Lewis & the Watson Twins, Rise Up With Fists - we all cement in our ways as we get older, but we can still bring it when we need to
Fiona Apple, Tymps (The Sick in the Head Song) - there is nothing going on here that isn't profoundly weird, but Fiona can turn anything to gold
Iron & Wine, The Trapeze Swinger - nine minutes and thirty seconds of loosely connected expressionism that comes together exceptionally
Silver Jews, New Orleans - Berman at his cheekiest, "there is a house in New Orleans, not the one you've heard about, I'm talking about another house.
Sturgill Simpson, Turtles All the Way Down - another who came out of the gate absolutely swinging
R.E.M., Find the River - the perfect outro to Automatic - you see the fields and the river as you drive down the back roads
Tyler Childers, Feathered Indians - that first verse is impossibly great, "my buckle makes impressions on the inside of her thigh/there are little feathered indians where we tussled through the night/if I'd known she was religious, then I wouldn't have come stoned/to the house of such an angel too fucked up to get back home"
Wednesday, Quarry - specificity (and guitars) are the soul of narrative
Matthew Sweet, The Devil with the Green Eyes - time should remember Matthew Sweet as someone who who brought power pop into the 90s and never missed
Shannon & the Clams, Sleep Talk - I loved that period in the 2010s that was all references to the 1950s
Prince, Starfish & Coffee - to celebrate the 18th anniversary of meeting Cynthia Rose, there is only one song
Jerry Jeff Walker, Mr. Bojangles - as a good a song as there is about a dancing man and his dog
Frank Ocean, White Ferrari - none of the structure that makes up a song, but a glorious trip through the Ocean-verse.
The Stone Roses, I Wanna Be Adored - sometimes rock should be screamed from the rooftops
Beastie Boys, Looking Down the Barrel of a Gun - all of Paul's Boutique bangs, but this is a special level of raucous fun
Foo Fighters, Hey, Johnny Park! - the Foos also did power pop, Big Star would be proud
Japandroids, Fire's Highway - this makes four straight days of shout-alongs. Wo-oh-oh-oh-oh.
Best Coast, Storms - The Fleetwood Mac cover they were put on this earth to do
Damien Rice, 9 Crimes - the peak of the bleak Hanigan-Rice songs

August

Guided By Voices, Echos Myron - when GBV sounds like The Kinks, GBV is at its perfect game-hurling tops
Madvillain, Great Day Today - the man behind the mask just enjoying himself at the mic
Stevie Wonder, Sir Duke - every Stevie incarnation is great, but this is him at his most joyous, celebrating the very existence of songs like this
George Harrison, All Things Must Pass - George's sweet reminder that it gets better, sometimes not fast or how you want, but eventually...
The Paragons, The Tide is High - that someone else had to help get this noticed is a stain on history - just try not to dance.
Bobby Womack, Across 110th Street - the cinematic sweep of storytelling with the Wrecking Crew holding this down - another shame that it went largely unheard until Jackie Brown.
Justin Townes Earle, A Desolate Angel's Blues - those two names carry a lot of weight, but he came out swinging just as one would have hoped.
Antony & the Johnsons, Crazy in Love - few would drop a Bey cover, fewer would inhabit it so well
Fiona Apple, On the Bound - for my entire adult life, she has zigged when everyone else zagged and hasn't missed yet.
D'Angelo, The Root - picking singles from D is a fool's errand. Even picking albums is impossible. Like Fiona, the man takes his time, but the punch lands.
Prince, Sign O' the Times - its hard to call something the "What's Going On" of its time, because for good and, mostly, for ill, we face the same problems as ever.
The Roots, How I Got Over - BT at his grimiest, BT at his best
Shuggie Otis, Strawberry Letter 23 - if you're sitting, you won't be for long. If you're driving, check your speed. He's here to delight.
Kermit the Frog, Rainbow Connection - it stops you in your tracks every time - just a man/frog and his banjo, searching for meaning
Burial, New Love - for 15 years, Burial has been doing things only Burial can - making movies of dark, cold, rainy nights with samples and not much else. The beauty is the desolation never leaves you.
Greg Brown, Canned Goods - taste a little love of the summer, my grandma put it all in a jar
MJ Lenderman, Knockin' - the man is on a long-running heater, this time reminding us of the lows of rock history while hitting its highs
Wilco, At Least That's What You Said - very, very good and then the guitar hits and you're in for something new
The Bottle Rockets, Wave That Flag - a reminder that the world isn't all about you - what if the shoe was on the other foot? Empathy, but you may still get your ass kicked.
LCD Soundsystem, oh baby - oh, we do ballads, too? with crystal synths?
Jeremy Steig, Howling for Judy - so that's where that came from?
Lyle Lovett, If I Had a Boat - I apologize for misunderstanding these wonders so many years ago
Sturgill Simpson, The Promise - he transforms this until the final chorus where he goes for broke and absolutely nails it
Loudon Wainwright III, Swimming Song - as summer comes to an end, we remember the great verse: This summer I swam in a public place / And a reservoir to boot / At the latter I was informal / At the former I wore my suit
Jonathan Richman, That Summer Feeling - the summer ends a nostalgia for a simpler time, still dripping with anxiety, kicks in
Ryan Adams, In My Time of Need - this album changed my life - the simplicity of what love can be and is.
Beth Orton, Stars All Seem to Weep - from the same time period - where has the cosmic folk era gone?
Bully, I Remember - anti-nostalgic ferocity
The Avett Brothers, Colorshow - folky ferocity
Prince & the Revolution, Purple Rain - probably my favorite song of all-time, from R&B to wild guitars, to the tinkling piano, it all happens.
The Afghan Whigs, Faded - also in the all-time top 10, the same song.

September

Leonard Cohen, The Partisan - Leonard bringing aching specificity to every line
Baby Huey, Hard Times - so funky, such a voice - just a capsule of great 70s R&B
Lee "Scratch" Perry, Return of the Super Ape - the sounds of a Sunday morning well spent
John Moreland, Cleveland County Blues - "I still feel you storming in my bones" hits just about as hard as something can hit
Jason Isbell, King of Oklahoma - continuing broken-hearted Oklahoma-based ballads
Dijon, Drunk - the first step to bering found is knowing you're lost
Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, I Love Rock 'n' Roll - even production of its era couldn't make this go wrong.
Radiohead, Idioteque - Radiohead at its most frantic, dancing at the edge of destruction
Radiohead, True Love Waits - Radiohead does ballads, and well. True love lives on lollipop and crisps.
Cat Power, Cross Bones Style - the first time I heard that voice - pre-soul records, but just as pure and strange and wonderful
Iron & Wine, Resurrection Fern - love defeating adversity through southern imagery - Sam Beam at his very best
DJ Shadow, Midnight in a Perfect World - the quilt he stitched together to make this song, album and career are a testament to his devotion to craft
Corinne Bailey Rae, He Will Follow You With His Eyes - this album is a journey, but a stop in the 50s is its peak
Gillian Welch, April the 14th Part 1 - punk rockers, Lincoln's assassination, the sinking of the Titanic. I went back to work. And back to bed.
Thin Lizzy, Cowboy Song - it starts country, but awe still get the crotch rock we came for
Josh Ritter, The Temptation of Adam - the best of the songs about finding love in a missile solo and secretly hoping the world ends. Only one man could write "we passed the time with crosswords she thought to bring inside / what 5 letters spell 'apocalypse' she asked me / I won her over saying W.W. aye-aye-aye"
The National, Bloodbuzz Ohio - I don't know that I was carried to Ohio in a swarm of bees, but I never married and Ohio don't remember me
Ryan Adams, Come Pick Me Up - this album changed how I heard music. The depth of the emotions he rides through this album don't make up for what he became, but musically this is still an almost unfair achievement.
Weezer, Butterfly - Weezer isn't known for straightforward ballads about how they destroy everything they touch, but more of this, please.
Jenny Lewis, Puppy and a Truck - the most accurate portrayal of surviving 2020 as a single person - Jenny speaks for me
Buffalo Tom, Taillights Fade - perfectly of its time, the most 97X song that ever 97X'd, but it still sounds perfect 30-ish years later
Sons of Kemet, The Itis - jazz punk with a tuba holding down the bottom leading into "Rivers of Babylon" as a dirge. Now that's punk.
Prince, When You Were Mine - he came to this world fully formed to change us all. You can argue if he was 5 years ahead or 25 or 50, but the purity of this pop is not to be questioned
John Prine, Illegal Smile - who can't relate to losing an argument to a bowl of oatmeal in the morning and needing to work through that anxiety with a wee bit of help?
The Mountain Goats, No Children - if any song ever stuck its entire tongue all the way through its entire cheek, this would be the one. There's a version floating of a night John Darnielle lost his voice and turned it over to the audience - the joy in the sadness is incredible.You are coming down with me, hand in unloveable hand.
Julien Baker, Appointments - maybe the saddest song of the 2010s - just trying to convince yourself that things aren't falling apart doesn't stop them
Sleater-Kinney, Night Light - man, this got really heavy, really fast
Pavement, Unseen Power of the Picket Fence - I don't know about the historical accuracy of REM marching on Georgia with Sherman, but I support its power
Sam Cooke, Bring It On Home To Me (Live at the Harlem Square Club) - the greatest live performance ever recorded - the crowd is in raptures, you can hear the sweat dripping as he just goes for it like no one before and no one since
Shabazz Palaces, Woke Up In a Dream - Ish Butler continues to live somewhere between earth and outer space, making hip-hop that no one else dares

October

REM, Nightswimming - the first of the two great closing song combos. The innocence of youth and the longing to go back to a place that's no longer there is real
REM, Find the River - pure imagery, the peace found at the end of the long road, surrounded in all the world's beauty.
Elliott Smith, 2:45AM - the crushing pain of your early morning/late night mind visiting its darkest corners yields to... -
Elliott Smith, Say Yes - he leaves with a shot of hope, maybe it all comes together in the end
Shabaka and the Ancestors, Teach Me How to be Vulnerable - a lovely sax and piano closer that you wish would carry on forever
Black Star, Money Jungle - Mos at his most Mos over an incredibly staffed track
Kasey Chambers, Abraham - an artifact of how we fucked up this whole societal experiment
The Felice Brothers, Frankie's Gun - pure joy ft. washboards ft. accordion
The Ronettes, Walking in the Rain - we're going on 50 years of people trying to write a better love song - still ain't there yet
A Tribe Called Quest, Scenario - a very good ATCQ track, then Busta comes in with a can of gas and a match and does his thing
Uncle Tupelo, Criminals - strikingly accurate, the leaders haven't gotten better except at being so easily bought and sold
Pixies, Where is My Mind - there's so many perfect Pixies songs, but this might be the most Pixies of the whole lot
Blood Orange, Hadron Collider - Nelly Furtado's voice over Dev's piano and beats takes us closer to heaven than they believe
Bob Dylan, The Lonesome Death of Hattie Caroll (Rolling Thunder Revue) - the sneeriest Dylan with the band (note: not The Band) going wild behind him
Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Greyhound Part 2 (GZA Mix) - Wu Tang is for the weirdos and Killah Priest don't let us down here
Magnolia Electric Co., Don't This Look Like the Dark - a late night drive alone with the brutal thought: "Tonight when I am rolling over the earth's most lonesome ground / I will think of all the ways, next time I will try not to let you down / thought that I'd live long enough /That the light would come shining through"
Janelle Monte, Tightrope - There's double threats. There's triple threats. Monae threatens every limit of human creativity.
The Duchess & The Duke, Out of Time - this may have triggered run of joyous aughts alt, folky, hand-clappy sing-alongs
The Head and The Heart, Sounds Like Hallelujah - this period featured a lot of "ands" in band names and not a lot of editing ideas - and it worked.
The White Stripes, Hotel Yorba - maybe where this whole period started - just banging on the steering wheel and shouting along
Clem Snide, Faithfully - no one shoehorns in this much pathos into what was once a kind of silly ballad like Eef Barzelay
The Smiths, Still Ill - at one point Morrissey's mission was clear. "For there are brighter sides to life / and I should know because I've seen them / but not very often" inspired 1,000 songs that never matched this.
Mission of Burma, That's When I Reach for My Revolver - this may have inspired "Still Ill" and its anti-conformist message, the guitars just changed from angular to jangular
Ryan Adams, Dear John - although I heard it on an Adams record, Norah Jones does all the work here. That first "I miss you" may be the most heartbreaking sentence ever uttered.
Taylor Swift, exile (ft. Bon Iver) - this may be the one that makes me cry every damn time. There's a gap that no one wants that just can't be bridged.
Kurt Vile, Another Good year for The Roses - there's something about Kurt Vile that makes the sun rise a little higher and its warmth feel that much warmer
The Rolling Stones, Wild Horses - this has to be in my top 10 favorite songs ever - The Stones go country and they go hard
REM, Oh My Heart - the last great REM song as they look at the world post-Katrina and see a world that they didn't want to see
Angel Olsen, Big Time - Angel in throwback country mode. I'm loving it big time.
Margo Price, Since You Put Me Down - more new country done old, bitter and without regret
Phosphorescent, Cocaine Lights - after every night, the morning comes

November

George Michael, Waiting for that Day - sadly, my memory serves me far too well
Wilco, Airline to Heaven - Woody by way of Tweedy offering some promise of ascension
Janet Jackson, Again - it works so hard to not go over the top, but that last minute of trying everything until she just gives uo and says it - chef's kiss.
The Go! Team, The Power is On - I have no idea how this works like it does, but you can't not be ready to take on the world
Dinosaur Jr, Just Like Heaven - in a world of weird-ass covers, this is at the weird-assist side
Heart, Magic Man - my first favorite song and that should explain quite a bit
Gram Parsons, Love Hurts - Gram and Emmylou's harmonies are pure bliss
Stevie Wonder, Never Dreamed You'd Leave in Summer - its so simple, but the yearning is so intense
James Blake, Vincent - I loved Don MacLean's version when I was in 5th grade, but James Blakeiness he puts on this makes it hit that much harder
Roger Miller, Where Have All the Average People Gone - a songs that resonates to this day - where are the friendly and accepting voices?
Jane's Addiction, Ocean Size - at the time, it was the biggest sound I had heard even if through a fuzzy videotape through the speakers of a 13" TV
Elvis Costello, Man Out of Time - Elvis at his sneering best - the screech into a swingy baseline while he punches up at the world
Rod Stewart, Country Comforts - Rod does it that much more country comfortingly than Elton could. Either way, it's great.
Loudon Wainwright III, One Man Guy - I first heard it via his son, but Loudon is the messenger to teach us how to sustain ourselves in the world
Beans on Toast, M. D. M. Amazing - I don't know how this came on, but I'm so damn delighted it did
The Modern Lovers, Hospital - just enough organ for Jonathan to get a little creepy and a lot off of his chest
Clem Snide, All My Heart - Eef doesn't beat around the bush - he loves in no uncertain terms
How to Dress Well, Set It Right - the insanity of that repeated sample as he prays for those he has lost and then everything drops out, until it doesn't
Janet Jackson, Together Again - its that disco beat that no one was using that brings this to life
Nirvana, Where Did You Sleep Last Night - Kuert devolving into a howl was a vocal performance of a lifetime.
Keith Jarret, Part I (from the Koln Concert) - I have heard this so many times and it never fails me. The physicality of the performance - you can hear him stamp and practically pound the keys - is thrilling each and every time.
The Menzingers, Sun Hotel - I'm not huge on emo-punk, but when you filter it through Leonard Cohen, that really makes it happen.
The Ramones, Needles & Pins - it's hard to believe this was considered punk - it's almost a power pop anthem. You want to dance. Thanks, Sonny Bono.
Koffee, Shine - this really feels like Bob Marley has come back in the 2020s to remind us to all calm down
Smog, Teenage Spaceship - we were all awkward and beautiful once...
The Hold Steady, Joke About Jamaica -...we became bugs in a jar and dogs in the war
DJ Shadow, Stem (Cops and Robbers Mix) - it feels like he condensed the movie into 4 minutes as it spins in and out of frenetics.
Calexico/Iron & Wine, He Lays in the Reins - the strengths of both teams, asking for night to come so we can try to take a break and recover to fight a new day
Defiance, Ohio, Oh Susquehanna - a good, old shout-along banger with more than a little fiddle
The Neville Brothers, Will the Circle Be Unbroken - a perfect performance

December

Kasey Chambers & Shane Nicholson, One More Year - sometimes you're holding on by the thinnest of threads, but that tiny bit of hope sustains
Jamey Johnson, Cover Your Eyes - and sometimes it just won't ever be right
Los Campesinos!, You!Me!Dancing! - when the xylophone is kicking some ass, you've done everything right. There's no crime in being heavier B-52s.
The Beach Boys, Wouldn't It Be Nice - maybe the greatest album ever has started with all of the joy and pain to come
Sunny Day Real Estate, Seven - sounds every bit as urgent in 2023 as it did in 1994
Young Thug, Harambe - I don't know what he's bleating or if its in English, but the utter joy it conveys probably means it doesn't matter
Big Thief, Not - the way it starts urgent and then steps up then steps again and you can't believe you can go harder. It's indie Eminem in pacing.
Purple Mountains, That's Just the Way I Feel - Berman makes things not going right a little bit easier to accept.
Ti L'Afrique, Bal Souki Souki - welcome Mauritius to the melting pot of 1970s funk
Massive Attack, Risingson - the dark air its darkest and the grime is so, so grimy. Everything MA was and is and all ever be.
The Bottle Rockets, Kerosene - who's is the judge who decides how much this world can punish?
Prince, When You Were Mine - fully formed from the start - it sounds of its time, but 20 years older and like a better future than we got.
Joni Mitchell, A Case of You - boiling Blue into one song is unfair, but the love on display, both bitter and sweet is all you can ask of a song.
Kanye West, Never Let Me Down - when Kanye was willing to produce and not be the star is with remembering. Jay's bars are great, but what J Ivy does is magic.
Jason Isbell, Alabama Pines - he's written a million great lines, but "the A/C hasn't worked in 20 years/probably never made a single person cold/I can't say the same for me/I've don't it many times" is as cutting as they get.
Bloc Party, Banquet - the stabbing guitars and precision of the beat feels like Joy Division if that name were in lowercase
The Beatles, In My Life - it shouldn't take a cheesy Xmas commercial to remind me that this is a top-tier Beatles jam.
Wu-Tang Clan, Bring da Ruckus - to this point, the whirring sirens of Public Enemy were what I considered to be hip-hop. To peel back this hard, make it this sparse was a revelation that keeps on giving.
Minutemen, History Lesson Part 2 - our band could be your life
Run the Jewels ft. Zach De La Rocha, Close Your Eyes (and Count to Fuck) - whatever I said about Wu Tang, I take back here. This is modern PE - there's nothing here that Chuck D wouldn't support wholeheartedly.
Amy Winehouse, Love is a Losing Game (Live at the Mercury Music Awards) - there's nothing here, just the smallest guitar and the voice of a generation or two, maybe three. She wrings absolutely everything from this.
Yussef Dayes (ft. Shabaka Hutchings), Raisins Under the Sun - the spoils of London jazz and 2023 are too vast to cover, but start here and radiate outward.
The Avett Brothers, Colorshow - before there was a lot of production (looking at you, Rubin), there was bluegrass and punk and country all tightly coiled looking to release.
Tom Waits, I Hope That I Don't Fall in Love With You - my intro to Waits, sitting on a barstool, praying not to make the same damn mistakes and realizing they're inside you
The Pogues, Fairytale of New York - RIP, Shane. The believers will remember you every Christmas for giving us an anthem.
The Tallest Man on Earth, Kids on the Run - this feels like walking a crooked path home. We are forever kids on the run. After you leave, you can't always return. You grow and change and hope to come through stronger.
Beastie Boys, Flute Loop - if it weren't for Dre, this would be the best flute sample ever made. So much packed into 2 minutes.
Beth Orton, Stars All Seem To Weep (Shed Version) - the cosmic foreboding is stripped away and her voice shines.
The Felice Brothers, Frankie's Gun - pounding the steering wheel, playing air-washboard, maybe some xylophone...
LCD Soundsystem, Dance Yrself Clean - The buildup is so long, making the release that much sweeter.
Counting Crows, Possibility Days - And the worst part of a good day is the one thing you don't say/And you don't know how but you wish there was some way/So you pull down the shades and you shut off the lights/Because somehow we mixed up "Goodbye" and "Goodnight"

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2023 - A Musical Diary

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