These posts are about the songs that just barely failed to cross the key line of chart success, entering the Billboard Top 40. Every song featured in this series peaked at number 41. Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O’Brien was born … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Near Misses — “All Cried Out”
728. Joan Armatrading, The Key (1983) Joan Armatrading was deep into her career when she released The Key, and she was ready for a little more commercial success. “I would like to sell more records in America, not so people … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #728 to #725
Although it’s been many, many (many, many, many) years since I set my internal clock by the schedule of a college radio station, some vestiges remain. For example, as the calendar page flips and the thirty-one squares of May are … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Bleached, “Hard to Kill”
732. Alex Chilton, High Priest (1987) Alex Chilton spend the first half of the nineteen-eighties scuffling through professional uncertainty. The former lead singer of the Box Tops and challenging genius at the core of blazingly brilliant and commercially underperforming power … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #732 to #729
When I write about music, I do so as a fan and a novice. In contrast to how some artists would likely characterize my typed-out ruminations, I do this not to pompously pontificate about what is right and wrong in … Continue reading This Week’s Model — FKA twigs, “Cellophane”
These posts are about the songs that just barely failed to cross the key line of chart success, entering the Billboard Top 40. Every song featured in this series peaked at number 41. The Mann Act was cemented in U.S. … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Near Misses — “Promised Land”
There was a time when I was dead certain that the further someone was past their teenaged years, the less business they had flinging pop songs into the world. The vernacular of modern pop is still drawing its emotional language … Continue reading The New Releases Shelf — When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?
Sometimes comedy illuminates hard truths with a pointed urgency that other means can’t quite achieve. Sometimes comedy is just funny. This series of posts is mostly about the former instances, but the latter is valuable, too. Although my inability and … Continue reading Laughing Matters — Jonathan Coulton, “Nobody’s Above the Law”
736. Yello, Gotta Say Yes to Another Excess (1983) Boris Blank, the impresario of electronics who drove the musical agenda for the band Yello, had picked up a new toy ahead of the record of his group’s third full-length, Gotta … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #736 to #733
740. Ian Hunter, Welcome to the Club (1980) Former Mott the Hoople lead singer Ian Hunter had been a chipping away at a solo career for the latter half of the nineteen-seventies when he found himself with something of a … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #740 to #737
Coffee for Two 