“And it all feels harder than normal,” Jess Cornelius sings at the opening of the new single “No Difference,” over a spare, echoing guitar line. “And you can’t believe it’s happened again,” she continues, the last word stretched to about … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Jess Cornelius, “No Difference”
772. Van Halen, Van Halen II (1979) In the early part of their recording career, Van Halen moved quickly. The enormous sales of their self-titled debut and the similarly robust interest in the subsequent tour led the band to assess … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #772 to #769
When I write about music, there are a few synonyms I might employ to avoid repetition of the word “singing.” I’m partial to “belting,” but I probably need to retire the term. How can it be applied with any accuracy … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Lizzo, “Cuz I Love You”
776. Buzzcocks, A Different Kind of Tension (1979) Buzzcocks operated with a raw nerve openness (few other bands would be so brazen to release a single called “Orgasm Addict” in the nineteen-seventies), so it makes sense that their final album … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #776 to #773
I’m fully prepared to defer to John Darnielle if he posits differently, but I think there’s no story from Greek mythology with more of an indie rock vibe than that of Sisyphus. The story of a egotistical king who was … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Andrew Bird, “Sisyphus”
L7: Pretend We’re Dead (Sarah Price, 2016). A nifty video scrapbook posing as documentary, this film traces the career of the L.A. hard rock band L7. Largely avoiding details of personal entanglements, L7: Pretend We’re Dead dutifully ticks off the … Continue reading Playing Catch-Up — L7: Pretend We’re Dead; Cold War; Green Book
780. China Crisis, What Price Paradise (1986) When China Crisis set out to record their fourth album, What Price Paradise, they were coming off a release that supposedly conferred upon them a sort of official endorsement from the upper echelon … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #780 to #777
Here’s the thing about working in higher education, as I did for about fifteen years: You get to feel booming pride for a whole fleet of young adults who go out and start putting dents in the world. Sometimes, that … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Emily Reo, “Strawberry”
Sharon Van Etten has an intimacy issue, of a sort. Her previous studio efforts (and there’s a big batch of them, including self-released material and stray demos) are filled with stark and beautiful songs. Many of them are also so … Continue reading The New Releases Shelf — Remind Me Tomorrow
784. Aerosmith, Night in the Ruts (1979) Well before their unlikely mid-nineteen-eighties comeback, Aerosmith was band that didn’t just court disaster. It got down to one knee and gave disaster a full-hearted proposal of marriage at first sight. The Boston … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #784 to #781
Coffee for Two 