These posts are about the songs that fell just short of crossing the key line of chart success, entering the Billboard Top 40. Every song featured in this series peaked at number 41. Marcus Bell and Mark Long spent several … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Near Misses — “Are You Sure?”
“I could just be me. Do what I love. Be imperfect. Be mad, even. I’m not a pop star. I’m just a troubled soul who needs to scream into mikes now and then.” I don’t want to start with the … Continue reading Sinéad O’Connor, 1966 – 2023
24. Tears for Fears, Songs from the Big Chair (1985) Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith were angry at themselves for compromising. Tears for Fears, the band led by the longtime friends from Bath, England, delivered a major hit with their … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #24 and #23
“The Way Things Go,” the new track from Beabadoobee, absolutely gleams. It recalls any number of indie pop acts who combined elegant melody, wispy vocals, evocatively emotional lyrics, and impeccable musicianship. It builds and builds, like a swirling funnel of … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Beabadoobee, “The Way Things Go”
ARLO PARKS My Soft Machine (Transgressive) — How does an artist follow up a debut that achieved the level of acclaim of Collapsed in Sunbeams. The first full-length outing from the British-born Arlo Parks raked in awards like they were … Continue reading Medium Rotation — My Soft Machine; Roach
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. As I’ve mentioned before, … Continue reading Laughing Matters — The Ben Stiller Show, “Pan America Insurance Company Salesman of the Year”
26. Midnight Oil, Diesel and Dust (1987) The first seed that would turn into the fertile garden Diesel and Dust was cast in 1984, when members of the Australian rock band Midnight Oil spent a couple days at an Aboriginal … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #26 and #25
I mean it as a high compliment when I assert that the new song Billie Eilish created for the Barbie movie soundtrack recalls the expert work of Randy Newman. Especially when Newman was the go-to for Pixar during the animation … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Billie Eilish, “What Was I Made For?”
28. Camper Van Beethoven, Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart (1988) “I got very tired of the fact that indie record labels sell to very specific audiences,” David Lowery, frontman of Camper Van Beethoven, told the Orlando Sentinel as his band toured … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #28 and #27
What Democrats Can Accomplish When They Control a Whole State by Grace Segers Like their cohorts on the other side of the Dairy State Divide, Minnesota Democrats have taken their recent wins at the voting booth as a mandate to … Continue reading Outside Reading — The Star of the North edition
Coffee for Two 