You know what’s a long time between albums? Twenty-four years. Nearly a quarter of a century has passed since the last Everything but the Girl album, Temperamental, was released, in 1999. Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt formally announced the dissolution … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Everything but the Girl, “Nothing Left to Lose”
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. Sarah McLachlan was a cultural force in … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Near Misses — “Fallen”
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 I’d prefer to … Continue reading Laughing Matters — The Simpsons, “Deep Deep Trouble”
95. Echo & the Bunnymen, Ocean Rain (1984) Echo & the Bunnymen benefited from a change in scenery when they recorded their fourth studio album, Ocean Rain. After setting up an unofficial home base of Rockfield Studios, located in the … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #95 to #93
What can I type? I simply like the idea of starting the new year with a cool groove. Luckily, Debby Friday is ready to oblige with the track “SO HARD TO TELL,” which is intoxicating in it slippery swerving and … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Debby Friday, “SO HARD TO TELL”
During my undergraduate years, I spent just about every New Year’s Eve on the air at student-run radio station WWSP-90FM. It was my idea to commit the programming that day to counting down the station’s Top 90 albums of the year … Continue reading Radio Days — Then and Now: January 1, 2023
98. The J. Geils Band, Love Stinks (1980) The career boost sought by the J. Geils Band had worked, more or less. After several years on Atlantic Records, they jumped to EMI based on the promise that they’d get more … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #98 to #96
As the curtain falls on 2022, tradition holds that I offer up a few of the songs released during the span of the calendar coming off the wall. Steering away from the artists who were represented in yesterday’s tally of … Continue reading Five Songs from 2022
After sometimes getting lost in the constant stream of new music that comes out, I worked a little harder at really listening to everything that came my way this year. The introduction of the Medium Rotation feature was a way … Continue reading Top Ten Albums of 2022
101. Foreigner, 4 (1981) For anyone who want to understand — really, really know — what album-rock radio sounded like in the nineteen-eighties, particularly the first half before hair metal came prancing in to knock the system askew, Foreigner’s 4 … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #101 to #99
Coffee for Two 