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. When Sam Cooke entered RCA Victor’s Music … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Near Misses — “It’s Got the Whole World Shakin’”
524. ‘Til Tuesday, Voices Carry (1985) In the late nineteen-seventies, Boston radio station WBCN started an annual battle-of-the-bands promotional event called the Rock & Roll Rumble. As usual for these sorts of undertakings, the Rock & Roll Rumble had an … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #524 to #521
Gleaming and pretty and just a touch odd, “If You’re Too Shy (Let Me Know),” the new single from U.K. band the 1975, invites admiring comparisons to the particular brand of nineteen-eighties music, practiced by the likes of Tears for … Continue reading This Week’s Model — The 1975, “If You’re Too Shy (Let Me Know)”
Waxahatchee wasn’t a new act when the album Ivy Tripp was released, in 2015. Katie Crutchfield had been slinging tunes under that name for a few years and had a couple prior full-lengths. But Ivy Tripp felt major and new, … Continue reading The New Releases Shelf — Saint Cloud
528. Any Trouble, Where Are All the Nice Girls? (1980) “Any Trouble we had difficulty with, because they just looked so ordinary and people were really kicking back on the ordinariness of them,” Stiff Records promotional ace Sonnie Rae said … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #528 to #525
“Brooklyn,” the new single from U.K. singer-songwriter Katie Malco, starts out slow and relatively spare. Against her prowling guitar and a steady, stealthy drum beat, Malco start sharing memories of time spent with a friend, against the many backdrops of … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Katie Malco, “Brooklyn”
532. Lene Lovich, Flex (1980) A resolute oddball, Lene Lovich is an unlikely figure to have heightened commercial expectations attached to one of her projects. That was precisely the case, though, with her sophomore album, Flex. Her debut, Stateless, was … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #532 to #529
In this time of disconcerting norm erosion, when the user’s manual for global society is being rewritten on the fly, at least we have Randy Newman to see us through. A sardonic chronicler of human failings for over a half-century, … Continue reading This Week’s Model — Randy Newman, “Stay Away”
This series of posts covers my long, beloved history interacting with the medium of radio, including the music that flowed through the airwaves. When I showed up at my college radio station, the music was still predominantly played off of … Continue reading Radio Days — CMJ Reviews
536. The Psychedelic Furs, The Psychedelic Furs (1980) When Richard Butler started seriously making music with his brother, Tim, the original band names adopted glancingly referred to the long history of recorded music. First known and RKO and Radio, the … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #536 to #533
Coffee for Two 