There’s no way to address the end of 2020 without acknowledging the exhaustion of it all. In a time of refunded concert tickets and closed movie theaters, it’s too facile to state that the still fairly steady stream of recorded … Continue reading Top Ten Albums of 2020
There are years when my yearly exercise in ranking albums is fairly easy. That was decidedly not the case this time around. Maybe I can attribute the added challenge to the high number of releases that spoke directly to me, … Continue reading Top Ten Albums of 2019
As a rule, I acknowledge trends in music only grudgingly, believing the creative process is ultimately far more elusive — and operating on chronologies likely quite different from that suggested by the release schedules — than perception bias allows. The … Continue reading Top Ten Albums of 2018
I’ve rarely felt so detached from the prevailing music culture as I did in 2017. I don’t necessarily think that’s a bad thing. It’s not only that my resounding obliviousness of the songs that stormed the pop charts (I wouldn’t … Continue reading Top Ten Albums of 2017
As per tradition in this digital space, the close of the calendar year means it’s time to reflect on the best music releases of the year. It’s been a while since I’ve been beholden by writing duties to an outside source, which was the initiating cause of my modern top ten albums lists, but I still do the best I can to keep up. I’ll acknowledge that it was more challenging than ever in 2016 to be comprehensive in my listening, and more than a few of the titles that make this tally have only making glancing appearances in my personal rotation. … Continue reading Top Ten Albums of 2016
