I make and post my best-of list on my blog, catchgroove@gmail.com, and it is purely based on my favorite new albums from the year. When I look back at old lists, I find that most of the albums are still ones I listen to, but they are impressively unhip lists that my adult music-head kids would be embarrassed by. Dad rock defined.
I stopped by. Yeah, the lists are somewhat Dad Rock-ish (too muck Dylan and post-2005 Wilco) but at least you’ve got The National, Taylor, and Harry Styles there. And you’re here reading the thoughts of a guy who loves Geese, Wednesday, and MJ Lenderman. The Catch Groove kids need to give their patriarch some love for his musical taste and for writing about it.
Uproxx is apparently not doing their critics poll this year, which means this will be the first time since 2000 that I haven't participated in a traditionally published (either via my hometown alt-weekly, Pazz & Jop or Uproxx) album list. Weird feeling. End of an era. I suppose a lot of things are ending these days.
I loved Motomami, and (yet) I will confess that I find Lux to be a wash at best... with the exception of a few moments where Caroline Shaw's (brilliant!) voice as an arranger comes through, the "classical" elements are garishly pastiche, and frankly confounding. There are so many instances of rich collaborations between living composers and pop or folk artists (Sam Amidon/Nico Muhly spring immediately to mind), or vernacular artists who are themselves great orchestrators/arrangers — Dave Longstreth, Sufjan Stevens, etc... I don't understand the airlifting of 18th/19th century elements in this totally flattened way; it feels like pure cultural/commodity fetishism, and confirms mostly that classical music (or concert music) is perceived as this remote province of ancient cultural production that can be superimposed superficially at will. I wonder what these songs might have sounded like if the arrangers had been given the freedom to write string/brass/orchestral arrangements that draw from a more contemporary idiom.
I make and post my best-of list on my blog, catchgroove@gmail.com, and it is purely based on my favorite new albums from the year. When I look back at old lists, I find that most of the albums are still ones I listen to, but they are impressively unhip lists that my adult music-head kids would be embarrassed by. Dad rock defined.
I stopped by. Yeah, the lists are somewhat Dad Rock-ish (too muck Dylan and post-2005 Wilco) but at least you’ve got The National, Taylor, and Harry Styles there. And you’re here reading the thoughts of a guy who loves Geese, Wednesday, and MJ Lenderman. The Catch Groove kids need to give their patriarch some love for his musical taste and for writing about it.
Thanks for checking it out. If you ain’t make your children’s eyes roll you are not livin’.
Really enjoyed the Sharp Pins recommendation. Also a little 2nd Grade in there if that helps others check it out.
Uproxx is apparently not doing their critics poll this year, which means this will be the first time since 2000 that I haven't participated in a traditionally published (either via my hometown alt-weekly, Pazz & Jop or Uproxx) album list. Weird feeling. End of an era. I suppose a lot of things are ending these days.
I loved Motomami, and (yet) I will confess that I find Lux to be a wash at best... with the exception of a few moments where Caroline Shaw's (brilliant!) voice as an arranger comes through, the "classical" elements are garishly pastiche, and frankly confounding. There are so many instances of rich collaborations between living composers and pop or folk artists (Sam Amidon/Nico Muhly spring immediately to mind), or vernacular artists who are themselves great orchestrators/arrangers — Dave Longstreth, Sufjan Stevens, etc... I don't understand the airlifting of 18th/19th century elements in this totally flattened way; it feels like pure cultural/commodity fetishism, and confirms mostly that classical music (or concert music) is perceived as this remote province of ancient cultural production that can be superimposed superficially at will. I wonder what these songs might have sounded like if the arrangers had been given the freedom to write string/brass/orchestral arrangements that draw from a more contemporary idiom.