I knew it was impossible when I started

I knew it was impossible when I started. But it got me through the last 18 months. And I needed that. I'm going to try again, in ernest this year. I think it's still impossible, but not improbable that I can ultimately succeed in listening to, reacting and subjectively ranking all the music of a given year.

It will have to be attempted on an every other year basis, this much I am still convinced. 

I have given a lot of thought to the structure of 2016's journey.

Guidelines that will be carried over:

1) If I can't find the music on Spotify, Youtube, Bandcamp or Soundcloud, I will not spend any energy tracking it down.
2) The fewer hits a band has on youtube/spotify the more preference they get in my ranking system, once I'm "hooked".

New Guidelines: 

3) I will be more liberal with the skip-10-seconds button

4) I will only allow an album to hook me within the first 3 songs instead of 5

5) I will be less strict regarding listening to the entire album once hooked. 

As with last year I will be attempting to as objectively as possible observe my subjective reactions to the various music I encounter throughout 2016. I will then attempt to document as well as I can, which of that music I "liked" the most. I will attempt to put a list of less than 100 albums together by the end of the following year complete with boring, self-analytical, bullshit criticism of other people's art that I do, apparently, have the audacity to rank in terms of my own personal self-satisfaction. 

I am not a writer or blogger by passion or intent, so I have no sense of routine or drive that involves making sure I finish this series. Not that I am expecting any mass uprising at the sudden and effective end of 2014's journey. WTH do you have against run on sentences as long as they logically add up to a complete thought? 

I did listen to some music in 2015 and have a few of my favorite songs saved to a spotify playlist. Check it out HERE!

For the morbidly curious, here is what was left of 2014 that I never got around to writing about. I've linked to each album where possible. Everyone have a safe and happy New Year!

41. Temples - Sun Structues

*40. Kid Cudi - Satellite flight: The Journey to The Mother Moon

*39. Ema - The future's Void

38. Maximo Park - Too Much Information

37. Hardworking Americans - Hardworking Americans

*36. The New Medicants - Into the Lime

35. Christina Perri - Head or Heart

34. Kevin Seconds - Off Stockton

33. Dell The Funky Homosapien - Iller Then Most

32. Mogwai - Rave Tapes

31. Dave Barnes - Golden Days

30. Dum Dum Girls - Too True

29. Within Temptation - Hydra

*28. Elbow - The Take Off And Landing of Everything

27. Issues - Issues

26. Fairweather - Fairweather

*25. The Fray - Helios

24. Step Brothers - Lord Steppington

23. Ice Nine Kills - The Predator has Become the Prey

*22. Raimundos - Cantigas de Roda

21. Periphery - Clear

20. AJ Croce - 12 tales

*19. Cynic - Kindly Bent To Free Us

18. Young the Giant - Mind over Matter

17. Arthur Beatrice - Working Out

16. Correspondents - Puppet Loosely Strung

15. Of Mice and Men - Restoring Force

14. Blood Red Shoes - Blood Red Shoes

**13. Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra - Fuck Off Get Free We Pour Light On Everything

12. St. Vincent - St. Vincent

11. 2NE1 - CRUSH

10. Bass Nectar - Noise vs. Beauty

09. Lawrence Arms - Metropole

08. Sophie Ellis-Bextor - Wanderlust

07. Against Me! - Transgender Dysphoria Blues

06. Calle 13 - MultiViral

**05. La Dispute - Rooms of the House

**04. JonWayne - Cassette on Vinyl

**03. Phantogram - Voices

02. Cloud Nothings - Here and Nowhere Else

01. Rick Ross

*check this out

** dude, seriously, give this one a chance

Demons, Drag Queens & Danes

44. Demon Hunter - Extremist


The opening track, titled Death vibrates that frequency at the back of the pituitary. The one that releases epinephrine.

Truly, I was expecting death-core grind-fest 666 hell-on-earth music. Brace yourself. It's only kind of like that. I think.

Heavy and Hooky. Not afraid to be very pop-friendly while still maintaining a suitable amount of heavy imagery and brutal sound engineering.

In fact, fun surprise. I just looked up the Wikipedia to see who engineered/mixed this beauty. Turns out it was Zeuss. And it is a Christian Metal Band. Wow. That is one genre that I can truly say I normally discount before even hearing it.

So there you go, Do Christian-Metal-Kids already talk about this band as if they sold out? The last half of the album starts to sound a bit too "icky" for my likes, but the production and performances alone make this worth listening to. I'm going to check out the rest of Zeuss' catalouge.

If you are an actual Satan-Worshiping death-core listener, I believe it would be possible to slip Death into your ipod and none, but the most hard-core Hard-Cores would know the difference. However, by the time the album finishes playing out, I remember why I instinctively judge Christian Hard-Core.

Check out this video for Death and you will not see some straight-edge kids in skinny jeans shrieking into a mic. You will see what you see.

I'm not your gateway
I'm not your prodigal son
I am the vile lesser-than
Just who do you think I am?

I'm not your standard
I'm not your vision divine
I am no sacrificial lamb
Just who do you think I am?

I am death

It's worth watching this lyric video for Artificial Light as well. In between the invasive death-kiks and actual guitar shredding there is a call for reform and and action. A yearning of devoted worshipers with scant few teachers to show them the way.

43. RuPaul - Born Naked

In many ways, this is also an experiment in honesty. I'm very curious as to why some collections of sounds produce a certain physiological and physiological result and others do not.

I logged my reactions to these albums as I listened to them. While I would never listen to this in any situation that I can possible imagine outside of this blog, it represents a great moment to try and dissect what the hell I am actually trying to accomplish here. What is it about this record that would make me put it on this list, knowing that I was going to have to try and defend it later?

This album has great bass sounds. Even with small speakers, there is a definitely thump. I know it is characteristic of this type of music to have that thump and I also realize that there is basically a scientific formula for achieving it along with millions of plug-ins to do it "Automagically!®". But one could also say that all painters have access to the color red so what makes Picasso's red better than another artist's red? 

I realize I've just compared RuPaul to Picasso. Hey look over there! (NSFW)

  
42. ꜛ20. MØ - No Mythologies To Follow

Shit. I should have saved the Picasso reference for this album. Scandinavian pop music. Some would say that it has always been great. I might be one of those people. The first CD I every owned was Ace of Bass. Hasn't there been a seemingly endless parade of Scandinavian pop ever after? One might even be able to argue that the combined influence of Scandinavian songwriters rivals that of the Beatles or entire genres, such as "Techno". Wait, that's Swedish? OK, got it. All music comes from Sweden or Denmark, apparently.

Each song paints a picture dripping with emotion and authenticity. Never Want to Know has a nice 50's groove that is perfectly tainted with some fancy new 21st century production techniques. The whole record is a great study in solid changes and confident pacing.

I believe this is a break-up record. And is among the best I've heard. As I'm writing this and listening over the tracks again, I believe that I ranked this way too low. This should be a top 20 album.

Upon my first listen, I was a little turned off the seeming derivative nature of the style. Perhaps I only have room in my heart for Adele. Lorde snuck in there somehow for a moment, but is gone now.

However listening again, I hear a vulnerability and rawness that is much different than the reigning Queens of pop. When Adele is the most popular and highest selling artist of the last 10 years, one can expect to have many imitators. But what Adele brings to the table is impossible to imitate. MØ is a serious contender because she is not imitating, she is exploring her own unique frequency.

I'm making an executive decision. I'm moving This album to #20 and switching it out for the current album in that spot. Check this Album out and let me know if it seems like a fair swap!

 Bonus 42. AJ Croce - Twelve Tales

Jim Croce's son. This album was at #20 previous to my blogprovisation above. 

A classic sounding record by a classic songwriter. Lyrics are clever and meaningful. The production is clear and clean. If you aren't into folky Americana Pop, this won't convert you. If you are, add this to your collection. When someone complains that no one makes music like they used to. Put on Tarnished and Shining and tell them to shut the hell up and go buy an AJ Croce record.

Some Bands Just Don't Realize That Full Color Album Covers Are Passé.

47. Dead Fathers - Dead

HipPop. Very poppy hip-hop.

Track 2, Just Another Bullet exhibits a sophistication of rare caliber. It may sound strange at first, but it sits right in a sweet spot that so far I've only heard UK artist occupy.

If you haven't heard that groove before, start with something accessible like The Streets.

Add to that the combination of influences in a group consisting of African and Brit-hop influences and to this tin 'murcin e'r it sounds new and coherent.  Solemnly angry and indignant, but coherent. Disclaimer: This band is not from the UK. They are Scottish. So, coherent and Scottish were just mentioned in the same paragraph. There you go.

Not the lyrics, of course, which are peppered with cross-continental slang and colloquial references. But, you know, the general vibe is coherent. The breakdown in Am I Not Your Boy starting around 1:10 on the record version is perfect and settles out to a beautiful outro. Here is a link to a long version of this song. Worth watching because it's live.

46. Augustines - Augustines

Now would be a good time to mention that Bruce Springteen's High Hopes was on this list for a long time, not only for the singular power of The Ghost of Tom Joad, but the overall strength of the material in general.


Unfortunately, it seemed to me that too many up and comers were really doing Springsteen better than Springsteen. He got booted. This band was the nail in the coffin.


Not only am I huge fan of self-titled debut albums, but their choice in logo design is brilliantly devious with it's subtle nod to contemporary aesthetic attitudes while also embracing asymmetry and imbalance. I hope that is the band on the cover, because those guys look cool as fuck.

45. Wild Beasts - Present Tense

An album named after one of the best Pearl Jam songs of all time? Automatically on the list. Did I mention my selection process was rigorous?

But honestly, get with it. Check out this live version of track 1, Wanderlust. It must be hard to sing a song where one of the main hooks is a word you can't say on TV.  #lol @ that.

Am I alone in this developing fondness of euro-poppy operatic vocals thing that I'm starting to hear more of? A band like this must be at least tangentially inspired by David Lynch.

The gated, crushed up bass snips that surface about midway through Sweet Spot are divine in their incompleteness and context.

What do you think about this song? First, listen to it. Then look up the lyrics. Solve the puzzle and you will discover one of the reasons this band deserves some consideration. Are they extremely sensitive? Poignantly witty? A little of both? None of either? Placido Domingo?

Also, for your consideration. A one-legged flamingo.

Nothing left to lose

I know that some of you out there are hoping that this is satire. But it is not. I'm sorry. These albums exist on this list because they survived a rigorous process of internal dialogue and honest, objective observation of my own feelings and emotions while hearing and listening to each of them the first time through.

Many records got knocked off of this list and who is to say that if I had made it past the month of April, things wouldn't have turned out differently. However we got here, say hello and congratulations to the class of  48-50!

50. Katy B Little Red

Commit yourself to listening to a Euro Club/Dance Record. Skip the first track. On 5AM. Listen to the noises. The crunchy synths sit nice and cozy with what sounds like someone's drunk boyfriend's cat playing an organ.

I wish I could think of someway to rationalize this being on the list. But I can't. And if I take it off now, it will mess up the ordering of the ones I've already posted. So, it's going to stay.

I was afraid of this happening. I know what comes after this and I'm terrified. There's nothing to write.

Check out this Vevo video on Youtube for a great song from this album. Still is a real gem that shines out. Seriously, check out the song. I'm pretty sure the emotional attachment I formed to this one song made me think that listening to the entire rest of the album was worth keeping it on the list. That's saying a lot, I know. But if you think about it, it makes sense.

49 Monte Pittman The Power of Three

Dude. Metal. Pure aggression of progression. A little Alice in Chains, here. A sprinkling of Megadeth, there. 

Meticulous and driving. Classic power shredding provides a foundation for subversive rhythm effects with Ozzie like vocals describes the opening track Dark Horse. 

If you don't like metal. It won't turn you. If you do like metal, you'll probably think it's lame. It's a lose-lose to share this information with you. 

Bonzai!

48 The Crystal Method The Crystal Method

One of the more interesting things I discovered while embarking on this journey was that The Crystal Method is still releasing new material. I think. 

Someone may correct me and it turns out this is just a "remix" of their old remixes(?). What the hell is going on around here? 

I sincerely am loving this record.  The opening song is called Emulator. It's a bunch of squiggly sounds and a guy saying 'yeah'. 

Track 2 is called Over It and it features a lot of ASMR and more than one word in the verse. Listen on headphones. This entire record is really listenable even if you aren't whacked out on X standing sneaker deep in glow-sticks and popcorn. I think the average listener could benefit from this record while jogging, vacuuming or playing old atari games. If you like the glitchy stuff check out the next track Sling the Decks.

Sultry Hardcore and Buddhist Gangsters

#53

Schoolboy Q - Oxymoron

This gangster rapper may be attempting a buddhist annihilation of the genre by magnifying the stereotypical maya.

Rick Rubin may have never listened to The Chronic, but I did. A lot. Especially around the age of 12 and 13.  The opening track Gangsta is smooth and fluid, oozing with that west coat vibe.

Los Awesome is impossible not to listen to if you know how and is followed by Collard Greens featuring not only that infectious kik/bass line but also a flawless onomatopoeic verse by Kendrick Lamar.

Hoover St. comes out sounding more like New York than SoCal.  A sparse and almost spastic beat held down with a strong hit on 1. I'm in. It would raise quite a few eyebrows if I were to begin identifying myself as a "real nigga" so I can't say that I literally or culturally identify with the opening hook in that regard. However, I get the sense of perseverance and that shock of inspiration. The idea that this man's authenticity is his currency and his authenticity is determined by his willingness and ability to do what no one else would have thought of. Hoover St. does not disappoint with a hard beat shift that does not return to the opening hooks.

This is an album about drug dealing, drug abuse, prostitution, killing people and fucking bitches. It's also an album exploring emotional and philosophical limits. Perscription/Oxymoron is a beautiful and honest introspective that describes the prison fog of addiction. Halfway through, the beat gives way and we get the dealer's perspective, full of bravado and malice. More than anything, this track exemplifies the "life drama" that much of hip-hop attempts to display. Two characters lives played out from their perspectives, in their voice. One locked in the house, the other trying to get in. Schoolboy Q shines on these tracks that show a nostalgia and vulnerability.

Blind Threats features an internal dialogue and moral rationalization of a young gangster life as seen from a position of oppression, frustration and fatigue.

If you can't identify with the lifestyle and cultural past, many of these tracks will not appeal to you. But if you like unique beats with surprising changes and novel flow, give it a listen.

Listen to Blind Threats and prescription/Oxymoron on Youtube.

#52

Russian Red - Agent Cooper

A spaghetti-western-techno-pop-thing. Then the drum build in Stevie J. 

It starts at the 2:00 mark "Shake and shake and shake your guitar / Tell Me who you are". Right on the word "Shake" an organ sound of some kind kicks in and the whole mix opens up into a grand strategy. The whole experience is revisited as a tag to the song and without knowing what this song is about, I feel refreshed. From this point on, fans of Urban Day-Pop or Toegaze. will have no problem sticking this one out.


#51

The Used - Imaginary Enemy

Extreme subversive messages delivered through elegantly produced hardcore pop. Hooky post-hardcore featuring inventive groove shifts. Cry blends 80's synth pop with heavy hitting scream breaks and a sultry hooks. Their is a vocal turn at the end of the chorus that shakes with a certain vibrato that takes me back to Silverchair...

or whatever. I'm sure this band does not care. I can identify with them in this way. I was once in a band and we made a T-shirt that featured a lot of "interesting" imagery. Among the collage were Bill Clinton and Hitler, conjuring up the idea of some sort of political or philosophical introspection or outrospection. Now there are two made up words in this review. Silverchair is the other one.  

What Do Christian Rock, Trance and K-Pop have in Common?

#56

Switchfoot - Fading West

The album opens with Love Alone Is Worth The Fight. A song that is not bad enough to skip. The second track begins with a lone voice and interesting rhythm. Who We Are is a crisp, uplifting pop ballad. Don't let the counting fool you, this song is in 4/4.

When We Come Alive is a little bit Third Eye Blind and A little bit Imagine Dragons. I stayed with this one until Say It Like You Mean It which kicks in with a truly refreshing groove and production. I would have preferred to hear a whole track that sounded more like the intro to The World You Want rather than the meditative pop anthem that followed.

Ba55 really breaks out and makes the wait worth it with more of that really nice grimy production. A smooth, pulsing intro slowly builds to an emotional vocal and instrumental climax without breaking the bubble. From there, the whole thing kind of limps through the next few songs, finally reaching Back To The Beginning Again which carries the listener through with a familiar 90's power pop sound. There is a lot of derivative pop melodies and production on this record but overall I got the feeling that Switchfoot was trying to push past a personal, artistic boundary. The best songs sound genuine and fought for. The worst sound like Justin Bieber songs done in a slightly gruffer sounding voice.

#55

Markus Shulz - Scream 2

Trance Music. Yes. A Trance album made the chart. Don't ask me how. If you can't handle the stereotypical synths and changes that come with this kind of music, then don't even bother. However, I listened to quite a few of these types of albums and this one has a depth that few dare to cover. There is an emotional and cinematic quality to these tracks that is belied by the boom-chick-boom-chick club production. If you like Trance or don't mind it, Scream 2 is worth your time.

#54

Girl's Generation - Mister, Mister

One of the biggest surprises of this whole thing was finding out that I actually enjoy Korean Girl-Bands. Not in a sarcastic, ironic kind of away either. I actually get an authentic endorphin hit from this music. Weird, I know. Let this be an example of my extreme honesty in this project.

The title track, Mister Mister starts off with a hard hitting distorted bass groove that really got my attention. The singing is superb and the modulations at the end of the song give me goosebumps.

While some of the production sounds a little like R&B covered in cheese, there are quite a few redeeming qualities. The Beach Boys sounding intro to Wait A Minute that transitions into a kik-driven pop tune with a wonderful melody and delicious hooks. The only weak track is the penultimate Back Hug which is balanced out by the extremely well arranged Soul. 

I am curious as to whether and readers of this blog who do not listen to this kind of music will also find themselves falling in love it as well.

Listen to Mister Mister and Soul on Youtube

This is the not the only Korean Girl Band on the chart, either. Stay tuned!

The Top 59 Albums of the First Quarter of 2014

During the 2014 calendar year I embarked on a journey of discovery. I attempted to listen to every record released as according to Wikipedia. Chronologically. Yes, this was as impossible as it sounds. I did manage to make it through the first quarter (Jan - March).

I listened to every song on every album long enough to give it a chance. If I couldn't take it, I would skip through every song looking for something unexpected or interesting and would give that a chance if I found it.

The only way I allowed myself to skip a record was if I couldn't listen to it on Spotify or Youtube. I listened to each album only once and kept a running chart, adding and removing albums on instinct and moving them up and down dynamically while listening.

Once an album was over, it's position was fragile. Albums that had tracks which I found myself drawn back to maintained their positions easier. Epic wars were fought over these chart positions.

In the end, only 59 remain on the chart and this marks the beginning of a series of mostly short blog posts naming the chart positions along with a few thoughts. There was a lot of music I didn't get to. But of what I heard, this is what I liked and why I liked it.

#59

Lea Michele - Louder

I didn't have many notes on this other than I didn't really like it. But there was some subtle pull back to this album that kept it from falling off the chart and eventually I changed my mind. Cannonball starts the album with too much sugar, but there is a hint of Ace of Bass that makes me smile. My wife thinks she sings well and I agree. It turns out, she made her broadway debut at the age of 8 and is a cast member for Glee. So, she can sing. 

While it is hard to hear her pure voice through the production, there is massive depth here. I admit a guilty pleasure of liking a certain hesitation of beat and use of bass/high-freq that comes with the dubstep influenced turn-arounds in On My Way. 

Burn with You begins with a stripped down vocal, but eventually turns into bass drops and furious high-hats and the premise of the song seems vacant halfway through.

Then comes Battlefield, a song to save a record. If you listen to nothing else from this release, do yourself a favor.

Listen on Spotify or Youtube

Ultimately, I was turned off the heavy pop arrangements, but hints of Martin Sexton in the intro of Cue The Rain and Adele like hooks peppered throughout contributed to keeping this on the chart. I find myself looking forward to her next release.


#58

Mya - With Love

This is sex music. It sounds so kitsch as to be immediately forgotten. But the changes are there and so is the voice. This is the other woman singing with Christina Aguilera and Lil' Kim on Lady Marmalade.

#57

The Pixies - EP2

Beginning with the balls out Blue Eyed Hexe, which makes me hungry for the pixies to do an AC/DC cover album, this EP, released without fanfare, delivers the goods. So the Pixies are making music again? I hope so. After the high energy of the intro, Magdelena calls back to the muffled, garage-born, shoe-gazing feel. Greens and Blues is a long sleepy jam, like a slowed down Descendants track. Towards the end you can hear some of the influence that Dave Grohl has honed to perfection. Snakes coasts EP2 into a snarky/poppy ending, The way the chorus pops into existence is jarring perfection.

The whole experience clocks in under 15:00 and if you like this sort of thing, you probably already know about it. But if you haven't heard it, it's available on Youtube and the commenters there have a much more nuanced criticism then I could ever hope to articulate.

Listen on Youtube