More Anat Cohen! This time her Claroscuro album, which my mom sent me after hearing about Cohen on NPR. (I’d guess this was this story she heard.) My mom does this from time to time — she’ll hear about something on the radio and a few days later, without a word, a CD will be waiting on my doorstep. How cool is that?
This soundtrack, y’all. So much nostalgia. While there are songs I’m tempted to skip over (hard to abide by a lyric like “Like a fully clothed ho at the peep show”), there are some serious classics: “Dammit,” “It’s Tricky,” “Flashlight,” “Paradise City,” Missy, Busta… This movie hit at just the right time — the summer before I started high school — so the plot and characters seemed serious, way less cartoonish than they do now. I can’t tell you how influential the whole “Nice guys don’t always finish last” message was, both for good and ill. The plot line I should have been paying attention to was Seth Green’s — learning to be true to myself would have prevented some equally horrible fashion choices.
File this one under “Albums I liked but didn’t spend enough time with.” I do listen to “Colombia “frequently, but I’ve lost touch with the rest of Local Natives’ Hummingbird. Gonna fix that this week.
My dad gave me this CD after getting back from a trip to New Orleans. An academic conference I believe. I never really thought about the inscription — how it’s addressed to Bill (my dad) and not David (me).
In what is already or is now becoming a yearly tradition, I’d like to nervously post about an album I’d really like to get on Record Store Day but secretly want to say nothing about on the off chance that someone in front of me in line at BK Music will see this, get excited about what I’m excited about and grab the last copy seconds before I can…
[takes a deep breath]
I have a FOMO problem. Me and Record Store Day were made for one another.
Finally saw Whiplash on Sunday night. I had the house to myself after doing an early-ish Easter dinner with Mrs. YHT’s family in northern Virginia, and I’d been meaning to watch the thing for ages, but this scathing piece by Sound Opinions host Jim DeRogatis was getting in the way. This wasn’t a Bob Dylan situation — you either love his voice or you hate it — DeRogatis’ thoughts punctured an acclaim bubble that had gotten huge, at least in terms of what I’d read and heard, and it complicated the idea of watching Whiplash. Should I consider this a guilty pleasure? Am I buying into something harmful?
Now that I’ve watched it, I believe the answers to those questions to be no and no, though I wasn’t so sure when Mrs. YHT called from her parents’ house to chat when I was about a third of the way through. Had the film continued on what seemed to be its likely trajectory — teacher yells, some students cower, this one steps up — I would have felt differently. And from a super zoomed-out perspective, that kind of is what happens, but it’s what happens along the way that keeps Whiplash from being exploitative or clichéd.
[Editor’s Note: Don’t want the movie’s plot spoiled? Stop reading now. And don’t listen to the song embedded at the bottom of this post.]
Fun fact: When you wait until December 31 to finish your top 10 albums of the year post, your top 10 albums of the year post becomes, by default, your New Year’s Eve post! Before getting to the list, I just want to thank everyone who takes the time to read this blog, whether it’s once a week, once a month, or just this once. It’s such a gift thinking/knowing/believing that there are people out there who share your enthusiasms, and to everyone who left comments, retweeted links, reblogged posts, did guest posts, invited me to do guests posts, or interacted with YHT in any other way, thank you for being such awesome Internet buds.
Now for the 10 albums that meant the most to me in 2014:
A few days ago, I saw yet another malcontented article about how 2014 wasn’t a great year for music, and how there were “good” albums but no “great” albums. I can’t remember where I saw it, and I’m not going to bother trying to find a link, because it’s crap. I’ll give you three reasons why:
That last one warrants its own list, so here are 10 reasons we should join Tina Belcher in raising a glass and toasting RVA music’s 2014. Consider it an alphabetically ordered top 10 that doubles as a drinking game.
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Reason We Should Raise Our Glasses: Because Avers shows how, in a tightly knit community full of talented people, the lineup possibilities are endless and endlessly rewarding.
Avers — “The Only One” [Spotify/iTunes]
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Reason We Should Raise Our Glasses: Because the snuff rock sound took a giant leap in terms of realization and articulation.
Black Girls — “Buyin’ Time” [Spotify/iTunes]
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Reason We Should Raise Our Glasses: Because truly groovy music — songs that find a pocket, set up shop and explore all the space it has to offer — can be enjoyed over and over, and in any situation.
Butcher Brown (ft. Nicholas Payton) — “Jellowstone Room” [Spotify/iTunes]
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Reason We Should Raise Our Glasses: Because you don’t have to choose between intensity and danceability.
Dead Fame — “Joan Crawford” [Spotify/iTunes]
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Reason We Should Raise Our Glasses: Because the cycle of creation and destruction is a powerful thing to witness.
Everyone Dies in the End — “We Bears Are A Proud Race” [Spotify/iTunes]
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Reason We Should Raise Our Glasses: Because the chorus of “Junior” feels like an invitation — the kind of singalong that makes you feel like a part of something.
Lightfields — “Junior” [Spotify/iTunes]
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Reason We Should Raise Our Glasses: Because every track being dynamite and not being able to pick a favorite is a wonderful problem to have.
Sleepwalkers — “Breaking My Heart” [Spotify/iTunes]
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Reason We Should Raise Our Glasses: Because Sundials’ Kick EP packed a full-length album’s punch into six tightly crafted songs that can be enjoyed over and over without losing an ounce of their emotional impact.
Sundials — “Gained A Grip” [Spotify/iTunes]
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Reason We Should Raise Our Glasses: Because the roomy, thoughtful mastery of Pookie’s March tells us that Jellowstone’s success will be varied and fun to follow.
Trio of Justice — “Motherland” [Spotify/iTunes]
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Reason We Should Raise Our Glasses: Because the word is getting out about White Laces, so Richmonders and non-Richmonders alike can cozy up to the many-splendored warmth of TRANCE.
White Laces — “Nothing Clicks” [Soundcloud]
I’ve never done a top-10 songs post, and I doubt I ever will. Too much like herding cats. I can’t imagine doing it without breaking down at the very last minute when I remember a song I left out and my carefully constructed scaffold of reasoning collapses under its own weight and shoddy construction.
Also it would take forever. No thx.
HOWEVER, I decided to do a Best 1 Song of the Year post this year, because there’s a song that made me want to do it. In fact, I knew somewhere around the second or third time I heard Dale Earnhardt Jr Jr’s “James Dean” that I’d be writing this. Around that time, I decided it was one of the best songs I’d heard in the last few years. 5, 10, who knows. I tend not to think in those terms — again, too many songs to wrangle — but something about “James Dean” made me.
You Hear That 