I won’t spend too many words introducing this list — I’ve already explained my taste and methodology several times on my previous year-end lists, dating back to 2021. The overarching themes here are shoegaze, hyperpop, ambient, electronic, and psychedelia, as usual; with a big helping of skewed folk and country this time around. This was … Continue reading A reasonably timely list of the best albums of 2024
A thing about me is that I love Christmas, but for the most part I hate Christmas music. I realize this may sound strange. Trust me, I really do go nuts for the holiday season — lights, decorations, baking, holiday movies, Santa hats, showering my 10-year-old with gifts, the whole nine. But the music isn’t … Continue reading The only 5 Christmas albums I can stand
In case you’ve been exploring the outer moons of Neptune and missed the news, Britpop icons and perennial bad boys Oasis have reformed and are set to embark on a massive, ridiculously hyped, and highly lucrative world tour in 2025. Here are a bunch of reasons why you won’t find me queuing up for tickets. … Continue reading 30 years of hating Oasis
It was inevitable that I would end up writing about Charli XCX’s Brat — without question not only the album of the year but the pop-culture event of the year. But the crazy thing is how the nature of this essay changed so dramatically several times in the course of just a few days, from … Continue reading The spectacular rise and depressing demise of Charli XCX’s Brat Summer
If there were any justice in the world, All Over the Place would be widely considered one of the greatest debut albums of all time. A bright blast of jangly power pop and psychedelic garage rock marked by euphoric tunes, shimmering harmonies, and delightfully cynical lyrics about creeps and bad boyfriends, the Bangles’ first full-length … Continue reading Revisiting All Over the Place, the Bangles’ criminally underrated 1984 debut LP
I published the first of my year-end best-albums lists in early March of 2022, and sheepishly titled it “A belated list.” The next one was a little less late, landing in late February, and so that one was “A (somewhat less) belated list.” Well, the third edition is later than ever. It’s mid-March, 2023 has … Continue reading A belated (as usual) list of the best albums of 2023
This essay is divided into two sections: an introduction, with a brief overview of the album’s history and a defense of its greatness; followed by a longer (and quite obsessive) track-by-track breakdown of all 13 songs. Just so what you know what you’re getting into going in. And by the way, if you like the … Continue reading The greatness of Everything, the Bangles’ melancholy, masterful breakup album
Wednesday’s fifth album, Rat Saw God, contains an unreasonable amount of awesomeness. The Asheville, North Carolina quintet does so many things so well on their breakout LP it’s almost not fair. I’ve heard their sound referred to as “country shoegaze” or “if Sonic Youth were from the South,” and those are apt descriptions. They play … Continue reading Wednesday’s Rat Saw God: Southern Gothic country shoegaze played with exhilarating intensity
Quick note about the music in this post: I have several classic rave tracks and mixtapes from the 1992–94 era embedded throughout, and others linked in the text. I also made a Spotify playlist of the records I played in that era, embedded at the bottom of this article, but here’s the link if you … Continue reading On the 30th anniversary of my marginal DJ career
I learned of Sinéad O’Connor’s death at four in the morning here in Sydney, in the midst of a bout of insomnia, a common occurrence for me. It struck me like a blow, knocking the wind out of me. I scrolled in shock through the headlines and posts for a bit, then sat on the … Continue reading “Remember what I told you”: Sinéad O’Connor’s incomparable life of rebellion
Under the Paving Stones 