I’ve gone over my favourite albums of 2018, and now it’s time to discuss my favourite individual songs. In order to ensure variety, I’ve limited myself to one song per artist. Don’t think of this as my top 40; think of this as a snapshot of my musical tastes in 2018. More
40 Songs I Liked in 2018
January 13, 2019
Music Age Factory, American Football, Amp Live, Chvrches, Citizen, Coheed and Cambria, Cursive, Dabda, Dawes, Del the Funky Homosapien, Etsuko Yakushimaru, Ex:Re, Florence + the Machine, Foxing, Genie High, Hopesfall, James Melo, JinSoul, Kimbra, lical, Ling tosite sigure, LOONA, Lord Huron, Manchester Orchestra, Metric, mewithoutYou, Mondo Grosso, Mr. Micro, Olivia Hye, oso oso, Our Lady Peace, Pianos Become the Teeth, Say Sue Me, Scandal, Shad, Skating Polly, Soccer Mommy, Split End, Suspended 4th, Teenage Wrist, The Blue Stones, The Wonder Years, Tilian, Tokyo Police Club, Varsity, Wednesday Campanella, Yours Truly Leave a comment
My Favourite Albums of 2018
December 31, 2018
Music Amp Live, Coheed and Cambria, Cursive, Del the Funky Homosapien, Ex:Re, Foxing, Hopesfall, Kimbra, Lord Huron, Mastersystem, mewithoutYou, Mondo Grosso, Pianos Become the Teeth, Scandal, Shad, Skating Polly, Soccer Mommy, Teenage Wrist, The Sidekicks, The Wonder Years, We Were Promised Jetpacks 1 Comment
In many ways, 2018 was a year of surprises. Previously reliable artists like Beach House and Kanye West released bafflingly mediocre albums, and previously mediocre artists like Joyce Manor and The 1975 released career-best work. These patterns are reflected in my top 20 list of albums released in 2018. It’s not as diverse a list as in years past – there’s more of an emphasis on rock music than usual – but it’s one of the most satisfying lists I’ve had in a while. Without further ado, let’s dive in. More
My Favourite Albums of 2015
December 24, 2015
Music Braids, City and Colour, Florence + the Machine, Foals, Foxing, Grimes, I the Mighty, Marriages, Natalie Prass, Pet Symmetry, Runaway Brother, Silversun Pickups, Siskiyou, Stove, The Money Pit, The Wonder Years, The World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die, Toro y Moi, Torres, Vanessa Carlton 3 Comments
It’s time for my annual list of favourite albums! I listened to a lot of new albums this year – a record-breaking 125! – so I had a lot of records to choose from in narrowing down my top 20. Still, it was a pretty difficult task. I’d say that every album down to #30 or #31 on my list could be in my top 20, depending on my mood. But I had to narrow down the list to just 20 records. More
What I’ve Been Reading: May 11, 2014
May 11, 2014
Internet, Music, Super-nerdity, Television, Video Games, What I've Been Reading Chimpanzees, Citizen, Danish Geodata Agency, Denmark, Fireworks, Friends, Minecraft, Modern Baseball, Real Friends, The Wonder Years Leave a comment
You know that sound… it’s What I’ve Been Reading! More
My Favourite Albums of 2013
December 15, 2013
Music Balance and Composure, Bastille, Charli XCX, Chvrches, Coheed and Cambria, Dan the Automator, Dance Gavin Dance, Davenport Cabinet, Del the Funky Homosapien, Deltron 3030, Earth Wind & Fire, Eisley, Frightened Rabbit, HRVRD, I the Mighty, Janelle Monáe, Jimmy Eat World, Kanye West, Local Natives, Matthew Good, Moving Mountains, My Bloody Valentine, Noah and the Whale, Paramore, Pearl Jam, Power Glove, She & Him, Skylar Grey, St. Lucia, Streetlight Manifesto, The Boxer Rebellion, The Naked and Famous, The National, The Sounds, The Wonder Years, Volcano Choir 2 Comments
The end of the year is approaching, which means it’s list-making time! Huzzah!
2013 was a great year for music. I listened to a lot albums, and while I didn’t hear any stone-cold classics, I heard a lot of great ones. So many, in fact, that instead of doing a top 5, which I did last year, I’m doing a top 20. More
Album Review: The Wonder Years – The Greatest Generation
May 21, 2013
Music, Reviews The Wonder Years 2 Comments
All the people I’ve graduated with,
All have kids,
All have wives,
All have people who care if they come home at night.
Well, Jesus Christ, did I fuck up?
Sometimes, a verse in a song really stands out and speaks to me. The lyrics above are from “Passing Through a Screen Door,” the lead single off The Wonder Years’ latest record, The Greatest Generation, and not only are they an encapsulation of what the album is all about, but they’re also a scarily accurate reflection of my own feelings on life: the feeling of longing for a life that I don’t have; the feeling that life has an endgame that I’m farther than ever from reaching; the feeling that everyone around me is closer to that endgame than I am. These are feelings that the members of The Wonder Years know all too well.
Eventually, every pop-punk band has to grow up. Blink-182 did it by delving into moody electronics. Sum 41 grabbed onto melodic hardcore and metal. And New Found Glory…well, they pretended to grow up, at least. By the time The Wonder Years hit the scene, all their predecessors had already made stabs are “growing up”; merely expanding their sound wouldn’t cut it if they wanted to achieve maturity in the eyes of the music scene. After all, they already had layered guitars and a hardcore edge. So they decided to confront the topic of growing up head-on, not as teenagers heading into adulthood, but as adults adrift in a sea of people who already seemed to have it all figured out. They left the snotty pop-punk of their first two albums behind with their third release, Suburbia I’ve Given You All and Now I’m Nothing, an album that was equal parts fury and nostalgia. If The Wonder Years’ career trajectory could be mapped to the Kübler-Ross model of the five stages of grief, then the band’s first two releases would represent denial about having to grow up, and Suburbia would represent anger and bargaining – anger at having to grow up, and bargaining to reclaim their past lives.
The Greatest Generation retains some of that anger, but it’s an album full of longing and yearning, of helplessness and despair. It’s the representation of depression and acceptance, of realizing and coming to terms with the fact that you may have fucked up your life and there are no do-overs. Appropriately, it’s a more subdued affair than its predecessor – well, “subdued” is relative when it comes to pop-punk – but it’s clear that the band was less obsessed with frantic energy this time around. Songcraft was the name of the game here, and it has paid dividends. The Greatest Generation is a wonderful album (pun not intended) and proof that the band has surpassed their predecessors in both the quality and maturity of their output. More
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