This has
been a weird year for my music listening habits. For a vey long time, my primary way of
listening to new music has mostly been playing new CDs in the car on the drive
to work and listening to the more cutting edge and modern leaning channels on Sirius
satellite radio when I didn’t have any new CDs to play.
I also would
listen to terrestrial radio or Sirius at work but the stations played there
were safe ones with older music, like 70’s and 80’s commercial radio songs or
Adult Contemporary and classic rock channels,
since I didn’t want to have customers hear vulgarity or sexual innuendo
and report me to someone. That meant
every day at work I would hear the same particular songs. For instance, when Adele’s last album was
out, I would hear “Hello” twice a day.
Taylor Swift’s “1989” album meant I heard “Shake It Off” and “Blank
Space” repeatedly. Even on Sirius, I was
guaranteed to hear Climax Blues Band’s “Couldn’t Get It Right” and Redbone’s
“Come And Get My Love” once a day when playing the 70’s channel.
Even though
I love those songs, I want to hear new songs more than the older stuff. I don’t want to have a finite, unchanging
playlist of songs because after a while, the songs will become just background
music that I don’t pay attention to. I
want to hear favorites just often enough that I remember what I love about them
and what special meaning they hold for me.
When I hear Rod Stewart’s “You’re In My Heart (Final Acclaim)”, I want
to remember being a 12-year old in Chester while crushing on Paige and sending
her secret candlelight messages then years later, in college, talking to Amy
about Rod Stewart music. I want to
remember dancing with Julie to Journey’s “Open Arms” at 4-H camp and how I get
maudlin whenever I hear songs from that summer, especially the ones with
yearning lyrics, like Naked Eyes’ “Always Something There To Remind Me” and
Flock Of Seagulls’ “Wishing (If I Had A Photograph Of You)”.
I want to consciously
think about me and my co-workers at the Waxie Maxie’s music store arguing about
who got the promo CD from Daisy Chainsaw, what was the best song on Nine Inch
Nails “Pretty Hate Machine”, and how we would divide up the John Cougar
Mellencamp CD catalog we got for winning Polygram’s Mellencamp display contest.
(I got the ones with “Cherry Bomb” and “Crumblin’
Down” on them, I didn’t get the one with “I Need A Lover” and I didn’t care who
got the “American Fool” album.) I want
to hear ZZ Top’s “Sleeping Bag” and recall how awesome it sounded in the movie
theater, blasting from the speakers while watching a skating scene in the
hilarious and touching “I, Tonya”.
I need new
music because I don’t want to obliterate that music-memory connection through
overuse. I want to create new memories,
hear new songs, and keep expanding my horizons. So that is what the drive to
and from work is all about- time to hear new stuff when I’m not distracted by
anything else and I can just listen and absorb the songs. That’s why this year is weird. For several months I wasn’t working (a story
for another day) so I had no drive-time and I have no practical way to play CDs
at home. Then in April, my car’s CD
player refused to accept any CDs. I would
put them in, it would split them back out.
For two weeks I kept hoping it was a fluke that would suddenly disappear
but it didn’t. I finally gave up hope of
playing CDs anymore and I started listening to Sirius instead because I didn’t
want to lay out any cash for a new stereo system since I wasn’t working right
then.
This
continued for about three months and I did enjoy what I heard. I discovered some new artists and songs and
bought their stuff but radio, even streaming radio, is a bit different than
playing things on demand. If I hear a
new artist and buy their CD, I want to be able to play that CD. If I hear a familiar song and listen to it, I
want to be able to select more things by that artist. When Billy Joel comes on the radio, I almost
always skip the song even though he is one of my all-time favorite
artists. It’s that memory-music
connection. I want to think about
belting out the lyrics to “All For Leyna” in my bedroom during high school or
being in college with other Billy Joel fans, or wondering how on earth Joel
would be able to sing “We Didn’t Start The Fire” if his teleprompter ever gave
out during a concert. And let’s not
forget the recurring argument with Adam over whether “We Didn’t Start The Fire”
was or was not a rip-off of REM’s “It’s The End Of The World”. (It’s not.
In fact, if you listen to Reunion’s “Life Is A Rock But The Radio Rolled
Me” you might argue they both ripped off that song.) So, when a Billy Joel song comes on, I skip it
unless I’m in the mood to delve into that memory which will likely involve then
playing the whole album that the song is on.
Which I can’t do because the CD player doesn’t work anymore. Yeah, I can hear you sarcastically thinking
“Why don’t you stream it, numbskull?”
Well, because 2008. Obviously.
My car is a
2008. It has a factory installed radio
and it is not setup for inputs for streaming.
It doesn’t have Blue Tooth and there is no USB input port so I have no
way of getting things from my phone to the car’s radio. Nor do I want to listen to my phone’s little
speakers instead of my car’s more immersive speakers. I can’t stream on-demand options like
Spotify, Amazon Music, or my phone’s library and yeah, it was getting to
me. I wanted to control my music
experience so it was time to get a working car stereo system again. Care to guess if that was an easy process?
You win the
prize if you said it would be a tortuous, expensive, ridiculous process. My first thought was to contact an
electronics store for some options, so I called Best Buy and asked if they did
repairs for car stereo systems. They did
not- just new installations. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to get a new system from
them because when they installed my
first Sirius system in a different car, they brute-forced the installation,
like a surgeon opening up a patient and then closing him back up with duct tape
and staples, so I was hesitant to go with them again. I couldn’t think of other places to go either
– Circuit City was long gone and local businesses would likely cost much more
so I called the car dealership. They
said they don’t do repairs but they could install a new radio for me. It would be an exact replacement of the existing
radio though. They don’t put new model radios in the older cars. So essentially, I would be getting the same
radio I had before. No new bells and
whistles like streaming services or USB inputs but it would be something
familiar that I was okay with before.
Then came
the cost estimate. He could get me a
“new” replacement radio for $700 dollars.
Yikes! Plus, of course, another
$300 for the installation. Wait- that
$700 dollar quote doesn’t include the installation? Even though we were talking by phone, I think
the service tech could imagine the double-take I was doing. Either that or he knew it was a ludicrous
price. He waited a beat and then said he
could also get a refurbished radio. He
would have to get a quote and call me back the next day. That quoted ended up being for $350. Plus $300 installation. So again, I’m looking at a price in the
neighborhood of $700 for an old model refurbished radio for a 2008 car. I don’t even know if the car itself was worth
that much! Or how much longer the car
would keep running. I would hate to sink
$700 into an out-of-date stereo system in a 12-year old car that might need to
be replaced in a couple of years.
So I went
back to Best Buy, looked at some systems in store and online because they had
free installation with the purchase of a car stereo system. Also, it was getting close to July 4th
so I figured there might be some sales around then. I favorited a few systems on the Best Buy
account I created, ones that had the newer bells and whistles, like streaming
radio, GPS capability, iPhone integration, USB inputs, and most importantly a
CD player. You might not realize it but
some systems have started to exclude CD players.
Now I just
need to wait for a sale to happen so I could buy a radio. I went to visit some friends out of town for
the holiday, at their place in central Virginia. Once there and after multiple attempts, I
realized that my phone couldn’t get a reliable signal so I couldn’t complete a
purchase from my account. There was a hard-wired
computer I could borrow though, so I spent an hour going through the selection
and checkout process. It turns out that
one of the criteria for the free installation option was that I had a schedule
an installation appointment before completing the sale or the price wouldn’t
calculate right. So I scheduled the
appointment and then bought the system.
I went for the one that allowed iPhone integration so I could use the
apps on my phone, like the GPS program and Apple Music, so all told I spent
about $485 dollars. Pricey but
definitely less than the $650 the dealership wanted for a refurbished system
that couldn’t do anything but play CDs and play streaming and terrestrial radio
stations. Now I just had to wait three more weeks to
enjoy it all. Oh, didn’t I tell
you? The earliest appointment was three
weeks away.
When it was
time for the appointment, I drove over to the Best Buy in Tysons Corner, walked
in and went over to the customer service desk where I was then directed to go
back outside and drive around to the back of the building and check-in with the
service tech there. So I did that and
then the tech and I walked through the back of the building (which was kind fun
to check out) and over to the customer service desk, again, to pick up the
system that was waiting for me. Of course,
only two of the three items were readily available. The tech had to look around the storage area
for ten minutes to find where the third component was hiding. Then after reviewing what I had bought, he
noticed that I didn’t include a fourth component, which was needed for what I
wanted. Apparently, if a system is
satellite radio ready, that just means it is capable of streaming satellite
radio stations. It can’t actually do it
though until you get a receiver for another $50. So I did that- still cheaper than $650 for a
refurbished radio. After that,
everything went smoothly. It took about
an hour and a half but I was sitting on a sofa reading my current book club
book and occasionally chatting with the tech so I didn’t mind at all. When it was done, the car looked good- no Frankenstein
surgery. The tech showed me how to
operate the various features, I thanked him and then drove off happily in
possession of a functional, modern car stereo system with a working CD player!
You would
think that I played CDs non-stop for the rest of the summer but no. I did play some, naturally, since I had a
backlog of purchases. Even though I
could not play them prior to the new system, I still bought things I wanted. I played those but also jumped
whole-heartedly into on-demand streaming services, I was checking out Amazon
Music, and especially Spotify. I churned
through all the new releases I was considering buying plus every whim I
had. If I thought “I haven’t heard
anything from Tom Tom Club recently”, then I used Spotify to play one of their
albums. I started revisiting older
artists to listen to stuff I never paid attention to initially. I listened to early albums by 10cc, Neil
Young, Duran Duran, Tennis, and Black Keys.
That is mostly how I listened to music in 2019- pulling out old
favorites, delving into unexplored albums from well-known artists, and going
through the entire catalogs of new artists and underappreciated established
artists.
The weirdest
diversions were that I listened to the entire catalogs of AC/DC and Nancy
Sinatra. After I finished listening to
the entire Kix catalog in 2018 and the beginning of 2019, I wanted something
else in that vein and since I have never listened to any AC/DC albums back in
the day, except Back In Black and the compilation Who Made Who, I thought I’d
give them a try. I’m glad I did because
they have a bunch of other gems hiding on their albums, alongside the famous
songs everyone already knows. Yeah,
every song is about sex, either overtly or subtly (for them) but it sounds so
good. If you don’t think to closely
about the lyrics (You Shook Me All Night Long, Dirty Deeds, Flick Of the
Switch, Shot Of Love, Shake Your Foundations, et al) then you get some pretty
rocking songs to enjoy!
On the
opposite end of the spectrum was my new-found appreciation for Nancy
Sinatra. Most people know her for three
things- the hit song “These Boots Are Made For Walking”, the # 1 duet single with
her father Frank – “Something Stupid” - and for those iconic album covers with
her in a mini dress, long legs emerging from thigh-high boots, and a dazzling
smile matched by platinum blonde hair. I
knew her for a fourth thing though, the James Bond theme “You Only Live Twice”
which was a favorite Bond song of mine as a kid. Well, at some point this year I heard one of
her songs (“Tony Rome”) on the Little Steven’s Underground Garage channel on
Sirius XM. I had heard “Tony Rome” before
and forgotten about it but this time it struck a chord. I pulled out the best-of CD I got in college,
mainly for “These Boots Are Made For Walking” and the cover with that
oh-so-1960’s look, and I played it several times afterward along with the other
songs I hadn’t paid much attention to originally. Then I started going into her albums to see
what other gems I had overlooked. I
started with her first album and loved it- a nice swinging, cool, catchy blend
of originals and covers that combined a spirited attitude, great musicians,
entertaining lyrics, and a unique vocal style.
It seemed fresh to me because I hadn’t heard that style lately and it
took me back to the 1960’s hangover that was the 70’s, back when I was a kid in
Chester creating my core pre-teen childhood memories.
I kept going
until eventually I had gone through some 15 or more albums. I saw how the passage of time and trends
influenced her work and how the right collaborators make all the
difference. The Lee Hazelwood joint
ventures are creative, clever, bizarre, and engaging high marks. Various songs work for various reasons- it
might be a guitar lick on one (“99 Miles From LA”), a vocal technique on
another (“I’m Just In Love”), an attitude and song structure (“Lightning’s
Girl”) or all of them combined (“Tony Rome”).
I’m so bummed that most of her work is out of print, particularly the
fantastic “Nancy In London”, because I would have bought all of her earlier
stuff on CD. Instead, I plucked out my
favorite songs from those albums and created my own ultimate compilation by
buying the MP3 versions, much like I had done with AC/DC. I did this all year with established artists
and complete unknowns. This is how I
came up with my monthly mix CDs for each month and then I eventually boiled those
down to the two yearly CDs you hold in your hands. Either happily or unfortunately, depending on
your musical preferences, as a result you will see two AC/DC songs and quite a
few Nancy Sinatra songs. It is possible
these songs are well-known to you but I’m hoping most will be new to you and
you also end liking them as well.
As for the other songs here, some were
stumbled across by accident. For
example, I was watching television one weekend and while flipping channels I
came across a college football game half-time show. I didn’t recognize the band but I liked the
song they were playing so I identified it by using Shazam, then I found the
band (the Beaches) on Spotify, and on while driving to work at a new job, I
listened to the album with that song and then kept going after that until I had listened to their
whole catalog. Last year, I had enjoyed
a Grace VanderWaal song so now I also polished off everything she had done,
which is much easier with newer artists like her and The Beaches who only have
a couple of albums and some EPs or singles. I couldn’t decide which of the two Vanderwaal
songs was best - on one, I love the vocals and on the other I like the mood and
lyrics- so they are both included here.
A friend of
mine writes cozy mysteries and she recently delved into a space-themed cozy
mystery. On her blog she discussed some
of her influences and when I was looking up some of the more obscure references,
I mistakenly came across Asteroids Galaxy Tour, which had nothing to do with
her influences but I liked the cover and later listened to the album and loved
it. The song that first hooked me is
here but I went through all of their albums later on so they will also be on
2020’s CD with another track.
Edie
Brickell is an artist I listened to in college when she was part of Edie
Brickell And The New Bohemians. Their
stuff was beguiling, quirky, catchy, and unusual. Everyone I knew in college seemed to have
that first album. After two albums she
went solo, and promptly became utterly forgettable. A dozen or so years ago, they reunited and
put out a really good album, one that was significantly better than her solo work
and maybe even better than the original two albums from the group. Then she went off and did solo work again and
also wrote a Tony-nominated Broadway show and soundtrack with Steve Martin! Then, as I occasionally do, I search names of
artists I like just in case they did something new and I don’t hear about it,
which should never happen in a recommendation-based online economy and social
media dominated world. Yet somehow two
years ago she did another album with The New Bohemians that I had not heard
about and it was really good. It made me
think back to how I felt about her stuff and what my life was like back. Then I think about what she has done since
then, and what I have done during that same time frame (She wins in terms of
accomplishments.) I put a couple of
those new songs on here so you can make your own comparisons.
Bird And The Bee is an act that consists,
basically, of a vocalist and a pianist. Other instruments do appear as well but
you won’t hear any squealing electric guitars and extended drum solos on their
material. They had done a couple of
cover songs I liked- the Bee Gee’s “How Deep Is Your Love” and a whole album of
Hall & Oates songs- so I was intrigued when I heard they were covering Van
Halen. Yes, Van Halen done by a
piano-centric duo group! It turned out
much more enjoyable than I expected and I was actually blown away by one song
in particular. It is included here-
“Running With The Devil”- so you can see how marvelously they re-create the
guitar solo on that song without using a guitar. It is a phenomenal cover version and very
appropriate as I write this because last week Eddie Van Halen passed away. It is a nice acknowledgement of his
songwriting skills that this band can make a great adult-contemporary
arrangement out of his hard rock song.
Anya Marina
is an artist that I follow out of a desire to support and foster less prominent
artists. She has had some success but
does not make tons of money or have a big publicity machine behind her. She had
placed songs on many television shows such as Grey's Anatomy, How I Met Your
Mother, The Real World, Castle, United States of Tara, Gossip Girl, Batwoman,
The Vampire Diaries, and Supernatural. She created a short web series last year
that won some local awards in New York, she has a podcast and appears on a
Sirius XM show with her former roommate, Nikki Glazer, yet you have never heard
of her. I first noticed her when she did
a wonderful collaboration EP with The Dandy Warhols and then I started
following her. She hadn’t done all those
things when I first followed her – I just liked her music. Now though I’m interested in seeing how her
musical journey unfolds, just like my reason for following Juliana Hatfield’s
career, which coincidentally is an artist Anya once toured with as an opening
act. She is an independent artist - she
puts out albums by doing Kickstarter campaigns – and I enjoy watching and
hearing her efforts. It gives me some
insights into the industry and how non-mainstream artists get by. That is also why you see a song on her from
Elizabeth & The Catapult- she did a Kickstarter that I pledged.
Regina
Spektor is here with a song from the movie “Bombshell”, about the recent
revelations surrounding Roger Ailes and Fox News. It worked so well as an end credit song –
haunting, lacerating, insightful- that I ended up buying it. Whenever I play it, I think of that movie that
I saw with Mike, Holly and Delta. They
all had varying opinions of the movie but mine is that it was unfairly
neglected and an excellent statement about sexism and harassment in the
workplace. The initially understated,
then defiant and savage song perfectly matches the themes the movie wanted to
highlight.
Everyone has
heard of the Monkees. They have many
well-known and excellent songs, usually written by other famous names like Neil
Diamond, Carol King, and Harry Nilsson. Whenever
I hear them now, it reminds me Val, a fellow passenger on a river cruise in
Germany, because she said one of her exes loved the Monkees. I told her I liked them too and she clarified
“No, he really loved them, like was obsessed with them.” I found that hard to believe- they are a
decent band with several good songs but they are not the Beatles. Then again, every band is someone’s favorite
band despite rational thinking. Recently
I happened to hear one of their songs (“She”) on the radio and for some reason,
a bit out of character for me, I was listening closely to the lyrics. I was so tickled by the phrase “And now I
know just why she, Keeps me hanging 'round, (Hanging 'round). She needs someone to walk on, So her feet
don't touch the ground.” I played the
song several times in the days after hearing it and it just grew on me so now
it is here on the year-end list.
Kylie
Minogue is here because I love her so much, musically speaking. She always has a good song or two every year,
either as a stand-alone single like this duet or from her latest album, which
will be dropping in November of 2020. John
and I both liked her when she started out, 30 years ago, but I’ve been carrying
the torch ever since. This is one artist
where I am being selfish - I put her songs on the CD for me rather than for
you. No one has ever mentioned liking
one of her songs but I keep including her because I do go back periodically and
listen to my compilations and I want to hear her efforts from that particular
year. It reminds me of what was
happening then.
The rest of
the songs represented here are from artists I like and listen to and always get
their new stuff, regardless of reviews.
They range from somewhat recent favorites like Selena Gomez (but only
the dance tracks), Boy And Bear, and Metric (still waiting for their
masterpiece album) to longer term artists like the Black Keys (consistently
excellent for the last ten years), Mark Ronson (always interesting and always
experimenting), Cage The Elephant, and long standing legacy artists like Weezer
(usually good but I always like discussing the albums with Elizabeth), Sheryl
Crow, Jayhawks (I do sometimes like mellower country-leaning stuff), Pixies
(I’m hooked for life), Berlin (also hooked for life but please, no more live
albums), Funkadelic, and Prince (I waiver between thinking he is an unparalleled
genius and an annoying egotist). As I
said when I started, I like to listen to things that can make new memories and
that I can associate with certain events or feelings. I’ve talked about these connections, like
driving in to work at a new job with a new car stereo while listening to a new
band, watching a movie end-credit sequence with friends, revisiting old
favorites and thinking about what has gone on since I first heard them, and
watching the career path an artist takes and celebrating and commiserating
vicariously with them.
That was my
2019 musically. I hope you enjoyed
hearing about how I came to experience these songs and that you find a new
favorite or two among them. Please let
me know if anything resonates with you. Or if you hate AC/DC and are mad at me
for putting two of their songs on here! Music
is extremely subjective. What I hate, others love and vice versa. I dig Nancy Sinatra and couldn’t care less
for Frank Sinatra. My friend Elizabeth
thinks she is a terrible singer and will hate all the coverage I am giving
her. Some of you might not be as
enthralled with The Jayhawks or Cage The Elephant as I am and there is nothing
wrong with that and I would be surprised if we responded the same to everything
so feel free to give ME some recommendations.
Streaming services make recommendations almost cost-free and certainly
risk free and I now have the drive time to devote to listening and a brand new stereo to do it with. You never know
where you will find a great song!
