Year In Music: 2019

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 4^th 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!