Best Albums of 2022 So Far

(A list in perpetual flux, I hope it goes without saying — expect a few additions, maybe some subtractions and plenty of transpositions. I include a couple very-late-in-2021 titles, though release dates in the streaming age can sometimes be amorphous. 2022 Product reports here; I’ve reconsidered some scores. And clearly, the below tally could go…

Creem, Recurdled

Well what do you know, Creem is back! Again. Good luck to them, but I’m not sure I’ll think they’re “doing it right” until they offer me a regular column. This week’s cover-story-lengthed Detroit Metro Times piece touches on the obsolete “rockn’roll magazine” objections I’m already hearing (Jann “Uhelszki adds that while it will feature…

Things I Said on March 28

2012: Apparent horrifying dead-ant infestation across certain sections of the upstairs carpet fortunately turns out to be tiny, uniformly segmented pieces of Navy blue corduroy, from Lalena trimming her pants. Still don’t get how some of the bits crawled all the way out to the hallway, though. 2014: Just collected and froze a whole cup…

Red Pandas Get Their Moment

I very much enjoyed the cartoon panda movie, give or take maybe one just barely over-long and overblown chase scene. So did my 13-year-old daughter, which probably matters more, given the plot. Turning Red, it seems to me, is New Wave to Pen15‘s Punk Rock. Not a criticism — I like New Wave. As of…

Pazz & Jop Product Reports, 2022

A post in progress, for however many months are left. See also (and for explanation and/or comparison): 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021. PAZZ & JOP PRODUCT REPORT – early February 2022 YEA: Chrome: Scaropy (Cleopatra ’21) 7; Michael Beach: Dream Violence (Goner/Poison City ’21) 5; Divine Horsemen: Hot Rise of an Ice Cream Phoenix (In…

What’s an Album?

Just noticed Megan Thee Stallion is suing her label over the definition of an album, which I find fascinating since I’ve had arguments with people for decades over the definition of an album. I always stubbornly went with the old Village Voice Pazz & Jop poll rule (album = 3 or more songs adding up…

35 Best Singles of 2021

I tend to live in my own bubble, if not on my own planet, when it comes to singles these days. Well, maybe I always did (you might be saying), but at least I used to not go through entire years without writing about any of them, or really talking to anybody about them at…

Pazz & Jop Product Reports, 2021

Frank Kogan recently emailed out a tentative 2021 top not-yet-10 album list for something initiated on facebook called the Pazz & Jop Ripoff Poll (which election I had voted in myself and actually told him about — his eventual final ballot is here); he wrote that “I’d probably give these B-PLUSes in the Christgau rating…

Nashville Scene Country Critics Poll Ballots, 2003 – 2020

Decided to put these all in one place — One-stop shopping, doncha know. Not sure when the poll started or when I was first invited to vote, but my 2003 ballot is the earliest I’ve been able to find so far. Can’t say I still entirely agree with all of these, especially the further back…

33 Best Singles of 2020

It’s not so much that singles are an afterthought for me these days as that they’re very much a side dish. I haven’t reviewed them in a regular column, or contributed to The Singles Jukebox, in ages. And unlike with my friends Frank Kogan (who keeps a running tally on his blog through the year)…