From what I’ve read, 2022 is supposed to be the year that neo-traditionalism (i.e., singers trying to sound like Travis and Strait and McEntire trying to sound like Haggard and Jones and Wynette) returned to country radio while everybody showed how much they missed to the ’90s (i.e., Twain and Brooks and Brooks & Dunn.)… Continue reading 40+ Best Country Singles of 2022
Category: Singles Going Eddy
37 Best Singles of 2022
As with 2021 and 2020, a determining factor here (besides how much I liked the things) is whether I actually heard the records in question as singles — i.e., apart from an album (though lead tracks on EPs are okay), which isn’t to say I might not eventually have connected with the albums some of… Continue reading 37 Best Singles of 2022
Songs of the Days, 2008
Somehow I got paid to write these for Rolling Stone‘s website, where I’m still not sure anybody ever read them — including me, come to think of it. The Ted Leo song has the surprising distinction of being the only download in my life I’ve ever spent money on. Don’t worry, I got reimbursed. Then… Continue reading Songs of the Days, 2008
A Dozen Great 1984 Singles
All included in Rolling Stone‘s 100 Best Singles of 1984: Pop’s Greatest Year website feature, published on that year’s 30th anniversary. Not a bad year for albums either, as I recall. Bryan Adams, “Run To You” Former glam-rocker/future schlockmeister from Canada, at his commercial and creative peak, borrows hard-popping six-string jangle from the Byrds via… Continue reading A Dozen Great 1984 Singles
Videos I’ve Loved Before
I didn’t notice until today, but last week Alfred Soto posted a list of his favorite music videos ever, after participating in an I Love Music poll calculating the top picks of lots of other folks. Realized I’ve never put together such a list, and I’m not sure how feasible it would be — my… Continue reading Videos I’ve Loved Before
8 Indie 45s From the ’00s
Written in retrospective hindsight, as explained in more detail here. Cococoma “6 ¼ – 125”/”Take My Time” (2006) Recorded December 2005 in their hometown Chicago, so my release-year guess can’t be too far off. Either way, this speedy, muffled nugget is the sort of revisionist garage punk that genre addicts pretend rocks harder than it does… Continue reading 8 Indie 45s From the ’00s
Two Salt-N-Pepa singles, 1988
Have been wanting to post this for quite a while now, but my hard copy is too blurry to be legible. Now that the Boston Phoenix archives are on line, though — problem solved! I hope. As for Salt-N-Pepa, one single I write about here became their first pop hit — and, let’s be honest,… Continue reading Two Salt-N-Pepa singles, 1988
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… Continue reading 35 Best Singles of 2021
3 Broklyn Beats 45s
From a column called “Singles Again” (explained here), obscure little vinyl records picked off my shelf and decoded, with years of hindsight. Broklyn Beast: “March of The Oil Barons”/”The Vampire Strikes Back” (2002) Clearly there’s a concept of historical importance here, not to mention a craft project: The label – featuring a photo of George W.… Continue reading 3 Broklyn Beats 45s
4 Indie 45s From the ’90s
Excerpts from a short-lived monthly column called “Singles Again” (should’ve been “Singles Again Again,” since I’d previously used the same title at the Village Voice) in the online magazine Blurt (after two installments on the Idolator website) in which I started to comb alphabetically (as you can see, I didn’t get very far) through my… Continue reading 4 Indie 45s From the ’90s