When Lil Nas X set a record by placing 2018’s ‘Old Town Road’ atop the Billboard Hot 100 for 19 consecutive weeks, many people (myself included) figured he was the very definition of a one-hit wonder.
A few years later, I’m happy to have been proven so wrong, as he has churned out one hit banger after another, all in advance of a debut album that doesn’t even have a release date yet.
I’ve been underwhelmed by the new songs Billie Eilish has released from her sophomore album Happier Than Ever (which was released a few days ago as you’re reading this post, but a week after I’m writing it).
Following my lukewarm reaction to her Grammy-sweeping smash When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?, I figured maybe her 2017 debut EP Don’t Smile At Me was an exception and she just isn’t my cup of tea.
Speaking of bands that could use the deep dive treatment… The Kinks surely qualify. I know very little of their work, but I’m a big fan of pretty much everything I’ve heard.
With 24 albums over 30 years, an exhaustive deep dive would be quite an endeavor. But maybe a sampling of the five to ten albums considered their best is in order.
It’s been four years since I last featured a Spoon song on the blog, and back then I wrote that they are “one of those bands whose work I always love when I play it, but whose music I seldom play.”
I found myself thinking the very same thing when today’s random song popped into my headphones. This is a great track from a great album (2007’s Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, the band’s sixth), but one I haven’t listened to in years.
Counting down my favorite songs from the new John Mayer album, Sob Rock…
#1. ‘Wild Blue’
My favorite song on Sob Rock by a country mile, ‘Wild Blue’ is also one of the best tracks Mayer has ever recorded, period.
Mayer touches on a bunch of early 80s influences on this album, and on this song it’s Dire Straits’ turn. Somewhere Mark Knopfler is doffing his cap to acknowledge the fabulous groove and sublime guitar work on ‘Wild Blue.’
Meet Me In Montauk 