When this track from Garbage’s 1985 debut popped up as today’s Random iTunes Selection, I was positive I’d featured it on the blog before. I almost skipped to the next track without checking.
Turns out I was half right. I did feature the song, but not the studio version. Rather, I blogged about the live MTV Video Awards performance during a week on singers I find sexy. Having watched that performance again just now, I can confirm that I still find Shirley Manson sexy.
2014 was the year I suddenly understood Lana Del Rey. I had observed her from afar, largely through the prism of controversy (the ridiculed SNL performance, attacks over her “invented” persona), but I’d never taken the time to listen to her music.
When her new album, Ultraviolence, was released to lavish critical acclaim, I figured it was time to dive in. And what I discovered — both on that record and her debut, Born to Die — is a complex, challenging performer with razor-sharp artistic instincts.
I’d never heard of Sia before discovering the provocative video for ‘Chandelier,’ in which 12-year-old dancer Maddie Ziegler performs an avant garde routine wearing a flesh-colored leotard.
Some called the video a pedophile’s dream come true, but most people were just impressed by the kid’s dance moves.
Hozier is the second artist, and ‘Take Me to Church’ the second song, to arrive on this list courtesy of The Voice.
This compelling song was performed by Matt McAndrew, the contestant who should have won but came in second to country he-man Craig Wayne Boyd.
It’s probably some sort of commentary on American culture that the guy who sang this dark indictment of religion lost to the guy who sang ‘The Old Rugged Cross.’
Two songs in my top ten found me not through the Billboard charts but another mainstream musical source — The Voice.
Vance Joy’s ‘Riptide’ had enjoyed moderate success since its release on an EP but a performance by Team Gwen on the popular vocal competition brought it wide exposure.
