Today is my birthday, and because it falls on a weekend, the Random iTunes Fairy gets the chance to serve me up something appropriate, ironic, bizarre or boring to mark the occasion.
Let’s spin the dial and see what song sums me up as I turn 47…
Well, Bruce Hornsby’s ‘Look Out Any Window’ doesn’t have much meaning to me personally, but it’s a great song about the state of the world, and one just as relevant today as when it was released in 1988.
Eleven years ago, I ranked R.E.M.’s albums and placed 1986’s Lifes Rich Pageant at #3. I have some quibbles about that list and would likely shuffle some titles were I to revisit it today, but I stand by the placement of this album.
Pageant was the album where R.E.M. started the transition from the alternative to the mainstream. It’s more polished and muscular than its predecessors, but not as radio-friendly as what was to come. It sits nicely in that sweet spot.
My #11 album of the 2010s is the only one on this list that I didn’t hear when it first came out. Jason Isbell’s Here We Rest eluded me for six years.
I discovered Isbell after reading year-end praise of his 2017 album The Nashville Sound (recorded, like this one, with his backing band The 400 Unit). The excellence of that album prompted me to download the rest of his catalog.
Today’s selection is a great example of how opinions change over time. Back in late 2014, I ranked Beck’s Morning Phase as my #13 album of the decade so far.
Now, five years later, I have it at #12 on my whole-decade list. And a few of the albums I ranked above it back then aren’t on this list at all.
The best pure pop album of the decade came from Carly Rae Jepsen, who two years earlier seemed like the ultimate one-hit wonder following the runaway success of her track ‘Call Me Maybe.’
E*MO*TION proved that Jepsen definitely had the chops as a songwriter and performer to transcend that early spike, even as the album tragically failed to find much of an audience.
Meet Me In Montauk 