It’s been nearly six months since I last did an installment of the Decades series. That one covered the year 1985, and offered up a host of excellent albums.
Starting today, I’ll jump ahead ten years to 1995 and see if the output was as strong. That’s the year I turned 23, and I was pretty good about seeking out new music. So even though I consider the 90s a rather weak music decade overall, I didn’t have much trouble coming up with a list of 1995 albums I enjoy.
Throwing back to the week of May 19, 1984, we find Lionel Richie’s cheesy ballad ‘Hello,’ which topped the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks.
This was the second song from the hit album Can’t Slow Down to reach the top spot, following ‘All Night Long (All Night).’ The album’s three other singles all reached the top ten, on the way to making this one of the top-selling albums of the 80s.
After a Taylor Swift detour we’re back to Throwback Weekends, and this is a fun one. The week of May 18, 1974, saw country/pop artist Ray Stevens atop the Billboard Hot 100 with his novelty song ‘The Streak.’
Written in response to the rise in streaking at public events, the song finds Stevens portraying both a TV reporter and the main witness to streakers at a supermarket, a gas station, and a basketball game.
Continuing the tracklist of my version of Taylor Swift’s latest album…
Taylor Swift’s Asylum
Track #12: ‘Robin’
Even at a heavily abridged 12 songs, Asylum has been a tumultuous journey through the whirlwind of Taylor Swift’s romantic and professional life. I thought it was fitting to end this maelstrom with a lullaby.
‘Robin’ is aimed at a child who is innocently unaware of the “cruel and the mean” world awaiting him, and while it was written for Aaron Dessner’s son, I can’t help but feel it is also aimed at a younger version of Taylor herself.
Continuing the tracklist of my version of Taylor Swift’s latest album…
Taylor Swift’s Asylum
Track #11: ‘I Can Do It With a Broken Heart’
As we near the close of my Taylor Swift album, I wanted to include something lacking from most of The Tortured Poets Department — a bop.
‘I Can Do It With a Broken Heart’ is at once the saddest and most upbeat song on the album. Swift confesses to living through the most triumphant span of her career — the Eras Tour — while suffering personal turmoil.
Meet Me In Montauk 