After a couple of disappointments by favorite artists, here’s an album by another favorite that met my high expectations.
As it happens, just about all of my favorite albums this year have been by women, with Aimee Mann’s Mental Illness vying for the top spot. Of course, when she promised her “saddest, slowest, most acoustic” album yet, I was destined to love it.
The Shins 2012 album Port of Morrow is one of my very favorites. In fact, I named it the best album of the 00’s so far back in 2014, and I don’t know if anything has dethroned it. There’s a list I’ll have to revisit next year.
Following up that pop masterpiece was going to be difficult, and I regretfully report that they didn’t quite hit it out of the park with this year’s Heartworms. One big caveat: I’ve given Heartworms just a handful of listens and it’s grown on me each time, so it might still climb in my estimation. But it’s no Port of Morrow.
As I write this, I’ve bought 15 albums so far in 2017. I plan to buy at least one more (U2’s Songs of Experience) and maybe two, if Morrissey’s Low in High School is well-reviewed.
Fewer than 20 new albums in a year is pretty lame by serious music fan standards. Music websites and magazines will publish Top 50 lists that might not even include some of these titles. But I tend to buy music by the artists I like, only occasionally dabbling in new artists, and I’m fine with that.
I’m pressing pause on the Random Weekend in progress to peck out a few thoughts on the new Taylor Swift album, which I received in the mail Friday and have given a few listens.
Reputation is pretty much what I expected based on the mostly disappointing pre-release singles. The good news is the rest of the album is a step up in quality, even if the subject matter is disappointingly more of the same. Dis tracks, love songs and meditations on what it’s like to be as famous as Taylor Swift.
Today’s Random Weekend selection had twice the chance of showing up because I have it on two different albums. Originally released as the final track of U2’s 1993 album Zooropa, it was later selected for Johnny Cash’s compilation album The Legend of Johnny Cash.
It’s the Cash album version that popped up when I spun the old iTunes wheel, but the two are identical (save for a minute of silence tacked on to the end of the U2 track).
