I downloaded Big Star’s celebrated first two albums awhile back but I haven’t had a chance to dive into them just yet.
This is a band that has influenced many of my favorite artists and yet I know almost none of their music. The few tracks I’ve heard from their debut album (#1 Record) are excellent.
The Random iTunes Fairy is giving us a little sneak peek at one of next week’s featured artists.
Josh Rouse’s The Happiness Waltz is a breezy, sun-drenched album full of songs just like this one. Most of them take the perspective of a man who has lived a full but troubled life and finally arrived at a place of peace and (as the album title suggest) happiness.
Best Songs of 2013 – #16
Phosphorescent is the stage name of Matthew Houck, a songwriter from Brooklyn by way of Alabama. He has released seven albums over the past decade, the most recent (titled Muchacho) in March of this year.
And no, I’d never heard of him either until I stumbled across this song on a website a couple of weeks ago.
Best Songs of 2013 – #17
I doubt Toad the Wet Sprocket’s lead singer Glen Phillips’ name ever comes up in discussions of great pop vocalists. The band is too much a relic of the 90s to command that much respect.
But I’d rank him right up there. His soothing but edgy tone perfectly serves the band’s rocking material and especially its ballads.
Best Songs of 2013 – #18
I’m still getting to know Let’s Be Still, the sophomore album by Seattle band The Head and the Heart, but I know I love its first single, ‘Shake.’
This is the most immediately accessible song on the record, but not in a bad way. Often an album’s catchy first single is the first track to fade from memory as deeper cuts earn their way into my esteem.
