Today wraps up a surprisingly decent two weeks of ‘What the Kids Are Listening To.’ It might be my imagination, but I feel like the top of the Billboard Hot 100 has gotten more listenable over the past couple of years.
I’m skipping this week’s #10 (Olivia Rodrigo’s ‘Drivers License’) and #11 (The Weeknd’s ‘Blinding Lights’) because I’ve already featured them. That brings me to #12, which is Rodrigo again with her second single, ‘Deja Vu.’
Deja Vu was the second album by Crosby, Stills & Nash, and the first after the addition of Neil Young. It received universal critical acclaim, sold more than 8 million copies and remains the top-selling album in any of the four men’s careers.
CSN&Y were an early supergroup, each of the members having found success either as solo artists or in other bands. Relationships within the band were often strained, the whole thing barely hanging together, perhaps because they really didn’t need each other.
Best Songs of 2009 – #7
Following 2004’s disappointing Encore, Eminem’s Relapse was a welcome return to form, sort of. Like most of his work, it is split about equally between the frivolous, the violently misogynistic and the powerfully personal. This time out, though, that formula felt a bit strained.
I found myself tempted to skip the “shocking” stuff (ok, ok, you cut off her head, next!) to get to the confessional material. Eminem is not going to grab headlines for being outrageous and controversial — not anymore — so he should settle down and craft an album that sounds, start to finish, like it was written by a grown-up.
Meet Me In Montauk 