Friday, September 27, 2013

The MJR Top 5 Albums of 2013 Weekly Standings and 3 Thoughts/Facts/Opinions/Lies/Kneejerk Reactions

"Oops, did I just blow your Top 5 of 2013 wide open?", Janelle Monae seems to be saying here with a single look.

The MJR Top 5 Albums of 2013 Weekly Standings*

*Spotify links provided when available

1.  ...Like Clockwork by Queens of the Stone Age (Last Week: 1)

2.  After Dark 2 by Various Artists (Last Week: 2)

3.  The Electric Lady by Janelle Monae (Last Week: NR)

4.   White Lighter by Typhoon (Last Week: 4)

5.  AM by Arctic Monkeys (Last Week: NR)


Other 2013 Contenders (in no particular order)

+No longer streaming online

Newly Added 2013 Contenders This Week:

    3 Thoughts/Facts/Opinions/Lies/Kneejerk Reactions to/about Music This Week

    1.  The biggest musical revelation for me since we last met like this is without a doubt Janelle Monae's sci-fi-tinged pop masterwork The Electric Lady.  The album is magnificent and I can't promise it won't move higher in the rankings before all is said and done.  Lady finds Monae and co. happily taking residence in the adventurous, futuristic, space-age wonderland that Daft Punk was seemingly so eager to give up so that they could give us this year's Random Access Memories--a largely well-made, well-produced, joyless listening experience (with a few notable exceptions) that was so far from the dance-driven, electro-pop (often soulful),  and FUN work that had preceded it.  Janelle Monae embraces this vacant space and expands upon it to create an album that is just as much a unique and imaginative narrative as it is a collection of songs.  Though it doesn't hurt that in pursuit of developing a "concept album", Monae has delivered an abundace of great pop songs. And there's a duet with Prince. PRINCE  Buy.  This.  Album.

    2.  Having said all that, I am both surprised and perplexed at how much I damn hard love "Doin' It Right" from the aforementioned Daft Punk album (I told you there were a few notable exceptions).  And it's a collaboration with Panda Bear (I mean seriously, look at this doucher)--one of my sworn enemies due primarily to the fact that I hate him and his fans and everything he stands for and his pesky habit (labored breathing) of making one super rad song (another being "Bros", for instance) for every hundred borderline unlistenable songs that I end up loving which inevitably leads to my continued self-loathing and discontent about my place in the world of music consumption and beyond.

    3.  Exactly one week from today, I will be in the midst of my first Austin City Limits Music Festival Experience where on Day 3 I will literally be forced to choose between Thom Yorke and Lionel Richie.  And the fact that this is a true dilemma for me speaks to the odd place I find myself both in terms of age and outlook.  Thom Yorke is like the Batman of my music universe and thus a hero and icon beyond compare or reproach in my eyes.  But Thom Yorke never gave me this.  And that's just a fact.
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    Tuesday, September 3, 2013

    The MJR Top 5 Albums of 2013 Weekly Standings and 3 Thoughts/Facts/Opinions/Lies/Kneejerk Reactions

    Typhoon.  There's nothing I hate more than breaking my self-imposed "Arcade Fire band size limit" rule, but good music is good music.

    The MJR Top 5 Albums of 2013 Weekly Standings*

    *Spotify links provided when available

    1.  ...Like Clockwork by Queens of the Stone Age (Last Week: 1)

    2.  After Dark 2 by Various Artists (Last Week: 2) ^

    3.  We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic by Foxygen (Last Week: 3)

    4.   White Lighter by Typhoon (Last Week: NR)

    5.  The Flower Lane by Ducktails (Last Week: 4)


    Other 2013 Contenders (in no particular order)

    +No longer streaming online
    ^Newly available on Spotify

    Newly Added 2013 Contenders This Week:


    3 4 Thoughts/Facts/Opinions/Lies/Kneejerk Reactions to/about Music This Week

    1.  Say it without saying it exercise: America's greatest export in the 21st century is manufactured controversy and outrage.  We largely react passionately and quickly to the things that don't matter and display a remarkable ability to gloss over/effortlessly look most of the things that do matter.  You don't have to care about ANYTHING.  But if you're gonna make noise about the shit you do care about, maybe make it something slightly more substantial than her.  And him.  And all that.

    2.  Having said all that, the Beetlejuice photoshopping this week was top notch.

    3.  Pitchfork and ESPN are culture changers who have radically impacted the way in which we consume and evaluate music and sport, respectively.  And I faithfully pray each day that true, viable competition will emerge to try to make right all that they make wrong on a daily basis.

    4.  I love writing about music.  And not because I'm necessarily any good at it, but I love doing it in the way that a certain segment of geeks out there enjoy writing fan fiction.  Hell, this probably IS fan fiction.  I'm an over the top music superfan who has probably--in your estimation--made up a bunch of shit on the fly and laid it at your feet and called it a finished product.  Having said that, I wish MORE of YOU--my friends and even others who reside on the periphery of my life--would write about music.  And not just because I feel particularly alone in my present blogging music nonsense geekery.  It's because I know so many of you have done it before (and well) and/or have as much if not WAY more to offer in terms of quality opinions, recommendations, etc.  And most of you could do it better than me whether in terms of style or substance or critical analysis.  God knows I hear you talk/tweet/bitch/praise/decry music enough.  And while I can't assume that writing will carry the same cathartic value for you that it does for me, I suspect many of you will be pleasantly surprised by the feeling of satisfaction and occasional accomplishment it brings.  If a billion strangers can blog from their finely-manicured thrones up on High Horse Mountain about the cultural merits/implications of the VMAs, surely a handful of YOU people (you know who you are) can offer your thoughts on music, what it means to you, its implications for your life as either a backdrop or occasional catalyst for something, etc.  Go beyond reviews and playlists and recommendations.  Tell stories with it, make art with it, make it the soundtrack to a bigger narrative.  C'mon.  Hello?  Any takers?
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