Musing

This has to be a rather brief summary of both the 2024 and 2025 awards, because I'm a slacker. 2024 Album of the Year: Elbow, Audio Vertigo 2025 Album of the Year: Doves, Constellations For The Lonely 2024 Song of the Year: “Things I’ve Been Telling Myself for Years” 2025 Song of the Year: “A Drop in the Ocean” 2024’s near-miss for AOTY was The Decemberists’ As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again which is a fantastic album marred by a rollout that included the wrong digital files multiple times, vinyl albums using the wrong mix, and CDs with an unknown mix/master. “Joan in the Garden” – are you kidding me? 19 minutes and 20 seconds of prog bliss. Really the only other new release in 2025 that is worth mentioning is Lord Huron’s The Cosmic Selector, Volume 1 . This one channeled a lot of Strange Trails energy and includes the wild back-to-back combo of “It All Comes Back” / “Used to Know”. They also put on a hell of a show in Indy over the summer. Easily the...

Jakob Dylan's Women and Country It's interesting to see the junior Dylan come full circle in his choice of musical expressions. The last time we heard something with the sort of bluesy Americana that the senior Dylan is known for was the first time we heard something from The Wallflowers (their criminally overlooked, self-titled debut album). It's certainly a big step away from his first solo album, which was sparse, but considerably lighter in both tone and subject. Biggest pro? I'm a sucker for the brass on this album, particularly "Lend a Hand" and "Standing Eight Count." It reminds me a bit of AB's Bowl of Fire. Biggest con? If the brass is awesome, the bass is awful. I think it was mixed far too high, which forces his vocals too far back. With a low raspy voice like his, you have to be very careful not to lose him in the mix. This was the single biggest factor that brought the album down as far as it is. Album highlight: The opening...