Musing

2022 almost got it right.  A grand total of 21 new releases - one short of perfect - crossed my desk last year.  It was enough that I couldn't even get to all of them.  So with apologies to Turnover, Jaws of Love, Richard Edwards, Trampled by Turtles, and Beirut, their albums aren't going to feature in this post in any other capacity.  I've probably heard half of the Turnover album already just because they released so many singles, but I haven't found the right moment to sit down with this one and all of the other mentioned. The full list of eligible albums is:   Florence + the Machine Dance Fever Glen Phillips There Is So Much Here Collective Soul Vibrating Charlie Winston As I Am Death Cab for Cutie Asphalt Meadows Muse Will of the People Embrace How To Be A Person Like Other People Hanson RGB Liam Gallagher C'mon You Know Andrew Bird Inside Problems Shearwater The Great Awakening The Smile A Light for Attracting Attention Bear's Den Blue Hours Arcade Fire WE...

This list is more about posterity than about writing convincing arguments imploring you to try these albums. I'm already later than I'd planned and time isn't getting any freer, so it's time to spit it out and get on with everything else! Remember when I said that last year? When I evidently (somehow) had even more time to write than I have today? Ah, the good old days. So! Same rules apply. 2015 had both better quantity and quality when compared to 2014. I came up with a list of 20 albums off the top of my head that were new in '15, not including albums that were released earlier than that but found for the first time in the last 12 months. Let's recap. Chasing Daylight What A Terrible World, What A Beautiful World How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful Strange Trails My Favourite Faded Fantasy Did I Sleep And Miss The Border Beneath The Skin These Changing Skies Vestiges And Claws Curio Cities Girls In Peacetime Want To Dance Kintsugi No No N...

Website of the Year - Raspberry Pi Great project, great cause. So beautifully nerdy to watch this happen from the ground up. Book of the Year - Erin Morgenstern's The Night Circus There was a whole lot of buzz surrounding Morgenstern's debut novel about this one-of-a-kind circus. I finally got it for my lunchtime reading break on my Kindle and devoured about 7-10% of it every day. It was absolutely worth every penny I paid. I've since ordered it in hardcover as well, since I think it's a book that's going to have staying power. While the plot is certainly better than average, it's the world that the plot is couched in that really makes me want to start reading it all over again. The novel is not intended to be a part of any series, so there's no commitment to anything greater than its own length. This was one of the most attractive things about it from the start, since a lot of my reading time is gobbled up by enormous books, enormous s...

Florence + The Machine's Ceremonials Editor's Note: This is the 6th in a quasi-weekly series of reviews marking my favorite ten albums of 2011. New reviews go up every weekend through the end of the year. As usual, it's hard to talk about the top few albums without talking about the reasons that they didn't make it any higher on the list. This year's albums fit themselves into three distinct groups. #8-10 are great, but not necessarily "must buys" for everyone. #5-7 should be picked up at your earliest convenience. #1-4 should be purchased before you buy groceries again. So Ceremonials finds itself right on the edge of transcendence. Why just the edge? Here's a better question. Why on the earth would such an enormously talented woman saddle her artistic statement with a song like "Never Let Me Go"? This is particularly astonishing when you listen to the b-sides that accompany her deluxe edition (I'm looking at you, "B...