Bittersweet
Album Reviews | Richard Ashcroft – These People (2016)
A welcome return from the British abyss, These People finds Richard Ashcroft in the best form he has been in for quite some time, and while the album may not win over any new converts -- it evokes the...
Album Reviews | Pearl Jam – Lightning Bolt (2013)
God, I love Pearl Jam. While most “fans” are only intimately familiar with their 1991 debut Ten, and the vast, vast majority of their listenership checked out after 1994‘s Vitalogy, ...
Album Reviews | Vampire Weekend – Modern Vampires of the City (2013)
Over the course of just five years, the music press has bestowed heavy crowns upon Vampire Weekend‘s heads. Their 2008 self-titled debut was a big indie hit; it appeared on dozens of year-end li...
Album Reviews | Kurt Vile – Wakin On a Pretty Daze (2013)
One of the reasons why 2013 was such a great year for music was because of albums like Kurt Vile‘s Wakin on a Pretty Daze, a lo-fi record released on the indie label Matador. It’s the kind...
Favorite Albums | #86: Oasis – Definitely Maybe (1994)
In 1994, the grunge explosion sputtered to a close in America as Nirvana was forced to disband and Pearl Jam boycotted Ticketmaster, and Britain responded by giving us Britpop, a much different and al...
Favorite Albums | #89: The Replacements – All Shook Down (1990)
All Shook Down is the Replacements‘ final album, but it was the first Replacements album I ever heard because it was available at the library and Let It Be (1984) and Tim (1985), their most crit...
Favorite Albums | #90: R.E.M. – Murmur (1983)
As I have mentioned in previous entries, I hate the sound of ’80s music… which is why Murmur makes the list — it’s anti-’80s. That this album came out in 1983 sounding li...
Favorite Albums | #91: Radiohead – Amnesiac (2001)
I kind of ignored Radiohead for a long time. In fact, they were pretty easy to ignore. They haven’t made a straight-up rock record since 1997‘s OK Computer, and they haven’t had much...
Favorite Albums | #93: Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago (2007)
My introduction to Bon Iver came from the most unexpected of places: therapy. I suffer from an anxiety disorder, and after I graduated from college and moved out to Los Angeles I struggled with the en...
Favorite Albums | #94: Bruce Springsteen – Darkness on the Edge of Town (1978)
About two weeks after I moved to Los Angeles in September 2010, I was at the Bed, Bath & Beyond on Ventura Boulevard in Studio City and I ran into Adam Carolla’s wife Lynette at the checkout...
Favorite Albums | #96: Steely Dan – Pretzel Logic (1974)
The first Steely Dan song I ever loved was “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number.” I was in 10th grade, just getting into classic rock, and I absolutely fell in love with that song when I he...
Favorite Albums | #97: Wilco – Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2002)
Yankee Hotel Foxtrot turned out to be one of the most heavily praised albums of the ’00s, and with good reason. This is about as ambitious as anything you’ll find these days in popular mus...
Favorite Albums | #98: The Replacements – Let It Be (1984)
If you’re most people, you’re thinking this must be the wrong Let It Be. But no, this is an alternative rock classic from the 1980s. In fact, this is the first of very few entries from the...
Favorite Albums | #99: Temple of the Dog – Temple of the Dog (1991)
Many nicknames have been given to Temple of the Dog over the past twenty years, including “Pearl Jam‘s first album” and “the first great grunge album,” neither of which a...