Liner Notes (February 19th, 2022)

Tree

Well, well, well, we meet again.

This week’s newsletter details the music and entertainment I consumed over the past week and has some other random things scattered throughout. And, as always, there’s a playlist of ten songs I think you should check out.

This week’s supporter Q&A post can be found here.

If you’d like this newsletter delivered to your inbox each week (it’s free and available to everyone), you can sign up here.

A Few Things

  • This week, we posted our Most Anticipated of 2022 list. There’s a whole lot to look forward to this year, and, like clockwork, Jimmy Eat World also post that they’re back in the studio. So, that is immediately shooting right to the top of my personal most anticipated of the year list. I’m also really looking forward to Cacie of Now, Now’s debut solo album, Cold Years’ next release, and the next entries from Blink-182 and The Dangerous Summer.
  • A big thanks to everyone that checked out my podcast appearance last week, and a hearty welcome to those of you that signed up for the newsletter after listening. I hear we set some download records for the pod, and I appreciate all the kind words from everyone.
  • I liked this article/Q&A all about research. This portion, specifically, stuck out to me: “But unfortunately, once your company becomes really big and research becomes operationalised, a lot of executives are scared of making the wrong decision and research stops being used for this. Instead, it’s used to justify, validate, and prioritise strategy, and it very quickly becomes a mechanism for decision making. Executives, rather than saying “I have a strong case for this” or “Here are a load of problems that research has found”, start to use research to prove which of a number of approaches is the best path forward. I think this starts to become somewhat problematic. You ultimately want your decisions to be research-informed and not rely on research to tell you exactly what to build, which research can’t do – research can only inform you. Leaders need to have good product sense and decision making skills in order for this to work effectively.” The whole thing’s a good read.
  • The tour I hinted at a few weeks back? I got confirmation it’s happening later this year. This is going to be a big one.

In Case You Missed It

Music Thoughts

  • I felt half in a funk for a good portion of this week. Something was gnawing at me, and I couldn’t put my finger on it. Feeling stuck, a lack of forward progress, and unable to get out of my head. Around Wednesday, I tossed on The Dangerous Summer’s Reach for the Sun and all of a sudden, I could feel the fog start to clear. As I progressed through their discography and returned multiple times to War Paint, I felt a sense of clarity begin to breakthrough. There’s something just so cathartic about these songs and the emotion that pulses in every lyric that grabs me in the best way. Those first two albums are still my favorite, and I do like Golden Record and the self-titled album, but I’m also very into Mother Nature and the latest EP. An extremely deep catalog of great tunes and a genuine welcome rediscovery this week when I needed it the most.
  • I continue to believe the new A Wilhelm Scream is everything I could possibly want it to be. It’s becoming my go-to gym album.
  • I’ve been slowly trying to make my way through the Angels and Airwaves discography. After enjoying Lifeforms more than all of the previous albums, I figured I should give them another chance. This week were the two Love albums, and I struggled with them. I ended up listening in piecemeal. I’d play a couple of songs, get bored, go listen to something else, and then come back and try and make my way through. Just not doing it for me at all.
  • Simple Plan’s new single “Ruin My Life” is another very good sign that their upcoming album is going to be one to keep an eye on. That’s two well-crafted little pop-punk songs in a row now.
  • I may be the only one on the planet that writes about Florrie, but when she keeps throwing out fire singles over and over again, I want more people to check it out so we can get an album already! The trend continues with “What if I’m Wrong.” All she does is drop gold.
  • Said the Sky’s new album, Sentiment, feels more like a mixtape of songs than a cohesive release. There’s a whole bunch of band names you’ll probably recognize doing guest vocals (The Maine and Motion City Soundtrack, to name a couple), and I think it works more than it doesn’t. But, there are also some clunkers, and the electronic elements can quickly overshadow an otherwise good song when they come on too strong, but it’s worth checking out for stuff like “Emotion Sickness” at the very least.

The Stats: Over the past week, I listened to 42 different artists and 507 different tracks (649 scrobbles). My most listened-to artist was The Dangerous Summer, and my most played album was their War Paint. Here is my Top 9 from last week, and you can follow me on Apple Music and/or Last.fm.

Entertainment Thoughts

  • I Want You Back was a fun little rom-com. Not the best, but not bad either. (Also, if you’re not listening to the Always Sunny podcast yet, I highly recommend it. It’s becoming one of my favorite hours of the week.)
  • I was pleasantly surprised by the new Scream and had a whole lot of fun with it. It may try a little too hard to be meta at times, but it’s entirely watchable entertaining, and I can think of worse ways to spend a Friday evening.
  • I bought the Blink-182 book, Tales From Beneath Your Mom, in college; I think it was freshman year. And I lent it to a friend at some point and never got it back. So, when I saw it pop up on eBay for $15, I grabbed a copy for fun and to re-read it. First, I had forgotten quite a bit of the band’s early history, and second, yeah, there’s some shit they could not get away with printing in 2022. An interesting time capsule that you can crank through in an afternoon. Now it’ll probably sit on my shelf until the end of time.
  • Amazon Prime’s Reacher has been awesome. It’s a much more faithful adaptation of the character than the Tom Cruise version and the kind of show that seems well-positioned to be something to appeal to just about anyone that likes anything close to this genre. I’m also happy to see Alan Ritchson getting another significant role after I enjoyed him in Titans. My word is that dude built like a truck. His biceps are bigger than my torso.
  • I love when we have two great shows going on at the same time. The other “giant dude” show of the week was Peacemaker. It’s absolutely ridiculous, it should not work, and yet it’s rather brilliant. The entire season was funny, absurd, and yet had heart and took some big swings. I came away impressed with the whole thing — every episode delivered, the finale landed the plane, and John Cena has impeccable comedic timing. And give Eagley a gd Emmy.

Random and Personal Stuff

  • This week, I shared memories of Yellowcard’s Underdog EP (someone get this on streaming platforms) and Blink-182’s Cheshire Cat (turned 27!) on Instagram.
  • Hannah’s gone all day throwing a gala for the orchestra she works for. So I’m kind of just chilling at home with the cats at the moment. Probably read a little, maybe grab a burger and fries for dinner, you know, late 30’s no kids shit.

Ten Songs

Here are ten songs that I listened to and loved this week. Some may be new, some may be old, but they all found their way into my life during the past seven days.

  1. Simple Plan – Ruin My Life
  2. Said the Sky – Emotion Sickness
  3. Florrie – What If I’m Wrong
  4. The Stereo – Kings of No Hope
  5. Hot Water Music – Lock Up
  6. Broken Glowsticks – Sleeping Through a Car Crash
  7. The Gaslight Anthem – Miles Davis and the Cool
  8. Blink-182 – Wasting Time
  9. Sara Kays – When You Look at Me
  10. Spoon – The Hardest Cut

This playlist is available on Spotify and Apple Music.

Community Watch

The trending and popular threads in our community this week include:

The most liked post in our forums last week was this one by Dinkleberg in the “Accountability in Music” thread.

Previous editions of Liner Notes can be found here.

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