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Liner Notes (January 26th, 2025)

Posted by Jason Tate
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We’re still slowly moving into the start of 2025 and there’s not a whole bunch of new music coming out yet, so this may be another relatively short one. This week’s supporter Q&A post can be found here.

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A Few Things

  • I mentioned the menu bar calendar app Dato in my end of the year list, in the “favorite software” section, but I don’t think I’ve mentioned yet in the newsletter. I’ve been recently doing a hard look at all the apps I have a subscription for and trying to decide which ones are must-haves. I wanted to cut it down to things I use daily and don’t feel like there are decent alternatives. And I could no longer justify the price for Fantastical. Using Dato on my Macs gives me my favorite feature of Fantastical, and the stock Calendar app has been more than enough for my needs.
  • I’ve been looking for a motion-activated nightlight for the bedroom/bathroom hallway area; I’ve tripped over a cat more than once. I finally settled on these Casper lights. Everything else I found looked silly. These provide just enough light when plugged in and then get brighter as you get close to them. They’ve been perfect for my needs.
  • I’ve added some smart home things to the new home already, and at some point, it may be fun to do an entire article on that, but I want to once again shoutout Lutron Caseta lights as being, by far, the best smart switches on the market. We had these in every room at our old place, and I loved them (and miss them). So far I’ve only installed one here. I needed something for the front porch light because I want to turn it on automatically when Hannah gets home from work if it’s after sunset. And, because it works with HomeKit, it was super easy to add an automation to turn on the light if the doorbell detects a person coming to the door at night. Helpful for package deliveries and safety. These remain the only smart lights I’ve ever used that have never let me down; rock solid.

In Case You Missed It

Music Thoughts

  • This was a big throwback week music-wise for me. I spent a lot of time with the underrated Brandston and Name Taken. I also went on an always fun Midtown run. I still think Living Well is the Best Revenge is just about as good of a pop-rock album as you can make. I’ve always thought it was ahead of its time by just a couple of years. It, along with New Found Glory and Saves the Day, set the stage for everything that comes next in the music scene.
  • I caught the album Drug by Spinning on someone’s end-of-the-year list, and I’m impressed. It definitely walks the pop-punk line a little, but it’s more than that, and there are some clever little wrinkles. Enjoyed it.
  • I liked my first listen to Slowly Slowly’s new album but couldn’t help but wish it was longer and went for it a little more. It didn’t have that “oh shit, there it is” song for me on the first spin, so we’ll have to see how it grows on me. Their last ended up being a big summer album for me, and I’m hoping this one finds its legs as the weather (hopefully) starts to warm up.

The Stats: Over the past week, I listened to 38 different artists, 64 different albums, and 497 different tracks (561 scrobbles). Here is my Top 9 from last week, and you can follow me on Apple Music and/or Last.fm.

Entertainment Thoughts

  • I am still struggling with Nosteratu. It had some of the most jaw-dropping gorgeous shots I’ve seen in a minute, but the film felt like it lacked any soul or feeling. I had difficulty not hearing Nandor from What We Do In the Shadows every time Orlok spoke and the mustache did not work for me. It was a good, but ultimately frustrating, film for me.
  • The Order was good. (It was a Nicholas Hoult week over here, I guess.) It followed a story I was too young to know about at the time but has some parallels to our current political climate.
  • I also enjoyed Rebel Ridge as a nice self contained action flick.
  • Wicked Little Letters was decent and very British.

Random and Personal Stuff

  • Not much here this week. I hope everyone is having a good end to their weekend. If you’re feeling down or overwhelmed by the world right now, I recommend this post. It helped me.

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. Slowly Slowly – Forgiving Spree
  2. Spinning – Winter
  3. The Maine – I Can’t Help Myself
  4. Midtown – Find Comfort in Yourself
  5. Koyo – I Might Not Get Through All of This
  6. The Academy Is – I’m Yours Tonight
  7. Brandston – Drawing a Line in the Sand
  8. Name Taken – A Year Spent Cold
  9. My Favorite Highway – Go
  10. The New Frontiers – Mirrors

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 the rural juror in the “General Politics XII” thread.

Previous editions of Liner Notes can be found here.

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