February brought (slightly) better weather, some great music, some good books, an incredible concert, and quite a few lovely weekend walks capped off with a perfect beer. And we were able to celebrate Valentine’s Day and my mom’s (long-deserved) retirement.
February 2024
The year started by throwing a few wrenches our way. The wind and ice storm shut down the city for a few days, but at least we kept power the whole time. This led to a lot of nights sitting by the fire with warm drinks and catching up on some long overdue reading. Not a bad way to spend a winter evening.
And the music year started off strong.
Let’s hope for less chaotic weather in February.
January 2024
Brian Fallon has long been one of my favorite lyricists, with dozens of classics under his belt, but there’s a line on the new Gaslight Anthem album that I keep running over and over in my head. Midway through “Autumn” he sings, “I wish I could do my life over, I’d be young better now,” and that lyric has haunted me ever since I first heard it. Such a damning description of growing older, looking back at life, and reflecting on the passing of time. At its core, ‘History Books’ feels like an album full of reflection, rejuvenation, and grace. It’s an album I was unsure we’d ever get, but one that sits proudly alongside the band’s storied catalog.
Sitting here by the fire on another Sunday evening, music softly playing, and thinking about a future where I’ll look back on today as when I was younger. I find it easier to start each week with that as my perspective.
My favorite albums of 2023.
As a whole, I loved music in 2023. I loved how many bands that I’ve followed for years released albums that felt like incredible additions to their catalog. I loved how many new artists I discovered. I loved all the time I spent with music both old and new. And, perhaps most importantly, I loved the way music weaved its way through my year, providing a memorable soundtrack to the passing months.
The Stats: I listened to over 14,470 songs this year (29,840 scrobbles), 988 different artists, and 2,081 different albums. My most played artist was Blink-182, and my most played album was One More Time…, because, of course.
And that’s a wrap for 2023.
All the stats are totaled. My most played albums of the year are on slide two, and we’ll post our end of the year features on January 8th on the website. 🥂
It’s always one of my favorite times of the year, but this year felt extra special. I’ve loved each evening when the lights turned on and slowly filled the house with gold.
A wonderful December with friends, family, and the two cats. We ate lots of good food, our annual Christmas party had all sorts of fun news and life changes from our friends, and we attempted ice skating for the first time in over a decade. And, of course, we listened to a lot of Christmas music.
December 2023
I’ve been trying to remind myself to take photos during the month so I have something to share at the end of it. November is always one of my favorite months of the year. Our wedding anniversary starts it while Thanksgiving and decorating for Christmas act as a perfect bookend. (And I see holiday music getting some extra plays this week has already started to creep into my most played albums of the month.)
November 2023
Congratulations to @blink182 on another number one album! My two variants have arrived and I’m just as happy with them as I am the album itself. Beyond my wildest dreams of what I could have hoped for when we heard Tom was coming back.
My full review is up on the website and the feedback has been a little overwhelming. Thank you to everyone for the kind words and for sharing with me how much this band has meant to you over the years. I had a good feeling I wasn’t the only one that felt the way I did, that grew up with blink-182 and experienced much of life soundtracked by their music.
With October coming to an end, I realize how little I’ve posted here over the past year. Not for lack of record buying. 😬 I guess I should try and step that up over the next few months and share some of the new additions.
#blink-182 #blink182 #vinyl
I wrote about @blink182’s new album and what the band has meant to me over the years at chorus.fm.
Call it a review, an essay, a love letter, or just a mess of words trying to work out how this band helped shape our lives.
Yes, I know it’s long. But when I sit down to write I always want the outcome to be something I’m proud of, and when I started writing this, so many different feelings started to bubble. It wasn’t long until I knew I needed it to exist.
The written album “review” barely seems to be a thing these days but they still matter to me. Soon I fear it’ll all be ChatGPT looking “summaries” and hot take reaction videos. But I tried to distill my history and musical journey, and put that into context with the band and their new music. And that matters to me too. My whole thing, from the start, is that I’ve wanted to treat this genre seriously when no one else did.
I’ve been writing this for a while. I hope you can relate. If not with this specific band, to one that’s changed your life.
I remember turning 20. I was a sophomore in college building the website that would, in many ways, define the next two decades of my life. It was 2003. And while countless albums from those years left a mark on me, it’s often Fall Out Boy’s blue painted ‘Take This To Your Grave’ I think about the most. They blow up. My website blows up. And so begins a two-decade ride of following this band’s career. And it’s over these years that I find myself intertwined with the songs. Each album holds a special place in my memory for where I was when I first heard it, who I was with, and the person I was, even if that wasn’t the person I wanted to be. Those early albums became the soundtrack to my stumbling twenties. And when I turned 30 in 2013 I wrote about the band’s rebirth in a way that looking back was not so subtly partially autobiographical. So, it’s only fitting that I turn 40 a week before the band releases another album. In many ways, the perfect cosmic bow tie of coincidence. In others, the exact music I need to hear as I’m evaluating the person I am now, the life I lead, and the future ahead of me. Ever since I first listened to those early demos, there’s been something about how Patrick thinks about music that aligns almost identically with what my brain craves. The way he crafts melodies, uses syncopation, starts, stops, speeds up, and builds songs has been soul candy since the beginning. And it’s why from the moment I first hit play on their new one a few weeks ago I’ve had a massive smile on my face just thinking about the songs and what they created. It’s an album that wears obvious influence from each era of the band. And it culminates in arguably the band’s most cohesive and ambitious album since ‘Folie.’ I grew up listening to Fall Out Boy. If there’s a band that can define where I came from to where I am today it’s hard not to think of this one. And at the precipice of middle age, of no longer being able even half to pretend I’m not an adult, I find comfort in turning to this old friend once again. A boy on a couch with headphones, typing away about the music that moves him. I am, as I ever was, me. God damn, what a band. God damn, what an album.
Nobody likes you when you’re … 40?
Yeah, I’m still not sure how I feel about that number. But what I have discovered is that moving into my forties has a much different feeling than any previous birthday. A decade ago was a time of massive change, I was moving down to the city and feeling burnt out with the website I’d been running since I was a teenager. Today I’m feeling more grounded and at home than I ever have before, while my passion for music has seen its spark renewed.
I’m happily married to someone that can make this incredible @blink182 cake and surrounded by the best friends and family I could ever hope to have. And most days the two cats keep me company while I’ve turned a once stressful “job” into a place to write and talk about music with people that share the same love of music and community.
Life continues to have ups and downs, but the last ten years have given me a new appreciation for what can be endured and how a stoic mind can give a calming presence to any stormy sea.
Anyway, I’m 40. I’m on the other side of the proverbial hill. Um, yeah, I guess this is growing up.
Sunday evening, a brief moment before the wheel of the week begins again. It’s here where we lean our shoulder against the hour hand, hoping to prolong a weekend bliss, holding onto the seconds before the inevitable churn of the week ahead swallows us in her seas.
And it’s here that I often find myself reaching for the albums that make me feel motivated, the ones that can pull back the weekend haze and prepare me for the job ahead. Lately, that’s included coming back to Anberlin’s ‘Cities,’ an album that still has the same propulsive drive and polish to sound as fresh and modern as the day it was released. I’ve found myself starting the week with this at the top of my playlist, and my Monday’s not seeming so daunting.
“They lied when they said the good die young…”
#anberlin #vinyl
The year comes to an end. Our annual best of feature is now up in the website.
chr.us/2022
Long ago, an online friend, Drew Sung, messaged me on AIM and told me he had a new band I should check out. I told him to send me a song. He said he couldn’t yet since they didn’t have a singer finalized, but that he’d drive down to Redlands and play it for me. So, sitting in my sophomore dorm room, we hit play together on the all instrumental version of this EP. My jaw just about bounced off the floor. I asked about the missing singer, he said they were trying one out who he thought could be a “game changer.” I asked if they had a band name, he said he wasn’t sure but they were tossing around “Saosin” as an idea. A few weeks later the MP3’s with Anthony Green’s instantly iconic vocals showed up. I think I wrote something back like, “this may very well shape the curvature of the music scene, in the future we may talk about music before this album, and then music after this album.” I’m not sure how much of my teenage hyperbole came to pass, but this release remains an absolute monster. A force in power and unmistakeable passion. An album that to this day can knock me on my ass and dominate an entire day with just 15 minutes, and five incredible songs.
I’m beyond happy to finally have this in my collection, and the smile on my face when it arrived today was not unlike when I first heard it all those years ago.
#saosin #vinyl #whenwereyoung
After about ten years, the office was in need of an upgrade. I wrote about the whole process, with links to the various products and more photos, on my blog: chorus.fm (link in stories).
