Funeral to Finish

  The world is a terrible place. There's a raging global pandemic, a thick-skulled autocrat desperately trying to claw back a job he doesn't want to do, and the Designated Hitter somehow just snuck into the National League without anyone really fighting it.  Luckily, this album exists. This perfect 12" of sonic Valium actually produces a calming effect in all animals and humans on whom it has been tested.  From the time the needle drops on "Tired of Being Alone" to the incredible organ-fueled groove in "Love and Happiness" to the horn blast that kicks off "Let's Get Married," this album unloads one classic after another.  But, of course, it's really Al Green's voice that stars. It's an impossibly smooth croon/wail.  The man can absolutely bend his way around a note, maybe the best pure singer we'll see on this list (at least until we inevitably run into Otis Redding). If you haven't listened to it in a while, do yoursel

  Like all/most of you, all I knew from this album was "Nothing Compares 2 U," which was just omnipresent in the background in the early '90s but which I never thought about much or paid much attention to.  So I was mildly surprised to find that there are a lot of interesting and good songs on this album!  The extremely gothily named "I Am Stretched on Your Grave" has a great dirgey vocal over a club beat.  It's a really pretty, if disturbingly dark, song.  "The Emperor's New Clothes" is, I think, a self-empowerment anthem and really has that fist-in-the-air vibe.  And I think "Last Day of Our Acquaintance" is as good a divorce song as I've heard. It's interesting that this album comes so soon in the list after Lorde's Melodama , since this was obviously a big influence on Lorde.  You can hear it all over Lorde's stuff - the sparse, chilly production, the aching vocals, the personal revealing that's almost too much

  Everybody's getting sober! Well, not me. But Jason Isbell is! Or was, right before he made this album. After flaming out of the Drive-By Truckers for drinking too much and then putting out a couple of mostly forgettable solo albums, Jason went into rehab (encouraged, it is said, by none other than Ryan Adams, who has since developed his own problems that we might address later if, as I suspect, one or more of his records lands on our list) and came out sober and ready to record this striking, powerful album Isbell worked with producer Dave Cobb who was then mostly unknown but who has gone on to become the hot producer du jour due to his work with artists like Sturgill Simpson, Ashley Monroe, and especially Chris Stapleton.  Cobb is an expert at getting to the heart of a song, and a lot of the songs on this album are pure and honest and stripped of any ornamentation or pretention. "Cover Me Up," the opener, has become so well-known that now it gets covered by better-know

  Man, this is a super interesting record.  Sonically, it's kind of all over the place, but there are some incredibly hooky melodies (especially in "Pursuit of Happiness (Nightmare)" and the virtually anthemic "Heart of a Lion (Kid Cudi Theme Music").  I wasn't surprised to see that MGMT guested on "Pursuit" because it has that golden hum-a-long thing you associate with the best MGMT songs.  Meanwhile, "Up Up & Away" has a chorus melody that could have been lifted from any number of angsty pop-punk bands. I hope Cudi catches up with Happiness because this is the most emo hip hop album I have ever heard.  Dude is down .  If emo-rap wasn't a thing before, this album created it.  It's interesting because - and please correct me if I'm wrong - I'm think rap was a lot more full of bluster and braggadocio, not an exploration of one's own interior pain.  There's a lot more of that now, but this seems like an early tra

  Before we get to our Feature Presentation today, let's take a brief detour because it's CHRISTMAS MUSIC SEASON BITCHES.  Now, I can listen to "Fairytale of New York" just as much as the next guy, and by that I mean until my wife yells "Can you turn that off please?" from the other room, and of course there's "All I Want for Christmas Is You," which is rising up the charts AGAIN, but for a good girl-sung Christmas club banger, can I interest you in Ariana Grande's "Santa Tell Me"? It's honestly kind of a great song. Probably my favorite Christmas song in which the singer asks Santa to help her not bang someone who's gonna ghost her.  Try it out! OK, on to the matter at hand, which is not nearly as joyous as "Santa Tell Me."  I like Lorde.  I liked her first album quite a bit.  This one, however, just didn't work for me as well.  Like "Pure Heroine," a lot of the songs are about driving in a car and

  If you feel suicidal, please call the Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK.  Do not, under any circumstances, listen to "For Emma" by Bon Iver. By now, you have probably heard the iconic story about how Justin Vernon broke up with his band and his girlfriend and retreated to an isolated cabin in the Wisconsin woods where he recorded the songs that would become this album.  It sounds like a keening cry of pain all the way through.  Even the vocals sound painful.  It is not a particularly pleasurable listening experience but is probably better if you have just broken up with someone and are looking sadly out a rain-streaked window.  I have not recently broken up with anyone so it did not land that hard with me.  Tbqh it starts to drag about 2/3 of the way through.  I get that it was hugely influential and yadda yadda but I had to cleanse my timeline with some garage rock after I was done just to feel alive again. My favorite Bon Iver story is after he won Best New Ar

  In July of 1968, the Byrds went to England for a show at the Royal Albert Hall and were all set to embark on a tour of South Africa when Gram Parsons, who hadn’t even been in the band that long, announced that he wouldn’t be going.  He said he opposed South Africa’s apartheid policies, but the band suspected that a nascent friendship – and nonstop partying – with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were actually to blame.  Gram got kicked out of the band. Later in 1968, after a series of setbacks and misunderstandings, Chris Hillman left the Byrds as well.  Hillman went back to LA, called up Gram, and got a band together.  That band was the Flying Burrito Brothers.  They wrote and recorded this record fairly quickly and it came out in 1969.  Nobody really gave a shit.  It peaked at #164 on the Billboard Top 200.  Tough shit for all you people in the ‘60s because the Flying Burrito Brothers just invented alt-country. This album is just great.  It is the sonic equivalent of lying in a hammo