While maddening in some ways, the playlist culture born of the streaming boom is breaking down genre barriers and creating more entry points to discover different and interesting sounds. I’ve always like supplementing my Favorite Albums list with a list of random songs that stayed in heavy rotation. Rather than attempting to arbitrarily rank them, I’ve narrowed it down to my top 50 and alphabetized them. In addition to a full listing and descriptions, I’ve also included a full Spotify playlist for convenient accompaniment. Cheers.
Good Ol' Boys
two Southern gents' take on music, sports, and culture
Tag Archives: music
K.’s 2014 in Music
Throughout the year, I kept a running list in my Notes app of everything that caught my attention and warranted multiple listens. I used that shortlist mostly to keep track of what came out this year, but also to begin developing my final list at year’s end. That list is below.
K.’s Favorite Songs of 2014
A few years ago, I began supplementing my “Favorite Albums” list by recognizing the few songs I liked that weren’t tracks on my favorite albums – at the time, mostly rap songs released into the digital ether. This year, however, thanks to more continuous album listening (i.e. making it more difficult to extract single tracks) and finding more records on which I only liked a few tracks, there’s been less overlap than ever before. Full list after the jump.
K.’s Favorite Albums of 2013
“In ceasing to care about most things, I have likewise ceased to suffer in many ways. There is a real restfulness in the scientific conviction that nothing matters very much; that the only legitimate aim of humanity is to minimise acute suffering for the majority, and to derive whatever satisfaction is derivable from the exercise of the mind in the pursuit of truth.”
– H.P. Lovecraft
I won’t pretend I was on top of my game this year, but then, it hardly matters. I hope I’m finally on the verge of quieting whatever egotism compels me to present a self-concept via these lists, instead focusing on sharing the art that has most deeply amplified the meaning of my life. 2013 was my most challenging, meaningful, and positive year yet. I learned and I grew. I enjoyed and exhausted myself. I have higher, more focused hopes for the future than ever before.
Having said that, if you are a person with whom I’ve connected enough to feel compelled to read this, I thank you. I hope at least one thing described below is able to create the meaningful memories for you that it did for me in 2013.
K.’s Favorite Tracks of 2013
Much like last year, some of my favorite tracks – “Keep Your Eyes Peeled,” “R U Mine?,” “Hive” and “Guild,” “Cheap Beer,” “WORLDSTAR” – were just parts of my favorite albums. Thanks to the Internet and our Culture of Too Much, however, many other gems reach me ad hoc. Below are said nuggets, a few of which found their way onto this year’s Good Ol’ Tapes.
On Frank Ocean’s “Pyramids”
As part of my rundown of my favorite albums and tracks of 2012, I described at length what moved me about Frank Ocean’s channel ORANGE. In particular, I reserved my highest praise for its epic ten-minute centerpiece “Pyramids,” which I posited is arguably one of the greatest achievements in the recent history of pop music. To avoid cluttering a list about whole albums, I decided to move to a separate space where I could parse out the thoughts I’ve been fumbling to articulate since first hearing it. Read said thoughts after the jump. Continue reading
K.’s Favorite Live Shows of 2012
I missed far more shows than I caught this year, so I hope to do better with that in 2013. Of the sets I did manage to catch this year, these were my favorite. All locations in Atlanta unless otherwise noted. Continue reading
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