The Intellectual Thicket

  • 246. Blur by Blur

    Blur: Blur (Virgin, 1997) I suppose it is only natural that people love rivalries, even if most of the time they don’t exist. Music is no exception. Beatles versus the Rolling Stones (I chose the Kinks), Madonna versus Prince (put me in the Pet Shop Boys camp), Britney versus Christina (uh, I don’t know, Robyn?…

    ·

    , , ,

  • 247. The Warning by Hot Chip

    Hot Chip: The Warning (Domino, 2006) One can live a long time with misinformation in their head. This is not a post about misinformation in the pejorative but rather how assumptions lead you to bad information. For the better part of 15 years, I thought Hot Chip was from New York City. Like, absolutely believed…

    ·

    , , ,

  • 248. A Rush of Blood to the Head by Coldplay

    Coldplay: A Rush of Blood to the Head (Capitol, 2002) All of us who choose to write for public consumption know that posts typically hit one of three ways. First, they hit because the reading audience discovers something new and cool, leading them to think that the author is also, as they say, cool. Second,…

    ·

    , , ,

  • 249. Live from the Middle East by the Mighty Mighty Bosstones

    Mighty Mighty Bosstones: Live from the Middle East (Mercury, 1998) If you haven’t read Tom Breihan’s great Number Ones and Alternative Number Ones column on the venerable music site Stereogum, you should. Now, you will need to subscribe to do that, but it is well worth it to support such great writing about music. Why…

    ·

    , ,

  • 250. Fear Inoculum by Tool

    Tool: Fear Inoculum (Volcano/RCA, 2019) When I first held Tool when I was high school, I was conflicted. It is hard to hear Maynard James Keenan sing and not be moved. His vocal style and tone is both primal and refined. Yet, I was young and foolish. I couldn’t decide if Tool was a metal…

    ·

    , , ,

  • Favorite 250 Albums: Honorable Mentions

    I will start off with a few albums that just missed the final list. When I made my two passes across my music library, I did end up with a list that was 257 albums, so it felt sad to not include 7 albums. There are also a few compilations that I didn’t include due…

    ·

    , , ,

  • Favorite 250 Albums of All Time

    I want to embark on a quest. This quest is to document my current favorite 250 albums (of the rock era). Why albums? Why now? Why me? I have no good reasons for most of those questions, but I can at least offer you some insight. Why albums? Much like people not reading books anymore…

    ·

    , , ,

  • Top 500 Favorite Songs, #10-1

    Let’s finish this. Playlists: Amazon and Spotify. #10 “Such Great Heights” by the Postal Service: There is something perfect about this song. #9 “No Rest for the Weary” by the Blue Scholars: #8 “The Rat” by the Walkmen #7 “Saddest Song” by Morphine #6 “The Ballad of the Sin Eater” by Ted Leo & the Pharmacists: #5 “Waiting…

    ·

  • Top 500 Songs of the 21st Century (So Far)

    Some of you might remember back to … last Friday … when I posted the first version of this list. Turns out, I messed up with that list (mostly forgot some stuff) and now I have revamped it. It is by no means a “best” list. I mean, who is to say what is “best”…

    ·

    , ,

  • It’s a Mixmas for 2024

    Hey, some songs from 2024 or just songs I happened to run into during this year. Would you like to hear them? Here are Apple Music and Spotify playlists!

    ·

    , ,
Design a site like this with WordPress.com
Get started