About Me
Charles Olney, Assistant Professor of Constitutional Law and Judicial Politics at the University of Texas, Rio Grande Valley (academic website). This is a blog about music, politics, and the law. I also write about women’s soccer at Backline Soccer and Stars and Stripes FC.
Twitter: @dr_olney
Soundcloud: olneyce
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Recent Posts
Greatest Hits
- Beatles from worst to first
- Top 25 albums of the decade
- Top 50 songs of the decade
- Top 10 Bruce Springsteen songs
- Top 10 Modest Mouse songs
- Top 10 Tom Petty songs
- Top 10 Carissa's Wierd songs
- Top 10 Paul Simon songs
- Top 10 Bob Dylan songs
- Top 10 breakup songs
- Top 20 albums of 2005
- Top 30 albums of 2006
- Top 40 songs of 2006
- Top 25 albums of 2007
- Top 40 songs of 2007
- Top 25 albums of 2008
- Top 40 songs of 2008
- Top 30 albums of 2009
- Top 40 songs of 2009
- Top 25 albums of 2010
- Top 40 songs of 2010
- Top 15 albums of 2011
- Top 40 songs of 2011
- Top 20 albums of 2012
- Top 40 songs of 2012
- Top 30 albums of 2013
- Top 50 songs of 2013
- Top 25 albums of 2014
- Top 50 songs of 2014
- Top 30 albums of 2015
- Top 50 songs of 2015
- Top 15 albums of 2016
- Top 40 songs of 2016
- Top 25 albums of 2017
- Top 50 songs of 2017
- Top 30 albums of 2018
- Top 50 songs of 2018
Music links
- Hype Machine
- elbo.ws
- Music for Kids Who Can't Read Good
- Can you see the sunset from the southside?
- Hits in the Car
- A Certain Romance
- Herohill
- Speed of Dark
- Lost in your Inbox
- Vague Space
- Skatterbrain
- I Guess I'm Floating
- Largehearted Boy
- Neon Gold
- Another Form of Relief
- Cover Lay Down
- The Monsters Under the Bed Are Not Real
- Yellow Stereo
- Quick Before It Melts
- Knox Road
- Sand is Overrated
- Shake Your Fist
Recent Comments
- my blog on Top 20 Albums of 2005
- Heather on The Beatles from worst to first
- Documentcmh on Review: Restorations – LP5000
- bukauser on With four worn out limbs and not one love song
- Universalxqa on Review: Restorations – LP5000
Archives
Meta
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Tag Archives: album review
Review: The Day – Midnight Parade
Midnight Parade by The Day We’re less than a month into 2019 and already have a strong contender for album of the year. The debut record from The Day, a collaboration between Laura Loeters and Gregor Sonnenberg, is almost the … Continue reading
We burn these joints in effigy and cry about what we used to be
Elephant – Jason Isbell Live Oak – Jason Isbell Honest, heart-wrenching, desolate, beautiful, bleak. Hopeful. One of the most astonishing records you’ll ever hear. Southeastern is the living document of a man coming face to face with his demons and triumphing. But … Continue reading
To sleep: perchance to dream
Labyrinthine – Julianna Barwick Many people make ambient music – where glacially slow movements are designed to hypnotize us, to give us a sense the deep structures of the world around us. And many other people make inspirational music – which … Continue reading
She told me how to play the industry and keep my heart
Complacent ft. Problem – Rapsody The comparisons to Lauryn Hill are so obvious that it’s impossible not to start there. Pick a couple tracks from She Got Game, release them as an EP of lost tracks from Miseducation, and I think … Continue reading
Feel the coolness of my gaze
Troublemaker – Camera Obscura A wonderful return to form from a wonderful band. I wasn’t in love with the more compressed sonic feeling of My Maudlin Career, so it’s truly delightful to hear this record mostly return to the looser, ambling … Continue reading
The universe is a symphony of vibrating strings
Vital – Grouper In a year full of wonderful ambient records, none were as astonishing as The Man Who Died in His Boat. It gives voice to the deep structures of the universe: its vastness, the empty reaches of space. But also … Continue reading
He’s the laureate of the Granite State
Pink-Slips – Okkervil River Let’s start by saying that The Silver Gymnasium is a very good album. It reverses the decade-long trend of each successive Okkervil River album being slightly worse than the one that came before. And while it still … Continue reading
No radio can drown it out
Come Back Big Brother – The Rutabega I feel like the dominant trend in music these days is the power of cool. Synths, sleek rhythms, laid-back beats: these are the sounds of the millennium. Even the return of disco, which seems … Continue reading
Praise the water under bridges, the time they say will heal
New Lover – Josh Ritter Of all the reasons to write a song, few make for better material than the broken heart. Some of the all-time great records have been the soundtracks to the darkest days of crumbling relationships and divorce. … Continue reading
And the angel’s body was bared, and he was clothed in light so that eye could not look on him
Isjaki – Sigur Ros I think this is the best Sigur Ros album yet. It still has all the features that have made this one of the most distinct bands in the world: the soaring incomprehensible lyrics, the sweeping soundscapes, the … Continue reading