Category Archives: Uncategorized

I’m actually sort of shocked at how narrowcast my list ended up this year. I feel like I listened to a lot of stuff in a lot of different genres, and liked plenty of it. But as albums, I just … Continue reading →

I’ve been doing end-of-year music lists for over 20 years now. My first was back in 2005 (my album of the year was Sufjan Stevens – Illinois). I’ve moved to a new location for most things these days, but wanted … Continue reading →

Several years behind the trend, that’s how I like to do things. But anyway, I decided to make a Substack. It’s called Top Comment and I’d love it if you came on over. It’s not primarily about music. More about culture, … Continue reading →

Where are the rock songs of yesteryear? As I was putting together this list, I noticed that the number of rock songs, even if you define the idea pretty broadly, was shockingly low. That isn’t a new trend–the number of rock … Continue reading →

For the first time in almost two decades, I didn’t do my end-of-year lists in 2023. It was partly a case of life getting ahead of me. Parenting is a lot of work, and our second baby arrived three weeks … Continue reading →

It’s the biggest cliche, but it turns out to be true: when you have a kid, it gets a lot harder to listen to new music. Part of it is simple math. There are just a finite number of hours … Continue reading →

I’ve been writing up my lists of favorite albums here for fifteen years now. This is the first year in all that time that I don’t have full writeups on all the albums that I’d like to cover. I tried … Continue reading →

These lists are always a sort of personal soundtrack. They remind me of where I was and what I was doing each year. More than anything this year, ‘where I was and what I was doing’ was very simple: at … Continue reading →

I want to offer some vaccine optimism. I see a lot of negative feelings out there, and I understand them. This has been a terrible year, and it sometimes feels like even the good news is drowned by the never-ending … Continue reading →