Song Chronicle

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imacgill




Location: Toronto
Canada

  • #71
  • Posted: 11/23/2022 22:08
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I wanna go home
Go back to small things
I don't belong here
Nobody knows me
How can I go on?
With all those old dreams
I am the ghost now
Living those old scenes


I saw a trailer for a new Sam Mendes movie and it was soundtracked by a familiar voice. The film is titled "Empire of Light", starring Olivia Colman, is one of those big cinematic dramas released at Christmas just in time to woo Academy Award voters. The song they chose to promote the movie is "Go Home" by Angel Olsen, a singer also known for being cinematic, at least from the production her last couple of albums.

The song is from the singer-songwriter's Big Time released earlier this spring and one of the best of the year. She has switched gears from the art pop of her last record, All Mirrors, and has added country to her folk rock stylings. However, "Go Home" is more towering and awash with reverb and is more akin to the songs of All Mirrors. Angel Olsen has become more popular over the last few years and the lyrics reflect that she thinks that she does not belong while yearning for simpler times.

Angel Olsen's Big Time currently sits at Number 12 on my Top Albums of 2022.


Big Time by Angel Olsen
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imacgill




Location: Toronto
Canada

  • #72
  • Posted: 11/27/2022 21:43
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I happened upon the 2022 Rock & Roll Induction ceremony the other day and decided to watch some of it, even know the event is another one of those Vegas style schmaltzy made-for TV shows, but it was nice to see acts like Duran Duran and The Eurythmics perform.

One of the other inductees was Carly Simon who couldn't be there because of the recent passing of her two sisters. I can't profess to ever listening to any of her albums, but I do remember she was a mainstay on 70's AM radio. My parents would always listen to the local soft rock station, and she would be played in regular rotation along with artists like Billy Joel, Chris Cross and Orleans. She had some nice songs that most people will recognize like "You're So Vain, "Anticipation" (I remember this song from a ketchup commercial), and the "The Spy Who Loved Me Bond" theme "Nobody Does It Better" (Anna Faris does a hilarious rendition of this song in the movie "Lost in Translation"). One of my favourite Carly Simon songs is actually a cover and I didn't know it was a cover until I started writing this post. The song "It Keeps You Runnin'" is a light jazz rock song that was originally written and released by The Doobie Brothers and was sung by Michael McDonald. I kinda remember that now, but I do like Simon's version of the song better.

The song is taken from Carly Simon's 1976 album Another Passenger.


Another Passenger by Carly Simon
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imacgill




Location: Toronto
Canada

  • #73
  • Posted: 11/29/2022 02:05
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I imagine the CIA playing this song on a loop to force some dictator out of exile or just to torture some poor sap that they may have captured and are trying to force a confession.

Portishead's "Machine Gun" is the best song from 2008 and is from the second best album of 2008, Third. The minimalism of this track is overshadowed paradoxically by its epic-ness; the thumping beats hit you over the head like a hammer and Beth Gibbons cold vocals could freeze over a lake.... and then there is the doom-like synthesizer that fades in at the end. This is the best Industrial song ever created by a non-industrial band. Barrow/Gibbons/Utley went off into left field after reuniting in 2008 and created a monster. 90's Trip-hop is amazing but has become a retro Adult Alternative favourite. The music of the reunited Portishead is definitely not Trip-hop and is guaranteed never to be part of a Starbuck's music playlist.

Top 100 Music Albums of 2008


Third by Portishead
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imacgill




Location: Toronto
Canada

  • #74
  • Posted: 12/01/2022 01:39
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Rest easy Christine McVie...


Mirage by Fleetwood Mac
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imacgill




Location: Toronto
Canada

  • #75
  • Posted: 12/03/2022 00:52
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"Beautiful Thing" is just that, a very beautiful thing.

In 2011, Manchester band The Stone Roses made a comeback after breaking up in 1996 by announcing a couple of hometown gigs, signing a new record deal and promising new music would be on the way. Fast forward to 2016 and the band release a very bad single titled "All For One", and you think that maybe they should have stuck to a live reunion and resisted the temptation to record new music . Then a few weeks later they came out with a second single titled" A Beautiful Thing", a song so good you wonder why they didn't release it earlier and shelf the awful first single. Hopes were high for a new album, but the band members really don't get along and they quietly broke up again. The psychedelic blissful "Beautiful Thing" fits perfectly into the classic Stones Roses ouevre and sadly it will probably the last song the Stone Roses will ever release.
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imacgill




Location: Toronto
Canada

  • #76
  • Posted: 12/04/2022 22:44
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I went for lunch the other day to my favourite burger joint and while I was awaiting my order I was quietly enjoying their music playlist. The songs were mostly Alternative R&B tracks but smack dab in the middle of the playlist came the Cults song "Gilded Lily" and it sounded so good that it instantaneously put a smile on my face.

Cults have been somewhat forgotten since their great self titled debut, a record full of brilliant dream pop and hook-y songs with elements of 60's pop. They were one of those bands that got hot because of blog press and their song "Go Outside" quickly became popular on The Hype Machine website. I remember going to see Cults live, based on that single, when they opened for a math rock band called Maps & Atlases (odd mis-match). They played everything off of what would become their debut LP and I remember leaving thinking theses guys are going to be huge. It didn't quite work out that way; they got a "Best New Music" rating from Pitchfork and toured the crap out of that album (I saw them twice more) but the buzz quickly died down for the band with their inconsistent second album Static.

Cults have quietly released three albums since their debut, but have failed to create the same magic on subsequent releases. That doesn't mean there haven't been great songs. "Gilded Lily" is the final track from their third record Offering and is one of their best.


Offering by Cults
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imacgill




Location: Toronto
Canada

  • #77
  • Posted: 12/06/2022 04:11
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Hometown pride today as Pitchfork named the Alvvays track "Belinda Says" as the top song of 2022. It's kind surprising in a way as their hook laden hit "Adult Diversion" didn't make it into Pitchfork's 2014 list and their twee as fuck track "Archie, Marry Me" came in at number 59 on the same list.

Their album Blue Rev is one of the best of the year, of course, and its will be interesting to see where it will end up on aggregate sites like Metacritic and AOTY, but it will be hard pressed to beat albums from Kendrick Lamar and Big Thief. It's currently Number 4 on my 2022 chart but that could always change.

It's hardly surprising that this band is as good as it is. Molly Rankin comes from a folk/celtic music family that is pretty well known in Canada, especially on the East Coast, and guitarist Alec O'Hanley used to be in the much missed indie rock band Two Hours Traffic.

And a Canadian made an appearance at Number 2, as well, as Destroyer makes an appearance with his song "June", a guy (Dan Bejar) that I have actually kinda/sorta met. He politely asked for a chair from our table before a gig he was doing with The New Pornographers...but that's a story for another day.

Pitchfork's Top 100 Songs of 2022


Blue Rev by Alvvays
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imacgill




Location: Toronto
Canada

  • #78
  • Posted: 12/07/2022 03:38
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The title of this track is perfect for those of us who hate to rush the holiday season, although this is not a Christmas song.

"Christmas Can Wait" is taken from The Besnard Lakes 2021 album The Besnard Lakes Are the Last of the Great Thunderstorm Warnings, the sixth record of epic psychedelic songs from the Montreal group that features the husband and wife duo of Jace Lasek and Olga Goreas.

Looking forward to seeing this band live again whenever they make the trip down to 401 to play Toronto.


The Besnard Lakes Are The Last Of The G...nard Lakes

Top 100 Music Albums of 2021
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imacgill




Location: Toronto
Canada

  • #79
  • Posted: 12/10/2022 04:10
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Exitmusic were an indie duo that released three pretty nice dream pop albums before calling it a day in 2018. The duo featured Winnipeg musician Devon Church and singer Aleksa Palladino, who were married when their band first started but split up right at the time they released their final album.

Palladino might be better known as an actress and has been featured in Halt and Catch Fire, and the role I know her best from, the character Angela Darmody in the HBO show Boardwalk Empire. As a fan of Boardwalk Empire it was nice to see Exitmusic live, and get up close and personal to one of the shows stars when they opened for The Joy Formidable and A Place to Bury Strangers.

"The Modern Age" is probably Exitmusic's best and most known song and it is taken from their 2012 album Passage.


Passage by Exitmusic
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imacgill




Location: Toronto
Canada

  • #80
  • Posted: 12/11/2022 22:34
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Back in the early 1980's when hardcore punk was taking over America from Washington D.C. to Southern California, there was a band from the Northwest U.S. who made a more progressive form of punk rock. Wipers were from Portland Oregon who made multiple records through the 80's and 90's and were a huge influence on Pacific Northwest bands including Nirvana. In 1981 they recorded something decidedly different than the hardcore albums at the time with a batch of songs where not one track is less than three minutes in length.

The centrepiece of the record is the ten minute plus title track which at the time might have been the longest recorded punk song. The lyrics were emblematic of the time when Reagan first came to power in the U.S. and was implementing "trickle down" economic policies that were leaving many people, including young Americans, disaffected. The song which includes an un-punk like guitar solo sounds a bit like Television if they were a harder edged band.


Youth Of America by Wipers
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