My Belated "Best Music of the 2010s" Post

And what about this decade?

It's tough enough finding time to listen to at least 60 new releases a year --rock, hip-hop, jazz or otherwise-- and whittle it down to my favorite 20. The task is harder when you find an album you enjoyed from a particular year, but you discover it after the fact. Sometimes said album doesn't quite hold up as the brilliant piece of art that you thought it once was.

Forgive the forced wordplay, but 2020 is the so-called "year of hindsight," and for my first blog of the calendar year I'm looking back (and wincing) at my past music blogs. Initially, the only rule is set for myself is that there is a minimum of one album from each of the last ten years on this list. (Some albums have aged better than others, KANYE.) Call it wonky, call out some omissions, but I think these 10 albums will stand the test of time.

(NOTE: parenthesized numbers are for the year of release, and original rank)

1. My Dark Twisted Fantasy, Kanye West (2010, #1)
2. To Pimp a Butterfly, Kendrick Lamar (2015, #1)
3. The Suburbs, Arcade Fire (2010, #2)
4. Lemonade, Beyonce (2016, #2)
5. DAMN., Kendrick Lamar (2017, #1)
6. Agent Orange, Frank Ocean (2012, #1)
7. Lazarus, David Bowie (2016, #1)
8. St. Vincent, St. Vincent (2014, #1)
9. Titanic Rising, Weyes Blood (2019, #1)
10. A Seat at the Table, Solange (2016, NR)

Honorable Mentions: Civilian, Wye Oak (2011, NR), Random Access Memories, Daft Punk (2013, #2), 7, Beach House (2018, #1).

I meant to post this right after New Year's, but better late than never. Onto the next post.

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That Wonderful Year in Music... 2019

I've reviewed nearly six decades of music. From my experience, the last year of any given decade is either a high point or culmination (1969, 1979) or... simply not (1989, 2009). I'm relieved to say this year falls into the former category. Any year ending in 9 offers an opportunity for hindsight, and some of musical trends in the latter half of the decade flourished and persisted into 2019. Eclecticism ruled, but specifically it was a banner year for female-identifying songwriters. 2019 goes to toe-to-toe with 2010 and 2016 as the best years for music in this past decade, and this is just a sampling of why.

BEST ALBUMS:
1. Titanic Rising, Weyes Blood. Full confession: I'm a sucker for lush orchestration. Fans of Cocteau Twins and Low (and to some degree, 1970s FM radio) will not be out of place listening to Natalie Mering and company's fourth effort. The songcraft is driven and confident, simultaneously meandering and meticulously detailed.
2. Bandana, Freddie Gibbs & Madlib. I feel bad for sleeping on their first collaboration, 2014's Pinata. That album established FG&M as a formidable hip-hop duo, and Bandana, their major label debut, augments their building legend. The beats on here are insane.
3. Magdalene, FKA Twigs. Speaking of 2014, another album worth the wait. Tahilah Barnett (aka Twigs) suffered for her art in the past half-decade: the end of a long-term relationship, followed by a battle with uterine fibroids, inform her "resurrection" as a modern-day Mary Magdalene.
4. All Mirrors, Angel Olsen
5. Shea Butter Baby, Ari Lennox
6. When I Get Home, Solange
7. Reward, Cate Le Bon
8. Norman F***ing Rockwell, Lana Del Rey
9. Ventura, Anderson .Paak
10. Pony, Orville Peck.  Imagine Chris Isaak meeting David Lynch. This is not your father's country album.

11. My Finest Work Yet, Andrew Bird
12. On The Line, Jenny Lewis
13. Igor, Tyler, The Creator
14. I Am Easy to Find, The National
15. Remind Me Tomorrow, Sharon Van Etten. An indie darling and coffee house favorite, Van Etten traded composing on guitar for piano for her most recent work. The result was a more emotionally naked, ferociously beautiful piece of art and maybe her best album yet.
16. Grey Area, Little Simz
17. ANIMA, Thom Yorke
18. Hiding Places, Billy Woods & Kenny Segal
19. Ginger, Brockhampton
20. Father of the Bride, Vampire Weekend. The remaining trio weathered a personnel change, switched coasts, and met some new collaborators in the six years since Modern Vampires of the City. It's not necessarily a new sound for VW, but all these changes made for more mature songwriting and a laid-back, more optimistic aesthetic.

BEST JAZZ ALBUMS:
1. Glitter Wolf, Allison Miller's Boom Tic Boom. In some ways, the globe-hopping Miller has become a Ser Brianne of Tarth for modern creative jazz: a tall, imposing warrior that can no longer be underestimated. Miller's ability an edge to the softest music, while darting from klezmer to post-bop to Cuban jazz, is hard to match.
2. Fly or Die II: Bird Dogs of Paradise, Jaimie Branch
3. 12 Little Spells, Esperanza Spaulding
4. Trust in the Lifeforce of the Deep Mystery, The Comet is Coming
5. Immigrance, Snarky Puppy

Best Album of 2019 Some People Recommended But I Haven't Heard Yet: Crush, Floating Points. I'll listen to it on Spotify soon enough. Mea culpa, I ran out of time.

SINGLES (in no order):
"The Best," Self Esteem
"Like Sugar," Shaka Khan
"Doubt," Radical Face
"No Squares," Chika
"No Bullets Spent," Spoon
"Forever Half Mast," Lucy Dacus
"Heaven Help Me," Lizzo
"Truth Hurts," Lizzo
"Peach Fuzz," Caamp
"Some Mutts (Can't Be Muzzled)," Amyl and The Sniffers

"Turn the Light," Karen O. and Danger Mouse
"Bad Guy," Billie Eilish
"Boys in the Better Land," Fontaines D.C.
"Mumbay," Sarathy Korwar
"Fire," Black Pumas
"Last Straw," Nerija
"Supernature," Modern Nature
"Sing Along," Sturgill Simpson
"Stay High," Brittany Howard
"Bad Idea!" girl in red

Best Song of 2019 That I Didn't Realize Was a 51-Year-Old Buffalo Springfield Cover: "Questions," Jakob Dylan feat. Eric Clapton and Stephen Stills

Best Song of 2019 I Found in 2025 and I Felt Obligated to Edit This Post: "Houseplants," Squid

BEST VIDEOS:
1. "ANIMA," Thom Yorke. This Netflix exclusive, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson (who also helmed the HAIM clip, see below) embraces its own Charlie Chaplin-meets-Kurt Weill vibe.
2. "Akindo Fighter," Emiko Shibamura. The type of music video that has to be experienced and digested whole, the story behind this sixty-something Japanese rapper and her "vision" is not something I can encapsulate here.
3. "Kids Turned Out Fine," A$AP Rocky. It's an understatement to say music videos in the YouTube age have grown more experimental and obtuse, and Rocky is just one artist has both enabled and benefited from this new frontier. Known for making dead-serious social commentary *and* goofy, drugged-out clips, "Kids" lands somewhere in between with mesmerizing results.
4. "Holy Water," Galantis. Synchronized swimming in an underappreciated art.
5. "Unemployed," Tierra Whack. A deliciously (pun intended) macabre video about sentient potatoes, as Whack wittily riffs on hating your job.
6. "Land of the Free," The Killers. The Spike Lee/Brandon Flowers collab we didn't know we needed.
7. "Hand Solo," Marika Hackman. It's a double entendre. I'll let you figure it out.
8. "Red Bull and Hennessey," Jenny Lewis. A song of the year candidate beyond a doubt, the video is behind the scenes footage of a music video concept that didn't come together. At least they didn't completely waste Jeff Goldblum and Beck.
9. "Almeda," Solange. As oblique as the album it came from, this clip is a surreal bliss-out, a brown and black moodscape about identity and individuality.
10. "Summer Girl," HAIM. That's a lot of shirts.

Honorable Mention: "Compliance," Preoccupations. All hail the tree creature!

Your thoughts?

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Random Notes, December 2019

Happy holidays, all 20 of you:

+ Any hope for removing Donald Trump from office will die in the senate. Even though the impeachment has relatively coasted through the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives --on partisan lines, naturally-- its hard to imagine anyone in the historically unilateral GOP to flip on Trump. History will serve the House Democrats well, but the nation and government alike are polarized. If anything, this will potentially shape up the 2020 election as a feast for incumbents; both the left and right have galvanized their bases, like happy warriors for their respective causes. At least now Trump has the stigma of not being able to be pardoned.

+ I still can't quite make heads or tails of the Bears' rollercoaster season. Perhaps the hype was too much, I don't think any one person or party is to blame. I suppose some of the onus lies on Mitch Trubisky, a capable but admittedly inconsistent quarterback. The defense did their job, as long as Khalil Mack was healthy. Matt Nagy was brilliant one second and confounding the next. At the same time, the Packers and Vikings both improved their respective defenses, and if you look at the big picture, all three teams were just wailing on the Lions. Onward to 2020, I suppose.

+ I haven't seen Episode IX yet, and I have no inclination to see "Cats." No spoilers please, and thank you for asking.

In a Few Days: the year in music, 2019.

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Two Random Notes, Late November 2019

I have a lot to catch up on:

+ The impeachment process has been damning so far. No matter how conservative news/talk radio spins it, the Ukraine infraction should be the end of the Trump administration. If President Trump wants to prove his innocence, he can't just tweet his alibi. I would love to see him --or more likely, his inner circle-- testify before Congress. I mean, I can wish... right?

+ It's Thanksgiving weekend, and I am thankful for having some financial stability (for now), being able to explore the world, a friendly and accommodating roommate, my friends, and my remaining family. I give a hearty "no thanks" to political gridlock, right-wing echo chambers, and gaslighting.

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An Unintended Hiatus

A lot has happened since my previous dispatch, so much that I've gone nearly a month without writing (a possible record). Rather than go chronologically, I'll sum everything up in order of importance:

On November 5th, I finally moved back to Chicago. I now live in a third-floor walk-up on the northwest side. I hate that it took as long as it did, but it came down to both money and finding the right living situation. At the same time, I am now considerably closer to my social circle and improv shenanigans. My sister will be staying at the parents' house in Downers for the time being, but she intends to get a mortgage and start clearing out by mid-2021.

As some of you know, I'm part of a charitable organization that does short-form improv for sick children in hospitals. We have monthly rehearsals, and at our August session we had an impromptu discussion about gender identity and representation. After rehearsal, a longtime member of the group asked the person (they use they/their pronouns) a follow-up question, partially to clarify. The gender non-conforming person lost their cool, and our new director was forced to intervene.

One thing lead to another, but the guy that asked the question ended up leaving the organization under pressure. Just before he quit, however the GNC person then sent a long-winded email where they called the guy transphobic, implied a boycott of performing of shows, and threatened legal action. It wasn't the organization's intent to let the GNC person go, but that email forced their hand. Emotions are frayed all over, but I hope everyone can get past this ugly incident.

About six weeks ago, I unintentionally mansplained on the status update of a friend's Facebook post. Soon after, a second woman (another Chicago-based comedian) commented to double down. I apologized to both via DM, but the damage was done. I spent that weekend in a shame spiral, augmented by anxiety. Suffice to say,  I fucked up pretty hard.

For now, I suppose I'm hiding in plain sight. My 2019 has been driven by how I connect with people, and how that can be an outward struggle for myself. Being in the Chicago comedy community (improv, stand-up, and otherwise) has become more like a navigation between egos and narcissism. I am perpetually walking on eggshells, especially on social media.

Next Week: my 15th annual Thanks/No Thanks list.

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Take Me Out of the Ballgame

WARNING: yet another sports post

As a regular attendee of minor league baseball games, I am observing with curiosity and trepidation how MLB and MiLB devise a plan for mass contraction. The proposal of folding 42 teams is drastic, but sadly necessary. Baseball is a sport at a crossroads, and shaving a little off the bottom is just one problem it needs to address.

Let's begin with the obvious: Minor League Baseball is massive to the point of unwieldy. All 30 Major League Baseball teams have at least six minor league affiliates. Teams in the four highest levels (Triple-A, Double-A, High-A, Single-A) are practically mandatory are development reasons, but some teams forgo or choose between the lower levels (Low/Short Season A, Rookie League). There's about 200 teams in all, spread all across the United States and Vancouver, BC, with each league mostly confined to a particular region. The higher you go in a team's farm system, the incremental likelihood that you'll make it to the Majors.

One pattern I've noticed is that the higher the MiLB affiliate, the larger the city. Just about major American city you can think of that doesn't have a major league team (Las Vegas, Nashville, Buffalo, etc.) has a Double- or Triple-A team. Going into 2020, New Orleans and Portland, OR will be largest without any affiliated baseball at all --there are teams in nearby cities-- but that might change soon. That also means the low minors are typically in small towns and more rural areas; I doubt people are going out of their way to see the brightest young prospects in, say, Johnson City, TN or Bluefield, VA.

Even though the low minors offer some cost-effective summer entertainment with minimal travel, they work on a flawed business model. The stadiums they play in are often small, decrepit, or both and there's just enough money from local government to make small renovations. For instance, the Beloit Snappers (the Oakland A's Single-A team) play in rusty, outmoded Pohlman Field. The park is in the middle of a subdivision, which prohibits any expansion. Attempts to build a new stadium in downtown Beloit have failed repeatedly. Despite the team's proximity to Madison, WI the ballpark is the second-smallest in the league (allegedly 3,500 capacity) and frequently in the bottom five for attendance. Even when the Snappers fielded a competitive team, late season tickets and concession items were often offered for 50% off. I openly wondered how this whole thing turns a profit.

I have made the 90-minute drive to Pohlman Field on three occasions. On my first trip, I was astonished by how the basic the stadium felt compared to others in the Midwest League. Pohlman looks and feels like a run-down YMCA. Over 80% of the seats are aluminum bleachers, and players and coaches are obligated to cross the concourse to go to the barn-like clubhouse. The upgrades that other minor league ballparks have received, including clubhouses under the stands, in have been glossed over in Beloit largely for financial reasons. Unfortunately, there is reason to speculate that the Snappers and their similarly woebegone rival the Burlington Bees (Angels' Single-A) will be among the 42 contracted.

A saturation of pro baseball is an emerging problem. MLB attendance is both decreasing and getting older. Tickets are too expensive for the average fan --blame all those ridiculous contracts-- and a lot of people prefer minor league games because they're way more cost-effective (myself included). However, the price doesn't increase much as you climb through the system. For instance, box seats for the Single-A Kane County Cougars cost two dollars less than similar seats at a Triple-A Indianapolis Indians game. Both can be purchased for under $20. Considering an average Indians player is a lot closer to Major League ready than that Cougars player, the economics are bit wonky. It doesn't help that the average MiLB player makes a paltry income; only a select few top prospects get plump contract bonuses.

What becomes of independent and non-affiliated professional baseball? That aspect is oddly feast or famine. Like their minor league brethren, pro teams without an MiLB designation are faring better in larger metropolitan areas than in more rural, isolated areas. Indie ball is also more serendipitous, with teams folding, merging, and moving almost annually. Without that MLB parent money, the indie teams pay for their own players, and tend to lose money almost on travel alone. It's possible that some soon-to-be former MiLB teams will go the indie route, but at their own risk.

I support contraction, but with some reservations. The 42 teams that are speculated to be thinned out mostly play in towns and regions where the team is a reasonable, but flawed source of revenue. Creating a more satisfactory stadium experience, regardless of how necessary or extraneous it might be, could be too much for some teams and prove to be the X factor. It will also potentially alienate more fans from what some still consider the national pastime.

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