Sunday, January 28, 2018

My Favorite Music of 2017

It is the Grammys, so I wrote a blog on the music I liked in 2017.
            I don’t listen to a lot of music.  I have the Pandora app which I utilize for a solid 5-12 hours a month (I am more of an audio book guy), and regardless all of the stations I listen to trend in two directions depending on starting point.
If it is post-1990 it trends toward The Black Keys (which is odd, as I own none of their music).  If it is pre-1990 it all gravitates toward Blue Oyster Cult (less odd, I grew up as a classic rock guy).  There are of course times when I take deliberate sidetracks into Michael Jackson style pop, but I think that is because he is the star in the center of that pre/post 1990 split.

It is a "Pop Star".
I don’t drive much and the radio in there is often just plugged into… again audio books.  My contact with I Hart Radio (the death rattle of culture set to a steady rhythm) is limited.  As such, the only time I really listen to pop music is on youtube when I am at work.
            I often fall into tasks that require too much focus for me to simultaneously listen to a book, but are boring enough that if I did not have some other stimulation… I would probably walk myself into traffic…  Who can relate?

            SO!  Youtube....

Decided to slap together a short list of songs I liked last year.  I tried to pull only from songs that came out in 2017, though not all of them are hits I am sure you have heard a few and… liked them?  I don’t know.  Feel free to say that I focus too much on populist tripe.  I do.
            In no particular order, here are some songs I liked.


Praying” and “Rainbow” by Kesha
            Let’s continue with two songs that kind of make me feel sad when I listen.  This is because of the ridiculous and unpleasant air that swirls around them at all times.  At least, it has a bad air if you know anything about the life and times of its creator.
            Kesha, even when she created the kayfabe esc character of the brain-dead party girl to play some cosmic bit of performance art on the world has always been operating on another level.  It was clear she had the mind that was able to shift and evolve as music shifted to something new.  It was only a matter of time before she changed from party music to something deeper and richer.
            REALLY wish she did not have to suffer a massive criminal victimization and lengthy legal battle in her life, but it is NOT AT ALL HARD TO SEE those events having an impact on her work and artistic voice.  I am a firm believer in this quote by John Green, “I don’t subscribe to the notion that suffering is somehow ennobling; it sucks.”
            It sucks that Kesha went thru what she went thru.  I hope that the sentiment of these songs, that she is moving on to make art and healing, is a legitimate sentiment and not a brave front.

Obsession” by Ok Go
            And to dramatically shift tone away from sexual battery… Because this was supposed to be a fun blog about pop music…  Let’s talk about a band that I kind of have nostalgia for.
Ok Go won a Grammy for “Here it Goes Again” back in 2007, the year I graduated from under grad.  I recall walking to Target to buy that CD, and I think a season of “Justice League Unlimited” on DVD.  Probably different days.
            Regardless of the Justice League’s involvement, I listened to that album a thousand times and still from time to time drop into the world of Ok Go to watch their latest music video… ALL OF WHICH ARE GOD DAMNED MASTERPEICES.  “Obsession” carries on that trend.


            To mix discussions of Kesha evolving and Ok Go nostalgia.
I am kind of nostalgic for Paramore.  They were always on the fringe of my awareness.  I think I confused them with Evanescence strangely enough.  But when I look back at their stuff it is hard to look at “crushcrushcrush” or “That’s What You Get” and say it is from the same band as “Hard Times”.  Their older stuff feels more angry and full of bravado, while “Hard Times” sounds floating and upbeat.

Feel it Still” by Portugal. The Man
            For much the same reasons I have been listening to Bruno Mars’ music bringing a retro-funk feel to the world of pop music, “Feel it Still” flat out name checks the era of rebellious music it is channeling.  I can grove to this song, it makes me want to walk rhythmically down a hall while twirling a cane.

Whatever it Takes” by Imagine Dragons
            Most of the songs by Imagine Dragons were kind of pointless and thudding this last year.  That while I initially liked them they quickly wore out the welcome.  “Whatever it Takes” does not have that deficiency.  It starts with a gentle floating instrumental, then hard cuts into a racing delivery of lyrics, before building momentum, and a chorus that hits triumphantly.
            Some songs pull and push images in my mind and often times when I find myself creating my own montage to the music I feel that it worked.


            I like Halsey.  Especially when she wails like she does in this.  The idea that the woman in this had relationships with both men and women and they ended for a myriad of reasons makes for a good little story/reminiscing song.  It is not so much the character is bad at love, it is that she fell for people that it did not work out with.  That isn’t bad at love, that is bad at… picking targets?

The Story of OJ” by JAY-Z
            I am not a hip hop guy and I think that the music video sold this song to my white-guy sensibilities more than the song on its own.  BUT!  Let me emphasize that while I am not going to listen to this song for fun, I do feel that it has pushed a good bit of personal reflection on race and my place in it.  I admire Jay-Z as a guy who very much is the American Dream, starting from a low point and is now a king of his industry, artist and businessman.
            I would not have taken as much to this song without watching this review by the Rap Critic, a youtuber who did a detailed run down of the content and also links to reviews of the old style cartoons the music video uses as a reference for what it is presenting.

 “Castle on the Hill” by Ed Sheeran
            This is his best song.  It is perhaps the best song about nostalgia I have heard in a long time.  It is an earnest reminiscing about a time in one’s life that started a trajectory.  It feels real, and whether that is because it comes from a real and true place in Ed’s life, or he is just that gifted a performer, I do not know.
I have found myself rather nostalgic, not for when I was a teen/kid, but instead for recent history, seeing the multitude of little failings, little shortfalls that ate up so much time and so much effort and wanting to return to those moments, not wishing I could change them, but to grant myself peace over those mistakes, that I have felt guilt enough, that I should be allowed to move on.

New Rules” by Dua Lipa
            Maybe it is just me, but I think that most of music is about the positive aspects of being in a relationship and the worst aspects of a relationship falling apart.  The old expression, “You know you are in love when all the songs on the radio start to make sense”.
            But I think “New Rules” is a place I haven’t heard a catchy tune to before.  A person trying to get out of a relationship that is destructive, and it requires an act of will.  Bad relationships can still be fun, fulfilling, or just hot.  There are reasons people stay in those relationships and get back into them once out.  A song about making yourself stay out by recognizing the pattern you fall into and trying to break it… that is interesting.


            This is a strange song that seems to be about how deadening to the senses pop culture (and really all of Americana culture) can be.  The music video is explicitly about that and illustrates it thru a variety of cute visuals.  I find this song strangely catchy, and I suppose that irony pushes it up a notch for me.
            I liked her other single “Bon Appetit” too, but as it is her second song that is a protracted metaphor about sex and is not nearly as good as “Birthday” so I am not giving it its own call out.

Beautiful Trauma” by Pink
            One day I may get tired of this one type of song Pink has been releasing for the last decade.  I doubt it though, as she keeps putting a fresh spin and presentation on the ideas presented in it.  I like her.  I have never been the type of guy who gets celebrity crushes, but I find Pink to be super attractive, her look, her vibe, the fact that she clearly has lived an interesting personal history that she has grown thru and from.
            I also just find eclectic short hair on women attractive (to tie this in with Katy Perry and Halsey above).

1-800-273-8255” by Logic ft. Alessia Cara and Khalid
            I feel that the topic of self-destructive behavior and the idea that death is an escape needs to be addressed.  This song got a lot of play and while it is not the only song to deal with such a topic, and it is by no means a perfect song (Who can relate!? WOO!)  I feel that it has a haunting quality that makes the subject matter stick harder.
            Even the “WOO!” has a kind of layer to it.  Let me slow down and decompress that “WOO!” to illustrate all the subtext: “WOoooo I can only explore the topic of depression and feelings of hopelessness paving the way to my self-annihilation thru veils of irony because the stigma against suicidal thoughts is so ingrained in our culture that it contributes to the feeling of being trapped and death being a reasonable outlet oooooOOOOO!”
            There is a lot being said in that “WOO!”


Heavy” by Linkin Park, featuring Kiiara
            Let’s end this light-hearted exploration of pop music from 2017 by keeping on track and talking about suicide.  Chester Bennington took his own life last year and it affected me more than I had anticipated.  While Linkin Park’s music had always had a dire element to it, I felt that was something that was to be overcome.  To fight back against.
            It is impossible to look at the ultimate fate of Chester Bennington without that event retroactively contextualizing the entire discography of Linkin Park.  Every instance of unbearable pain; lasting anguish; anger being thrown in all directions; and the ever-present sense of departure, divestment, and letting go.  All of these things are tied into songs like “What I’ve Done”, “Breaking the Habit”, or “Crawling in my Skin”.
            The song, “Heavy” serves almost as the last epitaph for the man whose songs often expressed the directionless teen and young adult anger and sadness that I just could not wrap my own head around.  Where do you go when you are your own worst enemy?  How do you deal with a world that feels like a load too heavy to hold?  I don’t know, and I am sorry that Chester did not find a way to deal with his inner demons a little longer.


            I am going to leave that there.  I hope that the Grammys are entertaining to those who watch them (I don’t) and I hope that they give awards to a variety of artists that are pushing the artform (I respect lots of performers while admitting that their stuff is not really my thing, hello Kendrick Lamar, I hope you are well, “DNA.” Is pretty good.)

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