A friend recently asked, “what’s the most beautiful piece of music you’ve heard in the last five years?”
This was my answer.
the best album of 2024 (so far)
What an interesting idea. (And what a nerd.) I’m in.
ps. Listen to Vulfpeck. They’re great.
Feist and Hundreds of Choir Members Sing ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ in Tribute to Sinéad O’Connor
Feist. Prince. Sinéad. Three of my favorite artists.
In death, I hope Sinéad found peace, and in that way, it doesn’t hurt.
But the loss of Prince still moves me to tears, almost eight years later.
Eight years.
For one night’s opener, Usher wore a white three-piece suit: slacks and a tailored shirt with a vest. He held a drink of dark liquor — the main stage took on the ambience of a cabaret. Like Frank Sinatra, that other Vegas icon, Usher sang the hits. A fuchsia-clad dancer bent over at the waist. Usher placed his drink on top of her behind. The gesture was flirtatious and naughty without seeming rakish. The crowd erupted. His moves were graceful and fiery, infused with the influence of Sammy Davis Jr., Gene Kelly, Michael Jackson, Janet Jackson, Ben Vereen, Bob Fosse and James Brown — a kind of liquid movement that rivals the notes he sings.
R.&B. is nothing if not a marriage of opposing energies. A dance between hard and soft. Real life versus fantasy; vulnerability and force; Holy Ghost and heaving flesh. A thin line between love and hate. Traditional R.&B. men were complicated, and they weren’t always truthful about it. Yet the music’s expansiveness and range — topics like climate change, war and political disappointment were all fair game — gave us a pathway toward understanding the conditions of the day. Some contemporary R.&B. men ceded ground to hip-hop in storytelling about the world and in relaying broad truths. Similarly, Usher exists at the threshold of contradictory ideas. His persona gleams with sheen and shine, but he is often tightly coiled, a bundle of nerves underneath glistening skin.
Keep your eye on Danielle Amir Jackson.
Three things I’ve been enjoying:
- The Larry Sanders Show
- The music of Florence Price
- The reference desk at my local library. Ask a question about, say, local history…then stand back. Phone books, plat maps, soil surveys, yearbooks, geographic studies…you name it, they know where to find it. You know you’re on to something special when you get a reference librarian to say, “Well now I’m curious.”
Prince, Tom Petty, Steve Winwood, Jeff Lynne and others — “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”
Imagine a world in which Steve Winwood is an afterthought.
This man taught me more about myself than anyone besides my parents.
Damn it. There’s not a day that goes by when I don’t miss him.
Sheila E. on Instagram via Kottke
I could watch this on a loop all day.
What I wouldn’t give to have a run-in with Sheila E.
I’d been watching this on a loop when it hit me: she dances just like me when I’m home alone. I give it 10/10.
11/10 if you include marks for confidence. I mean just look at how much fun she’s having.
12/10 if we include that jumper. 😍
Astrud Gilberto: The Girl from Ipanema singer dies at 83
Getz/Gilberto remains one of the most sublime albums ever recorded.
Gordon Lightfoot’s ‘Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald’ Was An Unlikely Hit
This has been a favorite song since I was six or seven.
“Hey Siri, play SomaFM [station name] radio.”
You won’t be disappointed.
Drake’s AI clone is here — and Drake might not be able to stop him.
…the tracks aren’t copying anything concretely protected by the law. Both songs appear to be written by a human who isn’t Drake and fed into voice cloning software, so the compositions are new, original works. An artist’s voice, style, or flow is not protected by copyright.