Liner Notes (July 10th, 2020)
This week’s newsletter looks at music and entertainment I enjoyed this week. This was a good week for singles, and I’m all about that new PVRIS album. This week’s supporter Q&A post can be found here.
Two Things
This week, we shared our Best of 2020 (So Far) feature on the website. Thirty of the best albums of the year compiled by your favorite website contributors. This was the first list where I got to use my new ranking algorithm, and I am thrilled with that process. The final spreadsheet of the calculations is fun to look through. Phoebe being on 11 out of 13 lists practically guaranteed it the number one spot. There were 175 unique albums across all of the lists, and 70 albums out of the 175 were on more than one list. I wrote about All Time Low and Dua Lipa for the feature, and I am more proud than I should be about working in the line, “an album filled with more hooks than an I Know What You Did Last Summer cosplay convention, ”into that blurb. My list of top 30 albums (so far) can be found here. I already think I would tweak it a bit. I put LAUV at number one based on how many spins it has so far, compared to more recent albums not having the same time in my ears. I’m really curious how things will shake out in the next six months. A lot of great stuff is coming.
For this week’s main article, I wrote about heading back to 2010 and re-ranking that year in music. I tackled it from the angle of it being exactly ten years later and how that decade delineation causes me to reflect on life and growth as well. There’s some excellent music in 2010 and a whole lot that made me go “oh god, I can’t believe it’s been ten years already.”
In Case You Missed It
Music Thoughts
Scott Sellers of Rufio released a 90’s pop-punk cover album that is shockingly good. I don’t know how this dude keeps cranking out this much music, but it’s our gain. That Strung Out guitar riff gives me life.
The new Acceptance song sounds like The Killers and Mutemath had a baby. Not what I was expecting, but I’m here for it. Great bridge and it feels like a nice progression in the band’s sound.
The Midnight’s new album is another synth heavy album that makes you feel like you’re in an 80’s movie. They really lean into this sound and do it well.
Neon Trees are three for three.
PVRIS pushed back their album release until August. And then it leaked. I feel terrible for the band. That just absolutely sucks. No way around it. However, the album is fucking fantastic. A perfect blend of pop elements with their already catchy rock sound is going to dominate the next few weeks of my life. Not a bad song in the bunch.
This is not a drill: Slick Shoes are back! The lead single “Whispers” is everything I like about the band. Guitar driven riff-heavy pop-punk. I’ve always considered them one of the more underrated pop-punk bands from the past, and I love that they still have this in them. As Lloyd says.
Nightly are on a hot streak. I’d love to see a full length from these guys, but if they keep churning out singles this good, I can’t complain.
I have to get on board with the whole “release one song every few weeks” kind of roll-out, I guess, because I really want to hear these new The Night Game tracks, and I don’t wanna wait. We’ll see how the “don’t overplay” them thing goes, ’cause boy is the new one fantastic. This is so my shit. All those layers, the little production flourishes, turn me on.
Entertainment Thoughts
We finished season three of Dark last weekend. Oh. My. This is the most I’ve enjoyed a TV show in quite some time. Completely, utterly, loved it. I still can’t believe they pulled it off. There’s no way this should have worked, and yet it did—what a stunning achievement. After you’ve seen it, this article about a bunch of little things you may have missed (and some big ones, ’cause this show is sprawling) is fascinating. I highly recommend you not reading anything about the show before you’ve watched it, let the entire thing unfold, it’s masterful. I can’t stop thinking about or praising this show.
We finished up season two of Elite and are on season three. It’s the best kind of soapy teenage drama mystery with the most attractive humans possible type of show I eat up. During quarantine, it’s what I want, and this is a lot of fun.
We tried two episodes of Love, Victor and it’s way too network TV for me. The writing is just … not good. I’m sad, but that’s a pass from me.
The yacht season of Below Deck has been shockingly fun so far. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but the crew has just the right amount of chemistry and drama without letting the drama (so far) overwhelm the entire show. We just watched the episode with the bro dudes that can’t stop sabering champagne bottles, and if they got left out to sea in a little rowboat, I’d be ok with it.
I read In Five Years because I thought the premise would be an uplifting story sort of like the Family Man film. It was instead a story about a lead character I couldn’t decide if I liked, then definitely didn’t like, then the entire thing got exceptionally depressing. So, that wasn’t what I was looking for. Then as I was waiting for holds to come from the library, Long Road to Mercy was available to checkout, and looked like the kind of thriller I enjoy. I was right; it’s like Jack Reacher written by a not as detailed Tom Clancy. Totally passable, easy to read, thriller. I liked it enough to put a hold on the sequel. Then I read Only Mostly Devastated, which I adored. Think Love, Simon meets Grease. Summer romance turns into the new boy starting a new school where his extremely popular summer hookup runs the place. Well developed characters that actually felt like teenagers. (Blink–182, Fall Out Boy, and Letlive. all end up getting mentioned as well.)
Random and Personal Stuff
On Wednesday night we stayed up way too late watching wedding videos because they make me happy and you gotta do what makes you happy, right? It’s downright depressing how badly my body can handle staying up until 1am with a couple of extra drinks than it’s used to. College Jason would mercilessly mock 37-year-old Jason.
My hairstylist opened back up, but with required masks, temperature checks at the door, no other clients around, and after weighing the risks, I decided to make an appointment. I actually felt much more comfortable than I thought I would be, and even with the pile of hair I had accumulated during quarantine, she got everything cleaned up in no time. I feel so much better and more like myself. I’m not going to go as often as I did in the past, but damn did that feel good. A tinge of normalcy in the ocean of 2020. Or as normal as wearing a mask while getting your haircut by someone else in a mask can be.
Everyone, say it with me: It’s Pizza Friday!
Ten Songs
Here are ten songs that I listened to and loved this week. Some may be new, some may be old, but they all found their way into my life during the past seven days.
The Night Game - One Phone Call
Nightly - Not Like You
The Midnight - Brooklyn
Acceptance - Midnight
Scott Sellers - Exhumation of Virginia Madison
Slick Shoes - Whispers
The Beths - Out of Sight
Super Whatevr - Carhartts & Converse
Attic Lights - Breathe For Me
LAUV - Love Somebody
This playlist is available on Spotify and Apple Music.
Community Watch
The trending and popular threads in our community this week include:
The most liked post in our forums last week was this one by ajperdomo in the “The Dangerous Summer - Mother Nature (June 14, 2019)” thread.
WTF? AJ getting the most liked post again this week? Rigged.
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Previous editions of Liner Notes can be found here.