My asset’s grown while yours have dropped: The best of Squeeze

Poets of the twilight hour, of the stuffed ashtray; celebrants of the wrinkled sheet, of coffee-stained pillows; minions of hangovers and hairs of the dog. For a few years after New Wave’s commercial peak Squeeze found an audience of college students who delighted in the band’s smarts; for a while these smarts meant musical as

Ranking #14 singles, U.S. edition: 1967-1969

A very good set of years, peaking with James Brown showing white audiences what to do with a licking stick and Marvin Gaye flexing songwriting and producing chops and the Bee Gees debuting with a observed mid tempo song trembling with hysteria about a mining dis-ah-ster and an act I’d never heard of called, believably,

To the unvaccinated: ‘Sorry. Time’s up.’

“The vaccinated have for too long carried the burden of the pandemic,” Juliette Kayyem writes in a cut-the-bullshit article for The Atlantic. She makes a point many of us have since the delta variant became a threat in early July: it’s the unvaccinated who should take precautions, not the rest of us. Kayyem cites a

His lips are dry: The best rock-disco hybrids

After a couple hours listening to the late Lee “Scratch” Perry yesterday afternoon, I felt my monocle fall out of my eye when my streaming platform of choice queued up Daryl Hall and John Oates’ forgotten David Foster-produced disco-coppin’ “Who Said the World Was Fair” from 1979’s X-Static, the last time in the twentieth century

Ranking #11 singles, U.S. edition: 1964-1966

Sure, acts recorded more complex dance singles, but “Going to a Go-Go” has a charm and, better, a rhythmic assurance that makes it irresistible. Same goes for “I Want Candy,” later remade (and improved on ) by Bow Wow Wow. But these three years represent a triumph for vocalists as diverse as Jackie Wilson, Barbara

Singles 8/28

One of the pleasures of this singles reviewing gig is occasionally finding a track so breathtaking in its commitment to a misbegotten idea that it warms my mornings. If Elton John could work with Pet Shop Boys, Kate Bush, and Gaga, why not Dua Lipa? With “Levitating” in its thirteenth iteration as it lingers on

The political press loves bullies

Seven students out of forty-nine went maskless in last Monday’s class, four out of thirty in Wednesday’s. Considering that over a third in a course with fifty students chose not to wear one a month ago I felt lucky.

Screenings #51

Overlong, as allergic to logic as I am to vodka, Die Hard 2: Die Harder earns the alternate title Try Harder. A conservative actor (Bruce Willis) playing a cop taking down a Noriega type with a Fidel beard + cigar defended by white supremacists who is in turn helped by a treasonous Black Special Forces

¡Puta madre! Ranking Pedro Almodóvar’s filmography

One of the late twentieth century’s most devoted purveyors of erotic pleasure on film, Pedro Almodóvar hasn’t yet recovered from the dreariness of Franco’s dictatorship.

Gesturing outward: Cleo Sol and the Killers

One of these made my best-of-2021 list last week. Guess which. Cleo Sol – Mother The West London singer-songwriter whose appearances on SAULT’s albums are as essential as Shara Nelson and Caron Wheeler’s on Massive Attack and Soul II Soul’s, respectively, shrouds herself in a quietude that takes getting used to. Although on “Build Me

The best albums of the year since Pitchfork’s start

Here’s my contribution to the Pitchfork thing asking for the best albums released since the site’s inception. I haven’t tried retroactively aligning with history; these are the albums I submitted to Pazz & Jop since my first ballot in 2003, before which I contributed top tens to the Miami Herald and my college newpaper. Pulp

The best power pop albums

Based on Monday’s post, I have less tolerance for full-length power pop albums — too damn exhausting. But I can embrace the weirdness of Wanna Meet the Scruffs?, the constant jokes in In Color, and the dense percussive arrangements in Stands for Decibels. I wish The Bangles’ All Over the Place got its due as