Groovy, slick, smooth, personal, poetic, and very English, Arlo Parks’ first album reachedthe #3 position on the UK album charts in 2021. It’s a funky mix of hip hop lo fi drum production, jangly guitars, cool synths and organs, and Arlo’s hooky melodies, soft delivery,and earnest, conversational lyrics. This debut is nearly irresistibly cool. IContinue reading “#828: P is for Parks, Arlo”
Category Archives: Poetry
#827: P is for Paramore
Hayley Williams is a force.I have only one, the latest, album by Paramore, and if this one recordis any indicator, these cats form a incredibly talented and versatile band, but Hayley’s vocal performances areunhinged and over the top in the mostwonderful way, bursting with energy, as wild and as spunky as anything Debbie Harry everContinue reading “#827: P is for Paramore”
#826: P is for .Paak, Anderson
I think so far in my listening challengeit must be clear: I do not have any hip hopin the collection. I do not own any rap albums. There may be hip hop moments in a Beyoncérecord, guest spots by rappers on a James Blakealbum, spoken word artists doing a thing that could not justifiably beContinue reading “#826: P is for .Paak, Anderson”
#825: O is for Owen
Fourteen years after Mike Kinsella’s debut into the music world with American Football, he releases this, his 14th! solo recording under the unlikely moniker of Owen. I think I foundAmerican Football backwards only after finding Owen first. I don’t remember, in 2013, how I found him or why I landed on this record first, orContinue reading “#825: O is for Owen”
#824: O is for Other Lives
So how does one get turnedon to a band from Oklahomadoing a kind of baroque chamberpop thing with electronics, folksy acoustics and understated and sometimes whispery light singingover the top of percolating percussion?Another pre-streaming discovery, I think I downloaded their debut 2011 album, Tamer Animals, froma service called Emusic, a musicsubscription site that allowed twoorContinue reading “#824: O is for Other Lives”
#823: O is for Ono, Yoko
I do not have any albumsby Yoko Ono. I do not have anyalbums by John Lennon and Yoko Ono. But I do have this thing, Ocean Child: Songs of Yoko Ono, a collection of recordings by various artistscovering Yoko Ono’s songs. I remember distinctly that I found this album at the annual sidewalk sale ofContinue reading “#823: O is for Ono, Yoko”
#822: O is for Olsen, Angel
Early in my experience as a customer of the now ubiquitousstreaming service industry, I think Angel Olsen came up either as something that was currently hot or as a recommendedlisten. That was the year All Mirrors came out, and for somereason, maybe even because the cover photo intrigued me, I gave it a listen orContinue reading “#822: O is for Olsen, Angel”
#821: O is for Oingo Boingo + Boingo
In the first year or so of MTV, fronted by the theatrical, vocalist extraordinaire, andfuture film scoring giant, Danny Elfman, Oingo Boingo made their debut into the punk rock new wave universe and the national consciousness with the insane music video for their first single, the cringy (especially in hindsight), “Little Girls.” As a highContinue reading “#821: O is for Oingo Boingo + Boingo”
#820: O is for Of Montreal
I’ve pulled this album out, the only one I have by this American psychedelic pop “band” called Of Montreal, which is really the creative brainchild of one Kevin Barnes, a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter,visual artist, and provocateur. There is no identifyinginformation on the album cover, on the spine, or on the disc labels. Not even the linerContinue reading “#820: O is for Of Montreal”
#819: N is for Nyro, Laura
Another mysterious album in the collection gifted to me by my artist and musician friend Curtis.Here’s a songwriter that I would have heard about, whose name I would have recognized as a person often cited as a significant figure, whosesongs I had heard performed by otherartists, but whose records had completely escaped me. It’s 1969.Continue reading “#819: N is for Nyro, Laura”
michael jarmer 