Archives

Purchase log picks, fourth quarter 2022

[Taylor Swift - Midnights]

Hilary Hahn, Eclipse

Jesus, that Ginastera concerto is a monster!

Taylor Swift, Midnights

I don’t know if Taylor Swift has a Dirty Computer or Karuki Zaamen Kuri no Hana in her, but it feels like she’s tip-toeing in that direction. I doubt she’d ever go fully weird because her branding is too big to fail.

Judy Tenuta, Buy This, Pigs!

I’ve known about Judy Tenuta since high school, but my media consumption somehow managed never to cross paths with her stand-up. YouTube has since rectified that, and upon hearing the news of her passing, I felt compelled to seek out her comedy debut album, which has so far never been reissued on CD or fully digitized on a streaming platform.

Huey Lewis and the News, Picture This

Sports is the 800-pound gorilla in the Huey Lewis and the News oeuvre, but Picture This is no slouch either. I rather thank it’s been unfairly overshadowed by its immediate descendant.

Hajime Chitose, Shima Kyora Umui

It’s taken me 20 years to purchase an actual physical copy of this album. Hajime’s major label career has mostly ignored these earlier youthful recordings, but they’re super informative on her singing style, let alone how well she adapted it to a pop setting.

Royal Wood, What Tomorrow Brings

Wood calls this album the first he’s didn’t abandon, paraphrasing the quote: “Art is never finished, only abandoned.” It definitely shows. He makes some slight but adventurous tweaks to his sound, incorporating more synths and drum machines without losing his folk crooner vibe.

Miami Sound Machine, Primitive Love

The singles from this album were ubiquitous at the time, which dissuaded both my brother and me from staking claim on it. Enough time has passed to reveal those singles to be incredibly durable and fitting well with the album on the whole.

The Dismemberment Plan, Emergency & I

You kinda need to have this album if you remotely like Changes.

These fourth quarter picks can be found in the Favorite Edition 2022 Year Final:

  • Charlie Puth, CHARLIE
  • Robin Holcomb, One Way or Another, Vol. 1

And one more pick can be found in the Favorite Edition Catalog 2022:

  • Club Nisei, Japanese Music of Hawaii

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Purchase log, 2022-10-04

[Huey Lewis and the News - Picture This]

I catalog my music purchases on Collectorz and Discogs, but they don’t give me a sense of change over time. So I’m noting them here weekly as well.

New releases

CD
  • Amanda Shires, Take It Like a Man
  • Björk, Fossora
  • Santigold, Spirituals
  • Steve Reich, Runner / Music for Ensemble and Orchestra

Catalog

CD
  • Das EFX, Dead Serious
  • Dashboard Confessional, The Places That You Have Come to Fear the Most
  • Descendents, Somery
  • Huey Lewis and the News, Picture This
  • Pale Saints, In Ribbons
Vinyl
  • Aaliyah, Aaliyah
  • Cyndi Lauper, True Colors
  • George Michael, Listen Without Prejudice, Vol. 1
  • Robyn, Honey
  • Sting, The Bridge

Reissues

CD
  • Janet Jackson, Japanese Singles Collection
  • Wilco, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (Deluxe Edition)
Vinyl
  • Caitlin Cary, While You Weren’t Looking

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Purchase log, 2020-03-30

[Penzias and Wilson - Rescue the Fly]

I catalog my music purchases on Collectorz and Discogs, but they don’t give me a sense of change over time. So I’m noting them here weekly as well.

New releases

CD
  • MONO, Beyond the Past: Live with the Platinum Anniversary Orchestra
Files
  • Penzias and Wilson, “Rescue the Fly” / Empty Ensemble, “String Quartet Song No. 6 (Reiwa 3 Remix)”

Catalog

CD
  • ABC, Abracadabra
  • Bob Dylan, Highway 61 Revisited
  • Einojuhani Rautavarra, Angels and Visitations / Violin Concerto / Isle of Bliss
  • fIREHOSE, “if’n”
  • Guided By Voices, Hold on Hope EP
  • Hiroshima, Ongaku
  • Huey Lewis and the News, Huey Lewis and the News
  • Huey Lewis and the News, Small World
  • Jonathan Elias, Requiem for the Americas
  • Kelela, Take Me Apart
  • Milla, The Divine Comedy
  • Peter Gabriel, Shaking the Tree: Sixteen Golden Greats
  • Richard Wagner, Die Walküre (Vienna Philharmonic, Georg Solti)
  • Sergei Rachmaninoff, Piano Concerto No. 2 / Rhapsody on a Theme By Paganini (Vladimir Ashkenazy, London Symphony Orchestra)
  • Spice Girls, Forever
  • Wolfgang Mozart, Le nozze di Figaro (James Levine, Metropolitan Opera)
  • Yo Majesty, Futuristically Speaking … Never Be Afraid
  • Soundtrack, The Saint

Reissues

CD
  • Robert Palmer, Collected

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Purchase log, 2021-02-09

[Big Pig - Bonk]

I catalog my music purchases on Collectorz and Discogs, but they don’t give me a sense of change over time. So I’m noting them here weekly as well.

Catalog

CD
  • Big Pig, Bonk
  • Bob Dylan, Nashville Skyline (Remastered)
  • Control Machete, Artillería Pesada, Presenta …
  • Devo, Freedom of Choice
  • Tame Impala, Lonerism
  • The Black Angels, Passover
  • The Jam, In the City
  • The Jesus and Mary Chain, Darklands (DualDisc)
  • Thomas Adès, Living Toys
  • Soundtrack, Office Space
Vinyl
  • David Lee Roth, Crazy in the Heat
  • Huey Lewis and the News, Small World
Files
  • Cause & Effect, Cause & Effect (Deluxe Edition)
  • OFFICE, Mecca (Extended Version)

Reissues

Vinyl
  • Soundtrack, Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi (Spirited Away)

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Purchase log, 2020-02-11

[Various Artists - Studio One Rockers]

I catalog my music purchases on Collectorz and Discogs, but they don’t give me a sense of change over time. So I’m noting them here weekly as well.

Catalog

CD
  • Dub Specialist, Studio One Dub
  • Huey Lewis and the News, Fore!
  • Robyn, Body Talk, Pt. 1
  • Roger Sessions / John Harbison, Sessions: Symphony No. 2 / Harbison: Symphony No. 2, Oboe Concerto (San Francisco Symphony, Herbert Blomstedt)
  • Sun Ra, Space is the Place
  • Soundtrack, The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover
  • Various Artists, Studio One Rockers
  • Various Artists, Studio One Soul
Vinyl
  • KC and the Sunshine Band, Part 3
  • Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway, Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway
  • Run-D.M.C., Run-D.M.C.
  • Starship, Knee Deep in the Hoopla

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Purchase log, 2019-04-16

[Duran Duran - As the Lights Go Down]

I catalog my music purchases on Collectorz and Discogs, but they don’t give me a sense of change over time. So I’m noting them here weekly as well.

Another Record Store Day is in the books, and this year, I found everything I wanted and a few things I didn’t know I wanted.

New releases

Vinyl
  • a-ha, Hunting High and Low: The Early Alternate Takes
  • Bingo Hand Job (i.e. R.E.M.), Live at the Borderline 1991
  • Fleetwood Mac, The Alternate Fleetwood Mac
  • Leann Rimes, Live at Gruene Hall
  • Prince, His Majesty’s Pop Life: The Purple Mix Club
  • Sly and the Family Stone, Woodstock Sunday, August 17, 1969
  • Townes Van Zandt, The Best of Townes Van Zandt
  • U2, The Europa EP

Catalog

CD
  • Boris, Smile
  • Boris with Michio Kurihara, Rainbow
  • Hapa, Hapa
  • Hiroshima, Hiroshima
  • Huey Lewis and the News, Time Flies … The Best of Huey Lewis and the News
  • Peter Gabriel, Peter Gabriel (Security)
  • Sly and the Family Stone, There’s a Riot Goin’ On
  • The Dave Brubeck Quartet, Time Out
  • The Dave Brubeck Quartet, Time Further Out
  • The Who, Quadrophenia
Vinyl
  • Lou Reed, Transformer

Reissues

Vinyl
  • Bruce Robison, Wrapped
  • Duran Duran, As the Lights Go Down
  • Santigold, I Don’t Want: The Gold Fire Sessions
  • Weezer, Weezer (Teal Album)
  • Yaz, Reconnected Live
  • Soundtrack, Hidden Figures
  • Soundtrack, Multiplication Rock
  • Soundtrack, Office Space

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Favorite Edition Rewind: 1983

[Duran Duran - Seven and the Ragged Tiger]

A decade ago, I wrote a series of entries ranking my favorite albums from 1985 to 2004. My collection has expanded greatly since then, particularly in the last five years. So I wanted to see what has changed in 10 years.

The 1983 Favorite Edition list is not terribly cosmopolitan. And why should it? I would have been 11 years old at the time, and pre-teens, even precocious ones, aren’t renowned for sophistication.

  1. Eurythmics, Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)
  2. Clannad, Magical Ring
  3. U2, Live Under a Blood Red Sky
  4. David Bowie, Let’s Dance
  5. Duran Duran, Seven and the Ragged Tiger
  6. R.E.M., Murmur
  7. Huey Lewis and the News, Sports
  8. The Police, Synchronicity
  9. 10,000 Maniacs, Secrets of the I Ching
  10. The Waitresses, Bruiseology

Other favorites from the year:

  • Toto, IV
  • Culture Club, Colour By Numbers
  • Violent Femmes, Violent Femmes
  • Cyndi Lauper, She’s So Unusual
  • The Pointer Sisters, Break Out

MTV was the big driver of music in this era, but I wouldn’t have known it because my parents refused to subscribe to cable. The household wouldn’t welcome cable TV till well after I had moved out after college … in 1997.

So my exposure to music in 1983 was limited to American Bandstand and Solid Gold. For a short while, a syndicated TV show called Prime Time Videos aired on broadcast affiliates, but it would not last.

I was still heavily into Pac-Man, even though my parents refused to welcome a game console or computer into the house. It’s a wonder how I’ve made computer programming my career.

So if this list seems particularly safe, it’s a reflection of the limited avenues of consumption. It’s probably why I have such a voracious appetite now.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

I own Huey Lewis albums because of the video for ‘I Want a New Drug’

[Huey Lewis and the News - Sports]

I posted on Facebook that I owned some Huey Lewis and the News albums, and the reaction from my friends was surprise. How did a discriminating listener such as myself end up with perhaps some of the most milquetoast music from 1980s? (Those exact words weren’t used.)

I was honest — these purchases were purely hormone-driven. Huey Lewis was a sex symbol at the height of the News’ fame, and I wasn’t immune to his corn-fed good looks.

But what cinched the matter for me was the video for “I Want a New Drug.” It opens with Huey wearing nothing but his skivvies.

[Huey Lewis in his underwear]

 

No, he doesn’t have the physique of similarly clad guys on Grindr or Scruff. In fact, far from it.

[Huey Lewis lacks a shirt]

But a 12-year-old starting to waken to his attractions wouldn’t make so fine a distinction. He was a barely-dressed handsome man. That was enough.

My household had no cable television, so the fact I managed to see this video at all without the aid of MTV was pretty remarkable. A prime-time afternoon video show aired the clip, which I managed to capture on Betamax. (Yeah, Betamax.)

It was an incredibly rare occurrence for me to be alone in a house where five other people lived, so I couldn’t really give the video the repeat viewings I had wished.

Instead, I had to content myself with gazing at pictures that only hinted as his physique.

[Huey Lewis and the News - If This Is It]

And I’ve done far worse than Huey Lewis where hormone-driven purchases are concerned. Nick Lachey? 98 Degrees? Check and check.

It won’t be the last time either. One of my favorite recent discoveries is Royal Wood, whose EP I downloaded based entirely on the cover:

[Royal Wood - The Lost and Found]

Thankfully, Woods has turned out to be a very good singer-songwriter.

Tags: