I never did properly finish up with the “favourite music reads of the ’00s” did I? (Well, I guess Mr. Wenner waxing lyrical about Mr. Jagger was my sarcastic kissoff to the project.) Truth is, I could have posted another two or three dozen (at least) great pieces, but, as usually happens when I embark on these listy web projects, I lost steam, interest, breath, … Continue reading Second last thoughts on the decade that was

“In the past, [Jagger] has slipped into personae – the Street Fighting Man, Jumpin’ Jack Flash, the Man of Wealth and Taste – but he lets his guard down to an unprecedented degree on Goddess; the beautiful ballads draw on feelings of loneliness, vulnerability, spiritual yearning and, as always, life with the ladies.” “The lyrics portray a guy who’s got it all – fame, fortune … Continue reading Favourite Music Reads of the ’00s: #26 (Female Gods)

Stylus Magazine’s Top 50 Basslines of All-Time (2005) There’s some so-so writing in this, and some highly questionable choices (particularly in light of some of the classic basslines overlooked), but the great stuff makes up for the lesser bits — surely anyone who approaches any list anywhere expecting “definitive” is in for a disappointment — and the concept alone is precisely what made Stylus the … Continue reading Favourite Music Reads of the ’00s: #25 (Bass!)

glenn mcdonald’s pazz & jop critical alignment ratings (2000-2008) Number-crunching and data analysis par excellence.  Not to mention visually delightful — I’ve subtitled the 2006 edition “Bill James’s Baseball Abstract as Reimagined by Georges Seurat Though With a Somewhat Lesser Palette.” Continue reading Favourite Music Reads of the ’00s: #24 (Stats)

“Good try, Jon Voight, John Turturro, and Dennis Miller, but the closest thing we’ve got to Howard Cosell right now is Alanis. Much like even non-football fans used to be mesmerized by Cosell’s genius for never using two words when 23 would do, you don’t have to be a love-damaged 17-year-old girl to find Under Rug Swept‘s dense verbiage a trip. Words tumble forth and … Continue reading Favourite Music Reads of the ’00s: #22 (Dense Verbiage)

“Four albums in and she’d rather hurt you honestly than mislead you with a lie, ask her if she loves you and you’ll choke on her reply, but better her yodel than Shania’s yawn. Still torturing vowels like a helmetless goaltender from Chicoutimi, and as for sensitivity, James Hetfield should just go back to the firing range. (We can’t do that up here in Canada … Continue reading Favourite Music Reads of the ’00s: #21 (Tortured Vowels)

“One story has it that after avant-garde tenor player Archie Shepp came off stage following a performance full of honks, squeals, and bleats, he told pained auditor Johnny Griffin that he was expressing what it felt like to be a black man in America. ‘I know it’s hard,’ said Griffin, a black saxophonist who was no enemy of the modernist vanguard, having played with Thelonious … Continue reading Favourite Music Reads of the ’00s: #20 (Ugly Beauty)

“There are two things to say about him. He was a musical genius; and he was an abused child. By abuse, I do not mean sexual abuse; I mean he was used brutally and callously for money, and clearly imprisoned by a tyrannical father. He had no real childhood and spent much of his later life struggling to get one. He was spiritually and psychologically … Continue reading Favourite Music Reads of the ’00s: #19 (Imprisonment)