Howard Druckman’s Top 12 Songs of 2022

Pictured above: TOBi 1. Julian Taylor – “Wide Awake” The melody of “Wide Awake” is sunny; the instrumentation, charming Americana/roots; the singing, unaffected. But it’s the lyrics, bittersweet and heartfelt, layered with multiple meanings, that captivate me most. The verses of “Wide Awake” offer loving remembrances of family scenes from Taylor’s early and teenage years: drinking sorrel and ginger beer at Christmas with his folks; … Continue reading Howard Druckman’s Top 12 Songs of 2022

Best Music Journalism/2021 edition (Jason Gross/R&R Globe)

Back in the pre-blog incarnation of rockcritics.com, we used to post Jason Gross’s “The Year in Music Journalism” surveys, a sort of good-bad-ugly of all things rock writing-related. So I’m pleased to see that Jason is still doing his thing, with the 2021 edition of the survey hosted at Rock & Roll Globe. I interviewed Jason recently about this feature—19 years in the running—which will … Continue reading Best Music Journalism/2021 edition (Jason Gross/R&R Globe)

Top 12 Songs of 2021 (Howard Druckman)

To kick off our year in this/that/and whatever posts, Howard Druckman posts his favourite songs of the past 12 months. (Pictured above: Snotty Nose Rez Kids.) It’s actually 14 songs, because for Mustafa and Donovan Woods, it was impossible to choose the best out of two songs. So for each of them, it’s two-songs-per instead of one. Needless to say, the pandemic figures heavily in … Continue reading Top 12 Songs of 2021 (Howard Druckman)