When tasked by a friend last year to compile a playlist of my "top "top 50" songs—a worthy and fun exercise!—there was one segment of songs in my listening history that befuddled me: Songs that I mostly liked as a whole—but that I loved one moment of. It's interesting to listen to these songs in … Continue reading On moments I love in songs I like
Category: Musicality
On feeling ownership of a song
"Yoooooo! Play the song!" "Oh, hell yeah!" "Play the song! Play the song! Play the song!" My high school varsity locker room: the baseball team captain and co-captain. Both of whom I recall intensely disliking. I can also recall my own unsettled sense of self in this era, and have no doubt that this was … Continue reading On feeling ownership of a song
On greatest hits collections
Nearly every greatest hits collection has a problem. Problems arise owing to constraints. There's the high-level constraint, of course—how to pick favorite tracks. And some collections get this wrong! But there are constraints beyond this, too. There were the different labels jockeying for influence over an artist's discography, the artist's own (sometimes wrong-headed) preferences, the … Continue reading On greatest hits collections
On the thrill of discovering new (old) music
When I was a teenager, I remember feeling that there was so much music out there. I was always in discovery mode—there were entire eras of music I knew nothing about. The older I got, the more defined my musical taste became, and the less I felt that there were whole swaths of music still … Continue reading On the thrill of discovering new (old) music
On what’s left of my CD collection
I recently came across my old CD case—27 CDs inside that past any point of use. I say that because I no longer possess a way to play them. No Walkman, no sound system with CD rack, no CD drive on any of the three computers in the house, no CD slot in either of … Continue reading On what’s left of my CD collection
On songs that send us somewhere, or, on the song atlas
It shouldn't surprise me, but it always does: some songs end up "fixed" to a place in my personal history, the record equivalent of Proust's madeline, a cue that sends me somewhere back in my personal geography. Together, I think of these fixed songs as a personal "song atlas." "Sun" by The Hotelier I hear … Continue reading On songs that send us somewhere, or, on the song atlas
On how it’s hard to listen to Frightened Rabbit
If you’d asked me my favorite band back in 2017, I’d have probably replied Frightened Rabbit. (Or maybe Drive-By Truckers.) But following the suicide of leader Scott Hutchison in 2018, I found it hard to listen to their work. If you don’t know Frightened Rabbit, think of a miserablist Arcade Fire, purveyors of anthemic indie … Continue reading On how it’s hard to listen to Frightened Rabbit
On the polished structure of Alvvays’ “Blue Rev”
The first time I listened to Alvvays' album Blue Rev, I made it through half the album before moving on. The MBV-style waves of distortion and fuzz (on many songs) made for a tough listen—tough in that the mix insists on your attention. In December, when all the best-of-year lists start rolling out, I was … Continue reading On the polished structure of Alvvays’ “Blue Rev”
On wondering whether the Beatles and Michelangelo have something in common
The other night, I started rewatching Peter Jackson's Get Back documentary, on the Beatles' infamous Get Back sessions of 1969. Jackson's documentary has become infamous in its own right a year after its release—owning mainly to its eight-hour running time, but also to its reliance on snatches of dialogue that can only be understood by … Continue reading On wondering whether the Beatles and Michelangelo have something in common
On going to a concert alone
Going to a show alone is an odd experience. Going to a small show alone is an even odder one. I’ve been to a couple of shows alone over the past few years. Back in 2019, I saw Mike Doughty (of Soul Coughing) and Hop Along in two separate shows at the Ogden, a mid-size … Continue reading On going to a concert alone
Taylor Coe 