It’s that time of year when, on social media, you start seeing some folks’ “Spotify Wrapped” posts along with various websites’ “best of” listicles and such-like. Well, this wasn’t a huge year for new music for me and since I had a computer rebuild partway through the year, my “most played” data in MusicBee is… stunted.
But that’s not going to stop me from talking about the albums (and one “EP” big enough to qualify) I bought this year.
(I’m leaving singles and one particular compilation/soundtrack record out for various reasons. If someone’s really curious I can loop back around to them in another post.)
He was in his late 70s and the heyday of his widespread musical relevance is long past, so you’d be forgiven for asking, “Who?” If you did already know of him, it might probably be as “The Chariots Of Fire song guy” or maybe as “the Blade Runner soundtrack guy.” PBS viewers of a certain age might think of him as “the Cosmos theme song guy.” (Someone might possibly file him in their mental databank as “that wine commercial song guy” but I figure by the time someone knows that “Hymne” was used for a series of Gallo Wines commercials in the mid-1980s, that someone is probably moderately aware of Vangelis in general anyway.)
I’ve done little mixes before, some of which may even still be playable in the old blog archives. (I resist calling this thing a “blog” but let’s be honest here for a moment.) My music tastes are well known if you know me at all: Old pop, older prog rock, random J-pop, some heavy metal and EDM and so on.
My library grows nonetheless, and in some odd directions on occasion. I’m glad that even at the half-century mark I’m still getting into new stuff. To give you a clearer picture, perhaps, here’s a brief sampling of what I’m listening to nowadays:
I should run these down so you can explore further if you’re so inclined…
Public Service Broadcasting, “People, Come Dance” (from Bright Magic, 2021)
Battle Tapes, “Valkyrie” (from Polygon, 2015)
toconoma, “N°9” (from Newtown, 2017)
Midnight Oil, “Gadigal Land” (from The Makarrata Project, 2020)
The HU, “Sugaan Essena” (from the soundtrack to the video game Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, 2020)
Sparks, “Music That You Can Dance To” (title track of album, 1986)
Pet Shop Boys, “What are we gonna do about the rich?” (from Agenda EP, 2019)
Garbage, “No Horses” (bonus track from No Gods No Masters special edition, 2021)
KONGOS, “Keep Your Head” (from 1929, Pt. 1, 2019)
Of course, here I am the morning after assembling this mix and realizing I didn’t get any of the Sawano Hiroyuki “[nZk]” stuff in here, and that’s a grave oversight. There’s a stunning lack of Mono Inc and VNV Nation as well.
Decisions had to be made, couldn’t fit in everything, etc. Maybe next time.
It’s been a while since I last posted a full proper album review, not since the last Pet Shop Boys and Mono Inc records landed in my library… and it may be a while longer yet, because what you’re going to get here is a mess of bullet points with brief summaries. Sorry about that. I’ve been buying music all along, mind you. The dearth of writing about those purchases stems from the same malaise that prevents me from writing about much of anything else.
So, since I just picked up the new Jethro Tull record, let’s try to catch up a bit with the last year or so of new material in my library. (I’m going to leave out some singles and compilations and what-not for various reasons.)
