Albums to Look Forward to in 2018

January

1/12/18
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Wrong Creatures
Ty Tabor - Alien Beans

1/19/18
Glenn Hansard - Between Two Shores
tUnE - yArDs - I Can Feel You Creep Into My Private Life
Inara George - Dearest Everybody

1/26/18
Jeffrey Gaines - Alright (Pledgemusic)
Ampline - Passion Relapse

2/9/18
Son Lux - Brighter Wounds

2/23/18
S. Carey - Hundred Acres
Charlotte Day Wilson - Stone Woman

3/2/18
Jonathan Wilson - Rare Birds
Seun Kuti & Egypt 80 - Black Times
The Breeders - All Nerve

3/9/18
David Kitt - Yous

3/23/18
Lissie - Castles


3/30
The Voidz

4/6

4/13

4/20
Kimbra - Primal Heart
Bishop Briggs - Church of Scars

4/27
Janelle Monae - Dirty Computer

5/4
Damien Jurado - The Horizon Just Laughed
Leon Bridges - Good Thing
Venetian Snares & Daniel Lanois -  S/T
Alana Davis - Love Again

5/11
Arctic Monkeys - Tranquility Base Motel & Casino

5/18
Ray Lamontagne - Part of the Light 1

6/1/18
Ben Howard - Noonday Dream
Richard Edwards - Verdugo
Tancred - Nightstand
Roger Daltrey - As Long As I Have You

6/8
Lykke Li - So Sad So Sexy

6/15
Johnny Marr - Call the Comet

6/29
Anthony Green - Would You Still Be In Love

7/20
Meg Myers - Take Me to the Disco
Ume - Other Nature
Eisley - I'm Only Dreaming... Of Days Gone Past

8/3
Tides of Man - Everything Nothing

8/10
Foxing - Nearer My God

8/17
Death Cab For Cutie - Thank You For Today

8/24

Mark Lanegan & Duke Garwood - With Animals

Neil and Liam Finn - Lightsleeper

8/31

Anna Calvi - Hunter

9/7

Lenny Kravitz - Raise Vibration
Thrice - Palms

La Force - La Force

9/21

Prince Piano & A Microphone: 1983 [Posthumous live]
Elysian Fields - Pink Air

Metric - Art of Doubt

9/28
The Joy Formidable - AAARTH
Pinegrove - Skylight
Amber Arcades - European Heartbreak

10/5
Doyle Bramhall II - Shades

10/12
Masseducation (solo piano)

11/9
J. Fernandez - Occasional Din
Boygenius EP
Mother Mother - Dance & Cry

11/16

POD - Circles

11/30
Jeff Tweedy - WARM

Poetic LIcense...or...In Other Words #4

Every now and then your favorite songs are so good that they allow you to look past certain quirks and nuances that are so contrary that in a lesser work they would be the subject of ridicule. It's Okay by Land of Talk is one of my all-time favorite song & likely my all-time favorite ballad. But leave it to me to find one line that I feel was either purposely changed to avoid being cliche, or... I don't know why they would make the creative choice they did other than to just do something different that wasn't so obvious. But in this case I feel the obvious lyrical choice would do the sentiment of the song so much Justice and it wouldn't detract from the lyric at all.

It's Okay

Land of Talk

Lyrics

It's okay,
I don't even cry
all I think about is a memory
and the dream when you kissed my arm
as I look away, don't hear what I say

That maybe when I die,
I'll get to be a car
driving in the night
lighting up the dark.
something in your voice
it sparks a little hope
I'll wait up for that noise
your voice become my home

One way road, don't care what I find
A little thunder's good, I thought maybe you would
but it's okay, we all feel left out
sometimes growing up, it can get you down.

I give you something that no one's going to give you
my sleepin' skin and my heart deep down in you
I'll never tell you, but you're my little scar
Goodbyes are hard and they're hard and they're hard

Maybe when I die
I'll get to be a car
driving in the night
Lighting up the dark
Something in your voice,
sparks a little hope
I'll wait up for that noise
your voice becomes my home

Songwriters: Elizabeth Powell

It's Okay lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.

So here is the phrase:

Maybe when die
I'll get to be a car
driving in the night
lighting up the dark.


The obvious change:

Maybe when I die
I'll get to be a star
Shining through the night
Lighting up the dark

Poetic Embellishment:

Maybe when I die
I'll live on in your heart
Spirits intertwined
Never drawn apart

There are plenty of ways to spin it but none are necessary because Elizabeth sings the original with vulnerability and sincerity so potent that thr curious imagery of automotive reinCarnation is totally acceptable.

Poetic License...or In Other Words #3

I've been sitting on this one for a minute, cause it's an easy fix in my head, and also one that adds a little something to the power of the song. What song?

My Name Is Human by Highly Suspect

https://genius.com/Highly-suspect-my-name-is-human-lyrics

I'm only of a mind to tweak 1 line in the main chorus that goes:

"Get up off your knees, boy
Stand face to face with your God
And find out what you are(Hello, my name is human)Hello, my name is humanAnd I came down from the stars(Hello, my name is human)"

It's ironic that the only phrase I have a problem with is the title of the song when it's echoed. There's just so much potential there for pathos since this is in essence a sing-a-long chorus. My first thought was to just change the phrase to:

Get up off your knees
Stand face to face with your God
And find out what you are
(I know I'm only human)
Hello, my name is human
And I cam down from the stars
(I know I'm more than human)

Either of those replacement lines work, and there's no need to use both, but I like the way using both represents the conflict people have with their ideas about their limits and their potential. It's a representation of the existential dilemma that comes with reconciling consciousness, mortality, and, infinity.

Regardless, I dig the song and the way it uses a cadence you'd heard in contemporary r & b for the delivery of the verses. It's the modern equivalent of a spoken verse, but with melody and rhythm giving it a coolness that doesn't compromise the groove. It allows for the the wordplay to be so straight-forward, but still deceptively clever, in plain spoken vernacular. Tweaking those two lines would have been the final revision that put it over the top for me, though credit where credit is due, if you can't get people to sing something that in context, sounds kind of odd, you've struck musical gold.

2017's Albums to Look Forward To

Here's what's on my radar so far:

2017

1/13
Colony House - Only the Lonely

1/27
Cuddle Magic - Ashes/Axis

2/3
Elbow - Little Fictions
Big Wreck - Grace Street
Shannon Wright - Division

2/10
Mother Mother - No Culture

2/17
Son Volt - Notes of Blue
Eisley - I'm Only Dreaming
Ryan Adams - Prisoner
The Verve Pipe - Parachutes
Soft Sleep - Infinite Circles

2/24
Acceptance - Colliding By Design (Pledgemusic)
Jeff Lang - Alone in Bad Company

3/3
Minus the Bear - Voids
Beth Bombara - Map & No Direction (Pledgemusic)
Junius - Eternal Rituals for the Accretion of Light

3/10
David Bazan - Care

3/17
KXM - Scatterbrain
Ari Hest - Natural (bandcamp)
Depeche Mode - Spirit

3/24
Will Johnson - Hatteras Night, A Good Luck Charm
Bridget Kearney - Won't Let You Down
Aaron Sprinkle - Real Life

3/31
Aimee Mann - Mental Illness
Richard Edwards (Margot & the Nuclear So and Sos) - Lemon Cotton Candy Sunset

4/7

4/14
Anders Parker - The Man Who Fell From Earth (Pledgemusic)
John Mayer - The Search for Everything

4/21
Incububs - 8

4/28
Mark Lanegan Band - Gargoyle
Juliana Hatfield - Pussycat
R. Ring - Ignite the Rest
The Classic Crime - How To Be Human (Kickstarter)
Feist - Pleasure
Violents - Awake and Pretty Much Sober

5/12
Paul Weller - A Kind of Revolution

5/19
Land Of Talk - Life After Youth

5/26
Ben Ottewell - A Man Apart
Sarah Jaffe - Bad Baby

6/2
Dan Auerbach - Waiting On A Song

6/9
Phoenix - Ti Amo
Rise Against - Wolves
Lindsey Buckingham & Christine McVie

6/16
Steve Earle - So You Wanna Be An Outlaw
Ours - Spectacular Sight

6/23
Jeff Tweedy - Together At Last
UNKLE - The Road Part 1

7/7
Broken Social Scene - Hug of Thunder

7/14
The Dears - Times Infinity: Volume Two

7/28
Manchester Orchestra - A Black Mile to the Surface

8/11
Paul Draper (Mansun) - Spooky Action

8/18
Grizzly Bear - Painted Ruins

8/25
Queens of the Stone Age - Villains
Filthy Friends - Invitation

9/1
Starsailor - All This Life


9/8
Tori Amos - Native Invader
Alex Cameron - Forced Witness
Victor Wooten - Trypnotyx
Ted Leo - The Hanged Man (Kickstarter)

9/15
Foo Fighters - Concrete and Gold
Emily Haines & the Soft Skeleton - Choir of the Mind

9/22
Circa Survive - The Amulet

Moses Sumney - Aromanticism
Phoebe Bridgers - Stranger In the Alps
Chelsea Wolfe - Hiss Spun

9/29
Wolf Alice - Visions of A Life

10/?
Craig Wedren - Adult Desire

10/6
Liam Gallagher - As You Were
Dhani Harrison - IN///PARALLEL

10/13
The Barr Brothers - Queen of the Breakers
St. Vincent - Masseducation
Matt Cameron - Cavedweller
stars - There Is No Love In Fluorescent ight
Billy Corgan - Ogilala
Robert Plant - Carry Fire

10/20
Kele Okereke - Fatherland
Brand New - Science Fiction

10/27
Julien Baker - Turn Out The Lights
Weezer - Pacific Daydream
Joe Henry - Thrum

11/3
Lalah Hathaway - Honestly

11/10
Quicksand - Interiors

11/17
Sharon Jones - Soul of a Woman
Charlotte Gainsbourg - Rest
Mavis Staples - If All I Was Was Black

11/24
Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds - Who Built The Moon
Bjork - Utopia

12/1
The Dear Hunter - All Is As All Should Be
Gord Downey - Introduce Yourself
U2 - Songs of Experience
Miguel - War & Leisure
Neil Young and the Promise of the Real - The Visitor

12/8
The New Trust - Upset the Tides

12/22
Lovedrug - Relive

Complete -Uncertain release date that I am aware of:

Will Johnson - Little Raider 2, two 7"s, The 901 LP
Kimbra - Primal Heart Jan 19th 2018
David Kitt - Yous

Ongoing Scheduled releases

Sleeping At Last - Astronomy

Definitely in Production:

Ty Tabor
Now Now
Raphael Saadiq

P.O.D.
Breeders
My Brightest Diamond
Tancred



Rumored to be in Production

The Cure - 4:14 Scream