Nick Drake’s hushed, melodic vocals and intricate acoustic guitar work create a hypnotic air of melancholy buffered by resignation, with only faint glimmers of hope. His music is engaging and…
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The great Johnny Cash needs no introduction. So let’s get to it. Playlist 1 The first playlist presents my mix of Johnny Cash’s two famous live albums from the late...
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The Next 8 Albums for My Top 20 Albums of 1969 Note: Some of this commentary is adapted from that in No Hype No Trends Music’s 200 Best Albums of the 1960s....
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The Tropicália movement—which merged Brazilian traditional and avant-garde musical forms with foreign styles, such as psychedelic and blues music—produced perhaps the most significant body of what we Americans call “world…
And what about the albums that didn't make my Year in Review playlist? I normally cap the length at just about 8.5 hours, the amount of music that in the...
Read More1968 was no typical year. A whopping 43 albums from 1967 made my top 200 of the decade. That leaves thirteen albums beyond my standard top 30 worthy of a...
Read MoreThe Next 10 Albums, for My Top 30 Albums of 1968 1968 seems to me a pretty “flat” year in terms of quality, meaning that there are a lot of...
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It’s very hip to be a fan of Serge Gainsbourg, the crown prince of French perversity—at least it was the last time I paid much attention to what was hip....
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Intro text After John Coltrane, Charles Mingus was my next great jazz love. The first Mingus recording that blew me away was the album The Black Saint and the...
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Blending psychedelic rock with jazz and other influences, the Soft Machine emerged from the Canterbury music scene playing a variety of prog rock characterized by a sense of playfulness lacking...
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