From: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org (ecto-digest) To: ecto-digest@smoe.org Subject: ecto-digest V16 #2430 Reply-To: ecto@smoe.org Sender: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk ecto-digest Sunday, December 16 2018 Volume 16 : Number 2430 To unsubscribe: e-mail ecto-digest-request@smoe.org and put the word unsubscribe in the message body. Today's Subjects: ----------------- Today's your birthday, friend... [Mike Matthews ] Re: Top Ten of 2018 [Jon Wesley Huff ] My Favorite Albums of 2018 [Jon Wesley Huff ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 15 Dec 2018 03:00:00 -0500 (EST) From: Mike Matthews Subject: Today's your birthday, friend... i*i*i*i*i*i i*i*i*i*i*i *************** *****HAPPY********* **************BIRTHDAY********* *************************************************** *************************************************************************** *************** Gloria Jackson-Nefertiti (no Email address) *************** *************************************************************************** -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- - -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Gloria Jackson-Nefertiti Sat December 15 1956 queen_nefertiti@prodigy.net Laura Clifford Tue December 17 1957 Sagittarius Dirk Kastens Tue December 17 1963 Sagittarius Milla Wed December 17 1975 Sagittarius Chris Schernwetter Tue December 17 1974 Sagittarius Sherry Haddock Sat December 17 1960 Sagittarius Tracy Benbrook Tue December 18 1973 Sagittarius Mark Lowry Mon December 22 1969 Capricarius Kay Cleaves Wed December 22 1976 Prancing Pony Uli Grepel Wed December 25 1968 Steinbock Joseph Wasicek Sat December 25 1976 Brown Eagle Stuart Castergine Mon December 30 1963 You Are Here Marvin Camras Sat January 01 1916 Tapehead Jeanne Schreiter Tue January 03 1967 Capricorn John Sandoval Wed January 04 1967 Capricorn Aly Fields Thu January 04 1990 Yield Paul Cohen Tue January 05 1954 Capricorn Tony Garrity Mon January 08 1962 Pool of Life Greg Bossert Tue January 09 1962 OfTheTimes Troy J. Shadbolt Thu January 14 1971 Capricorn Chris Sampson Wed January 15 1964 Void where prohibited Alex Bertran Fri January 15 1971 Capricorn - -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 15 Dec 2018 02:08:25 -0600 From: Jon Wesley Huff Subject: Re: Top Ten of 2018 I really have to give Laura Veirs' new one more of a listen! I like what I've heard of Dollanganger so far, too. Another album I need to listen to more. On Fri, Dec 14, 2018 at 3:01 PM Paul Jensen wrote: > Top Ten of 2018 > > 1. Cursive: "Vitriola" > 2. Sarah Brightman: "Hymn" > 3. Happy Rhodes: "Ectotrophia" > 4. Tracyanne & Danny (self-titled) > 5. Still Corners: "Slow Air" > 6. Nicole Dollanganger: "Heart-Shaped Bed" > 7. Laura Veirs: "The Lookout" > 8. The Breeders: "All Nerve" > 9. Lyla Foy: "Bigger Brighter" > 10. Kacey Musgraves: "Golden Hour" > > > Honorable Mentions: > > Liz Phair: "Girlysound to Guyville" > Grouper: "Grid of Points" > Beach House: "7" > Loreena Mckennitt: "Lost Souls" > U.S. Girls: "In A Poem Unlimited" > Let's Eat Grandma: "I'm All Ears" > > > Disappointments: > > Molly Nilsson: 2020 (not as ear-catching as her previous albums) > Belly: Dove (was so hyped for this, and then.. yaaawwwnnnnn) ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 15 Dec 2018 02:10:55 -0600 From: Jon Wesley Huff Subject: My Favorite Albums of 2018 [image: ContactSheet-001.jpg] *My Top 12 Favorite Albums of 2018. * 12. Ectotrophia - Happy Rhodes The only reason this is lower on the list, really, is that it=E2=80=99s a retrospective release of older material. If you=E2=80=99ve never had the pl= easure of hearing Happy Rhodes=E2=80=99 singular voice, I highly recommend this. T= his represents some of her earlier, more stripped down work than what came later. I was actually first exposed to her through some of the later work, and I love that. But there=E2=80=99s no denying the beauty of what=E2=80=99= s on here. It=E2=80=99s a well selected group of songs. My personal favorites are =E2=80=9CIf So,= =E2=80=9D =E2=80=9CWould That I Could,=E2=80=9D =E2=80=9CIf Love is A Game, I Win=E2=80=9D and the e= pic album-ender =E2=80=9CTo Be E. Mortal.=E2=80=9D 11. Moon - Alison Sudohl Sudohl used to perform under the moniker A Fine Frenzy, and I discovered her first album under that name when it first came out. It was only recently that I found that out, because I knew her as the actress that played Queenie from the Fantastic Beasts films (a character I really love.) I was so happy Sudohl was putting out more music, and this lovely EP really impressed me. The opening track =E2=80=9CEscape The Blade=E2=80=9D is a med= itative and beautiful song that I have listened to over and over again. Sudohl=E2=80=99= s voice is gorgeously textured. It enters your ears as smooth as honey, but there= =E2=80=99s a wonderful, almost smokey bite to it as well. There=E2=80=99s not a bad tr= ack on the album, but I=E2=80=99d say =E2=80=9CLonely Love=E2=80=9D is another rea= l standout. It=E2=80=99s only five songs long, but feels like a complete experience, really. The vinyl is on its way to me, and I can=E2=80=99t wait to give it a listen that way. 10. Bigger, Brighter - Lyla Foy I fell hard for Foy=E2=80=99s debut album, Mirrors The Sky in 2014. I was s= o excited for her follow-up, and it did not disappoint at all. The intimacy of her vocals is still there, as though you were sitting on the floor of her bedroom while she serenaded you. Her voice has a wavering fragility at times which brings a potent emotionality to her music. Sonically, though, she really mixes it up here from tracks like the driving =E2=80=9CFar Behin= d You=E2=80=9D and =E2=80=9CTry My Heart=E2=80=9D to the gorgeous and quietly epic =E2=80= =9CNo God.=E2=80=9D 9. A Moment Apart - Odesza I discovered Odesza with their 2014 album, in return. I excitedly awaited their follow-up, A Moment Apart. But after listening to the singles leading up to the album, I somehow missed the actual release of the album until recently. I have made up for lost time. This is my favorite kind of electronic music. It=E2=80=99s beautiful, quiet, loud, epic, fragile, and u= tterly listenable. It feels like it=E2=80=99s there for you to connect with in wha= tever way you want. It=E2=80=99s great background music. Great driving music. Gre= at sitting with headphones and just listening music. For a song with lyrics, try =E2=80=9CLine of Sight.=E2=80=9D For an instrumental, try the gorgeous = =E2=80=9CThin Floors and Tall Ceilings.=E2=80=9D 8. Hymn - Sarah Brightman It=E2=80=99s kind of hard not to love Sarah Brightman. At least, I think so= . She seems incredibly lovely as a person in interviews, for one thing. And her voice... well, that reputation is well established. One of the joys of her albums is seeing how she=E2=80=99ll interpret songs from across the spectru= m of classical and popular music. Sometimes I=E2=80=99ve heard of them, some I h= ave not. I=E2=80=99d go out on a limb and say this is one of her best albums ever. I= t=E2=80=99s incredibly consistent in quality and is pulled together with a pretty simple theme=E2=80=94she wanted something uplifting and hopeful. Now, there= are (as one might expect) plenty of religious themes here. As an atheist, this can sometimes grate. It doesn=E2=80=99t here at all. So even if I might not be = into some of the particulars, the joy of music is that it can often transcend that. There=E2=80=99s a joyousness to the music that carries me along. The = best part is that it=E2=80=99s a very complete, glorious whole. It=E2=80=99s alm= ost hard to pick out tracks because of that because it=E2=80=99s all so well sequenced. But = her rendition of Eric Whitacre=E2=80=99s =E2=80=9CFly to Paradise=E2=80=9D is f= antastic. =E2=80=9CFollow Me=E2=80=9D is the love theme from Mutiny on the Bounty, but here it sounds like it could have been a Bond song. 7. Bloom - Troye Sivan I was immediately taken with Sivan=E2=80=99s debut album Blue Neighborhood.= I was just so incredibly impressed with the level of songwriting. And, it kind of gives me a thrill to see a young gay men being totally himself and having such success. I even got to see him in concert. And (safely perched on the balcony away from the throngs of teens) I enjoyed the hell out of it. I=E2= =80=99m so happy that his new album lives up to his first. It=E2=80=99s a little mo= re tightly focused, I suppose at 10 tracks. Which isn=E2=80=99t a bad thing. T= he songs are often equally personal and danceable. Again, the whole album is great. But my favorite tracks are =E2=80=9CBloom,=E2=80=9D =E2=80=9CDance to This= ,=E2=80=9D and =E2=80=9CAnimal.=E2=80=9D 6. so sad so sexy - Lykke Li Lykke Li is an artist I=E2=80=99ve heard a lot ABOUT but just never had a c= hance to listen to. But I ran into one of her songs from her new album on Spotify and was immediately captivated. The album is entirely listenable from start to finish with pulsing rhythms and elements of dream pop, indie pop, electro pop, and a hip-hop vibe on some tracks with Li=E2=80=99s gorgeous v= oice pulling it all together. There is LITERALLY not a bad track on this album. There=E2=80=99s something to hook your ear on all of them. If I had to pick= some favorites, they=E2=80=99d be =E2=80=9Chard rain,=E2=80=9D =E2=80=9Cjaguars = in the air,=E2=80=9D the title track, and =E2=80=9Csex money feelings die.=E2=80=9D 5. Palo Alto - Years & Years This was the album I discovered Years & Years with and I had my listening time hijacked by this album for months. It blasts out of the gate with its best track =E2=80=9CSanctify=E2=80=9D and never really lets up. Other stand= - -out tracks include the reflective =E2=80=9CHypnotized,=E2=80=9D and the title track. T= here are some songs that feel a little out of place. =E2=80=9CIf You=E2=80=99re Over Me= =E2=80=9D is one of them. But it=E2=80=99s so jaunty and agreeable I can=E2=80=99t get too grumbly ab= out it. And the back-half of the album includes some of my favorite songs like =E2=80=9CHow= l=E2=80=9D and =E2=80=9CDon=E2=80=99t Panic.=E2=80=9D Again, as with Troye Sivan it=E2= =80=99s so exciting for me to see a young queer gay man out there being totally open. I mean, one day this is going to be nothing special. Hell, maybe we=E2=80=99re already here= in some ways. But that=E2=80=99s part of what the thrill is here. It=E2=80=99s just= a fabric of a larger work. It=E2=80=99s not what the work is about. If there=E2=80=99s an= ything that feels like a counter to the tide of hate that=E2=80=99s been churned up in = the US lately, it=E2=80=99s music like this. Unapologetic. Queer. And just HERE. B= eing. 4. High as Hope - Florence and the Machine It says something about the quality of all the albums this year that I=E2= =80=99m putting a F+TM album fourth! It has to be said, these last four are pretty much in a dead heat for my affections. High as Hope feels like Florence Welch has calmed down a little bit from some of her past albums. But just a little bit. There=E2=80=99s maybe nothing quite as epic-sounding as =E2=80= =9CCosmic Love=E2=80=9D or =E2=80=9CHow Big, How Blue, How Beautiful=E2=80=9D here. The songs feel = smaller in places. Some songs like =E2=80=9CSouth London Forever=E2=80=9D or =E2=80=9C= No Choir=E2=80=9D are given space to just sort of meander. This is not a complaint. It actually provides a nice contrast to the more dramatic or driving songs like =E2=80= =9CBig God=E2=80=9D or =E2=80=9CPatricia.=E2=80=9D But the overall effect is an al= bum that=E2=80=99s a little more intimate. 3. Art of Doubt - Metric Again, this is another album that any other year would have easily taken number 1. Metric are my favorite band. There are times when I feel like Emily Haines is jacked into my brain, but maybe a part of my brain that I= =E2=80=99m not even that well connected to. This is a little hard to explain. But I=E2= =80=99ve never been a fan of =E2=80=9Cangry=E2=80=9D music. Heavy metal, punk... I j= ust don=E2=80=99t connect to it that much. I have to be in a very particular mood. I feel like Metric makes my kind of angry music. It=E2=80=99s anger that seems ver= y deep-seated but that filters out through these different lenses of analysis. It=E2=80=99s less =E2=80=9Cfuck you world=E2=80=9D and more =E2= =80=9Cfuck you world, but I guess I can see why we=E2=80=99re here=E2=80=94not that it doesn=E2=80=99t suck a= nd people are kind of shitty=E2=80=94but I=E2=80=99m also kind of shitty in my own way too... so = maybe it should be fuck you world, and fuck me too... or maybe I should be less hard on the world or myself.=E2=80=9D It=E2=80=99s... complicated. =E2=80=9CNow or Neve= r Now,=E2=80=9D =E2=80=9CArt of Doubt,=E2=80=9D and =E2=80=9CDressed to Suppress=E2=80=9D are my favorite tracks. 2. Dirty Computer - Janelle Monae I picked up Monae=E2=80=99s debut album Archandroid because I loved the alb= um art. That=E2=80=99s all there is to it. I bought it purely based on the fact tha= t it looked cool as hell. I was amazed at the actual music. But, here=E2=80=99s = the thing... despite enjoying that and The Electric Lady... despite the fact that I was living for the sci-fi themes, the intelligence, and the listenability of them... they never ended up on my best of list. But when Monae released the one-two punch of =E2=80=9CDjango Jane=E2=80=9D and =E2= =80=9CMake Me Feel=E2=80=9D I was just floored. It felt like everything that made Monae great refined into it=E2=80=99s sharpest and most perfect form. And the thing was, both songs = are so different. The singles got me excited, but nothing could really prepare me for the full album itself. This is Monae=E2=80=99s crowning achievement so = far. It is a complete, beautiful, challenging, intelligent, queer, defiant, and bold album. I AGONIZED over which album to put on the top of my list. I have copied and pasted them back and forth many times now. Because not only is the album an amazing piece as a whole, but some of my favorite tracks of the year are on here. =E2=80=9CCrazy, Classic Life,=E2=80=9D =E2=80=9CScrew= ed,=E2=80=9D =E2=80=9CI Like That,=E2=80=9D =E2=80=9CSo Afraid,=E2=80=9D and =E2=80=9CAmerican=E2=80=9D join the two singles I ment= ioned as my favorite tracks. 1. Everyone Afraid To Be Forgotten - ionnalee After releasing a series of amazing audiovisual albums as part of the project known as iamamiwhoami with an album of mysterious electropop and a movie to accompany it. She released a few tracks at a time leading up to the album=E2=80=99s release, including =E2=80=9CSamaritan.=E2=80=9D By the = time the album was out, my desire to hear the whole thing was at a fever pitch. I was not disappointed. The thing is, I have gotten all her albums (including the excellent live album) on vinyl. These are not cheap, as they have to be imported. So, they usually run about $60 with shipping and exchange rates. I have never regretted getting these for even a second. I=E2=80=99m going t= o say something that might sound stupid. Maybe it=E2=80=99s the presentation with= the videos... but to me her work almost transcends a regular album into something more like art. Yes, of course albums are art. But I think there are albums that are incredible collections of songs... and there are some that somehow reach beyond that. This is not something I can quantify. In fact, I=E2=80=99m sure it=E2=80=99s rooted in something very personal. But = this is an album that calls out to me, and speaks to me. As an aside, I backed her tour on Kickstarter, and she came to Chicago. I couldn=E2=80=99t believe it. It was= a small club, I was dancing around all the time, throwing my hands in the air. I am a terribly self-conscious person. But the energy and love in that room between performer and fans was palpable. I think it=E2=80=99s actually this= live experience that gave this album a SLIGHT edge over Dirty Computer. According to Spotify, I listened to this album over 60 hours this year. And that=E2=80=99s not even counting listens on vinyl. Honorable Mentions (Almost made it): Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald - James Newton Howard There aren=E2=80=99t a ton of soundtracks I come back to again and again, but thi= s is one of them I have many times since the movie came out. I was a fan of the movie, so that might help. But as a listening experience it=E2=80=99s been = very enjoyable, especially as I=E2=80=99m reading or doing some writing. It star= ts off with the dark and lively =E2=80=9CThe Thestral Chase=E2=80=9D but it has so= much charm, energy, and awe throughout its runtime. It=E2=80=99s kind of hard to pick favorites, but =E2=80=9CQueenie Searches for Jacob=E2=80=9D is achingly bea= utiful. =E2=80=9CLeeta=E2=80=99s Flashback=E2=80=9D is gothic and dramatic. =E2=80=9CSalamander Eyes=E2=80= =9D is a beautiful score for Newt and Tina=E2=80=99s relationship. The titular track (toward the end= ) is also... well, fantastic. Lost Souls - Loreena McKennitt I=E2=80=99ve been a fan of Loreena=E2=80=99s since 1996 or 97. A new album = by her is always something to treasure, and there=E2=80=99s so much to love here. The openin= g track =E2=80=9CSpanish Guitars and Night Plazas=E2=80=9D starts off the alb= um very strong. =E2=80=9CAges Past, Ages Hence=E2=80=9D is also great. The problem = is a lot of the album sort of comes and goes and is lovely but didn=E2=80=99t always leave = a strong impression in my ear. It sort of meanders and flows and you=E2=80=99re kind= of just along for the ride. This is not a bad thing, but I=E2=80=99m sort of used t= o having one or two more emotional punches. [demime 0.97c-p1 removed an attachment of type image/jpeg which had a name of ContactSheet-001.jpg] ------------------------------ End of ecto-digest V16 #2430 ****************************