Since there weren't that many comments (yet)...after all of both of your efforts, it turns out I decided to leave a 'tome' of a comment (I wasn't planning on it...apologies in advance). I enjoyed your year-end summary and was happily surprised that you had...was it a 5 album overlap?...regardless of where they appeared. Therefore one of my takeaways will be: if you both liked these 5 titles, I will definitely give them a deeper dive (if I haven't already). I also really enjoyed the "debrief" at the tail-end; including the discussions about shorter albums (which I find welcome in the modern era). In the era of Reels, Shorts and TikTok etc, I think it's a response to shorter attention spans; both by the artists and the listeners. Those of us that try to "get to" as much new music as possible 'welcome' the shorter album template, with the caveat that the artists have boiled down their output to the strongest material (hopefully). Then something like the sprawling Cindy Lee - Diamond Jubilee gets released...which so far I was only listened to once in the background but found very strong...but 2 hours is a LOT to demand of a 2025 listener. It was interesting to hear each of your approaches to whittling down / bucketing your best of" lists, until in their ever changing states, you must commit to the ONE list. One phenomenon you did not mention, is all of the albums we discover in future years, that had we been aware of them, they would have easily topped our current lists. Factor in our own subjective experiences and the timing, that lead us to have a deep connection with some music, the whole exercise becomes futile. Lastly, I completely related to the discussion about essentially: music listening "balance". One simply cannot listen to everything that comes out; there's just too much new music being released. Everyone's situation is unique: level of interest, family, kids and other responsibilities. No matter how much time one has to devote to 'listening', there's always more output than one can find time for. I found myself thinking...can I ask Google's new Willow chip-based quantum computer to use its spooky predictive powers, to tell me what I'll end up liking, thus freeing me to listen to it more often. All to say, I too am endeavoring to find a new balance, so that I can still check out new bands/albums but also revisit the record already in my collection. Whenever I do go back to my collection, I seem content with what I did decide to acquire it in physical form (the good news), but always thinking (I need to spend more time listening to this). There's the rub...and there's probably a scientific name for this paradox...but....the more we try to add to our mental database, the less quality time we spend revisiting our favorites. I'll be 55 next month (age definitely plays into it), so I'm endeavoring (2nd time I use that word) to cut the fat"; slowly get my physical collection down to my "essentials" (which will also help finance my future "essentials"...another collecting dilemma) and try to be a bit more selective with the new 2025 albums I choose to check out. If you made it this far...Happy New Year to both of you.
Yeah, I am also all for shorter albums - but sometimes I feel like I am left wanting more, especially at the 20 minute or under mark. But, I also think some albums work better bite sized. Others, maybe not. I believe it was last year we discussed that it probably makes more sense to not make a year end list until many months later - but at that point even less people will care. I think there are some years if I redid now the whole top 5 would be different. But, it is a fun exercise to make the list - even knowing it is fluid. I find a lot of recommendation engines are good at pointing me back to music I already like and much less good at pointing me to something I have never heard of (that I actually like). But, that sort of thing keeps getting better over time. Thanks for hanging out with us and taking the time to comment. Greatly appreciated. Happy New Year. Cheers!
I can honestly say for the first time ever, I own both number 1s. Though neither a "douche" or a snob, I have to say that I totally relate. In the past year or so, I've spent so much time looking for new music, that I almost never have time to enjoy the good stuff I find. I have a lot if unopened records. Personally, I blame the Douche--for that and my meat stick addiction. Great work, guys.
Thanks for watching. Good to hear you were on board with our number 1’s. I am okay taking responsibility for your meat stick addiction. Hope you had a great new year. Cheers!
Thanks for the video guys! Enjoyed the contrasts between you two - I had been through Sam's top 75 (and picked up a bunch) but was not familiar with Wishy's Triple Seven - which seems pretty cool. Thanks for the tip. You raise an interesting point - how to balance the number of LPs i listen to versus those that I really listened to well. This was a terrible year in some senses - I bought a ridiculous number of new LPs but feel that I no longer listen to any of them enough to get more than a vague impression. As you both note, this seems to have root in both radio (8 yrs on a couple of smaller regional stations) and reviewing (much less). The other thing, which is possibly less encouraging, is that *maybe* they are not as capable of grabbing my attention....possible because of after decades of listening to new groups, its now much harder to 'light the fire' than it was years back. Dunno. Anyhow, really enjoyed the back and forth, as always.... cheers ps - the Alvilida LP would be pronounced "Say Day-Jah Lure" (french for "its already time").
Thanks for taking the time to comment. Appreciate the pronunciation on the Alvilda LP - my French is pretty lousy, to be sure. I definitely could see that over time one could find less and less lighting that fire. I know probably most people just stick with their old reliables from when they were young and don’t necessarily try to seek out much beyond that. Thanks for watching - hope you had an enjoyable new year. Cheers!
Mammoth Penguins are Great, and they played in a minor festival at the northwest coast of western Norway, on a boat actually, @indiefjord, not far from beautiful Ålesund (have a son studying there!).
Always great to hear from Norway and glad you dig that Mammoth Penguins record. Appreciate you taking the time to comment and for hanging out with us. Cheers!
It's eerily similar to Jamaican reggae in the mid to late 70s. It seemed common then to get LPs that had 10-12 tracks, but only ran for 25-35 minutes, but 12" singles would often have the main track, an extended version with a toast (rap) and a dub version that would run for 40 minutes.
Ok, here's a quick French lesson for you Americans who aren't forced to do French in school, like us Brits. Heure is French for hour. The French tend to not pronounce h, so heure is pronounced eure (somewhere between er, and ur). L' is a contraction of le (or la, depending on the gender they've assigned something. Hours are apparently masculine.) So l'heure is simply pronounced leure (ler/ lur). If you'd ignored the apostrophe and the H, your pronunciation would have been correct.
It definitely would have made sense for me to look it up before making a fool of myself - but I’m not sure it would have helped me to not butcher it in the end.
Since there weren't that many comments (yet)...after all of both of your efforts, it turns out I decided to leave a 'tome' of a comment (I wasn't planning on it...apologies in advance).
I enjoyed your year-end summary and was happily surprised that you had...was it a 5 album overlap?...regardless of where they appeared. Therefore one of my takeaways will be: if you both liked these 5 titles, I will definitely give them a deeper dive (if I haven't already).
I also really enjoyed the "debrief" at the tail-end; including the discussions about shorter albums (which I find welcome in the modern era). In the era of Reels, Shorts and TikTok etc, I think it's a response to shorter attention spans; both by the artists and the listeners. Those of us that try to "get to" as much new music as possible 'welcome' the shorter album template, with the caveat that the artists have boiled down their output to the strongest material (hopefully). Then something like the sprawling Cindy Lee - Diamond Jubilee gets released...which so far I was only listened to once in the background but found very strong...but 2 hours is a LOT to demand of a 2025 listener.
It was interesting to hear each of your approaches to whittling down / bucketing your best of" lists, until in their ever changing states, you must commit to the ONE list. One phenomenon you did not mention, is all of the albums we discover in future years, that had we been aware of them, they would have easily topped our current lists. Factor in our own subjective experiences and the timing, that lead us to have a deep connection with some music, the whole exercise becomes futile.
Lastly, I completely related to the discussion about essentially: music listening "balance". One simply cannot listen to everything that comes out; there's just too much new music being released. Everyone's situation is unique: level of interest, family, kids and other responsibilities. No matter how much time one has to devote to 'listening', there's always more output than one can find time for. I found myself thinking...can I ask Google's new Willow chip-based quantum computer to use its spooky predictive powers, to tell me what I'll end up liking, thus freeing me to listen to it more often. All to say, I too am endeavoring to find a new balance, so that I can still check out new bands/albums but also revisit the record already in my collection. Whenever I do go back to my collection, I seem content with what I did decide to acquire it in physical form (the good news), but always thinking (I need to spend more time listening to this). There's the rub...and there's probably a scientific name for this paradox...but....the more we try to add to our mental database, the less quality time we spend revisiting our favorites. I'll be 55 next month (age definitely plays into it), so I'm endeavoring (2nd time I use that word) to cut the fat"; slowly get my physical collection down to my "essentials" (which will also help finance my future "essentials"...another collecting dilemma) and try to be a bit more selective with the new 2025 albums I choose to check out.
If you made it this far...Happy New Year to both of you.
Yeah, I am also all for shorter albums - but sometimes I feel like I am left wanting more, especially at the 20 minute or under mark. But, I also think some albums work better bite sized. Others, maybe not. I believe it was last year we discussed that it probably makes more sense to not make a year end list until many months later - but at that point even less people will care. I think there are some years if I redid now the whole top 5 would be different. But, it is a fun exercise to make the list - even knowing it is fluid. I find a lot of recommendation engines are good at pointing me back to music I already like and much less good at pointing me to something I have never heard of (that I actually like). But, that sort of thing keeps getting better over time. Thanks for hanging out with us and taking the time to comment. Greatly appreciated. Happy New Year. Cheers!
I can honestly say for the first time ever, I own both number 1s. Though neither a "douche" or a snob, I have to say that I totally relate. In the past year or so, I've spent so much time looking for new music, that I almost never have time to enjoy the good stuff I find. I have a lot if unopened records. Personally, I blame the Douche--for that and my meat stick addiction. Great work, guys.
Thanks for watching. Good to hear you were on board with our number 1’s. I am okay taking responsibility for your meat stick addiction. Hope you had a great new year. Cheers!
This is crazy. I discovered you guys and closed out 2023 with your "best of" list from last year and here we are again. Some great choices in there.
Glad you stumbled in to us. Thanks for watching. Cheers!
Thanks for the video guys! Enjoyed the contrasts between you two - I had been through Sam's top 75 (and picked up a bunch) but was not familiar with Wishy's Triple Seven - which seems pretty cool. Thanks for the tip. You raise an interesting point - how to balance the number of LPs i listen to versus those that I really listened to well. This was a terrible year in some senses - I bought a ridiculous number of new LPs but feel that I no longer listen to any of them enough to get more than a vague impression. As you both note, this seems to have root in both radio (8 yrs on a couple of smaller regional stations) and reviewing (much less). The other thing, which is possibly less encouraging, is that *maybe* they are not as capable of grabbing my attention....possible because of after decades of listening to new groups, its now much harder to 'light the fire' than it was years back. Dunno. Anyhow, really enjoyed the back and forth, as always.... cheers
ps - the Alvilida LP would be pronounced "Say Day-Jah Lure" (french for "its already time").
Thanks for taking the time to comment. Appreciate the pronunciation on the Alvilda LP - my French is pretty lousy, to be sure. I definitely could see that over time one could find less and less lighting that fire. I know probably most people just stick with their old reliables from when they were young and don’t necessarily try to seek out much beyond that. Thanks for watching - hope you had an enjoyable new year. Cheers!
Mammoth Penguins are Great, and they played in a minor festival at the northwest coast of western Norway, on a boat actually, @indiefjord, not far from beautiful Ålesund (have a son studying there!).
Always great to hear from Norway and glad you dig that Mammoth Penguins record. Appreciate you taking the time to comment and for hanging out with us. Cheers!
Talk about an alley oop. I like eggs.
Fried in oil. Delicious.
It's eerily similar to Jamaican reggae in the mid to late 70s. It seemed common then to get LPs that had 10-12 tracks, but only ran for 25-35 minutes, but 12" singles would often have the main track, an extended version with a toast (rap) and a dub version that would run for 40 minutes.
Yeah, I’m sure these things ebb and flow over time as well. Thanks for watching and taking the time to comment. Cheers!
I wonder how many people thought they were buying an Eels album called 'Being Dead' 😁
Definitely could happen.
Ok, here's a quick French lesson for you Americans who aren't forced to do French in school, like us Brits.
Heure is French for hour.
The French tend to not pronounce h, so heure is pronounced eure (somewhere between er, and ur).
L' is a contraction of le (or la, depending on the gender they've assigned something. Hours are apparently masculine.)
So l'heure is simply pronounced leure (ler/ lur).
If you'd ignored the apostrophe and the H, your pronunciation would have been correct.
It definitely would have made sense for me to look it up before making a fool of myself - but I’m not sure it would have helped me to not butcher it in the end.