You can now follow the Music Court on twitter (despite the consternation of my fellow writers). http://twitter.com/musiccourt Hope to see you on there and I promise I will still never use the word tweet or tweeting (Now poo-tee-weet is another story)
The Jets lost. Another season with an optimistic start has pretty much gone down the perennial tubes likes many seasons before.I’d like to say that this is a fluke but lacking late-season performances have plagued this franchise for so many lost years and I do not even know the half of it. While I stare in the face of another long winter waiting time until the optimism of spring brings back Spring Training and baseball, I certainly need a bit of a pick-me up to get me smiling again. Yes, I understand that me being down because of a sports team is incredibly superficial and rather dumb but, even in my knowledge that sports are simply a form of entertainment and the world is always experiencing crisis beyond the meaningless stranglehold of sports, I cannot shake the inevitable feeling of annoyance that my wonderful Jets and Mets always seem to bring me. So, let us turn to music and I will reveal to you all my perfect pick-me up song.
I could not resist
“Beautiful World” by Colin Hay (who was the lead vocalist of Men at Work in the 80’s) appeared on Company of Strangers, Hay’s 7th solo album which was released in 2002. The song’s lyrics are just uplifting and truthful. In perhaps one of my favorite verses in any song, Hay sings:
“And still this emptiness persists
Perhaps this is as good as it gets
When you’ve given up the drink and those nasty cigarettes
Now I leave the party early at least with no regrets
I watch the sun as it comes up I watch it as it sets
Yeah this is as good as it gets.”
In it, I just feel like he sums it up quite pleasantly and ingrained in this lyric and song is a message of accepted optimism. Perhaps, no matter what, this is as good as it gets. Do not have any regrets and live life with a smile. Accept the bad and try to make it good. My, my, my it’s a beautiful world (Just look at it that way).
Check out the song and don’t worry, be happy (Bobby McFerrin ain’t bad either):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yS8g6UuPCnQ&feature=PlayList&p=A6F88D16B0CC2DEA&index=0&playnext=1
If I ever become a roadie for Adams I will be going on the PBA tour. That makes me laugh!
A holiday gift from the good folks at Sarathan records. Enjoy this free, legal, EP of 3 great Peter Bradley Adams songs. I reviewed his music a little while ago and you can read it over at this link: https://musiccourt.wordpress.com/2009/11/12/the-bands-at-bauska-castle-peter-bradley-adams/
Adams’ style of folk/rock is beautiful and this free EP is most definitely a treat. Download the three songs at this link: http://www.peterbradleyadams.com/free/ep/ Enjoy!
Since I recently posted the question to you readers about the best album of the decade, I thought I would give you the opinions of some other reputable websites. First lets start with the metacritic.com choice.
Metacritic.com created a point system based on every major review over the past 10 years to make their decision. Sounds pretty foolproof. The winner? Beach Boy Brian Wilson’s album SMILE which is a fantastic album and could have very well been in my top six. Check out the statement: http://www.contactmusic.com/news.nsf/story/wilsons-smile-is-named-best-reviewed-album-of-the-decade_1126215
Rolling Stone also created their very own 100 best albums list of the decade based on votes by artists and music critics. The list is quite large and I thought I would just let you all pick it up at #10. There are a few rap albums interspersed in this list which are very well deserving of their title, but, since our poll is for rock albums alone, #1 may look familiar (Hint: It is on our list!)
Check it out: http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/31248017/100_best_albums_of_the_decade/33
Remember. Vote on our own poll for top album of the decade: https://musiccourt.wordpress.com/2009/12/18/court-polls-what-is-the-best-rock-album-of-the-decade/ and check out our new twitter feed: http://twitter.com/musiccourt
Name every album in this picture and I will be quite impressed
Keeping with the theme of last week’s poll, let us explore a slightly tougher question. Judging albums is arbitrary and I know that full well, but, because this is an opinion blog I can make my own decision and no one can stop me (hahaha). Though, in this poll I hope to be unbiased and to outline out six albums that do deserve the title. It would seem like in rock music alone this decade has witnessed an agglutination of various combinations of genre sampling. What I mean by this is that there has been no unified rock stance like we have seen in decades prior. This list just represents the variety of music that has been played over the past decade and, hopefully, it will put to rest any thoughts that this decade was a wasteland for music. The so-called burning junkyard of rock’n’roll is not so much of a junkyard if you dig deep enough, past the surface of mainstream garbage. You may know some of these albums and may already have listened to the songs, but, listen again, do some research, and let us know what you believe to be the greatest rock album of the last decade. I understand there may be some I left off the list so comment below if you have any other ideas.
Thanks for voting and I am looking forward to your responses. I can assure you that my response and heck maybe even another blogger’s response will be gracing the musiccourt’s pages in a few days. Look up any of the albums on www.lala.com and listen to some tracks from the album if you do not know them.
The Music Court 