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I guess Currents was the one that really did the trick, regardless of which one I would have wanted to (I love Currents, mind you).

If Lonerism wasn't the future of psych rock, I kind of wish it would have been. It still felt very much like a proper rock album, it was plenty psychedelic, and it felt fresh. I'm sure that plus his songcraft and voice at the time were why that album hit me so much harder than the other excellent psych albums that came out in the last decade, some of which I really love (shoutouts to Kikagaku Moyo, White Denim, King Gizz, Ty Segall, Goat, etc)

Cool, I''ll check it out.

Pretty much how I feel. I haven't listened to anything from this new one, but they've always just bored me for the most part. Hell, I wish they were dynamic and interesting enough to say something else about, either way. *shrug*

I got two for you: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0GaBWt1dmfgkqY5IzDvGg5?si=82iFDe36Q_6M4vxmP9PhFg - Stuff up until the '04 breakup. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0bYQiEhrV9upZIqzzz1sWq?si=rsVHGZf5SjOuoyQ7BuoEAA - Highlights of the "classic lineup" reunion run from the early-mid '10s. Put both on shuffle (the second one definitely doesn't start with stuff from the best reunion albums)

Hella prolific.

Cool site, yo.

Same. If there's a gun to my head they probably wind up on my Top 5 Favorite Artists list more often than not, but they have finally outpaced me in the last few years since Bob clicked on this current lineup.

Stupid, naive me really thought Dirty Computer and its singles were gonna get full-blown huge, especially after I heard "The Way You Make Me Feel" in the wild two days in a row. I was at least glad they matter-of-fact referenced her on Insecure.

Now that you mention it, he had an album out last year, "85 to Africa". I didn't hear any of it, though and had forgotten it existed until I saw your question. But I liked The Chief and loved that he was in with Janelle, so I should check it out. Did anybody else listen to it and have thoughts?

Screwed/Django/Pynk and the Electric Lady opening trip are great non-Archandroid examples.

Why does she have to be the next anybody? I like her more than anybody you just mentioned save maybe Prince, and the only way I want her to mirror any of them is in terms of success. And maybe a slightly heavier musical output if she can pull it off without burning out. But no, I do get your point. I just disagree hard with it.

Twice? You lucky dog, I haven't managed to see her once between living in China during the album cycles for The Archandroid and The Electric Lady and her only Philly show since was a set at Made in America, which I passed on that year.

*"Suite III is a huge plunge in quality from Suite II" (not Suite I)

I was going to say "I didn't realize this album had come out so early in 2010" but then I remembered it's mid-May already and it just feels like we're early in the year because we've been locked up since March. Sigh. But still, I have such great, vivid, memories of this. I wouldn't have heard it in may, because I only hipped to Janelle after hearing her sing the hook on Big Boi's "Be Still", and Sir Luscious Leftfoot didn't come out until the summer proper. But I was blown away when I checked her out and got this album and shared it with as many people as I could. Her genre-jumping was pulled off so great - the best way, in fact, where you don't really think about it as genre-jumping so much as just various facets of her style (as Christina pointed out with Janelle's quote about genre). I've never been able to love the full album as much as I want to because to this day I still think Suite III is a huge plunge in quality from Suite I. The only song in Suite III I really love is "Wondaland". So that's actually a decent chunk of album that I don't listen to very often. But by the same token, Suite II is full-throttle 10/10 perfection. I mean she does every. single. thing. right. on Suite II and it makes for a dazzling display. The various mini-pairings that make up the suite work so brilliantly together - the way "Dance or Die" slips into "Faster", the powerhouse single duo of "Tight Rope" and "Cold War", and then the wild, mind-blowing "Oh Maker">"Come Alive">"Mushrooms & Roses" - again, perfection. I just wish Suite III didn't sound like Suite II's b-sides. I think The Electric Lady had a similar problem of falling off in its back end, oddly enough. Dirty Computer is the best complete product she's put out, IMO, even if Suite II can definitely go toe to toe with that or just about anything else from the last decade.

And believe it or not, there were songs and they were good and they didn't need context to be so!

I'd go with Side Effects. But Performance was an important album because it was such an improvement from Stiff, which had me thinking they were done. Performance was where White Denim 2.0 started to gel.

Was that at Festival Pier, say '07/'08‐ish? I remember seeing Flaming Lips and De La there together but can't think of why I wouldn't have seen the other 2.

Also, "Home"'s debt to "This Must Be the Place" has always felt pretty direct to me!

Good writeup. I'm a a bit surprised no mention was made of how bitter a lot of the songs feel - to me it's always been an album of really unpleasant emotions, for the most part (funny since Ryan is spot on about "Dance..." being Murphy's most euphoric moment). It turned me off from loving it all the way at the time, but maybe I'll give it a fresh listen (I usually listen to select songs from it rather than go front to back). Also wanna point out how much the release if Anerican Dream seemed to reenergize their shows. In 2017 I saw them at Pitchfork before it came out and it was good, but felt pretty safe and unmemorable (classics + the 2 songs they had done on SNL). By December I saw them in Philly on the proper American Dream tour and it was an absolute barnburner.

It was really shitty, obviously. He seemed like he was kind of a mess around that tour - I got the impression from that, what I was hearing about the quality of some of the other shows, some public statements even, he was hitting the bottle pretty hard. I have hoped since that was the reason and that he has since gotten a grip on it because I love the guy's music. If something in that line happens again it will obviously be time to reconsider.

"Deep Space 9mm" ftw (and the rest of the album)!

Love it. Great to hear Levon behind the kit.

Hmm, each one reminds me of a different band - "Muted Gold" a really post-punk-leaning, later-period LCD Soundsystem, "Dunkirk" of Parquet Courts, "Just in the Band" of The Strokes. I don't really see where there's much connection to "90s slacker rock", though. It's a bit post-punkier than my taste, but there's enough range in the songs that I'll check out the LP when it drops.

Imagine hearing that in like 2004. And that it would be part of a much anticipated new album.

It's my favorite off that album.

To be fair, the third is pretty distinctive - there are surprisingly successful stabs at dream pop, country rock, classic rock, etc. But aside from that, spot on.

Pearl Jam generally seem to have turned out alright.

Not generally regarded as the lead offender in this regard.

I haven't spent as much time with it as I want to yet (just didn't wind up having a lot of music time the last couple days) but I listened to the first half and it seems like his best since at least Blues Funeral, which is a welcome surprise. Everything since had been solid with some serious keepers ("Torn Red Heart" , "Floor of the Ocean", "Harvest Home", "Old Swan", "Goodbye to Beauty", "Playing Nero") but aside from maybe Black Pudding nothing has been strong front to back.

Man, I've been a Mark Lanegan/Screaming Trees fan since I got the Singles soundtrack in the late '90s and he hasn't said anything that's going to change my appreciation of his music...but I really could have done without this increased time in the public spotlight he's had lately! Great singer and songwriter, dipshit human.

RIP to one of the last of the major originators of the music form that I have devoted so much of my life to loving.

Like Lanegan is the only musician who's been a scumbag who we care about or talk about.

"...and have listened to their music" SMH @ me

That "since if" in my 2nd paragraph is pure typo and "done" should be "some". Why the fuck do I ever bother to type on my phone?

Damn. Dark, ugly stuff that just drives home what a wretched scourge heroin has been for artists and musicians for generations and across genres (I'm thinking of the Miles Davis autobiography and just what we're generally know about the beat generation and the early-70s death wave). Lanegan comes across as a scumbag and a half, as does everyone in it, and the recent thing with Liam suggests since if that it's still part of him, but this doesn't really feel like he's romanticizing, even if he tells the story with done zing. It sounds grossly, painfully honest...and is not entirely uncompelling, if only because we know who 2/3 of these people are and gave listeners to their music, heard then speak, etc.

Following hot in the footsteps of the Wu Tang Lullabye album.

It's got a choice cover or two, as well.

"Blah blah blah once upon a time blah blah blah immigrants and f*****s they make no sense to us two little girls blah blah blah they all lived rosily ever after. "

Bill Burr is such a self-righteous little edgelord fuck these days, I'm tired of him. But I've ebbed and flowed on him a few times over the years, so maybe in a couple more I'll be singing his praises again. One thing I won't praise, however, is his awful Mandalorian appearance, haha. His takedown of the hostile Philly (Camden, technically) crowd back in the 2Ks will always be the stuff of legend, though. Which I naturally say as a Philadelphian.