150 Best Albums of 2010 You might not have guessed the Romeo (Michigan) redneck and Tamil tigress had much in common, but both Kid Rock and M.I.A.

3400 3-year-old words on M.I.A. & Kid Rock both releasing singles called "Born Free" the same year, a superstar with equally bad politics putting out the year's most acclaimed album, chillwave, witch house, South African house, hypnagogic pop, K-pop, my 150 favorite albums of 2010 & much much more.

"House of Pain"?? Jump up jump up and get down, jump around. If ya got the feelin', jump up towards the ceilin.' (Just kidding, I always liked this one. Faster Pussycat's second album was their peak.)

Singles reviews, 1990 Written for the tabloid-sized glossy Creem-in-name-only after evil new owners revived it in Los Angeles.

From 36 Years Ago file cabinet drawer, installment #1 of short-lived singles roundup column for counterfeit Creem magazine. Starring Blowfly, Company B w/ Foxy, Tommy Conwell, INXS, Azalia Snail, Vanilla Ice, Warrant, others mentioned in passing, plus cranky complaining about new physical formats!

By Daddy Dewdrop no less!! A music biz scam artist from even older times. Chickaboom, chickaboom, don't you just love it.

Graffiti at Mary's Bum Underpass Urban Ruins of Austin, #3

Concrete walls and bridges with drawings about smoke, hope, love, peace, eyes, dragons (in my Rorschach interpretation anyway), boobs, middle fingers, wacky faces, hard times, bad days (not bad lives), Suicide Boy$, hawg yachts and pee spots.

Nothing Really Happened Blindfold Test #31

25 songs 1965-2003 (or so): Allman Bros, Barakatak, Bells of Kyoto, Black Ivory, Captain Sky, Fludd, Higsons, Dee D. Jackson, Quincy Jones, Killing Joke, Liasons Dangereuses, Mary MacGregor, Minimal Compact, Moskwa TV, Qkumba Zoo, Rats, Righteous Bros, Suicide Commandos, Махфират Ҳамрақулова, more!

Nothing Really Happened Blindfold Test #31

25 songs 1965-2003 (or so): Allman Bros, Barakatak, Bells of Kyoto, Black Ivory, Captain Sky, Fludd, Higsons, Dee D. Jackson, Quincy Jones, Killing Joke, Liasons Dangereuses, Mary MacGregor, Minimal Compact, Moskwa TV, Qkumba Zoo, Rats, Righteous Bros, Suicide Commandos, Махфират Ҳамрақулова, more!

Christ Child: L.A.'s First Fake Punks Best industry plants ever?!!

Talk about your “industry plants”: Almost 50 years ago, a mysterious band named Christ Child put out their only LP on Columbia subsidiary Buddah, and it went nowhere. Rumors suggest they were either session dudes or moonlighting metalheads posing as punks, but details seem scant. A hoot and a half!

Christ Child: L.A.'s First Fake Punks Best industry plants ever?!!

Talk about your “industry plants”: Almost 50 years ago, a mysterious band named Christ Child put out their only LP on Columbia subsidiary Buddah, and it went nowhere. Rumors suggest they were either session dudes or moonlighting metalheads posing as punks, but details seem scant. A hoot and a half!

150 Best Albums of 2022 “For now, [Matt] Gaetz seeks to project a victor’s air of comity.

2300+ words from 3 years ago on Matt Gaetz, the GOP speaker of house debacle, why comity isn't what some people think, publication lists vs. polls, why Beyoncé's acclaim wasn't universal, glut of good music by young women, dearth of good music by young white males, & my 150 favorite albums of 2022.

150 Best Albums of 2022 “For now, [Matt] Gaetz seeks to project a victor’s air of comity.

2300+ words from 3 years ago on Matt Gaetz, the GOP speaker of house debacle, why comity isn't what some people think, publication lists vs. polls, why Beyoncé's acclaim wasn't universal, glut of good music by young women, dearth of good music by young white males, & my 150 favorite albums of 2022.

Pazz & Jop Product Reports, 2026 This post is a tool; it’s how I keep track of new music I hear — thus enabling me, for one thing, to put together long lists of albums I like when the year comes to an end.

PAZZ & JOP PRODUCT REPORT — late April 2026

YEAH: DJ Fantome: Zando Beat! (Palenque Colombia) 7; DJ Joecel: Best TikTok Budots Remix Nonstop (DJ Joecel Exclusive Philippines EP) 7; DJ Joecel: New Budots Dance 2026 Disco Party (DJ Joecel Exclusive Philippines) 7...[continued]:

150 Best Albums of 2009 Depending on who you asked about music at the time, 2009 was apparently either a year that everything died, everything changed, everything went wrong, or nothing happened.

4000 words on alleged deaths of hip-hop & rave & AutoTune & polka & Michael Jackson, funky vs. wonky vs. donkey, a scene called scene, people denying Taylor Swift could sing, women & Eurobeats taking over pop, indie pop taking over Pazz & Jop, tiktoks & boom boom pows & my 150 fave albums of 2009.

Everclear review, 1997 One of my very few section-fronting (and therefore longish) lead reviews in Spin — off the top of my head, the only other one I can recall was about Alanis Morissette.

One of my very few section-fronting lead reviews in Spin. Younger critics had lower tolerance for Art Alexakis than I did, but I can’t think of anybody else associated with "grunge" whose lyrics were more relatable, or whose tunes more tuneful. Posting this in honor of his 64th birthday yesterday.

Everclear review, 1997 One of my very few section-fronting (and therefore longish) lead reviews in Spin — off the top of my head, the only other one I can recall was about Alanis Morissette.

One of my very few section-fronting lead reviews in Spin. Younger critics had lower tolerance for Art Alexakis than I did, but I can’t think of anybody else associated with "grunge" whose lyrics were more relatable, or whose tunes more tuneful. Posting this in honor of his 64th birthday yesterday.

Four '90s Country Songs In 2012, the hip-hop-identified website Complex assigned me a listicle thing called 50 Country Songs That Don’t Suck, which must rank with the most cluelessly titled articles I’ve ever written.

In 2012, the hip-hop-identified website Complex assigned me a listicle thing cluelessly called (not by me) 50 Country Songs That Don’t Suck. Most of the writeups wound up in one of my books; these (about ‘90s tracks by John Anderson, Cactus Brothers, Tractors & Alecia Elliott) didn’t. I wonder why!

Walkman Volcano Blindfold Test #30

25 songs 1955-1994: Benny, Oscar Brown Jr., Butterball, Cravats, David Essex, Ferko StringBand, Folk Devils, Growl, Dan Hartman, KalesijskiZvuci, Kursaal Flyers, Kenny Loggins, Look Blue Go Purple, Otto Luening, Pablo Cruise, Plan 9, Pretty Tony, Stack Waddy, Tragic Mulatto, Very Things, 012, more!

Stevie Stiletto profile, 1987 “Stevie Stiletto, the better known and public face of Ray McKelvey, passed away at home, on March 24, 2013 in Jacksonville, Florida,” reported Alberto Rivera in Maximum RocknRoll that year.

Wrote almost 40 years ago about a Florida punk rock band there’s a good chance you never heard of. Their frontman, who I interviewed, passed away in 2013. An amusing article regardless.

150 Best Albums of 2014 “2014 was the best year for music”: 10 results (0.35 seconds).

Almost 4500 words about good & bad years, good & bad business, rookies & veterans, chickens & people, class & race, U2 hacking iphones, D'Angelo helping protests, enormous dinosaurs, laser magnets, industrial-grade irritants, music that everybody talks about a lot, and my 150 favorite 2014 albums.

150 Best Albums of 2014 “2014 was the best year for music”: 10 results (0.35 seconds).

Almost 4500 words about good & bad years, good & bad business, rookies & veterans, chickens & people, class & race, U2 hacking iphones, D'Angelo helping protests, enormous dinosaurs, laser magnets, industrial-grade irritants, music that everybody talks about a lot, and my 150 favorite 2014 albums.

150 Best Albums of 1980 Less than three weeks before I first published this, Rolling Stone‘s website ran an 80 Greatest Albums of 1980 listicle, making the case that the first year of the 20th Century’s penultimate decade wa...

1700 words a/k/a more words than any sane person will ever want to read comparing my own 150 favorite albums of 1980, Rolling Stone's 80 favorite albums of 1980 and the Pazz & Jop poll's 40 favorite albums of 1980, plus a lengthy and wonky diversion on the release date of the first Gang of Four LP.

150 Best Albums of 1980 Less than three weeks before I first published this, Rolling Stone‘s website ran an 80 Greatest Albums of 1980 listicle, making the case that the first year of the 20th Century’s penultimate decade wa...

1700 words a/k/a more words than any sane person will ever want to read comparing my own 150 favorite albums of 1980, Rolling Stone's 80 favorite albums of 1980 and the Pazz & Jop poll's 40 favorite albums of 1980, plus a lengthy and wonky diversion on the release date of the first Gang of Four LP.

3 Country Albums, 1981 Plenty to disagree with here, assuming you can even make sense of it — Hey, I was just 20 at the time and I doubt I’d listened to country music before I was 19, so cut me a break OK?

Plenty to disagree with in this college review, if you can even make sense of it — Hey I was just 20, cut me slack OK? Of the 3 LPs (Haggard, Jones, Costello), only one I still care about is Merle’s. Reviving it to honor what would've been his 89th birthday, if he hadn’t died exactly 10 years ago.

150 Best Albums of 2021 I am under no delusions that my personal favorite albums of any year are particularly indicative of anything, much less any political or epidemiological “zeitgeist.” But if I were to map out trends co...

NEW!!!: 4150 words on coups, pandemics, zeitgeists, windmills, winter storms, streaming, cocooning, whispering, feelings, speak-singing, eliminating genres, changing standards, rolling coal, listening to and re-evaluating the past, four-square political songcraft and my 150 favorite albums of 2021.

150 Best Albums of 2021 I am under no delusions that my personal favorite albums of any year are particularly indicative of anything, much less any political or epidemiological “zeitgeist.” But if I were to map out trends co...

NEW!!!: 4150 words on coups, pandemics, zeitgeists, windmills, winter storms, streaming, cocooning, whispering, feelings, speak-singing, eliminating genres, changing standards, rolling coal, listening to and re-evaluating the past, four-square political songcraft and my 150 favorite albums of 2021.

With Video Pictures Blindfold Test #29

25 songs 1972-1991: Abwärts, Aural Exciters, Balcones Fault, Banbarra, Chimo Bayo, Brainstorm, teenage Def Leppard, Feelies, Headless Chickens, Keith Hudson, Kilburn & the High Roads, Booker Newberry, Pink Section, Radiorama, Slits, Stack Waddy, Jermaine Stewart, Strikers, Super Heroines, Ut, more.

With Video Pictures Blindfold Test #29

25 songs 1972-1991: Abwärts, Aural Exciters, Balcones Fault, Banbarra, Chimo Bayo, Brainstorm, teenage Def Leppard, Feelies, Headless Chickens, Keith Hudson, Kilburn & the High Roads, Booker Newberry, Pink Section, Radiorama, Slits, Stack Waddy, Jermaine Stewart, Strikers, Super Heroines, Ut, more.

True Two Hit Wonders Plenty of artists over the years have had exactly two hits.

Lots of artists have had exactly 2 hits. But to be a true “2-Hit Wonder," you need to be a 1-hit wonder twice — with, let’s say, at least 5 years between your only 2 songs on, let’s say, the U.S. pop top 30, with no others near that. Here are 12 acts that pulled it off. (If you know more, say so!)

True Two Hit Wonders Plenty of artists over the years have had exactly two hits.

Lots of artists have had exactly 2 hits. But to be a true “2-Hit Wonder," you need to be a 1-hit wonder twice — with, let’s say, at least 5 years between your only 2 songs on, let’s say, the U.S. pop top 30, with no others near that. Here are 12 acts that pulled it off. (If you know more, say so!)