Music Friday: "Shadows Follow"

Apparently Metallica has a new album coming out this year. 

I heard part of an interview of Lars Ulrich with Conan O'Brien yesterday, and just today as I was listening to the Liquid Metal SiriusXM station, I heard this song. 

Music Friday: "Master of Puppets"

I've noticed that Metallica has become trendy because of the latest season of Stranger Things using one of its songs. 

If I remember right, I'm still stalled in season 3 in that series, so I haven't gotten to the season that made Metallica and Kate Bush popular among the youths. 

Regardless of popularity, when I think of Metallica, here's one of a handful of songs that immediately comes to mind.

Music Friday: "The Frayed Ends of Sanity"

I've been listening to ...And Justice for All this morning. What a great album that was released in 1988. 

Enjoy. 

Music Friday: "Sad But True"

Apparently there's a cover album of Metallica's Black album coming out. Isbell and his band did an interesting version of "Sad But True."

I'm sharing the cover and the original. 

Top Tensomething Albums of 2016

It's that time of the year again.

Like I did in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015, I'm providing my top ten albums that came out this year. After the top ten, there's a list of albums that deserve honorable mention. 

In the past, I've usually had twentysome albums on this list, but this year I didn't buy as much music as I usually do. It was not some kind of concerted effort to save cash. Rather, from my perspective, this was a down year for my musical tastes. Maybe I'm missing something. 

So if there are other albums you would recommend that came out in 2016, please let me know in the comments section.

1. Sturgill Simpson, A Sailor's Guide to Earth

Mr. Simpson had a tough draw trying to follow up Metamodern Sounds in Country. But he did so in an excellent fashion. At first listen, I was surprised by all the horns and strings. After the second or third listen, I was addicted. It's a stunning album with a strong Americana backbone. From the rocking "Brace for Impact (Live a Little)" to the poignant "Breakers Roar," from the standard "Keep It Between the Lines" to the wonderful cover of "In Bloom," this is just a fantastic album. 

Favorite Songs: "Welcome to Earth (Pollywog)," "Keep It Between the Lines," "In Bloom," and "Sea Stories"

2. Tedeschi Trucks Band, Let Me Get By

I'd really like to see this humungous band in concert because I don't think their albums give a person a full realization of how good this band really is. Tedeschi's voice sounds great as ever, and the arrangements are spot on. Just another strong TTB album for our listening pleasure. 

Favorite Songs: "Laugh About It," "Don't Know What It Means," "Let Me Get By," and "Crying Over You"

3. Drive-By Tuckers, American Band

I liked English Oceans, and I like this offering a lot too. There was all kinds of press touting this album as the band's best in a long time. I don't know about that. The lyrics and topics on a number of tunes certainly got the attention of people because of what was a rhetorical shitfest of an election, one that saw a second coming of George Wallace (crossed with P.T. Barnum) winning the presidency. Scary times and an album with political lyrics. Dislike the former--enjoy the latter. 

Favorite Songs: "Ramon Casiano," "Guns of Umpqua," "Sun Don't Shine," "Ever South," and "What It Means"  

4. Dawes, We're All Gonna Die

Dawes is a band that has filled the musical hole that R.E.M. once occupied. I wouldn't compare the band's sound and lyrics to that hallowed band. Dawes is more straightforward, and the band's lyrics are understandable--not the language poetry Stipe spun. Dawes is a rock band with a slight pop sensibility. We're All Gonna Die is another solid offering from these dudes. The lyrics of "Quitter" might be my favorite lyrics of the year. 

Favorite Songs: "Roll with the Punches," "Less Than Five Miles Away," "Picture of a Man," and "Quitter"

5. Metallica, Hardwired... To Self-Destruct

To longtime Metallica fans, I don't think any new album will ever live up to the early ones, but this one reminds me of ...And Justice for All. The album has the fellas going back to their speed metal roots. There are some really good arrangements and as usual solid guitar work. For those pining for straightforward metal, this is probably the go-to for 2016. 

Favorite Songs: "Moth into the Flame," "Confusion," "ManUNkind," and "Spit Out the Bone"

6. St. Paul & the Broken Bones, Sea of Noise 

These fellows from Birmingham, Alabama followed up their breakthrough debut album quite nicely. Like we saw two years ago, they offer no nonsense soul/R&B. 

Favorite Songs: "Is It Me," "Brain Matter," "Waves," "Midnight on the Earth," and "All I Ever Wonder"

7. Weezer, White Album

I desperately want the 90s back ... in so many different ways. This band is still putting out its alt-rock stylings. There's a lot to be said for just a rock band doing its thing and not getting caught up in some art-house, funhouse shenanigans. Just play something that rocks. And Weezer did that. 

Favorite Songs: "Thank God for Girls," "Summer Elaine and Drunk Dori," "Jacked Up," and "Endless Bummer" 

8. Jack Garratt, Phase

About the last thing you'd think I'd buy is music that could be labeled "electronica." But I saw this guy perform on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and I was impressed. I guess his stuff could be categorized as pop music. He's a Brit. I shut down my prejudices against electronic music and enjoyed the ride. 

Favorite Songs: "Breathe Life," "Weathered," "I Know All What I Do," and "Chemical" 

9. Ben Harper, Call It What It Is

After his fabulous collaboration with Charlie Musselwhite, I was sort of expecting a more bluesy offering. "Call It What It Is" provides that vibe with a obvious political statement: "Call it what it is ~ Murder." This is not one of my favorite Harper albums, but it's worth your time. 

Favorite Songs: "Call It What It Is," "How Dark is Gone," "Shine," and "Dance Like Fire"

10. Luther Dickinson, Blues & Ballads (A Folksinger's Songbook), Vol. I & II

The front man for the North Mississippi Allstars put out his own solo affair with some songs on the album from the NMA canon. The whole affair is stripped down to the basics with a couple of guests. 21 songs on this bad boy. 

Favorite Songs: "Mean Ol' Wind Died Down," "Ain't No Grave," "Highwater (Soldier)," "Ol' Canonball," and "Mayor Langford Birmingham Blues" 


Honorable Mentions

Quaker City Nighthawks, El Astronauta

Elizabeth Cook, Exodus of Venus

Mount Moriah, How to Dance

Bob Mould, Patch the Sky

Amanda Shires, My Piece of Land

Hard Working Americans, Rest in Chaos

Lydia Loveless, Real

Regina Spektor, Remember Us to Life

Sarah Jarosz, Undercurrent

[Belated] Music Friday: "ManUnkind"

I had planned on doing a post on Friday, but obviously it slipped my mind for the whole weekend. 

So I'll simply share one of the songs from the new Metallica album, which I'm really enjoying. 

Music Friday: "For Whom the Bell Tolls"

Metallica has a new album coming out in November. 

I'm looking forward to it. 

Here's an vintage Metallica tune, one of my favorites. 

Music Friday: "Harvester of Sorrow"

I got nothing to say other than it's a Metallica kind of Music Friday.

Music Friday: "Holier Than Thou"

Can you tell I've been busy? No posts since Sunday...

When I worked out Tuesday, I listened to Metallica's major commercial success, the band's Black Album.

That album is solid, and the songs that garnered the most attention were "Enter Sandman," "Sad but True," "Wherever I May Roam," and "Nothing Else Matters."

Strangely enough, "Enter Sandman" was such a hit that Alabama used the song as the Intro before Alabama basketball games when I was in Tuscaloosa. To this day, when I hear the song, I think about Coleman Coliseum. They may still be using the tune for all I know.

But today instead of featuring one of Metallica's hits from the Black Album, I give you "Holier Than Thou," a tune from that fine opus that matches my attitude in general. I'm grouchy. I'm stressed. I'm juggling all kinds of @#$%.

Once next week is over, I'll be in a better frame of mind, I hope.

Music Friday: "One"

I remember hearing today's featured song blasting from car stereos in my high school's parking lot quite often during my senior year. Metallica's ...And Justice for All was released just in time for the start of fall semester 1988.

Metallica's "One" is a video from my youth that creeped me out a bit back then, and it continues to make me slightly uncomfortable now because of the same reasons--the scenes from the 1971 film adaptation of Johnny Got His Gun, the 1938 anti-war novel by Dalton Trumbo, which is the inspiration for the lyrics of the song.

I regret to say that I still haven't read the novel although I plan to do so sometime.

But I do know the main character of the novel loses his arms, legs, and all of his face, but his mind functions just fine. He's a prisoner of war in his own body. Or as the lyrics relate, "Body my holding cell."

Although the main character's horrible situation is an extreme case, the video reminds me of guy I saw at the Indianapolis Children's Museum this winter when we took the kids there.

As I was with my kids riding the carousel, there was a young man with possibly his nieces or nephews or perhaps even his kids. The gentleman, obviously a veteran of our violent excursions in the Middle East, had one leg and merely nubs for arms. His arms only went to about halfway down to where his full biceps used to be. He had to use a crutch underneath the arm opposite his leg to walk.

Back during the fall semester I think, one of my colleagues sent an email to a bunch of us asking about any song lyrics that would pair well with poems for the general education literature class she was teaching. I don't think I mentioned "One" when I responded to her query.

In retrospect, I think the song would pair well with Owen's "Dulce Et Decorum Est."

I don't intend to cast a pall on your Friday, but "One" is a song that floated into my consciousness recently since I worked out while listening to ...And Justice for All on Wednesday.

For the lyrics of the song, you can check them out after the jump.

Music Friday: "For Whom the Bell Tolls"

As we got closer to Waterloo on Wednesday, I tuned into 107.9 FM, which is the radio station I listened to when I was living in this area along with KUNI because those were the two best options. And 107.9, whatever its name is now, still plays lots of hard rock and metal.

To go along with the fare the station dishes out, I offer one of my favorite songs by Metallica. Click HERE to watch the band perform it in Moscow.