It's a new soundtrack, I can dance to this beat

EIGTTB

*The blog title is a reference to Taylor Swift’s Welcome to New York. It’s funny because I was in New York for 3 days this week. This blog has admittedly little to do with Taylor Swift, but quite a bit to do with New York.*

For the last few of these blogs, I’ve been operating off pure vibes. Radiohead=good. Franz Ferdinand=not as good. 2013=very good. 2012=nowhere near as good.

Yeah, I dabbled in an old album or two, read some old reviews, tinkered with playlists. But I didn’t have the time nor energy to listen to 64 albums and carefully scrutinize each.

Then this week happened.

I went on a flat hunting trip to New York, poking around neighborhoods, drinking copious amounts of slightly overpriced coffee, and marveling at living rooms that can “squeeze in a full size couch for a nice homey feel.”

You know, the usual.

As one might imagine, that meant a lot of to-ing and fro-ing. A walk here, a subway there — not to mention a 4 hour train ride to NYC and back. My friends and I realized we had to fit in if we were indeed to relocate to the city. We established some rules for the endeavor. Don’t marvel at the best bagel you’ve ever had. Don’t apologize if you bump into someone. Don’t exclaim excitedly when you see a significant landmark. And for fuck’s sake, no matter if there are cars coming, if you have the green light, you cross the street.

The obsession with not looking like tourists snowballed, to the extent that we decided to sit a few seats away from each other on the subway, headphones in, and offer some sort of vague nod to signal departure upon reaching our stop (I imagine it didn’t help.)

My point is, add everything up, and I’ve spent a lot of time listening to music in the past 72 hours or so. And after such extensive research, contemplation, and deliberation, I am no closer to choosing between records, let alone years.

Anyway, here’s the second round.

CHILDHOOD ERA

2004 vs. 2007

Funeral (Arcade Fire), Now Here is Nowhere (Secret Machines), College Dropout (Kanye West), Franz Ferdinand (Franz Ferdinand), Aha Shake Heartbreak (Kings of Leon)

VS.

In Rainbows (Radiohead), Graduation (Kanye West), For Emma, Forever Ago (Bon Iver), Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace (Foo Fighters), Sound of Sliver (LCD Soundsystem)

For a lot of my listening over the past few days, I’ve contemplated what each album might have sounded like when I first heard it. Where was I? Who was there? Any fond memories associated with it? What particular songs stood out?

That’s pretty fucking unfair for 2004, considering I was 5. But that litmus test of sorts is invaluable for 2007. My first gig was Radiohead in Wolverhampton in 2006, where they played a few tracks that would later end up on In Rainbows.

Foo Fighters was an album me and my brother really got into, as well. We used to play it in the car, and it was always on in the background when we were hanging out in our shared bedroom (if I recall, it was the soundtrack to many a glorious win for me in FIFA 2008.)

That was soppy. Anyway, that’s enough justification for a contest that shouldn’t need much justification.

2007.

IPOD ERA

2008 vs 2010

808s and Heartbreak (Kanye West), Dear Science (TV on the Radio), The Seldom Seem Kid (Elbow), Viva La Vida (Coldplay), Fleet Foxes (Fleet Foxes)

VS.

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (Kanye West), High Violet (The National), Plastic Beach (Gorillaz), The Suburbs (Arcade Fire), Brothers (The Black Keys)

fuck.

The good thing here is that there are some clashes in similar genres or spaces. I can quite confidently say that MBDTF (2010) is better than 808s (2008). I can also say in the rock-ish category, that Dear Science (2008) comfortably tops Brothers (2010). Give me High Violet (2010) over Viva La Vida (2008) any day. And I’ll have the Seldom Seem Kid (2008) instead of Plastic Beach (2010).

In theory, then, it’s 2-2, and it all comes down to Fleet Foxes and Arcade Fire.

And that’s where it gets tricky. As a listen, an album to stick on, marvel at, get lost in, just simply enjoy any time of the year, I’d lean Fleet Foxes. But it’s not that simple.

I think this comes down to more of a holistic debate between two sonically different years. In a sense, 2010 was maximalist. Kanye’s most ambitious project, Gorillaz ringing up Snoop Dog, Arcade Fire embracing everything from Springsteen to 80s pop, The Black Keys with a four piece band. Even The National, notoriously understated, filled out their sound.

2008 was a bit more gentle. Kanye stripped down (as much as he can be, which is, honestly, not that much.) Brian Eno produced Coldplay sounding sweeter yet somehow slightly better (Viva La Vida is a confusingly good record.) The Seldom Seem Kid, with its highs — One Day Like This, Weather to Fly, the Bones of You — also its slightly more tender moments. Fleet Foxes, all bearded men presumably drinking craft IPAs and harmonizing gleefully in valleys in upstate New York, weren’t exactly loud.

So, it’s not about who “wins”, but perhaps what was more defining, more impactful. What year sounded new and interesting, as a whole?

2008. By such a tiny bit it hurts.

Spotify ERA

2013 vs 2015

Yeezus (Kanye West), Trouble Will Find Me (The National), Acid Rap (Chance The Rapper), Random Access Memories (Daft Punk), Pure Heroine (Lorde)

VS.

In Colour (Jamie XX), To Pimp A Butterfly (Kendrick Lamar), Carrie & Lowell (Sufjan Stevens), Sound & Color (Alabama Shakes), Currents (Tame Impala)

When I was first researching albums for this series, I figured 2013 would win the whole thing. For volume of very, very, very good albums, it’s hard to beat. As I’ve established, though, this competition is more about peaks than admittedly impressive plateaus.

So, where does that leave us with 2013 vs 2015?

On face value, 2013 should win. I vividly remember 2013 being the first year I really invested myself into the hype of an album dropping. That meant deep dives to find shitty concert cuts of what eventually became “Pink Rabbits”, waiting until midnight to hear Random Access Memories, or downloading Twitter to hear what crazy stuff Kanye was saying in the run up to Yeezus. It was a transformative year for me in the way that I not only consumed music, but the way I invested myself in the artist.

My favorite 3 albums of 2015 — In Colour, Currents, To Pimp a Butterfly — might shift things back the other way. Check my Spotify and they’re still 3 of my most listened (ironically, Pure Heroine has been the 2013 disc I’ve come back to the most.) And as much as no one willingly consumes Sufjan on a day to day basis, C&L is still a glorious record.

So, I suppose it’s a duel of what meant the most to me then, and what has lasted through now.

Let’s go with sentiment, for old’s time’s sake.

2013.

MyGodOtherMusicExists ERA

2017 vs. 2019

DAMN. (Kendrick Lamar), Sleep Well Beast (The National), Yesterday’s Gone (Loyle Carner), I See You (The XX), Melodrama (Lorde)

VS

Psychodrama (Dave), Kiwanuka (Michael Kiwanuka), Immunity by Clairo, I,I (Bon Iver), MAGDELENE (FKA Twigs)

One interesting battle here is between two of my favorite album covers in recent memory. The National’s SWB is geometric, squalid, and mysterious — but somehow effortlessly cool. Bon Iver’s i,i, meanwhile, makes no sense in a strangely intriguing way (I suppose the same can be said for the music.)

That comparison is a bit of a microcosm of the two years, really. 2019’s slate is trippy, different. It’s a year of “growers”. 2017 is perhaps more straightforward, more produced. It’s less murky, and my selections are, effectively, pop music.

But 2020 was weird, 2021 has also been weird. It’s only right, then, that the edginess of 2019 is the preferred option.

2019.

Right then, semis next week.

2007 vs 2010 AND 2013 vs 2019.

yelp.

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Song that’s been on my mind this week.

“Cause everybody hates a tourist/especially one who thinks it’s all such a laugh”

As a proud New Yorker, I find that line relatable.

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Until next week…