Lizzo! Anything of hers! So talented!
Lizzo, Lizzo, Lizzo! Her 2019 album release is Cuz I Love You and her 2017 single, Truth Hurts, hit the Billboard 100 this year. Lizzo is an incredible talented musician and songwriter: she is a classically trained flautist with roots in Houston rap and gospel soul. Her songs are fun, catchy, and genre-bending while also addressing important issues like body positivity, race, and sexuality.
For a brief peak at her talent, just check out her Tiny Desk Concert.
I’m hooked on the Elvis channel on Sirius Radio. He has the best voice, especially some of his Gospel & Holiday stuff.
Amy Winehouse Station on Pandora in our lounge, The Beatles Channel on XM Radio in the car (unless my wife is driving, then it is the Hits One Channel), Club Classics on Heart London on TuneIn Radio on Saturday nights, and Breakfast with the Beatles on XRT on Radio.com on Sunday mornings!!!
Beck’s Hyperspace and his Colors video, too—terrific.
New stuff:
DIIIV – Skin Game, Soccer Mommy – Lucy, Lower Dems – Young Republicans, Angel Olsen – What It Is and New Love Cassette, Ty Segall – The Singer, Deerhunter - Death in Midsummer, Moses Sumney – Virile, La Roux – International Woman of Leisure, Anna Calvi, Lucius, St. Vincent, Sharon Van Etten, Wolf Alice, Tame Impala
Old school:
Goldfrapp, The Smiths, Morrissey, Echo and the Bunnymen, Led Zeppelin, Grateful Dead – American Beauty and Workingman’s Dead, The Beatles
My go-to is the Van Morrison station on Pandora. Except Thanksgiving – New Year’s Day, then is the Sinatra Christmas station. I love both performers and I really like the other singers Pandora plays on these channels, i.e., Nat King Cole on the Sinatra Christmas station.
I can listen to these over and over and over:
Beck – Morning Phase, Broken Bells – After the Disco, The Head and the Heart – Let’s Be Still, and Arcade Fire – The Suburbs.
Camila Cabello – “Cry for Me” — Influenced by my teenagers. Talented young artist with great range. Big music in a little song.
Kendrick Lamar – “Swimming Pools” — Not for kids, but lyrical mastery for hip hop fans. Never leaves the playlist.
Taylor Swift’s (yes, I know… I can hardly believe it myself) “Lover” album is pure art from top to bottom.
Taylor Swift (becoming addicted to her music lately), Kylie Minogue, Missy Elliott, Shakira and Scissor Sisters.
My current “hot” album: “Bandana” by Freddie Gibbs and Madlib, which was released earlier this year as a follow up to their brilliant first collaboration in 2014, “Pinata”. The reason for having this album on repeat all the time is that Madlib’s eclectic and off-beat soul and jazz samples augment Gibbs’ lyrics, despite coming from polar opposites of the hip-hop spectrum. Freddie’s rapping over Madlib’s sublime loops and beats makes it one of my favourites of 2019!
Tom Petty said music is the closest thing in this world to magic. Music definitely makes me feel grateful. So in that spirit, I'm suggesting the new Beck album Hyperspace as a holiday shopping soundtrack. In a year chock full of great albums, this is my favorite. It will be spinning at our house this holiday season for sure.
I prefer different genres for different times of the day, so at work, I’m typically listening to 80’s Pop Radio on Pandora.
Jamestown Revival – new and old albums, basically all of their songs
Love Tom Petty!
Hamilton soundtrack
I have been listening to the Lumineers, Album III all year long. The Lumineers have a sound that has strains of Folk, Americana, and Rock. In so many ways, when I listen, I feel the same type of raw emotion I get from listening to The Band’s album during the Levon Helm years. To me, it’s a very authentic, gravelly sounds that move the soul.
I choose Andrew Bayer feat. Alison May - End Of All Things.
I’ve never heard anything sonically like this before and the lyrics also really resonate. It’s about our own mortality but also how we never really die. We continue to live on through the thoughts and actions of the people that we impacted during our life. “This could be the end or all things Or the start of always… …Life Remains, All the lights are still on, When our bodies have gone”. When you delve a little deeper you see that it’s a very uplifting song.
Tyler Childers’ new album, Country Squire
I love this idea and that John included Beck’s latest in his Thanksgiving letter. I told him that lately I had been listening to Beck’s “Wow.”
Other stuff I’m currently listening to (besides Vince Guaraldi's "A Charlie Brown Christmas" which is my favorite Christmas album but is obvious) are “Christmas Must Be Tonight,” – The Band (I love the Band’s harmonies and the imagery of the nativity) and “Snowfall” – Ahmad Jamal; this is exactly what snow would sound like if it made music. I can close my eyes while I’m listening and imagine looking out a window to snow fluttering past a streetlamp on a winter night.
My current obsession is vintage Santana mostly from the 70s, but I also love the 1999 album Supernatural. No electronic sounds, no auto tuning. Just pure music as it’s meant to be played with real musicians playing real instruments, instead of someone pressing buttons on a computer. I also love Motown hits and Steely Dan’s music from the 70s. Guess I’m an old soul.
Every time I place a lawyer in a firm or in-house, I listen to “Dancing Queen” by Abba. That’s how I perceive it feels to be a lawyer who has decided to embrace a new endeavor. I have always loved that song. And it also reminds me of my daughter and the Denver Women’s Lacrosse Team. The team loves that song, which was featured in one of the Senior Day photo montages. And, we danced to that song multiple times at the senior parties.
Whitney Houston’s newly released version of Steve Winwood’s “Higher Love” is one I have on repeat.
Dirty Heads – Lay Me Down, Melody Gardot – Baby I’m A Fool, FartBarf – Homeless in Heathrow (We have seen them in concert a bunch and they are the nicest and funniest guys), Shura - Touch, The Dead South – In Hell I’ll be Good Company, Opus Orange – Almost There (Their song is featured in the trailer from one of my favorite hiking documentaries. I met them and the producers of the movie Mile, Mile and a Half. I hiked this trail over the summer).
BPM on SiriusXM radio. Super fun and always keeps a smile on my face throughout the day.
Lately I’ve been in a reflective and transformative place as the decade is closing. Spotify is my chosen method for music, and I alternate between the Lofi Hip-Hop or Coffee Table Jazz playlists. Majority of the songs are instrumental, allowing me to concentrate and fully hear my inner thoughts without the influence of lyrics; however, those with lyrics do typically have deeper meaning and message which I appreciate. I love the sound of the instruments and it keeps me in an upbeat mood.
I have a soft spot for show tunes, musicals and other less mainstream music, so Emilie Autumn’s offbeat Victorian Asylum album, Opheliac (soon to be a Broadway musical!!) is always my on my playlist. Some other songs on the album – Thank God I’m pretty – a satire about the dangers of being beautiful and Marry Me – a Victorian meets modern take on the passage of Marriage.
Table Manners with Jessie Ware….and Jessie Ware
The NPR Politics Podcast, Modern Love and The Daily.
Science Vs and Bad Batch.
