Lights Of Home

So I am back again after an extended winter break. Yesterday was a teaser, but now it's time to summarize 2017 for me musically. I have all sorts of good ideas, but before I start with what I will call the musical missteps (The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly), I just thought I'd mention that I have abandoned the dating part of the titles - the dates for the posts are already listed anyway, so I thought I'd make it simpler on myself. Nothing wrong with that. And, I will try to post as often as possible, but I make no guarantees of frequency.

BUT, I have thoughts about 2017. Let me first acknowledge that the world is still around despite DJT's best attempts to change that. And then let me acknowledge that as much as I think I should be an absolute authority on music and that my word goes, there is no way I can make a claim to the best recordings of any year or time - but I can list the favorites I heard (and/or purchased) over the course of the year. And so I will start with a trio of records I had great expectations to, but that simply fell so flat that I barely listened to them more than once - if I even got that far. I am naming this segment after the classic spaghetti western featuring Clint Eastwood: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.

First off: The Good. U2's album Songs of Experience. I am actually liking the lyrics on this album. But the music... It leaves a lot to be desired. For instance, the single, You're The Best Thing About Me, really sounds like a bad Coldplay song - like one of the Coldplay songs where they try too hard to sound like U2. And the melody lines are way too predictable all the way through - with the stadium rock choruses. I know, for a lot of people it is safe U2, but to me it just sounds fake. It sounds like U2 is trying to sell us an album filled with fake plastic trees (and I am not talking the Radiohead song here, as that is a great old song). They are becoming the old people trying to dress young to still be cool. I want a good balls out rock'n'roll album - and their last one, Songs of Innocence, could have been that album, which became clear to me when I watched the songs performed live at the Paris concert. Songs of Experience isn't horrible - although it is a stretch to call it The Good - but the gimmick was too hard to resist.

Then there is The Bad. Queens Of The Stoneage decided to hire a "hip" producer and make their music danceable. Mark Ronson made Villains a shitty album. Or maybe Josh Homme did it himself and needed someone to rubberstamp the crap. After all, they have been very up and down in their releases, at least as far as my taste is concerned. But with Villains, they really hit a new low for me. I just don't like the songs. I don't like them trying to be dancey. ...Like Clockwork was such a return to form for me that Villains is an even bigger letdown than it needed to be. I can't listen to it. It's just a matter of opinion, and I get that, but this was bad to me.

And then... The Ugly. Beck. I can't stand his new album. Colors. He spent a lot of time to "get everything right." WRONG. I can't say anything else about it. I can't listen to it. It is everything that is wrong with pop music wrapped into one album. And I used to love Beck.

Of course, there were worse albums than these three released this year. At least I assume so. I just haven't bothered listening to those albums. But U2, Queens of the Stone Age, and Beck have all released some great albums and songs - and so to me, they were the three biggest disappointments of 2017. Because I wanted and expected more. But at least Songs of Experience by U2 functions as muzak. And the song Lights Of Home really touched me for some silly reason (and there were other songs that did as well). So I think I can share that one. And then maybe tomorrow we can look at some positive surprises as well...