Pop, rock, alternative, classical, indie, folk, lo-fi, any thing with a tempo and a beat and some rhythm
Some thoughts on Social Distortion’s latest, 
Hard Times & Nursery Rhymes:
Mostly sounds like garage rock with some bluesy riffs. Not too many punk chord progressions.
Stand out tracks: Alone & Forsaken (direct and punky), Still Alive (closer, anthemic), Bakersfield (6.5 minute bluesy guitar anthem story)
Some songs go on too long, with half the tracks clocking in over 4 minutes, and 4 songs head over the 5 minute mark.
If bands/artists playing intimate shows to 50 people at someone’s house is a trend, that’s a trend I can fully support.
“It was at my friend Bodie’s small apartment in Boulder, and Joe Pug was playing,” said Browne, who writes and edits the popular website Fuel/ Friends. “There were probably 40 people in a tiny one- bedroom apartment. But the energy in there, being so close to Joe when he sang, really startled and impressed me. It was almost uncomfortable how intimate it was.”
PJ Harvey’s Let England Shake contains numerous songs, full of atmosphere and reverb. Some vocals don’t seem to make it through all the layers of production. The only standout track, to me, is On Battleship Hill, but only because it feels tribal, like something Enya would do. Not really impressed with this album.
Cage the Elephant’s Thank You Happy Birthday takes you on a roller coaster ride through an amalgam of 90s rock. In the layers of drums, guitars, bass and slightly nasal vocals, you’ll hear influences of the Pixies who experimented with sonic textures; effect laden guitars, ala Smashing Pumpkins; simple chord structures in the vein of Blink 182; lyrics that resemble Oasis penchant for imagery.
Always Something leads the album off with a slightly electronica track with a cynical take on modern life–catching your girl with another guy, violence against a homeless guy. Modern stuff. Aberdeen has the first catchy hook on the disc as it builds into a shout about a girl. Indy Kidz is driven by frenetic vocals and sawing guitars with the song building to a Rage Against the Machine like spoken word outtro. Shake Me Down seems to be the lone misfire on the album with no memorable hook. 2024 feels like something Blink 182 would do if they were serious about life. Sell Yourself is an angry more primal, cynical commentary on people selling themselves for a quick buck. Then the album drops in tempo to a warbling ballad, Rubber Ball about trying hard to do good things. With Right Before My Eyes, Around My Head, Japanese Buffalo and Flow… you’re in the final stretch of the ride, where each song will remind you of something you’ve heard before.
Lastly, after the closing track, the band offers a more down beat take on Right Before My Eyes, where the slower, ballad like tempo fit the lyrics better.
Some Kind Of Trouble by James Blunt is offensively bland. Nasal, sugary, signer songer writer pop that all sounds annoyingly similar.
Is the album title an allusion to The Smiths’ The Queen is Dead, or a nod to their past album’s, The Hazards of Love, overreach? I don’t know. For the latter, Hazards was an epic indie rock opera, which to some seemed pretentious. The King is Dead, however, is a much simpler album with straight up rock songs in the vein of The Decemberists’ instrumentation and Meloy’s vocals.
Don’t Carry it All, Down By the Water and Rox in the Box are the most upbeat, rock songs on the album. January Hymn and June Hymn slow the pace down and Dear Avery gently strides off as the album’s closer.
Kiss Each Other Clean by Iron & Wine combines Sam Beam’s southern gothic imagery with a more lush pop rock sound. His previous album, The Shepherd’s Dog, showed hints of this change, going from a soft spoken singer song writer to genteel rock ‘n’ roll front man. Tree By the River, Walking Far from Home and Rabbit Will Run are stand outs. Big Burned Hand is driven by a deep, funky bass line with some angry lyrics. The album fades out with a shimmering jam on Your Fake Name Is Good Enough for Me. Themes of scorn, forgiveness, sin, nature and catharsis run throughout. He’s still a folk singer telling stories in his songs.
The sound and production have matured, and it seems curious as to what he’ll do next.
Note, the Deluxe version comes with two extra songs, Black Candle and Lean Into the Light. The former feels like it could have fit into the album with similar bass lines and progressions, but Lean Into the Light feels soulful, as if it was something to make the indie rock kids sway to the backing harmonies.
Rock Gods: Forty Years of Rock Photography by Robert M. Knight is a diverse collection of photos that span his entire career. He’s taken pictures of Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stones, Jeff Beck and many more.
He focuses on lead guitarists, and his body of work shows that, especially with his live concert shots. Knight excels at the live concert photography. He says his approach is like a journalist or someone doing a documentary, where looking at the photos afterward they come to life in a more visceral way.
In Rock Gods, he tells stories about some of his memorable shoots. Greeting Led Zeppelin in Hawaii as they walk off they plane carrying the master reels to Led Zeppelin II. Meeting Jeff Beck for the first time, after years of trying. And as he’s known for, being the last photographer to shoot Stevie Ray Vaughn.
After paging through the book, I wanted more. More of his old concert shots, more of his more recent work. For photographers, viewing Knight’s work can tell a lot about composition and lighting–what worked, what moment created that visceral feeling you get from a concert photo.
Below is the track listing for my 2010 songs. By no means is it exhaustive, but I focused on the songs and albums I listened to. I also left out quite a bit of music I did listen to, notably Arcade Fire, Band of Horses and Sufjan. The ordering is only a track listing and not a ranking. Also, each track is linked to an accompanying video, preferably a live version. Without further ado: