Category Archives: Music

From the Moody Blues to Macklemore, from Antonin Dvorak to Daft Punk, from Christian hymnody to Crosby Stills & Nash, musings on all things musical.

Album Review: Belle & Sebastian, “Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance”

Posted on January 23, 2015 by Tom Emanuel

Growing up, I considered myself a thoroughgoing introvert. And why shouldn’t I be? I was bookish, shy, with a strong intellectual and artistic bent and a revulsion of loud parties. Most of my adolescence was spent reading classic novels, listening … Continue reading →

Posted in Album Reviews | Tagged Albums of 2015, ambivert, Belle and Sebastian, chamber pop, Dear Catastrophe Waitress, Enter Sylvia Plath, Ever Had a Little Faith?, extrovert, Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance, God Help the Girl, If You're Feeling Sinister, indie, indie pop, introvet, Nobody's Empire, Pet Shop Boys, Sarah Martin, Stevie Jackson, Stuart Murdoch, The Cat with the Cream, The Everlasting Muse, The Life Pursuit, The Party Line, Tigermilk, twee | 1 Comment

Tom’s Top 5’s: Most Anticipated Albums of 2015 (Addendum!)

Posted on January 12, 2015 by Tom Emanuel

Upon posting my Top 10 Most Anticipated Albums of 2015, friends questioned why I hadn’t included several other exciting new releases scheduled for the coming year. In my defense I can offer only ignorance: in most of these cases, I … Continue reading →

Posted in Top 5's | Tagged Aleksander Vinter, Astoria, blues rock, Dire Straits, dubstep, EDM, electronica, glitch hop, Here's to the Zeros, hip-hop, indie, Invasian, Josh Ramsay, Macklemore, Marianas Trench, Mark Knopfler, Neal Morse, pop, Pop 101, pop-rock, prog, progressive rock, Ryan Lewis, Savant, singer-songwriter, symphonic prog, The Grand Experiment, The Heist, Tracker | 2 Comments

Tom’s Top 10’s: Most Anticipated Albums of 2015

Posted on January 9, 2015 by Tom Emanuel

Any year that kicks off with Kanye West and Paul McCartney collaborating on a Stevie Wonder-esque ballad is going to be a year of surprises. A mere week into the new year, it’s tough to say what curve balls 2015 … Continue reading →

Posted in Top 5's | Tagged 74 Is the New 24, Albums of 2015, avant-pop, Belle & Sebastian, Brian Wilson, chamber pop, Classic Rock, Colin Meloy, Daft Punk, EDM, electronic, Ellis Ludwig-Leone, Fokus, Georgio Moroder, Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance, Hand. Cannot. Erase., Hollywood, indie, indie pop, Jens Lekman, Josh Ritter, Just a Dream, Liam Hayes, No Pier Pressure, Nobody's Empire, One Way Out, Parasites, Plush, power pop, prog, progressive rock, San Fermin, singer-songwriter, Slurrup, Steven Wilson, The Cat with the Cream, The Decemberists, The Party Line, Tobias Jesso Jr., True Love, What a Terrible World What a Beautiful World | 3 Comments

Tom’s Top 10 of 2014, Pt. 2

Posted on January 5, 2015 by Tom Emanuel

It’s a blustery, snowy day here back home in South Dakota. So what better time to bundle up indoors with a cup of tea and finish up my Top 10 Albums of 2014? The first half of my Top 10 … Continue reading →

Posted in Top 5's | Tagged Albums of 2014, Best Albums of 2014, Charlotte Kemp Muhl, Christopher Tin, classical, Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger, GOASTT, Into the Lime, Jukebox the Ghost, Midnight Sun, neo-psych, New Mendicants, pop, pop-rock, power pop, psych rock, retro, Sean Lennon, Sun Structures, Temples, The Drop That Contained the Sea, The Great Unknown, world music | 1 Comment

Tom’s Top 10 of 2014, Pt. 1

Posted on January 2, 2015 by Tom Emanuel

In December 2013, as regular readers may recall, I decided to catch up on the state of contemporary music by listening to and reviewing an album every day for a month. My listening in 2014 was more evenly spread out … Continue reading →

Posted in Top 5's | Tagged acid folk, Albums of 2014, Best Albums of 2014, Bruce Springsteen, Dap-Kings, David Gilmour, E Street Band, folk rock, High Hopes, Jenny Lewis, Linda Perhacs, mainstream rock, neo-psych, Nick Mason, Parallelograms, Pink Floyd, power pop, psych, R&B, Rick Wright, Rilo Kiley, Sharon Jones, singer-songwriter, soft rock, The Endless River, The Soul of All Natural Things, The Voyager | 1 Comment

Advent 4: Yeah, Yeah, Yeah

Posted on December 23, 2014 by Tom Emanuel

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And … Continue reading →

Posted in Lectionary 2014, Music | Tagged Advent, Annunciation, Beatles, George Harrison, Here Comes the Sun, John Lennon, Magnificat, Mother Mary, Nativity Scene, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Virgin Mary | Leave a comment

EP Review: Marine Life “Fool of a Kind”

Posted on October 20, 2014 by Tom Emanuel

Much of what you need to know about San Francisco indie popsters Marine Life can be gleaned from the fact that they’re labelmates with Camera Obscura and a quick glance at the cover to their debut EP, Fool of a … Continue reading →

Posted in Album Reviews | Tagged Albums of 2014, Big Sur, Boy from B-612, Camera Obscura, Des de Leon, Elefant, Fool of a Kind, For the Camera Shy, indie pop, Marine Life, San Francisco | Leave a comment

Track Spotlight: Avicii feat. Robbie Williams, “The Days”

Posted on October 16, 2014 by Tom Emanuel

I listen to an awful lot of music: Italian progressive rock, Irish traditional, classic disco, French House, power pop, alt-country, indie pop, German opera, southern soul, and Klezmer, to name a few choice genres. But at the end of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Track Spotlights | Tagged Avicii, EDM, house music, The Days, Tim Bergling | Leave a comment

Track Spotlight: Paradise Fears, “You to Believe In”

Posted on September 7, 2014 by Tom Emanuel

Full disclosure: Paradise Fears hail from my second hometown (Vermillion, SD), and their lead singer, Sam Miller, just happens to be the son of my pastor, mentor, and dear friend, whose influence on my life is probably the single biggest … Continue reading →

Posted in Track Spotlights | Tagged alternative rock, Paradise Fears, pop punk, pop-rock, Sam Miller, South Dakota, Vermillion, You to Believe In | 5 Comments

Album Review: Foster the People, “Supermodel”

Posted on September 3, 2014 by Tom Emanuel

Caught in a materialistic economy we did not create, faced with a job market that still offers us primarily low-wage service-sector drudgery, many Millennials find themselves wondering if something more is not possible, whether our modern society has rather radically … Continue reading →

Posted in Album Reviews | Tagged A Beginner's Guide to Destroying the Moon, Are You What You Want to Be?, Ask Yourself, Best Friend, Coming of Age, Foster the People, indie pop, indie rock, Mark Foster, pop, pop/rock, Supermodel, The Angelic Welcome of Mr. Jones, The Truth, Torches | 1 Comment

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