Tag Archives: power pop
Tom’s Top 10’s: Most Anticipated Albums of 2015
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
Tom’s Top 10 of 2014, Pt. 2
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
Tom’s Top 10 of 2014, Pt. 1
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
Album Review: The New Mendicants, “Into the Lime”
Power pop is a genre where innovation isn’t necessarily the name of the game. Badfinger and Big Star laid down the general parameters of the genre back in the 70s, and since then success has been a matter not so … Continue reading
Tom’s Top 5’s: Albums of 2013
And so, 48 days and 240 albums later, we come to the last of my Top 5 Albums of [xxxx] (until my inevitable Top 5/10 of 2014, that is). This list took all of five minutes to put together, mostly … Continue reading
Tom’s Top 5’s: Albums of 2011
I don’t have a lot to say about 2011, for a couple of reasons. The first is that it’s Ash Wednesday, and I am a) cutting down on my computer time for Lent and b) writing this post between four … Continue reading
Tom’s Top 5’s: Albums of 2006
I have little to say about 2006, except that it’s a year from which I own an awful lot of albums and subsequently a year for whose Top 5 I had to be especially choosy. So, let’s nod to some … Continue reading
Tom’s Top 5’s: Albums of 2003
For 2003, I simply want to mention two albums that don’t make the list due to my self-imposed guidelines and that will demolish whatever remaining cool points I have. The first is Michael McDonald’s Motown, an album of Hitsville U.S.A. … Continue reading
Tom’s Top 5’s: Albums of 2002
The fact that the following list is filled with older artists (or artists working in older idioms) doesn’t mean that I haven’t heard anything more “hip” or contemporary from 2002. Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is probably their best album; but … Continue reading
Tom’s Top 5’s: Albums of 1999
And so we come to the close of the 1900s, a century of radical changes in all areas of life: political, economic, cultural, intellectual, musical, you name it. As we’ve gone through the last third or so of the century … Continue reading
Revolutions Per Minute 