Tag Archives: Van Morrison
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
Tom’s Top 5’s: Albums of 1990
1990 is a big year for me. As in, it’s the year I was born. It’s also a year whose Top 5 reveals another major galaxy in my musical universe: power pop. Now, I love experimental music, progressive epics, synthesizers … Continue reading
Tom’s Top 5’s: Albums of 1986
Finally, a Top 5 where I actually have to leave several worthy contenders off the list again! Perhaps the worthiest of those contenders would be Bruce Springsteen’s sprawling Live 1975-1985, which I exclude only on the grounds that it is … Continue reading
Tom’s Top 5’s: Albums of 1979
I suspect I have some readers who are deeply disappointed by my almost complete shutout of punk in these lists. For whatever reason, I’ve never been able to get into punk. Perhaps I spent too much of my childhood listening … Continue reading
Tom’s Top 5’s: Albums of 1974
After about 1973, rock becomes less and less generalized and more and more genre-lized (see what I did there?). Of course, what you consider the “best” albums from any given year is always going to depend largely on which stylistic … Continue reading
Tom’s Top 5’s: Albums of 1970
The end of the 60s; the end of the Beatles; the end of Jimi and of Janis; four dead in Ohio. Could anybody have put it better than John Lennon did? The dream is over What can I say? The … Continue reading
Tom’s Top 5’s: Albums of 1968
About ten years ago, journalist Mark Kurlansky wrote a book entitled 1968: The Year That Rocked the World. There’s little debating that title; 1968 was the year riots raged at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, the year Martin Luther … Continue reading
Revolutions Per Minute 