I was driving home from work a couple months ago listening to Billy Joel’s 52nd Street (review forthcoming!), and I thought to myself, “No matter how many times I listen to Billy Joel’s discography, there are always some great songs that I had forgotten about and rediscover.” I am convinced that nobody since 1970 has written…
I have often thought about — and even attempted to draft — some sort of lengthy countdown of my favorite albums, but I keep talking myself out of it. For one, that would imply that my opinion is something worth examining closely by someone who may stumble on this site. This ain’t the Sight and…
Ninth Grade Man serves as a nice complement to Growing Up. In fact, this feels almost like the second half of an opener than a separate episode. The two are structurally similar: Both are a series of loosely connected threads rather than an overrarching narrative, though Ninth Grade Man at least has the first day…
About a year ago, I wrote recaps for the first three seasons of The Wonder Years as I watched the episodes for the first time. I got bored with the recaps, but not with the show, and finished the series. But I’ve been meaning to pick up where I left off and write recaps for…
These are Dan’s first impressions of Speak in Code. Read Colton’s here. Is it bad that I don’t really like Speak in Code right now? Yes and no. Yes – I walk away from my first full listen feeling a little bit let down. Speak in Code — the first Eve 6 album in nine years…
Around the time that I graduated college and moved back home, I decided I wanted to be a Reader. Sure, I’d read in the past. Loved Harry Potter. Devoured pop culture and sports books. I’d even read the occasional novel just for the heck of it. But I knew I was missing out on the…
Rating: ★★★★★ (out of 5) With Turnstiles, Billy Joel experienced a creative breakthrough. One album later, with The Stranger, he experienced a commercial breakthrough to match it. Peaking at #2 and ultimately going 10× platinum, his 1977 smash catapulted him to stardom he’s maintained for 35 years. From the first listen, it’s not hard to see…
Rating: ★★½ (out of 4) I bought High Fidelity about a year ago on the recommendation of fellow Earn This writer Grant. Earlier this week, my computer crashed. I was too lazy to fix it that night, so I grabbed the first book I saw on my bookshelf and started reading. It happened to be Fidelity. I…
I’m not sure if I’ve ever officially commented on “Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)” by Bruce Springsteen on this site, so let me do that right now: It’s one of my favorite songs of all time, if not my favorite. I also think that the studio version is more or less perfect, unassailable. There’s so much…
Bruce Springsteen’s two most beloved albums are the Borns: to Run and in the USA. The former (his third album) was the album that propelled him to mega-fame and contains two tracks that Rolling Stone later ranked in the top 100 songs of all time, Born to Run and Thunder Road. The latter (his seventh album)…