Tag: prince

2023 in Music

On By Luther M. SilerIn Music5 Comments

I purchased– and yes, “purchased” is the right word– 72 albums in 2023. I am an Old, and I have never taken to streaming, and so I’m still paying for all this stuff, and the fact that I got handed $200 in Apple gift cards partway through the year definitely didn’t hurt. Obviously not all of that is 2023 music, and as usual, I’m going to talk about stuff that was new to me this year. 

The usual caveat whenever I’m talking about music: I have no idea how to write coherently about music, and never have, and furthermore I still cannot understand other people when they write about music. I have seen a ton of “Best New Releases of 2023” types of lists in the last few weeks, and purchased some music based on them, and … I just don’t get it. I’m pretty convinced that you could take the actual review parts of this article, randomly swap the artist and albums’ names, and republish it, and no one would notice. So this isn’t a list of reviews, it’s not a Best Of, and it’s sure as hell not in any kind of order other than maybe reverse chronological order of when I bought them. These are just albums that I enjoyed in 2023. Maybe you’ll like them too.

And I can hear you already, going “Wait, Luther, there’s no way you didn’t have Diamonds and Pearls already!” And you’re correct! I bought it on release day when I was in high school. What came out this year is the Super Deluxe Edition of Diamonds and Pearls, by Prince and the New Power Generation, which, for all my love of Prince’s entire career, will always be my favorite iteration of him.

The physical version of this motherfucker is seven disks long. There are live versions and alternate takes and an entire concert and demos and remasters and I’m going to stop typing now because you’ve already clicked away to go spend money.

I discovered Ren in 2023; Freckled Angels is a 2016 release but Sick Boi came out this year. Sick Boi is absolutely a rap album; Freckled Angels is something else and I’m not even going to try to describe it. Ren is Irish and monumentally talented and even if you’re not generally into hiphop you might want to look into him. Good shit.

I think it might actually be illegal to write anything about music in 2023 without mentioning Guts, by Olivia Rodrigo, and, well … yeah, it deserves it. I am really proud of myself for never unleashing my feelings about Sour in this space; Rodrigo has been underage for most of her career and picking on an actual child for musical choices that most likely were made mostly by other people who didn’t have her best interests in mind (no goddammit I’m not gonna do it) is not a move I want to make. But Guts is a more mature and multidimensional piece of work in every imaginable way, and bad idea right? is a fucking banger and I no longer feel like she should be taken away from her parents. All good. We’re fine.

2023 is also the year Paramore finally clicked for me, and after spending weeks mainlining This is Why every time I got into my car I went back and picked up most of the rest of their backlist. I mean, Christ, the name of their album is half of the line this is why I don’t leave the house; it’s like it was written for me.

You may have seen Queen Omega freestyling her ass off over a Dr. Dre beat on TikTok; I did, over and over and over again, until I cracked and spent money. I don’t listen to a ton of reggae nowadays, and I listen to even less reggae that doesn’t have anyone named Marley involved with it, but Freedom Legacy was a great dip back into the genre, and I feel like I might explore what modern, hip-hop influenced reggae is doing more next year. This is a hell of a collection, though, and I’m glad I grabbed it up.

Six? Six sounds good. Here’s the rest of the list:

Seven years

On By Luther M. SilerIn Music2 Comments

Music Monday

On By Luther M. SilerIn MusicLeave a comment

Yes I know it’s Tuesday SHUT UP this is all I have right now

Every so often I like to talk about great covers. This one’s phenomenal:

Some music thoughts

On By Luther M. SilerIn Music, ReviewsLeave a comment

I actually had a reasonably busy day today– I did not, as planned actually set foot in my classroom, but I spent about $160 at the teacher store for stuff I’ll get put up tomorrow, and I did a lot of prep work at my computer at home, including sending many emails to my principal and sending out invites to my Google Classroom way early to see how many of my kids are on the ball enough that they notice this early. The answer: four in my advisory, three in my first block, three in second, and one in my third, which probably doesn’t represent more than five or six actual kids but I haven’t compared yet. My class webpage is mostly updated and I’ve got some forms that needed to be created and/or updated for this year done. I got a few other errands that I’ve been putting off taken care of while I was out as well, so today wasn’t a complete waste.

I noticed a thing about myself recently that I don’t like, which is that I have this weird idea that there are people out there who might judge me for my music tastes. You can, perhaps, imagine what albums might trigger that impulse when looking at the above. I have decided, now that I’ve noticed this, that I don’t give a shit, and I’m going to listen to whatever the hell I want with no regard to the nonsense of others, which is as it should be. I’ve purchased all three of the above within the last few weeks. I am terrible at writing music reviews, which is why I’m cramming all three of them together into the same post. The short version: I approve of all three.

Willow Smith’s (I guess she just goes by Willow, but that’s that Willow) lately I feel EVERYTHING is the big surprise of the lot, as I already knew I was a big fan of Prince and Billie Eilish. I saw Willow shave her head during her recent performance of Whip My Hair, which was what brought her back into my consciousness, and when I found out there was a new album and it was a lot more rock-themed than what she’d recorded when she was nine (which won’t surprise anyone) I went ahead and grabbed it. And it’s great. The production takes a little getting used to, as the album sort of sounds like it was recorded in a basement, but in a sort of “I want this to sound like it was recorded in a basement” kind of way, but Willow’s got a great voice and, frankly, this is not an album I would ever expect to hear from a young Black woman, which is part of why it was such a damn pleasure to listen to.

Prince’s Welcome 2 America is his first posthumous release, and yes, I’m still mad at God for taking Prince away from me. And … well, I liked it a lot, because it’s fucking Prince, but I can sort of see why he didn’t release it. The album is shockingly topical given that it was written and recorded ten years ago; there’s nothing about it that feels dated, but what I liked about the New Power Generation years was the big, banger-type of songs: Gett Off and Se7en and Thunder and Cream, and there’s nothing on here that sounds like that. It kind of feels like an album of b-sides, in a way– there is plenty on here to like but you’re not going to find your new favorite Prince song or anything like that.

And, well, you’ve probably already heard most of Billie Eilish’s Happier than Ever, since it seems like about half of it has been released already. That said, there are some gems on it that haven’t been released yet– I’m a big fan of Oxytocin, and GOLDWING and the title track are pretty damn good too. It does sound a lot like her previous two albums, which is its only weakness. I don’t know that I feel like her sound has evolved at all since her last album, which isn’t that big a problem– I like that sound– but the other two albums I’m talking about here both represent stylistic differences from what we’ve seen before from those artists.

At any rate, I’d recommend any or all of them, so hit up Spotify or whatever you’re doing to get your music nowadays.

In which I’m listening

On By Luther M. SilerIn MusicLeave a comment

I got new albums from Prince and Billie Eilish today, both of which were released today, and I feel like that fact represents most of the breadth of my music tastes pretty accurately. The Prince album was recorded in 2010, at the tail end of the New Power Generation years, which for me is Peak Prince. I’ve only listened to it once (and am currently halfway through the Eilish album) but it’s entirely possible that there will be gushing about it in the near future. I need a couple more spins before I’m going to be able to write coherently about it, though.

Yeah, I said “spins,” even though I’m listening to MP3s. My blog, my grammar. Shuddup.

I went over to work today, as planned, and while there was some stuff that I wanted to do that I wasn’t able to (they had all summer to move my desk, and they haven’t, which … grr) I got a decent start on setting the room up. One thing I’m going to try out this year: I have more bulletin boards than I know what to do with, so I’m going to use one of them to display student compliments for each other. I’ve used this a few times on assignments as a bonus question– literally “say something nice about someone else in the room for a bonus point,” and the kids generally do a pretty good job. It’s also interesting how cleanly the compliments seem to get spread around– I pay attention, and while there are some kids who are more popular than others everybody seems to be getting mentioned every other time or so.

What I’m thinking I’ll do is make a little form– maybe a quarter of a piece of paper– and occasionally pass them out and demand everyone write something nice about somebody and also leave them out so that they can leave compliments for people whenever they want. Maybe on the days where I make them write them I’ll clear the board first so I can pass the kids’ compliments back to them. I figure anything I can do to make the classroom more welcoming is only going to result in good things, and this is going to be a year where I need as much buy-in from my students as I can possibly get, since I’ll be asking for a lot from them. And if it doesn’t work, I can always take it down after the first quarter if I want to.

Off to do some recording. I’ll likely do some live-streaming tonight as well, so swing by the channel this evening if that sounds like fun.

On things I’ve learned recently

On By Luther M. SilerIn idiocy, Music2 Comments

Fipurplerain.jpgrst things first: from the “there should be a German word for this” category, I would like to know the German word for the moment when you discover a giant hole in the crotch of your pants at the beginning of an 11-hour work shift and realize that the moment before you discovered that hole was as good as the day was going to get.  There’s a German word for everything, so there’s got to be one.

Brief review of the new bed: I love the fuck out of it.  I would have preferred, however, that we not have a neighborhood-wide power outage the first day we own our new adjustable bed, although I suppose the setting we had it at when the power went out represented some sort of compromise between the universe and ourselves, since it was technically supposed to be a sleeping position and not, say, the “make your bed into a reclining chair” position.  I have since discovered that there is a place on the bed where batteries can be inserted to avoid precisely that scenario but at the time it was a problem.  But I’m sleeping better– way better, in fact– and that’s what counts.

I’m a Prince fan, right?  I have been for a long time– in fact, Purple Rain was one of the first two pieces of music I ever paid for, on cassette, who knows how long ago.  I was trying to hunt down video that didn’t suck of Lenny Kravitz’ tribute to Prince at the 2017  Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony, and finally found some that did suck, and for some reason decided to Google the lyrics to When Doves Cry.

Guys, I’ve been singing the wrong words to When Doves Cry for basically my entire fucking life.

I mean, in my defense, I probably decided I knew the words before I was ten, and maybe I’m just like my mother/ she’s never sad inside and maybe you’re just like my mother/ she’s never satisfied aren’t that far apart, but that wasn’t the only bit I was getting wrong, right?  And it’s like… damn, I’ve heard this song probably once a week for my entire fucking life and I’ve managed to screw it up every single time.  What the hell else have I been doing wrong for my entire life and never realized it until now?

Feel free to share examples of similar idiocy in the comments if you like.

In which I guess it’s Tuesday

On By Luther M. SilerIn Music, Work2 Comments

I’ve applied to… five different jobs today?  Six?  Something in there– and I’m playing phone tag with someone who called me.  So hopefully we’re getting somewhere.

What I haven’t done is thought or done anything interesting enough to warrant a blog post, so you’re gonna get another Prince video, because I’m at OtherJob tonight so there won’t be a late post tonight one way or another.

Let’s pretend that I’m focusing on my speech for the wedding.  That makes it sound like I’m doing something.

#WeekendCoffeeShare: WTFNovember Edition

On By Luther M. SilerIn Geek, Stories5 Comments

coffee2

If we were having coffee, I’d ask you how the election went.  Well, actually, I’d just look outside and see if the sky was raining fire, and check to see if I was wearing clothing or sackcloth, and that would answer the question for me.  Because apparently when I went to bed last night I slept for seven months.  It was gorgeous outside yesterday, or at least it was until the cold front blew through.  Now it’s 40 goddamn degrees outside.  I bought shorts this week and it’s 40 degrees outside.

Gotta love Indiana.

We– yes, we— have a bridal shower to attend in Illinois tomorrow, so we’re going to be out of touch all day.  I may post some fiction; I have a story in mind that I wrote in a single burst a couple of months ago and put aside thinking “try to sell this to someone.”   I never did, so I may as well give it to you guys.  Hopefully it’s warmer in Illinois; we’ll see.

Let’s see.  Anything else?  It’s been a pretty quiet week, actually, other than the job interview on Monday.  I’d kvetch about that some more but I already did it and I’m leery of jinxing myself at this point.  I should know in a few days.  We’ll worry about it after that.

Have you seen Captain America: Civil War yet?  If not, what the hell are you waiting for?  No more coffee for you until you’ve seen that movie.  It’s awesome.

Hmm.  Yeah.  That’s what I’ve got.  Let’s listen to Prince again for a while.  Let’s Go Crazy has been running through my head for a couple of days; there are worse ways to spend a cold Saturday morning than listening to good music.