Designated Cheerleader: Two Against Nature by Steely Dan
An essay in defense of Steely Dan's triumphant comeback album Two Against Nature
Welcome to the Elvisdome
I present all 256 seeds of my imminent Elvis Bracket. They are seeded by streaming numbers—that is, streaming numbers for all versions of a song...
Designated Cheerleader: Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water
A decade ago, there were few opinions more widely held in music circles than "Limp Bizkit sucks". People with Good music taste viewed them as a vanquished...
In Search of Metal pt 7: The Final Chapter
All things considered, 2000 is not a very strong year for metal. Very few albums that might be considered epochal, or an artist's best release; mostly a lot...
In Search of Metal pt 6: Available at a Used CD Bin Near You
I've become a bit obsessed with the concept of "butt rock", in recent times, defining its terms, testing its limits. What makes something butt rock? Is it...
In Search of Metal pt 5: A Storm of Swords
Perusing yearly best-of lists by metal fans, I find that there are, broadly-speaking, two types of metal fan: those that listen to a lot of power metal, and...
In Search of Metal sequence IV: Anthem of the Mind
If there's a genre that seems to be more abject to Best Album voters than metal, it is prog. The very idea of listening to prog causes consternation. Metal's...
In Search of Metal pt 3: None More Black
Aside: I can't figure out how to change my newsletter header, and Bluesky is censoring my links because it has a Game of Thrones extra dead in the corner....
In Search of Metal pt 2: Killed by Death
Death metal has an undistinguished but definite presence in the Best Album brackets, generally qualifying a few albums most years while certain other harsher...
In Search of Metal pt 1: Old-school
Listen: I get it. In the year 2000 you were reading the magazines and the websites and the tastemakers and none of it mentioned this heavy metal bullshit...