Jamwise #25

Featuring: De La Soul, Husker Du, Van Morrison, Daft Punk, Pet Shop Boys

In non-music news, I’ve had a lot of tempting new name ideas for this newsletter lately that I can’t ignore any longer. Jamwise Gamgee, Jamothee Chalamet, Green Eggs And Jam, Jam I Am, Jam Halpert, and my personal favorite: God Jammit. I’m no marketer but I feel like there’s gold in there somewhere that’ll take me through the stratosphere. And no, I have no idea why Dr. Seuss is on there more than once. Probably something from my childhood or whatever. It’s like Popeye once said: I jam what I jam.

Project BAE - Best Albums Ever

Currently, I’m listening to every album on the Rolling Stone Top 500 Albums list, in random order.

Status: 111 / 500 albums

3 Feet High And Rising - De La Soul

I’m listening to this as De La Soul seems to be in the middle of a huge comeback. I see them everywhere these days, kind of like when I say the word Ford Taurus you’ll suddenly see ten of them on your daily commute today, even though you’d never notice a Ford Taurus otherwise. But with De La Soul I think the attention is a little more warranted. Interestingly, I think this comeback is driven heavily but the fact that their music wasn’t available on any streaming platforms until the middle of 2023. That must be correlated, and just illustrates the ridiculous power the streaming services have. 

Hip Hop in a major key is always up my alley. That’s oddly specific, but something I’ve noticed. It just gets me going. And on top of that obvious appeal to my tastes, the production and songwriting are just stellar. It does sound like 90’s (Ok, 1989) hip hop, but it’s much less dated-sounding now than others I’ve listened to recently. Some writers would say that makes this album “timeless” but to me that sounds like how you’d describe a Rolex or a Cadillac or something for old people - so instead I’m just gonna say it’s just awesome.

Jams

• “3 Is A Magic Number”

• “Change In Speak”

• “Eye Know”

New Day Rising - Husker Du

Surprise surprise, another punk or punk-adjacent album on the Rolling Stone Top 500 list. It’s almost like the magazine started with some kind of counterculture mission or something. 

My first reaction is “Husker Du? More like Husker Don’t”, but I have to be totally honest, I hadn’t listened to a single note when I wrote that, it just seemed too obvious not to say. If I were a music critic I’d have a perfect byline, and even if I loved the album I’d probably give it hell just to use that brilliant one-liner and make a name for myself with all the attention. Fortunately, I’m just a music fan who habitually word-vomits after listening to a bunch of music, and I don’t have to survive on witty one-liners, as much as I’d love to try.

The Spotify writeup of the artist lumps them together with R.E.M., painting them like R.E.M.’s less-mainstream cousins, and I don’t know if that’s the best place to start my journey. R.E.M. hasn’t popped up in this project yet, but when they inevitably do it will present another Radiohead-like opportunity for me to get myself canceled for my dislike. But that’s another day’s problem.

I have to save my witty byline for another time. From the first song “New Day Rising,” which was a raging, repetitive mess of a song, I didn’t think I’d like this much. You can’t just repeat the chorus and call it a song, at least not one I’ll be able to enjoy with my OCD raging against the repetition. But I started to have fun later on in tracks like “The Girl Who Lives On Heaven Hill,” and “Books About UFOs”, and overall the album redeemed itself in my eyes

So should you listen to this album? Idk, I’m impartial. Husker Du whatever you want. But the opening track notwithstanding, I didn’t hate it.

Jams

• “The Girl Who Lives On Heaven Hill”

• “Books About UFOs”

Moondance - Van Morrison

I have such a soft spot for Van Morrison. The songwriting and performance just sound so effortless and natural to me. “Into the Mystic” is on my top 5 list of best songs of all time. The music and lyrics and energy just fit together perfectly. 

You can also add another musical trait that I’m a sucker for - Irish-sounding flute. Bonus points if it’s a fife. Maybe it’s resonating with my supposedly-Irish ancestors a few generations back, or maybe it’s just so whimsical that I can’t resist it. 

Jams

• “And It Stoned Me”

• “Into The Mystic”

• “Brand New Day”

• “Everyone”

Discovery - Daft Punk

This will be a test of my growth as a listener - I’ve always disdained (for no good reason) both pop music and electronic music, and this is unquestionably both. My maturity was tested when “One More Time”, the first track, came on and took me straight back to the most cringe-worthy pre-teen party imaginable, or to a similarly immature and horrendous college party years later, when people still didn’t seem to be totally sick of this song.

I don’t dislike this genre, artist, or even electro-pop music, in and of themselves. I dislike “One More Time” because it’s a repetitive mass-market designed-for-radio track, and that’s led to it being overplayed to hell. I dislike “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger” because a super lame executive at my previous company would play it at the beginning of every all-hands meeting to get us pumped up for the upcoming fiscal quarter. I dislike “Aerodynamic” because the weird glitchy guitar solo hurts my ears (I am becoming an old grouch). The rest of the music doesn’t have negative connotations for me, but it’s hyper-repetitive, and that’s a bugaboo of mine. I’m sure it does its job, which is to make people dance themselves into a trance, but for me it does little else. I didn’t believe I’d regret listening to any of the albums on the RS500 list, no matter what my opinion of the music, but this album has changed that view.

Although this will be perhaps the lowest-rated album in Jamwise history, I will say that the EDM shows I’ve been to in person have been an absolute blast, and Daft Punk is probably one of the major reasons those things exist on such a grand scale. The culture surrounding those shows isn’t my favorite thing, nor is the music for the most part, but I can respect the popularity of the live show experience, at least.

Actually - Pet Shop Boys

If you’d told me last year I’d be absolutely raging to a 1987 album by a British synth-pop act, I wouldn’t have believed you. Maybe it’s the Rolling Stone Top 500’s apparent obsession with British pop that’s winning me over, or maybe it’s the gradual un-knotting of my preconceived musical biases. 

This is another album where the leadoff song is a total banger. That helps. But it’s also a little unserious-sounding (a big plus for me), it has variety in the songwriting and the synth beats, and there are several ear worm-inducing hooks sprinkled throughout that show the masterful pop songwriting skills on display here. 

Also, they really loved their reverb in the 80’s didn’t they? Every big drumbeat and vocal sounds like it was recorded in my high school gymnasium with its uninsulated aluminum roof and white-painted cinder block walls. I can almost hear the deafening tennis shoe squeaks of a middle school PE class playing basketball in the background. 

Jams

• “One More Chance”

• “It Couldn’t Happen Here”

• “I Want To Wake Up”