The Bunch of Golden Players

For a few years, some of my friends and I have been sharing music to listen to while we work. We’re supposed to review/rate what gets shared with us then share those reviews with the group, but that doesn’t always happen.

Christine and the Queens – Chris (2018)

Friend Chris is jumping back in (at least on a limited basis) for the last few weeks of the year to share some of his favorite albums of this year.

This is the sophomore offering by French pop songstress Héloïse Letissier. She recorded the album in both French and English, so listen to whichever you please. Just be aware that the English version has one unique track, while the French version has two. Her goal was to break down gender barriers and stereotypes thematically. I don’t really know what that means yet. We’ll see at the end of if I feel like I noticed anything.

My Get Up and Go Must Have Got Up and Went

Some of my co-workers and I have been sharing some of our favorite music, rating them, reviewing them and sharing those reviews with one another. I thought I’d share my thoughts on their suggestions (and their thoughts on mine) with you here.

Here’s how I rate things. If I give something one star, it means I don’t think it qualifies as music. Five stars mean I wish I wrote the thing. Most music for me is a three.

Aerosmith – Toys in the Attic (1975)

I guarantee everyone has heard Walk this Way and Sweet Emotion, even if they didn’t know they were by Aerosmith. This is another one of those albums I could listen to on vinyl. I don’t think I purchased this myself. I think this was a find in my uncle’s basement sometime when I was helping him move. And I kept it based on name recognition of those two songs alone.

Its Better than I Ever Knew

Some of my co-workers and I started sharing some of our favorite music. We’ve been doing it for a while, but now we’re actually reviewing them and sharing those reviews with one another.

This week it wasn’t an album. It was a mix of 10 songs from our senior year of high school. For some of us these would have been literal mixtapes. My list has songs which were big the summer before my senior year through graduation. And they are songs I liked at the time. For other people they might be older songs which they liked while they were in high school (if I would have done that, The Beatles would have made the list)(spoiler: The Beatles weren’t on my list). For others, they might be songs which were popular, but they didn’t like them until later. Whatever.

I’m pretty sure this post has more tags than any other I’ve ever written.

Tim’s mix (1996-1997)

“While I did graduate in 1996, my graduating class was 1997, so I am pulling from music all the way to ’97. This includes songs popular then, and songs recorded around then, or songs I just liked and listened to a lot. I thought it would be fun to arrange them in album style, by where I think the best listening order is. So, while the same artist might be listed multiple times, I think it is more enjoyable to listen to in the order below:”

Jump off Van Halen’s 1984