🎵 Who Will Look After The Dogs? by PUP is good punk rock
music
🎵 We Didn’t Know We Were Ready by Ólafur Arnalds is a lovely song
🎵 Afterlife - Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory is setting the right mood for me today
🎶 Top albums of 2024
Tuesday, December 31, 2024
According to my listening history, my top three albums of 2024 were:
I’m a bit surprised that Nonkeen snuck in there at #3. It is rather different from the other two.
🎶 Emerging from a delightful revisiting of The Tragically Hip. It started with this episode of the Strombo show, moved through the No Dress Rehearsal series, and ended with the Long Time Running documentary, all accompanied by their many albums. Gord Downie’s courage really is inspiring.
There’s a fair bit of overlap between No Dress Rehearsal and Long Time Running. NDR covers their entire history, while LTR focuses on their last tour. LTR also has much more content from Gord Downie. If you pick just one, I’d suggest LTR.
🎵 Fate & Alcohol by Japandroids will cheer you up
🎵 Inspired by Camiel Schoonens, I’m posting 20 album covers (one per day) that have shaped my music preferences. No explanations or commentary, just the cover image.
1/20
🎵 Although more cheerful than the last few albums, Wild God by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds is still steeped in spiritual yearning
🎵 no name is distilled Jack White
🎵 Right Back To It - Waxahatchee is a stand out song on a great album
I’m enjoying their new sound
🎵 Will Butler + Sister Squares - Will Butler + Sister Squares
I’m enjoying this one
🎵 Who Can See Forever Soundtrack (Live) - Iron & Wine is a good one
Best opening of any grunge album
🎵 Find A Way Home by MxPx is a fun punk rock album
Duel of the Defaults: My List
Saturday, November 4, 2023
Episode 097 of the Hemispheric Views podcast held a fun Duel of the Defaults! competition.
Here’s my list. I’ve really shifted to defaults over the past year. I’m conflicted about this: I really like a good indie app, yet find my needs don’t justify the complexity of using non-defaults.
- ✉️ Mail Client: Apple Mail
- 📨 Mail Server: iCloud Custom Email Domain
- 📝 Notes: Apple Notes
- ✅ To-Do: Reminders
- 📷 iPhone Photo Shooting: Camera.app
- 📚 Photo Management: Photos.app
- 🗓️ Calendar: Calendar.app
- 🗄️ Cloud file storage: iCloud
- 📰 RSS: NetNewsWire connected to Feedbin
- 📇 Contacts: Contacts.app
- 🕸️ Browser: Safari
- 💬 Chat: iMessage, WhatsApp
- 🔖 Bookmarks: Micro.blog
- 👓 Read It Later: Micro.blog
- 📜 Word Processing: Pages
- 📊 Spreadsheets: Numbers
- 🛝 Presentations: Keynote
- 🛒 Shopping Lists: Reminders
- 🧑🍳 Meal Planning: None
- 💰 Budgeting & Personal Finance: ScotiaBank app
- 🗞️ News: The Economist
- 🎶 Music: Apple Music
- 🎧 Podcasts: Overcast (though testing Podcasts.app again)
- 🔐 Password Management: 1Password (likely changing to iCloud Keychain)
Wednesday, September 27, 2023 →
This didn’t last long. When using Apple Podcasts to listen to Apple Music radio, you don’t see album art and can’t easily add music to your library. Discovery is my main use case. So, though I like the idea of this integration, in practice it doesn’t suit my needs 🎵
🎵 I’ve been enjoying New Mythology from Nick Mulvey.
🎵 Simply the Best by Tina Turner was a staple in my childhood home. My Dad had one of her concerts on VHS and watched it frequently. For this song, in particular, he turned up the volume quite loud
🎵 Don’t Test the Pest by Pest Control will give you the kick in the pants that you might need to get going
🎵 Perhaps In Sides is Orbital’s best album? I could listen to The Box, Pt. 2 on repeat for a while
🎵 10,000 gecs - 100 gecs - ★★★☆☆
A good workout album: fun, quirky, and upbeat
🎵 Citizen of Glass - Agnes Obel - ★★★★☆
Haunted by faeries
🎶 After a last scrobble on Dec 4 2007, I’ve resurrected my Last FM account and connected it to the Albums app. This should encourage me to listen to more complete albums, while also tracking what I’m listening to. I’ll keep using the Apple Music app for those “in between moments” when I don’t have an album queued up
🎵 GMT - Jamie xx Remix - Oliver Sim - ★★★★☆
Thanks to the new HomePod video for reminding me of this song.
🎶 I listened to a lot of Nils Frahm this year. Slightly biased, perhaps, by his most recent album being over three hours long
🎵 A moody soundtrack to my afternoon
Rediscovered Maybe It’s Me by Treble Charger in my music library. Instantly transported back to undergrad at university. I’m always impressed with how music anchors certain time periods 🎵
Saturday, September 24, 2022 →
A three hour and seven minute album from Nils Frahm! Definitely on the ambient end of the spectrum and good for staying in the zone 🎶
Great Vance Joy show that featured a rainbow after a short rainstorm 🎶
