music

🎶 Having claimed recently that my kids have good musical tastes, I was chagrined when my daughter mixed up Peter Gabriel and Pearl Jam. Parenting fail!

As my penance, I’m now sending her a weekly song to make sure that her musical foundation is sound. These won’t necessarily be the best, most popular, or my favourite songs (though sometimes they will be all three). Rather, they will be influential to my musical tastes and worth her consideration.

Given how this started, the first song is Solsbury Hill by Peter Gabriel. There are plenty of his songs to choose from. I think this one is a great place to start.

🎶 What the kids are listening to

A side benefit of my kids being old enough to drive, is that I actually get to hear their music now.

At home, they’re always listening with their AirPods, unlike when I was a kid. My parents had to endure our music: my brother and I both had component stereo systems with large speakers. Plus, we lived across the hall from each other, so we had to play our music loud, to be able to hear it over the other’s music!

In general, both of my kids have pretty good taste. Though, of course, some of the new music is too weird for me. I’m always pleased when I hear one of my favourites show up on their playlists. Evidence that I raised them right.

🎵 Songs of a Lost World by The Cure was a favourite album of 2024. The new Mixes Of A Lost World is a musical exploration of that album through multiple remixes.

1990’s Mixed Up was also a great remix album from The Cure. Robert Smith has a knack for these collaborations.

Mixes Of A Lost World - The Cure poster

🎶 Top albums of 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.