It’s Monday, and we are going backwards once again to explore music tastes of the past.
In 2022, I had it all– an apartment in NYC, a long term GF, the love and adoration of my parents… and I threw it all away to work menial jobs in the cold rain! The period from 2021 to 2024 marks the greatest transformation of my life since the growth spurts of my puberty years. What I lost in material things, I gained in spirit and courage! I would never go back.
I started keeping regular records of my finances and mental state around this time. This took the form of a series of notebooks with a new entry added every week. At the end of the very first notebook (Nov 2022 – Feb 2023) I scribbled a list of my favorite albums that I listened to the year prior, but I never did make a formal post about them. Now, in the year of our lord 2025, I present this list.
Disclaimer: time has become a bit more stratified since the pandemic days, but for a long time after 2020, the flow of events became blurry. I mean, as I was living from 2020 to 2022, the flow of time seemed to blend together. As such, I don’t know if these songs were ones I was listening to in 2020, 2021, 2022, or all three. Probably all three! This epoch of three years felt like one gigantic year, honestly.
BEST ECO-APOCALYPSE CONCEPT ALBUM:
The White Goblin by Masayoshi Takanaka (1997)
The White Goblin is the sequel to Masayoshi’s original storybook album concept, The Rainbow Goblins (1981). The original album, which features a real storyteller narration between tracks, tells the story of a group of goblins that attack the rainbow for its colors. They ultimately lose and are transformed into butterflies and colorful birds or something. It is a simple concept with some good music.
“Everybody knows the story of the Seven Rainbow Goblins, the terrible end they came to, and the way the flowers saved the Rainbow at the last minute from being destroyed
But very few know what happened afterwards
The Rainbow shone in the sky more beautiful than ever
Birds and beetles, butterflies and insects excelled one another in colored splendor
The land and water animals observed their new flying friends with wonder and pleasure
The Rainbow established a unity between Heaven and Earth..”
The sequel takes things to another level, with Takanaka creating a new, more viceral story from the childish original. Word of the vanquishing of the rainbow goblins reaches the cold north where, hidden alone in crevasses of eternal ice, the banished 8th goblin emerges from exile to conquer the world.
“Oh, Horrors! It’s the White Rainbow Goblin!”
The music gets crazy in this album. The white goblin descends into an underground city of blind cave-goblins, and the music goes hip hop mode for a bit. As the White Goblin and his army begin to devour all the colors of the world, the guitar gets heavy and starts to make industrial engine sounds. Like jets flying overhead. Obviously an analog for industrial society (the WHITE goblin ;p), the goblins start to consume all the natural resources of the world and build vast cities. The goblins eventually have to begin creating synthetic colors because all the natural colors of the world around them are devoured. As the world is dominated, the music itself becomes more synthetic too. Heavy beats and synthesizer to go with the guitar riffs.
It is a powerful album that reflects our own foolish destruction of nature. I highlight the lyrics here, but the album doesn’t really have any words besides the storyteller transitions between songs. Lots of guitar, honestly. The sounds capture the descent of the world very well. Much of Takanaka’s works are Jazz Fusion Rock and Roll type sounds, very upbeat and tropical. But there is something serious and cool about The White Goblin that has stuck with me for years.
BEST THROWBACK ALBUM:
Teens of Denial by Car Seat Headrest (2016)
Nothing brings me back to my high school days like Car Seat Headrest. The era from 2014 to 2017 saw the release of a ton of music that is now considered absolutely classic, but I was busy listening to Pink Floyd and classic rock. If my friends weren’t total music heads, I would have missed the release of To Pimp a Butterfly or Teens of Denial! Well, Teens of Denial is the one that comes back the most. Since 2022, I have always had a Car Seat Headrest phase every year! I relate more to the lyrics as an adult now than I ever did as a teenager. I was an upright, sober teen though. KILLER WHALE! KILLER WHALE!
While Teens of Denial is probably Car Seat Headrest’s best work, I did listen to the entire discography in 2023 while working on the farm and it was great. I don’t get the furry thing with Twin Fantasy, seemed fine to me.
CATCHIEST ALBUM:
City Slicker by Ginger Root (2021)
The YouTube algorithm is to thank for this one. Ginger Root’s hit single “Loretta” showed up in my sidebar, so I gave it a shot. I was already listening to a bunch of Japanese city pop playlists at the time, so City Slicker was exactly what I wanted at the moment. It is like a modern take on an era of music long past. Ginger Root is often described as “aggressive elevator soul”, and I think that about sums it up. Despite his feminine appearance, however, Ginger Root has some power in his singing. Loretta is really great, but “Juban Disctrict” might be my favorite song on the album.
“It’s so good to get down at the Juban District! Ah!
I’m choked up but you’d maybe pass me up!”
But yes, Loretta is an amazing song that got stuck in my head instantly. Over the years since discovering him, Ginger Root has gone on to release two new albums and go on tour. I passed up on tickets to his Boston show and regret it every day. I’m just kind of nervous about seeing what other people that listen to Ginger Root look like. Are we all a bunch of weirdos? I should get over that and just listen to some good live music…
BEST YOUTUBE PLAYLIST:
Macroblank • 痛みの永遠 (???)
The way we listen to music has changed a lot. Can you believe we used to buy singles on iTunes or go to stores to buy CDs? Now, the computer serves up a stream of fresh music for free! YouTube’s algorithm is constantly serving up new suggestions, and I’ve come to find that they can be pretty awesome. Macroblank is one of the best discoveries ever. I know nothing about the artist besides that he might he Japanese? Or maybe the Japanese title is a stylistic choice? I’m hesitant to call it an album because the songs likely aren’t even by Macroblank. In the lineage of vaporwave music, many of the songs are remixed tracks of existing music from the past. The songs are mostly without lyrics, just beats and jazz smooth as butter. Drums, some bongos, guitar. There is a track in there that sounds like a cool version of a Bloon Tower Defense menu theme…
If you don’t know what vaporwave is, don’t worry about it. But Macroblank is the perfected/listenable form of it. It takes you to a liminal place. Sort of nostalgic but new at the same time.
Of course, Macroblank is just one player in a huge online library of mysterious albums and playlists. Usually, the videos without english names are the best. Problem with that is if you like something and don’t save it… chances of finding it again are low as hell! Seriously, I’ve lost track of some awesome music over the years, simply because I have no idea how to track it down again. Googling the album cover art (and the album covers are always divine for some reason) doesn’t help lol
BEST ALBUM 2022:
Laurel Hell by Mitski (2022)
I actually did not like this album when it first came out. I thought Be The Cowboy was fantastic, so Laurel Hell required me to reset expectations. I couldn’t really get into it, thought the lyrics were kind of dull and self-centered. Over time, I found myself thinking about some of the songs. I left the album for a while after its initial release, and when I came back to it it was like listening to Mitski for the first time again!
This album is, in my opinion, less abstract than Be The Cowboy. It less lyrically poetic. It IS more self-centered, with Mitski being sort of depressed and self-flagellating throughout. She talks about being controlling or how unsatisfying it was to go through film school route just to be drudging instead of making movies. The music is electrifying, like dry dust in the desert. The album opens slow and cold before a synthetic beat drops and suddenly everything is alive. I picture somebody being shot in slow motion when I listen to “Valentine, Texas.”
The song “Should Have Been Me” is an amazing climax to a fraught album.
“When I went through my list of friends and found I had no one to tell,
of this overwhelming clean feeling, sweet serenity!”
It is like finding some sort of closure to a hard breakdown. Despite the loneliness of the artist, the strikes out triumphantly.
“When I saw the girl looked just like me, I thought
must be lonely loving someone
trying to find their way out of a maze!
Oh, I know”
It isn’t Be The Cowboy. I don’t know if I can say that it is as good as Be The Cowboy. But it is a deeper, more personal album. The music is more memorable in a lot of ways. I wasn’t ready for it when it dropped, but I changed a lot in the months that came after and the album found me again as the year wrapped up. I’m glad it did!
LOOKING FORWARD TO 2023:
The last line in the notebook reads “SOS by SZA.” What an absolutely perfect album to drop during a breakup! “Kill Bill” has all the psycho energy I needed, and the other songs all kind of blend together into a wistful panorama of R&B tracks. It is a very chill album. With the recent Kendrick/SZA collab, I’ve been re-listening to this one quite a bit. It isn’t my favorite by any means, but Kill Bill itself might be one of my favorite songs of the 2020s.
And that’s all I wrote. Been meaning to get this down for years now. Next time, I’ll be exploring more of my present tastes. Music is a revolving door, though. Tracks emerge and disappear and return with the seasons.