mtadkins

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Based on my partially-accurate Last.fm stats (I listen to good ol’ fashioned CDs in the car)…

Matt’s Listening Habits

…I’d say my contenders for #AlbumOfTheYear are:

• Beacon – The Ways We Seperate
• Lorde – Pure Heroine
• Josh Ritter – The Beast in its Tracks
• Phaeleh – Tides
• Portugal. The Man – Evil Friends
• Atoms For Peace – AMOK
• The National – Trouble Will Find Me
• Vampire Weekend – Modern Vampires of the City
• Moderat – II
• Tricky – False Idols

If pressed, I think BEACON ends up as my personal choice. That album came out earlier in the year (in April) & has held my attention even to today — & it’s a beautifully structured & cohesive album. I know some might feel that the better, more ‘single’-oriented songs are up front & that it loses energy, but personally I love the way the last 4 tracks build slowly toward ‘Split in Two’ at the close.  [Runner-up is AMOK. Not a bad song on there…]

Now, there were some other releases that I loved, but I tried to limit the list to what I actually listened to the most (with a slight fudge for some tunes that only got play while I was in the car & therefore not ‘scrobbled’ ).

Joining in on the annual list-making frenzy, with my “top 10 (most meaningful) books”, in a kinda-sorta-chronological order:

• Something Wicked This Way Comes (Bradbury) ~ What Bradbury means for me: October. Halloween. Carnivals. Magic. Aging…  This story smells like dry leaves & used bookstores.
• Dune (Herbert) ~ In a 3-way tie with STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND & FOUNDATION as the finest of all ‘science fiction’ for me.
• Cat’s Cradle (Vonnegut) ~ SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE might be better, but this was the first Vonnegut I read. It skewed me, no doubt.
• Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (Stoppard) ~ Is there any other literary work that blends homage, cleverness, fun, & inspired genius better than this? No.  (Truthfully, I’ve recently come to love & appreciate ARCADIA far more.)
• Tao of Physics (Capra) ~ Changed my life. For realz. The book on this list that had the most impact on me, by far. It altered the wiring of my brain. The ‘physics’ was out-dated even when I read it (1993), but its still a beautiful story.
• Et Tu, Babe? (Leyner) ~ My sense of humor…a sheer delight on so many levels.
• JR (Gaddis) ~ Mind blowing. Almost incomprehensible, but once you give up & allow it to swallow you whole…it’s a beautiful symphony on the page.
• A People’s History of the United States (Zinn) ~ A hard slap to your pudgy, entitled face. I named my son after Howard Zinn, who’s such a goddamned American hero he should be on a postage stamp.
• His Dark Materials (Pullman) ~ Cheating a bit by including a trilogy…but by the end I found this to be a haunting, emotional story. It resonated with me far more than Harry Potter, et al.
• Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid On Earth (Ware) ~ A staggeringly detailed portrait of disconnection, human loneliness, & need.

If you haven’t read them, tsk tsk.

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