It's tough talking about pop music because it always comes down to this: My music is great, yours sucks. Everything in genre X is better than anything in genre Y. This is especially true when the conversation goes across generations.
So let's be clear. I'm a boomer. I love Boomer Rock: Music that has the sound and the feel and the spirit of music from the 1960s (meaning roughly 1964-1971, give or take).
When I was a kid, of course, adults said, Rock 'n roll is just a fad. It will die when you kids grow up and graduate to "grown up music." Well, the music our parents listened to in the 1960s wasn't "grown up music" at all. It was music that expressed the sound and feel and spirit of the 1930s and 1940s, the swing era, which they had never outgrown.
Sociologists now know that every generation forms its musical tastes during their courtship years, and they ride that horse until they die. So we (Boomers) never abandoned rock 'n roll, we never developed a taste for "grown up music." We're gonna ride that horse until we die.
Like I said, I love Boomer Rock. But unlike many of my peers, I'm not gonna say that your music sucks. I'm just gonna say, I love Boomer Rock. And, further, I'm here to say that rock music (meaning: Boomer Rock) is in a very good place as 2013 gives way to 2014. A very good place indeed. Perhaps the best place it's been since the late 1970s, when punk and disco infringed upon 1960s-style rock 'n roll. Later came hip-hop and grunge. Again, I'm not sayin' they're bad, I'm just sayin' they're not my cup of tea.
And, so, now, if rock is in the best place it has been in 30 years or more, it's pretty simple--that's because as I listen to rock music today, I don't hear punk or grunge or hip-hop influences hardly at all.
You'll notice I didn't mention disco, one of the things that first crowded Boomer Rock out of the mainstream because, of course, there's Daft Punk. The robots discovered disco and laced their electronica heavily with it, bringing in the dance guitar master Nile Rogers, and the result was/is that Daft Punk is suddenly mainstream, a Grammy winner. So there's one exception to my rule, but it comes from the not-rock alternative that is least familiar and thus least offensive to a Boomer Rock sensibility today.
But if it's cheery Brit-pop you like, or liked back in the 1960s (think, of course, the Beatles) , well, now there's Vampire Weekend. If it's the trippy hippie music (think: the Dead), there's Phosphorescent. If it's a little louder, blues-based music that you crave (think: the Stones, Led Zeppelin), there's the Queens of the Stone Age. If it's sunny Southern California singer-songwriters, there's Dawes. It it's something a little darker (the Doors), there's the National. If it's big and progressive, Arcade Fire. Stripped down and quirky (like the Who), the Arctic Monkeys. Folkie, Dylanesque, Jake Bugg. Or if your idea of the '60s is country (Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline), there's Keith Urban, Kacey Musgraves and the Mavericks. Or, more soulful (Motown), there's Lorde and Rhye and John Legend.
Every major trend in '60s music has its parallel. What's harder to find is parallels for punk and grunge and hip-hop and disco. What sounds you hear from these not-Boomer styles is filigree, spice, not core to the music itself.
So here's the best music of 2013 from a boomer point-of-view.
Top Albums
1. Muchacho--Phosphorescent
2. Modern Vampires of the City--Vampire Weekend
3. In Time--The Mavericks
Nothing really says early rock 'n roll like big band country swing and the Mavs are the best at it right now.
4. Same Trailer, Different Park--Kacey Musgraves
Cute beyond words. Yeah, I mean the short skirt and the cowgirl boots with Christmas lights. But I also mean the tunes. Cute and clever and, well, sorta profound, right? The best debut LP by an alt-country diva since Gilliam Welch.
5. We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic--Foxygen
6. Reflektor--Arcade Fire
The weakest of their four LPs. Definitely going counter to the rest of the world, this dance-fusion thing. But these guys are too good not to be interesting.
7. Trouble Will Find Me--The National
8. Jake Bugg
9. Let's Be Still--The Head and the Heart
10. Stories Don't End--Dawes
I hear Jackson Browne at his best.
11. Random Access Memories--Daft Punk
Nothing about this is my cup of tea, but put it all together and it is just irresistibly catchy.
12. Fear Fun--Father John Misty
13. Pure Heroin--Lorde
14. Magpie and Dandelion--Avett Brothers
15. Southeastern--Jason Isbell
16. Babel--Mumford and Sons
17. A.M.--Arctic Monkeys
18. Ghost on Ghost--Iron & Wine
19. Repave--Volcano Choir
20. Like Clockwork---Queens of the Stone Age
Top Songs
1. Follow Your Arrow--Kacey Musgraves
Catchy and politically correct beyond belief.
2. From a Window Seat--Dawes
Great stripped down rock with just perfect understated guitar work.
3. Step--Vampire Weekend
Say what? Unique, clever, trippy.
4. Pink Rabbits--The National
5. Muchacho's Tune--Phosphorescent
6. Back in Your Arms Again--The Mavericks
7. Get Lucky--Daft Punk
8. A Charm/A Blade--Phosphorescent
9. Open--Rhye
10. Shake--The Head and the Heart
11. We Exist--Arcade Fire
12. Merry Go Round--Kacey Musgraves
Can't believe this got the Grammy instead of "Follow Your Arrow," but glad she won.
13. Unbelievers--Vampire Weekend
14. Ride On/Right On--Phosphorescent
15. Shuggie--Foxygen
16. Two Fingers--Jake Bugg
17. All Over Again--The Mavericks
18. Silver Lining--Kacey Musgraves
19. Obvious Bicycle--Vampire Weekend
20. Nancy from Now On--Father John Misty
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