Hello from the outside!

First things first: I moved this blog from Blogger to its new home here on WordPress because I really like WP’s system.

I know this lil’ blog very likely wouldn’t feature on any “Whatever Happened To…?” kinda list, but I just wanted to post a small update thing here for yuks!

I loved posting to this blog. I started it back in 2007 because I was bursting with so many thoughts and feels about the music I was listening to that I just needed to write! (I continue to have way too many thoughts and feels about music.)

I haven’t blogged about music since my “Best of 2011” lists in (duh) 2011. Even before that my posts became few and far between – my schoolin’ was always my top priority, and as the years went by it amped up in coursework and involvement, especially in the semesters toward graduation.* As such, taking naps was my second-top priority. ;) Blogging, then, was pretty far down the list.

As dramatic as this sounds, I don’t have many regrets or things I wish I had done in my life, but I genuinely do wish I had made time to post to this blog even just every once in a while. I adore thinking about my favorite music and relish the challenge of articulating why this song gives me life or why that album is literal magic. Plus, I love what music blogs and reviews do. I can’t count how many artists or songs or albums that a passionate blog entry or an irresistibly described review got me into.

Hopefully 2016 will be the year I get back into blogging a bit. You never know! I already have a thing I wrote up about the songs and albums that defined my years and years (and years) as a student at the University of Maryland, plus a few other little posts I’d like to share. Just need to polish it all up a bit! In the meantime, you can find me posting on Tumblr from time to time.

So, this blog is still resting – I don’t really want to declare it dead just yet!

*I am proud to say that I graduated from UMD in December 2014 with my Bachelor of Arts in History and Women’s Studies!

Hey guys! & The Best Music of 2011 – Top Albums, part 1 of 2

I’m still here! Just not here, on this blog. I’ve pretty much always got music on my mind, evidenced by the playcount on my last.fm and the notes about tunes I’m listening to scattered throughout my class notebooks (I’m still pluggin’ away at UMD, slowly but surely!). I have all my playlists for the Best Music of 2011 on my iPod (and still have the rest of my 2010 lists too). Tons of great ideas – just don’t seem to be able to get disciplined enough to put my thoughts down eloquently (or as close as I can get to it!). Between work this past summer, my usual schedule as a sort of perpetual undergrad (all down to health stuff, blah), and some nasty 2011 developments (more health blah!), I’ve just not given this blog the attention I’d love to give it.

But! By the end of this year, I’m hoping to finish the Best Music of 2011. Then, I’ll get to work on posting the 3rd part of the Best Music of 2009 and the Top Singles and 3rd part of the Best of 2010. Better late than never, right? :)

Let’s get started with 2011. What a year for tunes! For me, so much of the music I loved this year can fit into the “mood music” category. Not romantic, necessarily; just, like, moody. Down in the dumps or high on life – this year’s best music found inspiration in both. The first few entries on my Albums list definitely have bits that qualify for “down in the dumps” status, but I’m glad to see, as I look over what I’ve loved this year, that there are also really bright, shiny spots too.

So – here we go!

Continue reading “Hey guys! & The Best Music of 2011 – Top Albums, part 1 of 2”

The Best Music of 2010 – Top Albums, part 1 of 2

Hey! OK, so here’s the beginning of my Best Music of 2010 series of posts. I’m breaking it down into more posts, because this year I have 25 favorite albums and 65 fave singles. So let’s get started! :)

Continue reading “The Best Music of 2010 – Top Albums, part 1 of 2”

Long time, no blog

Just a quick update to say that this blog isn’t dead yet! My thoughts on Kylie’s mighty Aphrodite are waiting to be posted, as is a critique sort of thing of Richard Ashcroft’s RPA + The United Nations of Sound album. I hope to review a bunch of stuff I’ve enjoyed this year before 2010 ends, and of course my annual Best Of lists will be posted too. (Kinda silly to plan all this when I haven’t even posted Part 3 of my Best of 2009 list, but I’m nothing if not optimistic!)

Hope everyone out in the blog universe is doing well!

Still not dead, still just resting

The semester is winding down, yay! Though of course that means that final exams and papers are winding up – not so yay. I’m gonna be busy until mid-May, so I don’t think I’ll get the last of my Best of 2009 posts up until then.

But! Until then, here are a few musical notes…

Mark your calendars:

  • KYLIE. APHRODITE. JULY 5. CAN’T WAIT!
  • Richard Ashcroft returns with his new band United Nations of Sound on June 7, when their album Redemption drops. The righteous first single from the album, “Are You Ready?”, and its video were released in January 2010, and the tune’s been getting stuck in my head ever since. A good thing, of course! The fan club-only (unless you know where to look, nudge nudge wink wink) digital download, “Third Eye (Colombus Circle),” has yet to make a big impression on me. Perhaps it’s a good thing it’s not an album track, because while it has some cool melodic and lyrical ideas, it strikes me as a bit under-developed. A sketch of a song, if you will. In any case, I’m still mega-stoked to hear the new album – my second most-anticipated release of the year.

2010 albums I’ve loved lately:

More on these gems later. :)

2010 songs I’ve been digging:

More on these later, too!

Hope everyone in the blogging ‘verse is doing well!