{"id":12110,"date":"2017-12-29T03:30:13","date_gmt":"2017-12-29T10:30:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/?p=12110"},"modified":"2017-12-23T16:43:20","modified_gmt":"2017-12-23T23:43:20","slug":"listening-life-17-listens-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/2017\/12\/listening-life-17-listens-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"Listening to My Life: 17 Listens for 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"mark-solarski-183866\"First, a note: I think this might be the last time I do this. If you\u2019ve followed my writing about music for the last twenty years (in which case you are my mother, so thanks) you\u2019ve heard me say things like this off and on for at least the last ten, so I don\u2019t mean to be overdramatic.<\/p>\n

Music continues to be an enormous force in my life (apparently I listened to over 700 hours of it on Spotify alone this year, according to a creepy algorithm that also correctly guessed my age and told me I\u2019m basically stuck in 2003 in terms of my musical tastes<\/a>), but this is my tenth year writing a year-end music list for \u201cGood Letters,\u201d and as I try to expand its focus to listening <\/em>in a broad sense, I think I\u2019m going to call it a day and try something different next year.<\/p>\n

Plus, I\u2019ve been in the habit of calling the list \u201cXX Songs for 20XX,\u201d and I\u2019m not sure I can come up with eighteen songs next year.<\/p>\n

So here are seventeen songs, albums, radio shows, podcasts, and other things I listened to that stuck with me in 2017. No theme, this time. Just me listening to my life. Feel free to listen along. And get in touch with me, or anybody really, so we can listen to yours, too.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The SYNTHAR album Evenings & Weekends<\/em>. I helped start this band over a decade ago, and I\u2019m only responsible for about ten seconds of actual music on it, so I\u2019m allowed to say I think it\u2019s a beautiful record. We re-released this album on its tenth anniversary this year, and I\u2019ve still never really heard anything like it. The Postal Service meets MGMT meets dance music meets M. Ward, maybe? Listen or buy here<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    \u00a0<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. The songs I played guitar along with on Spotify. The aforementioned algorithm let me know my top five most-played songs of the year, and they were all songs I was trying to learn on the guitar (#1 was Weezer\u2019s \u201cYou Gave Your Love to Me Softly,\u201d which is the greatest pop song of the last thirty years). I didn\u2019t do a great job, but I had fun. Listen here.<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      \u00a0<\/p>\n

        \n
      1. The Early Edition<\/em> with Rick Cluff. I\u2019ve been listening to CBC Radio One\u2019s Vancouver morning show pretty much every day for eight years\u2014since I moved here\u2014and Cluff just retired as host after a forty-year career in radio. I\u2019m struck by how much my sense of place, of what it means to be a Vancouverite, has been shaped by listening to this show. Listen here.<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        \u00a0<\/p>\n

          \n
        1. \u201cEverything Now\u201d by Arcade Fire. I\u2019m not sure I like the record this song comes from, but I dig this song. I heard it at the dentist this week and it felt like exactly the right place to hear it\u2014even though it sounds like an ABBA track from forty years ago, it\u2019s also an indictment of modern technological alienation. (\u201cSprawl II\u201d is still better, though.) Listen here<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

          \u00a0<\/p>\n

            \n
          1. The Signal\/Pondercast<\/em> with Laurie Brown. My other favorite CBC show, The Signal<\/em>, ended earlier this year, too. Laurie Brown, a former MuchMusic VJ, on Canada\u2019s version of MTV, was my guide through brooding downtempo soundscapes on late-night drives across town. New podcast, Pondercast<\/em>, is similar, but goes in new thematic directions, sometimes with ambient music, sometimes with no music at all. Worth listening to as you fall asleep, or if you can\u2019t. Listen to my favorite episode of Pondercast<\/em> so far here<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

            \u00a0<\/p>\n

              \n
            1. \u201cNorth South East West\u201d by Japandroids. I\u2019m proud of how Vancouver-centric this list is. Local music, man. Reading all that Wendell Berry must finally be getting to me. Anyway, this is a song about travel, love, and places that matter. Listen here<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

              \u00a0<\/p>\n

                \n
              1. My son\u2019s Advent concert. My oldest child, a kindergartener, goes to a Catholic school now (I\u2019m a lifelong evangelical, welcome to my religious confusion), and I\u2019m not saying there is anything wrong with public school\u2014public school is great\u2014but he is currently wandering around the house humming the 400-year-old hymn \u201cO Come Divine Messiah\u201d while other kids are singing songs about how they hope Santa Claus will bring them a puppy (which again is fine). <\/em>Listen to the hymn here<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                \u00a0<\/p>\n

                  \n
                1. The new (old) Radiohead songs from the reissue of OK Computer<\/em>. I was not a huge fan of A Moon Shaped Pool<\/em>\u2014I absolutely loved about four of the songs and didn\u2019t really understand the rest\u2014and it was so refreshing to hear the big, brash, ambitious rock-band Radiohead again\u2014\u201cI Promise\u201d and \u201cMan O War\u201d were standouts, but all the songs were wonderful. Listen here<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                  \u00a0<\/p>\n

                    \n
                  1. A podcast called Calm Pills<\/em>. I am a little embarrassed about this one, but I suffered a concussion in August and I\u2019ve been up against pain and anxiety for the last four months. This show, which is pretty much just whole albums of ambient music occasionally interrupted by a man with an Eastern European accent telling you where you can buy the music, has helped. Listen here<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                    \u00a0<\/p>\n

                      \n
                    1. The album Bird World<\/em> by Leon. Leon Chang is a guy who mostly does funny posts on Twitter, but he also made this astonishing, fully-realized soundtrack for a video game that does not exist. This is my kids\u2019 favorite album of the year, hands down, and they constantly ask to listen to it. Listen or buy here<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                      \u00a0<\/p>\n

                        \n
                      1. \u201cAnxiety\u201d by Jason Isbell. Isbell was pretty much the only artist I listened to for the first half of the year, and although my wife chided me for listening to \u201ccountry\u201d music (which I don\u2019t think he really is, and, even if he was, that\u2019d be OK, right?), he\u2019s amazing. This song was cathartic for many reasons (see #9 above). Listen here<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                        \u00a0<\/p>\n

                          \n
                        1. Gregorian chant. Just Gregorian chant, in general. We listen to it almost every single night before bed. (See #11 and #9 above).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                          \u00a0<\/p>\n

                            \n
                          1. \u201cNew York\u201d by St. Vincent. I heard an interview with Annie Clark where she said this is the first song she\u2019d ever written that already felt like a \u201cclassic.\u201d I have to agree. The first time I heard this song I thought I\u2019d heard it a hundred times before. A masterful ballad. (Note: there is a very prominent swear word repeated a number of times in this song.) Listen here<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                            \u00a0<\/p>\n

                              \n
                            1. The annoying sounds of my upstairs neighbors\u2019 thumping bass. (See #12, #11, and #9 above. They moved out.)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                              \u00a0<\/p>\n

                                \n
                              1. Everything Sufjan Stevens put out this year. There was a lot\u2014Planetarium, Carrie & Lowell Live, The Greatest Gift<\/em>, songs from the film Call Me by Your Name<\/em>, and, just last week, a tender ballad about Tonya Harding. Listen here<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                                \u00a0<\/p>\n

                                  \n
                                1. Effectively Wild<\/em>, a baseball podcast. I got way, way back into baseball this year, after a nearly twenty-year hiatus. I love listening to this show\u2014the indie rock bumper music, the understated, nerdy banter of the hosts, and above and beyond all the talk about newfangled sabermetric baseball stats, the overwhelming sense of love and care for the game. Listen here<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                                  \u00a0<\/p>\n

                                    \n
                                  1. \u201cWe Called it Love\u201d by Stars. Yes, Stars is never not on my list. This band is everything pop music is supposed to be, and their songs are never bad. (OK, that\u2019s not technically true. But they never put out a record that is less than 70% amazing.) I could have picked any of four or five songs from There is No Love in Fluorescent Light<\/em> but I love the bouncy, mid-tempo groove that masks the remarkably profound coda: \u201cI don\u2019t believe people ever change \/ but I\u2019ve changed.\u201d Listen here<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                                    \"GL<\/p>\n

                                    Joel Heng Hartse<\/strong> lives in Vancouver, BC. Visit www.joelhenghartse.com<\/a> for more information.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

                                    First, a note: I think this might be the last time I do this. If you\u2019ve followed my writing about music for the last twenty years (in which case you are my mother, so thanks) you\u2019ve heard me say things like this off and on for at least the last ten, so I don\u2019t mean […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1081,"featured_media":12111,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[363,84],"tags":[4476,3577,4477,4219],"class_list":["post-12110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-guest-contributor","category-music","tag-4476","tag-music","tag-spotify","tag-sufjan-stevens"],"yoast_head":"\nListening to My Life: 17 Listens for 2017<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"First, a note: I think this might be the last time I do this. 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