Found myself in a strange town...

Congratulations  to the amazing Elvis Costello on his first Grammy win for and album, the fantastic Look Now. Like every year I watched the Grammys with my wife this past Sunday. I don’t really care for the Grammys (haven’t in over 15 years I think) but it’s a tradition I can’t get rid of, like watching the Oscars or Golden Globes. But unlike the other two awards I mentioned, the Grammys seem to be worse and worse every year. It’s probably a sign of me getting older but the performances and winners interest me less and less every year. This year I only really cared about two of the nominees I saw on the show (both for best new act): Black Pumas and Yola. Unsurprisingly neither won, still wouldn’t make a difference to me if either got a Grammy or not, I like what I like and a Grammy would certainly not change my opinion, but it would still be nice to see something I consider really good get some recognition…I feel like it would give me some hope for the future.

Number five in this series of ten (in no particular order) belongs to 1 of the 2 really obvious ones for those who know me well (I’ll save the other obvious one for #10), The Beatles. My love for The Fab Four goes way back, can’t really pin point when exactly it began, but I must admit I became obsessed with them after I got into Oasis (I know, should be the other way around), it was then that I began to listen to their albums as a whole instead of just my fav songs and that’s when I really got to appreciate the genius in them. My favorite Beatles album is Abbey Road, followed closely by Sgt. Peppers, but objectively speaking I think their best album is Revolver which is an absolute work of art. But I love every single one of their albums. From the first chords of their debut to the perfect closing line of Abbey Road, their discography plays like a perfect script to my ears. Even their supposedly weakest moments like Beatles For Sale

After a break in December choosing my favorite albums of the year and the decade, it’s time to continue with our fourth act in this series of ten (in no particular order). It’s Bruce Springsteen, my favorite American artist. No need for an introduction here as I am pretty sure everyone (fan or not) knows about the Boss. Bruce is a fantastic story teller and a perfectionist when it comes to his art. I remember on a Jimmy Fallon interview years ago about his unreleased album The Promise (made up of outtakes from the Darkness On The Edge Of Town sessions), Bruce said he wrote about 100 songs for the album and then reduced it to 10. Jimmy laughed and said “A hundred songs! That’s what a crazy person does”, I agree with Jimmy, only that I see genius instead of crazy there. I knew of Bruce since high school probably but it was in college that I was really exposed to his music and got into it. Born To Run was the album for me back then as I felt identified t