SOS


Band: SZA
Album: SOS
Best song: “Ghost in the Machine” is the best song of 2022.
Worst song: “F2F” does not appeal to me

A few weeks ago, Ben Gibbard projects Death Cab for Cutie and The Postal Service announced a joint upcoming tour in which both bands would play their 2003 seminal albums – Transatlanticism and Give Up, respectively – in full on the tour as a way to mark the 20th anniversary of the release of the albums. I have a tortured relationship with both bands in my own mind, but I find both records to be absolute classics released during a time when I needed them. I’ve written about each (here and here), even noting that Give Up was one of the best albums of the 2000s. Read More »

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Call Down the Sun


Band: Konvent
Album: Call Down the Sun
Best song: “Harena,” “Fatamorgana” and “Grains” are amazing.
Worst song: “Never Rest” is the weakest song on the album.

What a year.

The nature of the calendar is such that all these things are a little artificial; resolutions and such can be done at any time. As a Jewish person, I also have the High Holiday time as a time for reflection, but certainly birthdays can bring the same purpose. But, still. What a year. Read More »

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Midnights


Band: Taylor Swift
Album: Midnights
Best song: The first three songs are all terrific. I like “Question…?” and “Bejeweled” a lot, too.
Worst song: “Vigilante Shit” is extremely not my shit.

I’ve written on this site twice about Taylor Swift, once in an overwhelmingly condescending tone and once avoiding her for most of the post. So, let me present a mea culpa for the first: I was wrong. Read More »

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Dawn FM


Band: The Weeknd
Album: Dawn FM
Best song: “Out of Time” and “Gasoline” are excellent.
Worst song: “Less Than Zero” is just OK.

I kinda hate how much I like the Weeknd. Read More »

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Retreat From The Sun


Band: that dog.
Album: Retreat From the Sun
Best song: “Never Say Never” is great. “Long Island” rocks.
Worst song: “Until the Day I Die” doesn’t really fit on the record, but maybe that’s the point? I don’t know.

I guess Netflix is bringing back (some of) the cast from That 70s Show for a new series next month about the 1990s. I will not watch it, though not because I have any animus for the producers, cast or even the 1990s, as a decade. I just don’t watch much TV. Read More »

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At Action Park


Band: Shellac
Album: At Action Park
Best song: “The Admiral” is one of my favorite Shellac songs
Worst song: Nah.

Of the people I’ve admired most in music, Steve Albini is definitely near the top. He is not without pretense, of course, but he has been a deeply thoughtful guy and has been part of some of the best records in history and has influenced some of the best bands in history. Read More »

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Yellow and Green


Band: Baroness
Album: Yellow & Green
Best song: “Cocainium” is the band at its best
Worst song: “Foolsong.”

There is a famous bit in the Beatles’ Anthology TV series wherein Paul McCartney answers the claim that the White Album is a bloated double album that could’ve used some trimming. He dismisses the criticism with “It’s the bloody White Album.” Read More »
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Cool It Down


Band: Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Album: Cool It Down
Best song: “Wolf” and “Spitting Off the Edge of the World”
Worst song: “Mars.”

I do not have kids. I’ve gone over this fact in this space before (and if you know me personally, you’ve probably heard me joke about it and some of the hijinks around it that touch my romantic life) and nothing has changed since I wrote about it more than ten years ago. Read More »
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Mariner


Band:Cult of Luna and Julie Christmas
Album:Mariner
Best song: “Cygnus” is a perfect, epic song.
Worst song:”Approaching Transition” is the weakest song, but it’s very good (sorry, I almost only write about records I like).

What’s beyond the next mountain? What lies among the stars? Why go beyond the horizon? Is exploration an inherent part of humanity’s makeup? Does it matter? Read More »

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War Moans


Band:Mutoid Man
Album:War Moans
Best song:“Melt You Mind” and “Wreck and Survive”
Worst song:the song itself is good, but the lyrics to “Date with the Devil” are kinda dumb.

Genre is a tough thing to tackle and it is a deeply ~inside~ experience as you get into it more. The dumb copout “I listen to all types of music” is kind of silly and a shorthand for a certain type of idiot, but it rings true for most of us. If I want to tell someone what I listen to, should I send them to my Last.fm list? How do I describe post-rock to someone who doesn’t know what that is? Is it cool to say I listen to folk music when I listen to Chelsea Wolf and Emma Ruth Rundle? Is Thou death metal or death doom or something else? Read More »

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  • About Me

    I'm Ross Jordan Gianfortune. I am not a writer, but I sometimes write here about music and my life. I live in Washington, DC.

    I used to review each of Rolling Stone Magazine's top 500 albums of all time. Now I'm writing about albums I own.

    My work has appeared in The Washington Post, The Gazette, The Atlantic, Sno-Cone and a bunch of defunct zines.

    You can contact me at rjgianfortune at gmail dot com.

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