My name is Julien and I am a music writer. This blog is a platform for me to write about whatever music I am enjoying and cover artists I don’t get to cover at work
Most recent posts
Concert Review: Death Cab for Cutie Will Possess Your Heart
This is a review of Death Cab for Cutie’s 2018 Thank You For Today Tour performance at The Palace Theater in St. Paul. Available here on YouTube. The piece was written for a college writing class. When, less than twenty minutes into the show, Death Cab for Cutie frontman Ben Gibbard says to the audience…
Scott Hutchison Writes the Incomprehensibly Comprehensible
Due to my activity on other publications, posting here will consist mainly of pieces written as assignments for college. The following piece was written as an assignment for a course in music criticism. When I first listened to “Keep Yourself Warm,” from Frightened Rabbit’s 2006 album The Midnight Organ Fight, I was laughingly uncomfortable and…
(Indie) Music for Finals Season
Apologies again for the absence. It is finals season and for those of us fully enrolled in college, hobbies have taken to the curb. Expect regular publication to resume on or around December 7th. There is certainly no such thing as the “best” study music. While many reports have supported classical music, particularly Beethoven and…
From Play Something Good…
Play Something Good: “Act II: The Patents of Nobility” by Jay Electronica
I use the phrase “changed my life” with a great deal of reserve. It is primarily for David Bowie, Frightened Rabbit, boygenius, and Jay Electronica. The latter is a particularly remarkable case. Solely through four tracks – “Act I: Eternal Sunshine,” “Better in Tune with the Infinite” and Exhibits A & C – Jay Electra…
Play Something Good: “I See You” by Phoebe Bridgers
“I See You” (sometimes recorded as “ICU”) is about laying on the lawn locked out of a house. In that way, it’s very Phoebe Bridgers, for whom laying on the lawn leads to a sort of unprompted reflection. The song is not an internal search, but rather the emergence or realization of certain things which…
Play Something Good: 4 Exciting August Releases
August is looking like a decent month for album releases. While there are a lot of great artists to cover (aminé, Declan McKenna, and lovelytheband are all on the roster) here are the three I am most looking forward to, two of which I hope to write about in my real job at The Spokesman-Review.…
Loading…
Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.
From New Music Fridays…
New Music Friday: Jay Electronica’s “Act II”
It seems repetitive to write on Jay Electronica’s new album twice in one week, but having sat with the album all week, I decided it was worth it. For a brief history on why this album’s release is such a surprise and a big deal, see the article from earlier this week. Act II: The…
New Music Friday: Shore by Fleet Foxes
Sorry for a week without writing. I was very busy on the new Sufjan album review, which can be found on my Publications page. The music industry is headed into a mellow end-of-year release season, but it seems as though they’ve given us one last golden week, with top-tier releases from Sufjan Stevens (see my…
New Music Friday: “House of the Rising Sun” by Joni Mitchell
It is possible that “House of the Rising Sun” is the most widely covered folk song ever. The Animals’ folk-rock version from the early ‘60s is the most popular recording, but seemingly every big name in folk or folk-adjacent fields has had a go at it. Bob Dylan, Nina Simone, Dolly Parton, and so many…
Loading…
Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.
Get on Aux 