You’ve probably never heard this, but this past year was unprecedented…
Anyway, instead of the pleasantries and pontificating, let’s get on to what was interesting this past year.

Music
My two favorite albums this year were Wild, Free by Acceptance and What’s New, Tomboy? by Damien Jurado. Both albums show significant departure of style from previous works. I miss the power pop of Acceptance, and some of Jurado’s other albums had more singles that I loved. Nevertheless, I found myself listening to these over and over. There are a number of stand out tracks on each album. For Acceptance, “Cold Air” is an obvious single, but “Wildfires” is where its at for my money.

On the Jurado album, “Arthur Aware” is my favorite offering: