Is Born to Harangue as serious as they say?

[Born to Harangue]

I still love this song

I remember on an iPod I had back in the late 2000s it was in my top 25 most played songs, from the 12,000 or so that I had on that iPod.

I’ve barely listened to it since the beginning of the 2010s but I listened a few times today and yesterday (because I saw the band has a new single out, which is fine but not as as this) and it sounds as fresh as ever

 

[Light Housework]

I think I might love this song more than Rifke loves booze. Actually, no, I don’t believe that’s possible!

I just listened to it. It’s hypnotic.

 

[Born to Harangue]

Here’s March’s list even though you don’t deserve it . It features the strongest and most varied batch of songs yet! It’s got jazz, metal, hardcore punk, country, indie rock, R&B, synthpop, shoegaze, dream pop, UK bass, various singer-songwriters.

Like last month, I went for a left field pick for #1. Veronica Flair manages simultaneously to be nostalgic and futuristic, and as with Rent Free even though there’s something familiar about the sound I like the fact that I can’t pinpoint the song’s exact influences. It features two minutes of verse/chorus followed by a 55 second saxophone solo and then a 45 second keyboard(?) solo. You’d think the chorus would then come back in to close things out, but instead Devin reappears vocalising until it all fades away. I love how the song is structured.

And maybe I’m easily pleased but of the 136 singles from 2024 that I listened to for the first time in March, I only rated 15 of them lower than 6 out of 10. I got rid of my ‘one song per artist’ rule for this list because it didn’t make sense to me to keep doing it that way:

47. Solomon Fox - weird
46. Wand - Help Desk
45. Billy Morrison with Ozzy Osbourne and Steve Stevens - Crack Cocaine
44. The Sorcerers - Yasuke in Roppongi
43. Shabaka (feat. Floating Points) - I’ll Do Whatever You Want
42. Spectres - AM Gold
41. Amaro Freitas (feat. Shabaka) - Y’Y
40. Vampire Weekend - Mary Boone
39. Strand of Oaks - More You
38. Tyler Ramsey - These Ghosts
37. Two Shell & FKA twigs - Talk to Me
36. Sofia Bolt (feat. Stella Donnelly) - Bus Song
35. Mount Kimbie (feat. King Krule) - Empty and Silent
34. Julian Lage - 76
33. Cola - Bitter Melon
32. Wisp - Enough for you
31. Bullion - Affection
30. Laufey - Goddess
29. Gesaffelstein - Hard Dreams
28. Job for a Cowboy - Beyond the Chemical Doorway
27. Sir Chloe - Over Again
26. Devin Morrison - Anita Valentine
25. Friko - Where We’ve Been
24. Willow - symptom of life
23. Underworld x Kettama - Fen Violet
22. NewDad - White Ribbons
21. Night Tapes - Every Day is a Game
20. DIIV - Soul-net
19. Amaro Freitas (feat. Jeff Parker) - Mar de Cirandeiras
18. Jessica Pratt - World on a String
17. Fabiana Palladino - I Can’t Dream Anymore
16. Sam Evian - Stay
15. Gouge Away - Dallas
14. Adrianne Lenker - Free Treasure
13. Machinedrum (feat. Tinashe) - Zoom
12. Bolis Pupul (with Salah Pupul) - Ma Tau Wai Road
11. St Vincent - Flea
10. Kamasi Washington - Prologue
9. Gouge Away - Stuck in a Dream
8. Willie Nelson - The Border
7. Friko - Get Numb to It!
6. Justice - Incognito
5. The Lemon Twigs - A Dream Is All I Know
4. Justice (starring Miguel) - Saturnine
3. Sam Evian - Rollin’ In
2. Vampire Weekend - Classical
1. Devin Morrison - Veronica Flair

I stopped making these lists back in March but here are the five singles I was considering for the #1 spot on April’s list before I decided not to proceed with it:







All five were released in April. I think I would have given the #1 to Charli because that’s a song I can see myself still listening to a couple of years from now, whereas there’s a chance I’ll forget about the others.

 

[Gaylord Deepstar]

Born to Harangue is a Billy No-Mates who needs every bit of attention he can get on this site because he’s a total loser who lives in his mommy’s basement.

 

[Gaylord Deepstar]

Born to Harangue is a Billy No-Mates who needs every bit of attention he can get on this site because he’s a total loser who lives in his mommy’s basement.

Yeah, funny because it’s true.

 

[Born to Harangue]

PONY

 

[nicky wire's legs]

PONY

 

[Born to Harangue]

If I get around to making a ‘best singles of 2024’ list at the end of the year, here’s five singles with under 20,000 views on YouTube that as of now look likely to make that list:

Evanora Unlimited (feat. She Diamond) - Sequoia Tide (2.3k views)


Cindy Lee - Darling of the Diskoteque (this is the B-side to a limited edition single; the most popular YouTube video with this song has 10k views)


Spirit of the Beehive - Let the Virgin Drive (the official video has 17k views)


Lozenge - Interloper (3.1k views; one of their other singles, Precious, would probably make the year end list as well)


Rinse - Breathe (the most popular YouTube video with this song has 3.6k views)

 

[Born to Harangue]

I’m not a rap fan any more but this is easily the best, most innovative rap music I’ve heard this year:





My general feeling though is that rap needs to die to create room for other music styles to emerge. One reason I think we’ve been forced to endure rap music dominating the airwaves for 20+ years is that in the 21st century white people have lost the ability to criticise black people and their cultural contributions (and black people generally refuse to criticise themselves as well). It’s my understanding that white people helped to kill - or at least tarnish the reputation of - disco back in the late ‘70s, through a sustained campaign of collective public negativity towards it (even though disco was pretty good!). In the 21st century we’ve been collectively gagged, which may be PART of the reason why boring one-dimensional rap has had the freedom to fill the charts for decades in white majority societies even while it’s well past its sell-by-date. If we still had any kind of ability to influence culture surely the kibosh would have been put on rap (as a mainstream force) about 15 years ago. Instead we’re forced to grin and bear it, or try our best to ignore it. I have to imagine a majority of white people in white majority societies dislike most rap music but it won’t go away because we forfeited the ability to make it go away. I’m not sure how accurate all that is, it’s just something I was thinking about recently, but I think it’s a factor. If more modern rap attempted to be innovative like in the videos above then I wouldn’t have as much of a problem with it, but it doesn’t, and 90% of it is demoralisingly bad and uninspired and drags down everything else around it.

 

[Born to Harangue]

I know this site is filled with open minded music aficionados who love exploring new music…… so, I was looking through the singles from 2024 that I listened to in May and June and here’s what I think I would have chosen as my #1 for both of those months if I had continued making monthly lists:

May: Sheena Ringo & Ikkyu Nakajima - Offering Sake

Other songs I rated highly in May include (not a great month overall, with a quarter of what I listened to taken up by Eurovision songs):

Spoiler

Colin Stetson - The Love It Took to Leave You, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Frogs, tindersticks - New World, Charles Lloyd - Monk’s Dance, Tommy Richman - Million Dollar Baby, Sheena Ringo & ATARASHIO GAKKO! - FRDP, Cassandra Jenkins - Delphinium Blue, Peggy Gou - Lobster Telephone, Amyl and The Sniffers - U Should Not Be Doing That, Billy Tibbals - Out of Touch, DJ Sabrina the Teenage DJ - Come Find Out, Loreen - Forever

June: Burial - Phoneglow


I was impressed with a lot of what I heard in June and I probably could have got a strong 40 song list out of it but oh well, I’m afraid you musos will have to do without

 

[Vesper Nocturne]

I know this site is filled with open minded music aficionados who love exploring new music……

I know! And the queue of them is out of control, they are wrapping all the way around the corner now!

 

[Born to Harangue]

After all the engagement my previous post received…… I thought it would be remiss of me not to come back and add my favourite singles from 2024 that I listened to in July, so here you go:

Songs that stood out to me:

Spoiler

Mildlife - Yourself, Dr. Dog - Talk Is Cheap, Chrystabell and David Lynch - The Answers to the Questions, The Jesus Lizard - Alexis Feels Sick, The Burkharts - Always On the Run, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Le Risque, Primal Scream - Love Insurrection, Luke Temple - I Can Dream, Clothesline from Hell - You Don’t Know, Chat Pile - I Am Dog Now, Kelly Lee Owens - Love You Got, A Place to Bury Strangers - Disgust, FM Skyline - Fresnel, Foster the People - Take Me Back, Skeleten - Deep Scene, Public Service Broadcasting - Electra, Glass Beams - Mahal

Joint 5th place: Pixies - Chicken & The Last Dinner Party - The Feminine Urge
4. JPEGMafia - Sin Miedo
3. Floating Points - Key103
2. Father John Misty - I Guess Time Just Makes Fools of Us All
1. King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Hog Calling Contest



Statistics:

Spoiler

January: #1 The Lemon Twigs - My Golden Years (120 singles listened to)
February: #1 Faux Real - Rent Free (132 singles listened to)
March: #1 Devin Morrison - Veronica Flair (136 singles listened to)
April: #1 Charli xcx - B2b (137 singles listened to)
May: #1 Sheena Ringo - offering sake (121 singles listened to)
June: #1 Burial - Phoneglow (105 singles listened to)
July: #1 King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard - Hog Calling Contest (105 singles listened to)
Total singles listened to as of July 31st: 856
Where my #1 singles for each month would place if I were making a year end ‘favourite singles of 2024’ list today: The Lemon Twigs - #1, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard - #2, Faux Real - #3, Devin Morrison - top 5, Burial - top 10, Charli xcx - top 15, Sheena Ringo - 25-30