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Alfred Soto @sotoalfred.bsky.social · 6h

The Nazi sympathizer Kanye West has forgotten, but few songs are as wise about exploiting and being exploited as "Diamonds Are Forever." Also: Nas, the White Stripes, and Alan Jackson. humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2025/10/11/r...

Ranking #43 singles, U.S. edition: 1997-2005

Few hip-hop songs in the 2000s deployed samples as devastatingly as the Nazi sympathizer Kanye West did with Shirley Bassey’s Bond theme in “Diamonds Are Forever,” a song caustic …

humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com

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Alfred Soto @sotoalfred.bsky.social · 10h

David Lee Roth took to MTV like Orson Welles did radio. humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2019/01/30/t...

The best of Van Halen and David Lee Roth 1978-1988

Wringing infinite variations on the yelp as much as contemporary Michael Jackson did with the hiccup, David Lee Roth took to MTV like Orson Welles did radio.

humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com

Alfred Soto @sotoalfred.bsky.social · 12h

I atone for one of the least deserving Best Actress picks of the last decade with several worthier choices. I examine the 2019 race. humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2025/10/10/m...

My Alternative Oscars: Best Actress 2019

The nominees: Cynthia Erivo – Harriet Scarlett Johansson- Marriage Story Saoirse Ronan – Little Women Charlize Theron – Bombshell Renée Zellweger – Judy

humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com

Alfred Soto @sotoalfred.bsky.social · 14h

Then Americans heard his voice.

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Alfred Soto @sotoalfred.bsky.social · 17h

Other than "Vienna" and its parent album and a handful of things I wasn't enamored of Ultravox's Midge Ure years, but hearing those songs after the John Foxx numbers the progression makes sense. humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2021/05/20/t...

Things were different then for the quiet men: The best of Ultravox

My Ultravox is the dour, loud five-piece that fused Bowie’s Thin White Duke blankness and the aggression of punk.

humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com

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Reposted by Alfred Soto

Alfred Soto @sotoalfred.bsky.social · 20h

The death of Kirsty MacColl hit hard b/c she had recorded some of the most thrilling music of her life. She would've celebrated a birthday this morning. humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2021/10/10/i...

I could leave you but I don’t know how: The best of Kirsty MacColl

When the world learned Kirsty MacColl had died in a boating accident more than twenty years ago, we mourned the snuffing of a singer of warmth and humor, a songwriting of increasingly varied appeti…

humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com

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Reposted by Alfred Soto

Dave Stone @stoneybass.bsky.social · 19h

😞

Alfred Soto @sotoalfred.bsky.social · 20h

The death of Kirsty MacColl hit hard b/c she had recorded some of the most thrilling music of her life. She would've celebrated a birthday this morning. humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2021/10/10/i...

I could leave you but I don’t know how: The best of Kirsty MacColl

When the world learned Kirsty MacColl had died in a boating accident more than twenty years ago, we mourned the snuffing of a singer of warmth and humor, a songwriting of increasingly varied appeti…

humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com

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Alfred Soto @sotoalfred.bsky.social · 20h

The death of Kirsty MacColl hit hard b/c she had recorded some of the most thrilling music of her life. She would've celebrated a birthday this morning. humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2021/10/10/i...

I could leave you but I don’t know how: The best of Kirsty MacColl

When the world learned Kirsty MacColl had died in a boating accident more than twenty years ago, we mourned the snuffing of a singer of warmth and humor, a songwriting of increasingly varied appeti…

humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com

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Alfred Soto @sotoalfred.bsky.social · 1d

My friend Ivy Nelson wrote this wonderful appraisal a few days ago. pitchfork.com/reviews/albu...

PJ Harvey: Is This Desire?

Read Ivy Nelson’s review of the album.

pitchfork.com

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Alfred Soto @sotoalfred.bsky.social · 1d

I didn't honor PJ Harvey today. Here's a catalog which, despite a couple of misguided efforts, has no examples of accommodation. It's mighty. humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2018/09/05/r...

Ranking nine PJ Harvey albums

With all respect to White Chalk (appreciate the experiment in piano and a higher register, results not so much), 4-Track Demos (“Reeling” and “Hardly Wait” rule, the Rid of …

humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com

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Alfred Soto @sotoalfred.bsky.social · 1d

"Favorite" and "best" to me are indistinguishable. "Best" is like "favorite" an opinion. And every artist has crucial texts that we can't stand.

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Alfred Soto @sotoalfred.bsky.social · 1d

They are, and as it happens I'm in the mood for "In My Life" today. The list records favorites.

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Reposted by Alfred Soto

Alfred Soto @sotoalfred.bsky.social · 1d

I carved a blank space, babes, and wrote Rochelle Jordan's name. I review her and Taylor Swift's new albums. humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2025/10/09/s...

Showgirls and dance parties: Rochelle Jordan and Taylor Swift

Two serious back-to-front plays confirmed that The Return of the Showgirl impressed me more than The Tortured Poets Department, but other than slipping “Ruin the Friendship” and maybe &…

humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com

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Alfred Soto @sotoalfred.bsky.social · 1d

I carved a blank space, babes, and wrote Rochelle Jordan's name. I review her and Taylor Swift's new albums. humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2025/10/09/s...

Showgirls and dance parties: Rochelle Jordan and Taylor Swift

Two serious back-to-front plays confirmed that The Return of the Showgirl impressed me more than The Tortured Poets Department, but other than slipping “Ruin the Friendship” and maybe &…

humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com

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Reposted by Alfred Soto

Chris Towers is in Offseason Mode @cptowers.bsky.social · 1d

Still think the bridge to "This Boy" is Lennon's finest moment as a vocalist.

Alfred Soto @sotoalfred.bsky.social · 1d

My Beatle John playlist. The top five sums him up. humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2016/12/23/b...

The best Beatles songs by John Lennon

Notice I included many songs written before 1965, years too often slighted by compilers. 1. A Hard Day’s Night 2. Happiness is a Warm Gun 3. Rain 4. Help! 5. Tomorrow Never Knows 6. This Boy …

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Alfred Soto @sotoalfred.bsky.social · 1d

Yup -- early triumph.

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Alfred Soto @sotoalfred.bsky.social · 1d

I'll never tell.

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Alfred Soto @sotoalfred.bsky.social · 1d

Yes! And its sense of camp.

Bowiesongs (C. O'Leary) @bowiesongs.bsky.social · 1d

"Happiness Is a Warm Gun" is Lennon in perfect miniature--four or 5 bits of songs he couldn't bother to finish, mashed together, with weird time signatures throughout, then given some of the most spine-tingling vocals heard on a rock record in the 60s

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Alfred Soto @sotoalfred.bsky.social · 1d

My Beatle John playlist. The top five sums him up. humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2016/12/23/b...

The best Beatles songs by John Lennon

Notice I included many songs written before 1965, years too often slighted by compilers. 1. A Hard Day’s Night 2. Happiness is a Warm Gun 3. Rain 4. Help! 5. Tomorrow Never Knows 6. This Boy …

humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com

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Alfred Soto @sotoalfred.bsky.social · 1d

Congrats, man.

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Alfred Soto @sotoalfred.bsky.social · 1d

No War But Schmaltz War

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Reposted by Alfred Soto

Alfred Soto @sotoalfred.bsky.social · 1d

I've realized that Jackson Browne is Not For Me. Yet I admire how he connected the dots between the Ford-era hollow man of “The Pretender” and the rapacious careerist in “Lawyers in Love." Happy birthday. humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2023/10/09/i...

I don’t know about anyone but me: The best of Jackson Browne

Revered by peers, guaranteed publishing income until the end of his days, Jackson Browne remains the least reappraised of his SoCal colleagues. Growing up in the eighties he was an inextricable par…

humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com

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Alfred Soto @sotoalfred.bsky.social · 1d

John Lennon would've celebrated a birthday. Not the most complicated Beatle, but the one who most insisted on living a public life, with his inchoate passions and often ghastly star behavior. His best of the solo years. humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2018/10/06/r...

Ranking John Lennon solo albums

Rightly omitting Yoko’s own albums curtails the length of John Lennon’s solo career, which, like his less talented colleague George Harrison, began with two excellent albums, strenuous …

humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com

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Alfred Soto @sotoalfred.bsky.social · 1d

I've realized that Jackson Browne is Not For Me. Yet I admire how he connected the dots between the Ford-era hollow man of “The Pretender” and the rapacious careerist in “Lawyers in Love." Happy birthday. humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2023/10/09/i...

I don’t know about anyone but me: The best of Jackson Browne

Revered by peers, guaranteed publishing income until the end of his days, Jackson Browne remains the least reappraised of his SoCal colleagues. Growing up in the eighties he was an inextricable par…

humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com

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Alfred Soto @sotoalfred.bsky.social · 2d

In the unlikely event that I marry, I want "Adorn" blasted from every woofer. wp.me/pzXeC-kwj

Ranking #17 singles, U.S. edition: 2008-2012

A couple of statistical wrinkles to consider in this excellent list. First, Miguel’s lubricious wedding-dance-floor burner “Adorn” and Kendrick Lamar’s apocalyptic “Sw…

wp.me

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