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Reposted by Alfred Soto

Alfred Soto @sotoalfred.bsky.social · 5h

If you aren't blasting this year's Rochelle Jordan, Saint Etienne, and Sunny Sweeney albums, get to it! humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2025/10/07/t...

The best albums of 2025, third quarter

I make no attempt at order; the numbers pop up because lists need numbers. These albums have given pleasure since January. Deep Sea Diver and Playboi Carti’s, unplayed for months, got longer …

humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com

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Alfred Soto @sotoalfred.bsky.social · 4h

I do mind speedball when Kenny Aronoff, etc.

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Alfred Soto @sotoalfred.bsky.social · 4h

I don't mind cornball when Kenny Aronoff's hammering it down.

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Alfred Soto @sotoalfred.bsky.social · 5h

Nicky Hopkins in the first category too, right?

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Alfred Soto @sotoalfred.bsky.social · 5h

If you aren't blasting this year's Rochelle Jordan, Saint Etienne, and Sunny Sweeney albums, get to it! humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2025/10/07/t...

The best albums of 2025, third quarter

I make no attempt at order; the numbers pop up because lists need numbers. These albums have given pleasure since January. Deep Sea Diver and Playboi Carti’s, unplayed for months, got longer …

humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com

1 1 2

Alfred Soto @sotoalfred.bsky.social · 5h

I read in David Buckley's bio that Ferry chanced upon his technique by playing three of the keys.

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Alfred Soto @sotoalfred.bsky.social · 6h

And Eno didn't really "play" keyboards with Roxy.

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Reposted by Alfred Soto

Justin Sherin @wychstreet.bsky.social · 6h

Alfred’s choices are great - putting in one for Cherry Bomb, which has always sounded in the absolute best sense like people playing in a back yard

Alfred Soto @sotoalfred.bsky.social · 9h

Blessed with an excellent band that fleshed out his good tunes, John Mellencamp was among the best of the 1980s domestic rockers. humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2017/06/03/y...

You don’t have to be so exciting: the best of John Mellencamp

When starting this list I thought I’d trouble extending past ten songs; then I looked at the titles on Whenever We Wanted and a couple of those late nineties records that actually charted wel…

humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com

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Alfred Soto @sotoalfred.bsky.social · 6h

He was the "heartland" rocker with the hits, and so many of them sound fresh and distinctive, thanks to his band.

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Reposted by Alfred Soto

Michael Harris @michaelsharris.bsky.social · 9h

Put the heart into heartland rock.

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Alfred Soto @sotoalfred.bsky.social · 9h

Blessed with an excellent band that fleshed out his good tunes, John Mellencamp was among the best of the 1980s domestic rockers. humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2017/06/03/y...

You don’t have to be so exciting: the best of John Mellencamp

When starting this list I thought I’d trouble extending past ten songs; then I looked at the titles on Whenever We Wanted and a couple of those late nineties records that actually charted wel…

humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com

2 1 8

Reposted by Alfred Soto

Alfred Soto @sotoalfred.bsky.social · 19h

Several Taylor Swift singles peaked at #13 during Peak Download Era, but so did Waka Flocka Flame, Pentatonix, and J. Cole, the latter kicking off a period when post-GRADUATION Kanye gave some fans the shakes. humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2025/10/07/r...

Ranking #13 singles, U.S. edition: 2006-2013

Dubious chart positions notwithstanding, Taylor Swift came into her own in this era with several examples of empathy and craft that showed up sociopaths like R. Kelly. Choosing from “Teardrop…

humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com

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Alfred Soto @sotoalfred.bsky.social · 19h

Several Taylor Swift singles peaked at #13 during Peak Download Era, but so did Waka Flocka Flame, Pentatonix, and J. Cole, the latter kicking off a period when post-GRADUATION Kanye gave some fans the shakes. humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2025/10/07/r...

Ranking #13 singles, U.S. edition: 2006-2013

Dubious chart positions notwithstanding, Taylor Swift came into her own in this era with several examples of empathy and craft that showed up sociopaths like R. Kelly. Choosing from “Teardrop…

humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com

2 3

Alfred Soto @sotoalfred.bsky.social · 1d

Here's my last albums-of-the-year roundup before December. If you think it's a crap year, you haven't been looking hard enough, baby. This criticism applies to me too. humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2025/10/07/t...

The best albums of 2025, third quarter

I make no attempt at order; the numbers pop up because lists need numbers. These albums have given pleasure since January. Deep Sea Diver and Playboi Carti’s, unplayed for months, got longer …

humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com

1 4

Reposted by Alfred Soto

Alfred Soto @sotoalfred.bsky.social · 2d

Daniel Day-Lewis is forceful and often hilarious in his son's directorial debut ANEMONE. A pity the film is often turgid. My review.
humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2025/10/06/d...

Daniel Day-Lewis returns to acting in ‘Anemone’

Anemone is the most egregious example this decade of a 30-minute short film stretched to an unyielding 123 minutes. No one can accuse Ronan Day-Lewis, in his screenwriting and directing debut, of c…

humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com

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Alfred Soto @sotoalfred.bsky.social · 1d

OK COMPUTER turned 28 this year! humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2022/05/21/o...

On Radiohead’s ‘OK Computer’ 25 years later

Released in July 1997, Radiohead’s third album coincided with the rise of fan boys on AOL chat rooms to marshal support for a suite of grunting and in places intentionally misshapen songs tha…

humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com

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Reposted by Alfred Soto

Alfred Soto @sotoalfred.bsky.social · 1d

Luke Haines does not humanize. A Ray Davies w/a stiletto in his boot, he spent the first part of the 1990s as singer-songwriter-guitarist for The Auteurs, a band as comfortable chilling with Blur and Oasis as an axe murderer in a kindergarten. humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2021/10/07/k...

Kill yourself or get over it: The best of Luke Haines

Enriched by a tradition which includes Dickens and music hall, British pop writers have relished creating characters and humanizing types.

humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com

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Alfred Soto @sotoalfred.bsky.social · 1d

Every time I went to a movie the last two months.

Alfred Soto @sotoalfred.bsky.social · 1d

Luke Haines does not humanize. A Ray Davies w/a stiletto in his boot, he spent the first part of the 1990s as singer-songwriter-guitarist for The Auteurs, a band as comfortable chilling with Blur and Oasis as an axe murderer in a kindergarten. humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2021/10/07/k...

Kill yourself or get over it: The best of Luke Haines

Enriched by a tradition which includes Dickens and music hall, British pop writers have relished creating characters and humanizing types.

humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com

1 1 6

Reposted by Alfred Soto

Alfred Soto @sotoalfred.bsky.social · 1d

I was not the audience for Thom Yorke's semaphored dystopias but now that we live in one I suppose the sentimental parts aren't drivel. Happy birthday. humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2018/11/21/r...

Ranking favorite Radiohead albums

I capped this list at four. One only hits the Ponderosa, I’m told, when visiting in-laws in southern Illinois.

humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com

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Alfred Soto @sotoalfred.bsky.social · 1d

I was not the audience for Thom Yorke's semaphored dystopias but now that we live in one I suppose the sentimental parts aren't drivel. Happy birthday. humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2018/11/21/r...

Ranking favorite Radiohead albums

I capped this list at four. One only hits the Ponderosa, I’m told, when visiting in-laws in southern Illinois.

humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com

1 1 6

Reposted by Alfred Soto

Alfred Soto @sotoalfred.bsky.social · 1d

Aaliyah’s presence on the still, almost static “I Care 4 U” makes me ask: what would an Aaliyah-sung “Maneater” been like? On “I Care 4 U” she watches her own ghost leave the wake, much like Ian Curtis in Joy Division’s “Decades.” On her and Nelly Furtado. wp.me/pzXeC-kvY

Ranking #16 singles, U.S. edition: 1999-2006

Sharing an appetite but none of its dead-eyed cruelty with Hall & Oates’ biggest hit, “Maneater” is excellent aspirational pop: the Nelly Furtado who fluttered up the American…

wp.me

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Alfred Soto @sotoalfred.bsky.social · 1d

Aaliyah’s presence on the still, almost static “I Care 4 U” makes me ask: what would an Aaliyah-sung “Maneater” been like? On “I Care 4 U” she watches her own ghost leave the wake, much like Ian Curtis in Joy Division’s “Decades.” On her and Nelly Furtado. wp.me/pzXeC-kvY

Ranking #16 singles, U.S. edition: 1999-2006

Sharing an appetite but none of its dead-eyed cruelty with Hall & Oates’ biggest hit, “Maneater” is excellent aspirational pop: the Nelly Furtado who fluttered up the American…

wp.me

1 3

Reposted by Alfred Soto

Alfred Soto @sotoalfred.bsky.social · 2d

Openly or closeted gay teens in the last three years have seen our governor make it clear that exposure to novels w/gay characters will infect straight readers w/the gay plague; now imagine a college-aged adult spots an Instagram reel in which state employees destroy crosswalks. wp.me/pzXeC-kvL

‘This feels like an attack on the gay community right now’

A reminder that Ron DeSantis majored in cruelty when Joe Biden was president.

humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com

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Alfred Soto @sotoalfred.bsky.social · 2d

Daniel Day-Lewis is forceful and often hilarious in his son's directorial debut ANEMONE. A pity the film is often turgid. My review.
humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2025/10/06/d...

Daniel Day-Lewis returns to acting in ‘Anemone’

Anemone is the most egregious example this decade of a 30-minute short film stretched to an unyielding 123 minutes. No one can accuse Ronan Day-Lewis, in his screenwriting and directing debut, of c…

humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com

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