Operation Mainstream
Deep dive into the RollingStone top 150 albums of all time: S1E1
I'm taking a deep dive into mainstream records I've missed via the RollingStone Top 150 albums of all time list. This initial installment looks at 141 to 150.
I had a lot of releases on my watch list for this week. As usual, some didn't live up to what I had in mind and a few ones I didn't have on my radar caught my ear. Records from Pixies and Better Lovers fell into
Best of 2024
Lots of new releases sparked my interest, but the new High Vis album made the week.
Best of 2024
Featured crucial releases from the first two weeks of October, highlighted by Wild Pink and Hemlock.
We’re back with another Crucial Tracks feature – this time it’s talented musician Vic Lazar, who we met during college at the University at Buffalo. Vic played in the the legendary Buffalo hardcore band Union, as well as fronted many of his own indie leaning bands, including Grey In-between,
Buckle your seatbelts folks, the show is about to get really good. If you’ve been on the journey so far, we’ve covered the Crucial Tracks for both Chris and I, as well as some administrivia and end-of-year music picks. Standard fare…but NOW it’s time to dig
I suppose I should start by introducing myself: I’m Chris Fritton, the other half of the Crucial Tracks team. I’m a working artist & author based in Buffalo, NY, that specializes in letterpress printing. I recently wrapped up a ten-year-long traveling project called The Itinerant Printer, where I
Everyone has moments in their life that are defined by music. Whether it’s a song that introduced you to a genre of music that changed your tastes and style, or a lyric that made you think about the world in a different way. Songs can represent relationships. Songs can
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Big news! A new home for Crucial Tracks on Ghost and a great new album by Merce Lemon.
Another bulk load of good albums for you to check out. Almost a whole month’s worth, actually. I now realize the reason why I get off track – when there’s a week I don’t hear anything I love, I immediately get off routine of writing these posts. Not
What a super week for new music. Two top tier options in my mind (currently in my top 10 for the year), with four honorable mentions and probably a couple more that could have made it with some more focused listening time. YOU’LL HAVE TO LOSE SOMETHING by Spirit
Look at me! Working on a post ON release day and not two weeks later. 😄 A bunch of very good releases this week, so let’s’ dig in to the stuff we care about! Triple Seven by Wishy (Listen) Wishy is a shoegaze-adjacent band and this is their debut full
Two weeks, two different themes! The first new music Friday of August saw an R&B/hip hop focus, while the second Friday was all about indie rock. I liked two releases from each week and each release offers something different for listeners. Let’s dig into each set
The last few new weeks have been a blur. On the music front, it started out with a couple slow weeks and not much caught my ear… then the next two weeks were really solid. Then another dud to end the month. So let me dig in to each week
There weren’t too many releases that caught my ear this week, but one in particular is a top 10 contender (as of now) and that one is Scream from New York, NY by Been Stellar (Listen). Been Stellar combines the sounds of early Radiohead, Catherine Wheel, Ride, Swervedriver, Iceage,
Last week had a handful of releases I enjoyed. At first listen I didn’t think any one of them would qualify for a featured release, but I gave two a second listen and I’m glad I did. These two records are well worth your listening investment, not to
Back at it with our first release Friday of June and I’m going to push to get posts out every week (maybe every other week), as doing a full month look back is a pain – so much music comes out it’s hard to pare it down to a
May flew by in a blink of an eye. On the music front, there wasn’t much that really stood out to me, though there are a handful of new releases that had some really solid moments. So with that said, I will give a brief blurb about each… May
A pretty darn good week of music, considering the only record that was a must listen to start was St. Vincent’s All Born Screaming. I am glad I investigated other new releases, as I added two of them to my end of year consideration list, as well as two
A certain massive pop star released a double album (quick listen: meh) this week, so I’d guess most mainstream artists avoided this week if they were able. The exception turned out to be Pearl Jam (quick listen: a pretty decent record!), though they too have a pretty avid fan