The “Cred Reduction Agent” Spotify Playlist

Every week I put out a new curated playlist for your listening enjoyment.

I love writing about television and ethics, but my real true love is writing about music. This blog started as a music blog and evolved slowly into a television blog.

You can "Just Hit Play" or check out more about the featured artists below. Throughout the week, there will be new entries about the bands and songs on the playlist.

Kevin Morby, "1234"

I honestly knew very little about Kevin Morby when I ran across his new (excellent) album City Music (2017, Dead Oceans). The very first song that I heard was this cool mix of exposed interiority and tribute to one of my all-time favorite bands the "Ramones."

I was born in New York City, grew up punk, and have a long history of loving the Ramones.

It is a particularly affecting song because of the ending where Morby calls out, "Joey, Johnny, Dee Dee, Tommy," then adds "they were all my friends and they died" which is a reference to "People Who Died" as well as to the "1234" called-out cadence of virtually every Ramones song (There are very few days when I don't at least think about all four original Ramones passing away way too early).

That said, the entire album is great and already a contender for my "Best Albums of 2017" list (Perfume Genius is the leader in the clubhouse) but don't just take my word on it because plenty of other folks love it too (although Pitchfork seems to think, in their usual too cool for school way, that the world didn't need more Ramones tributes. As usual, we will have to agree to disagree).

City Music is Morby's fourth solo album His others are "Singing Saw" (2016, Dead Oceans), Still Life (2014, Woodsist), and Harlem River (2013, Woodsist). Morby was also the bass player for the band "Woods" and front-man for "The Babies."

Okay, enjoy the playlist, I will do a deep-dive into one of the other bands on the playlist tomorrow. Let me know what you think! To hear more of my playlists check out the slider below! I call my site "On Pirate Satellite" because of the song "This is Radio Clash" by The Clash. The crazy names of the playlists were inspired by Captain Beefheart.