As a writer, I try to remain as objective as possible and not inject too much of myself into what I review. Yet, as we all know, it’s impossible to completely divorce yourself from a reality: music hits differently. How any piece of music affects you has to be informed by the contours that shape your life. For the longest, I’ve tried to avoid writing about Max Meazza’s Nighttme Call – not because it doesn’t hold a special place in my collection but exactly for that reason.  For me, Nightime Call right now seems intimately tied to a particularly raw moment (or moments) in my life. This alb ..read more

As I write this post, my mind goes back to the ideas posited in Claire Dederer’s new book, “Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma”. I keep thinking: to what degree do I promote or endorse the work of Miguel Bosé? At this moment in time, I can’t escape that I vehemently disagree with his most current views on COVID-19 and vaccines. To be anti-vaccine, as he vociferously is, is to ignore the very science that gives him a platform to speak and sing again. I cannot support this version of Miguel. Yet, I can’t escape that as fallible as a person he currently is, there was a window in his career and a certain p ..read more

We all have our soft spots. Lately, for me, it’s been sharing certain kinds of “rainy day” albums tailor-made to appeal to the more mature audience. Less fussy with sonics, less messy with pretentiousness, these are the kinds of albums that I’d like to think others would find as graceful, sophisticated, and measured as I do. They’re albums like those by Yukio Sasaki’s Jealousy, whose classy atmosphere seems to hover out of time. For those who’ve yet to encounter Yukio’s work, one word might easily encapsulate his music: “tender.” Yukio is known in Japanese cultural circles for his iconic early ..read more

As the child of first-generation immigrants, I imagine, many of y’all have had a similar relationship with your parents’ culture as I’ve had with mine. It’s that of initially looking at anything that came out of it – its music, its film or television, its arts or cuisine – with suspicion and (worse) seeing it as lesser to the one we’d like to assimilate into. Insert [x] band or artist, whatever your mom or dad had on TV or played on the radio, it doesn’t matter whoever they were, they obviously can’t measure up to anything in American pop culture. It’s this kind of closed-mindedness that, in h ..read more

Isn’t pop music such a fickle beast? It seems, one moment anyone could hold the world’s glimmer…only to be shuttled off when the next “objet d’affection” takes their place. It’s its built-in double-edge cut that gives pop music its ever-evolving staying power, fueled by its voracious appetite for whatever’s fresh to burn through. Sometimes, it’s only in hindsight that we can properly sift through all those diamonds hidden in the embers left in its afterglow. And right now, with 20/20 vision, my mind is in sight of one of them: Silje Nergaard’s Tell Me Where You’re Going.  Before Silje wou ..read more

With spring just around the corner for most of us, undoubtedly, my mind turned toward emotions conjured by such in-between periods. There’s something about the transition from the cold/steely blues, beiges, and gray gradients of a winter season into the pastels of spring that can’t help but put anyone in a warmer, sunnier disposition. And like a few of you, it’s these seasonal thoughts that spur me to lean toward those songs I covet the most around this time: love ballads.  As with any LYL Radio mix I curate, I try to not to retread well-worn ground. I always try to share something differ ..read more

For any musicians out there: aren’t those perfect, creative, moments the ones you find yourself while playing “in the pocket”? It’s when the groove that swung one way comes together on a beat (and whatever you’re doing is the exactly the right thing to be done). I say this because it reminds me of Suzy Kim’s KINK (禁句). Released in 1989, KINK (禁句) encapsulates, quite smartly, that prodding and searching musicians do when faced with myriad options to explore. In Suzy’s case, it’s finding that pocket where all sorts of soul music could exist within the slipstream of new forms of dance music and h ..read more

If y’all can count on one thing about me, it’s on this: I’m unafraid to promote adult music. Years of listening has led me to tuck away a special place for artists or music that gets by not on sonic gimmicks or complexity but on a certain amount of grace and sophistication. It’s what makes artists like Nino Buonocore, and albums like Una Città tra le Mani, make the cut. When you need a palette cleanser, something to make a meal out of your day (especially those rainy days), soft emotions – played with deep feeling – I have to think, have to hit, universally. I go back to memories of Chet Baker ..read more

Sometimes when I get dug in a corner, it’s pretty hard to get me out of it. In this case, it was me trying to tie a certain sound, a certain atmosphere, inspired by the Glaswegian group: The Blue Nile. You see, I often give a long leash to music that’s intimately inspired by nature, songs derived from a certain rural connection to time and place. Many LYL Radio mixes have been dedicated to such themes. Why? Because I feel such music is seriously underappreciated and/or misunderstood. However, lately, I’ve been trying to connect more with what exactly our urban (or urbane) environment can insp ..read more

Love is such an unexplainable thing, isn’t it? Sometimes it’s coming straight at you. Other times, it comes from a different angle, unexpected and only makes its case steadily — from a distance. How else, can I explain my love for the work of Sophie and Peter Johnston and their own stab at creating their (quite sophisticated) pop masterpiece: 1987’s aptly titled Sophie And Peter Johnston. And on this very special occasion, Peter was kind enough to answer more than a few questions about his work and that special time in his life. First off, I must confess, I wasn’t sold on this album the first ..read more