There used to be a great button on Youtube that allowed me to just make a post directly from there to this blog.
They took it away in March. So doing this has gotten harder.
Housewife is not an artist that has released a full album yet - but she did release a great EP in 2025 called Girl Of The Hour that was filled with so much 2000s goodness that it was absolutely worthy of its honourable mention. I say artist - it was a band, but Brighid Fry is the only member left. They've been doing this for a decade but only the last few years solo.
Anyway, it's a great EP and you should go listen to it now.
You might remember my #Wicked25. For the very first time last year, I listed my 25 favorite albums of a year. I have been known to do one or two favorites, but never 25.
I also had a list of 25 runners up - honourable mentions, as you will. Some of those, I felt very guilty about excluding. I'm going to highlight those this week - because if I made the list today, these albums would be ON the list, not just honourably mentioned.
I'm not going to highlight the albums that would have been bumped in most cases - because they were on the list because they were deserving, excellent albums. And no, you can't just guess it's 21-25, because that's not the case. At all.
This is the more egregious omission. Because, if you look back at the list, you'll now see 26 honourable mentions. I didn't listen to Dogue by Ariane Roy until January. It was a terrible oversight on my part, because it not only would have made the list, it would have been a top 10 album. This is EASILY the second best francophone album of 2025.
Ariane release Dogue de Luxe in February of this year - probably because Dogue was so well-received - and used the extra space to make new versions of some of her songs with her friends.
Because yeah, this song by Korean girl group LE SSERAFIM, who have an inexplicable second S in their name, certainly DOES sample the wedding staple "Macarena". And their latest single, from the album 'PUREFLOW', Pt.1, which is incredible, is very much fast Latin house - and very much in your face from the get go.
The single was literally released last Friday, but is already on the Japanese charts. Let's see where this goes. I personally think they're poised for greatness.
It's a K-Pop girl group.
OF COURSE they have a performance video.
And by "a performance video", we mean TWO performance videos. This one's in a quarry.
Now, you know I usually have to throw a disclaimer on "live" performances by K-Pop groups, but this performance - from earlier this week on Korean television - seems to be a little different - it's not the album version at all. They seem to be at least PARTLY singing this.
You may notice there's only four of them. Kim Chaewon had to sit this one out and will be resting for a bit with neck pain.
"Hey, you know what would make this greatest hits album great? A song about literally killing people with music."
And, indeed, that's exactly what happened in 1986, when Kate Bush released The Whole Story, and had a moderate hit song and arguably her biggest hit to date, finally getting significant overseas airplay and MTV rotation. And yes, it was about the military creating a sound that could kill someone from a distance, written and produced by Kate Bush.
The video was directed by Bush herself and tells that exact story.
"Amy Grant writing a song about the January 6th incident in Washington, DC" was not on my 2026 bingo card.
Here we are.
Released as a single on January 6th of this year - and the lead track on her album The Me That Remains, released May 8th - it's about more than that specific event, but the unrest that happens around us, and being present in the moment despite these moments of turmoil. She's definitely not taking a side.
The song is sweet and hopeful, and on this Memorial Day, I think we need that.
By the way, for those who don't get the reference, Matt Yasgur owned a daily farm in Bethel, NY and leased one of his field for a music festival in 1969 that neighboring towns declined to host. Oh, that music festival was Woodstock. Did I forget to mention that?
By the way, Amy suffered a pretty traumatic brain injury four years ago, so it's pretty incredible that she's recording at all......
Let alone performing the song live, and doing so beautifully.
Harlee Case and Josh Smith were high school friends who recorded music together. Then they graduated and went their separate ways....
Until 2015, when, after several years of pursuing solo careers, they both returned to Oregon - Portland - and started a creative partnership that is New Constellations.
They just released a breakthrough album last week - It Comes In Waves - that is excellent and you should check out. They're rightly getting Phantogram comparisons with this album, which has a vague Eyelid Movies feel.
But they aren't Phantogram. They're making good, unique music that you should hear.
After hearing this early live version of the song from last year, I think this would mash up really well with "When I'm Small" and I wish I was good enough to do mashups.
I have been talking about the album and another band so much.... but this is my favorite song on the new album because it's just loaded with emotion. It uncorks and beats you like a drum.
I really miss old time classic pop/country crossover hits. They don't make songs like that anymore.
Take "Seven Year Ache". Written by Rosanne Cash and produced by her then-husband Rodney Crowell, this song by Johnny Cash's daughter was a HUGE country hit and a moderate pop hit in 1981.
It wasn't her last country hit - it's considered to be her breakthrough - but it's her most recognizable today.
She's never stopped recording the song, either. Here she is performing the song last year, in a quiet acoustic version at the Country Music Hall of Fame.
This performance from 1987, however, is more electric and matches the feeling of the original.
