About Me
Charles Olney, Assistant Professor of Constitutional Law and Judicial Politics at the University of Texas, Rio Grande Valley (academic website). This is a blog about music, politics, and the law. I also write about women’s soccer at Backline Soccer and Stars and Stripes FC.
Twitter: @dr_olney
Soundcloud: olneyce
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Greatest Hits
- Beatles from worst to first
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- Top 30 albums of 2013
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Music links
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- Can you see the sunset from the southside?
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- Largehearted Boy
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Tag Archives: album review
Review: The Day – Midnight Parade
Midnight Parade by The Day We’re less than a month into 2019 and already have a strong contender for album of the year. The debut record from The Day, a collaboration between Laura Loeters and Gregor Sonnenberg, is almost the … Continue reading
We burn these joints in effigy and cry about what we used to be
Elephant – Jason Isbell Live Oak – Jason Isbell Honest, heart-wrenching, desolate, beautiful, bleak. Hopeful. One of the most astonishing records you’ll ever hear. Southeastern is the living document of a man coming face to face with his demons and triumphing. But … Continue reading
To sleep: perchance to dream
Labyrinthine – Julianna Barwick Many people make ambient music – where glacially slow movements are designed to hypnotize us, to give us a sense the deep structures of the world around us. And many other people make inspirational music – which … Continue reading
She told me how to play the industry and keep my heart
Complacent ft. Problem – Rapsody The comparisons to Lauryn Hill are so obvious that it’s impossible not to start there. Pick a couple tracks from She Got Game, release them as an EP of lost tracks from Miseducation, and I think … Continue reading
Feel the coolness of my gaze
Troublemaker – Camera Obscura A wonderful return to form from a wonderful band. I wasn’t in love with the more compressed sonic feeling of My Maudlin Career, so it’s truly delightful to hear this record mostly return to the looser, ambling … Continue reading
The universe is a symphony of vibrating strings
Vital – Grouper In a year full of wonderful ambient records, none were as astonishing as The Man Who Died in His Boat. It gives voice to the deep structures of the universe: its vastness, the empty reaches of space. But also … Continue reading
He’s the laureate of the Granite State
Pink-Slips – Okkervil River Let’s start by saying that The Silver Gymnasium is a very good album. It reverses the decade-long trend of each successive Okkervil River album being slightly worse than the one that came before. And while it still … Continue reading
No radio can drown it out
Come Back Big Brother – The Rutabega I feel like the dominant trend in music these days is the power of cool. Synths, sleek rhythms, laid-back beats: these are the sounds of the millennium. Even the return of disco, which seems … Continue reading
Praise the water under bridges, the time they say will heal
New Lover – Josh Ritter Of all the reasons to write a song, few make for better material than the broken heart. Some of the all-time great records have been the soundtracks to the darkest days of crumbling relationships and divorce. … Continue reading
And the angel’s body was bared, and he was clothed in light so that eye could not look on him
Isjaki – Sigur Ros I think this is the best Sigur Ros album yet. It still has all the features that have made this one of the most distinct bands in the world: the soaring incomprehensible lyrics, the sweeping soundscapes, the … Continue reading