Author: Adit

Music

My Top Records of 2020

Post author By Adit
Post date December 17, 2020

Enough has been said about everything that 2020 brought and took away from our lives. One of the places where the year excelled the most came in the amount of good music it gave us. Even as everything seemed to shatter around us, top notch albums from all types of scenes kept me going.

Writing about my top records each year is always a weird task. I constantly second-guess how my picks line up or completely diverge from what the critics and my friends with similar taste have to say. It’s always an exercise to trust in myself and my personal listening habits from the past year.

If nothing else, these lists are litmus tests for albums that will stand the test of time in my rotation. However, crafting this list made it clear to me that dozens of records from this year will hover in my orbit for years to come. I tossed in my top songs of the year too, just in case you’re interested.

Honorable Mentions

Fiona Apple – Fetch the Bolt Cutters

Dogleg – Melee

Dua Lipa – Future Nostalgia

Fontaines D.C – A Hero’s Death

Jeff Rosenstock – NO DREAM

Megan Thee Stallion – Good News

Bruce Springsteen – Letter to You

Tame Impala – The Slow Rush

The 1975 – Notes on a Conditional Form

Waxahatchee – Saint Cloud

10. Fleet Foxes – Shore

Fleet Foxes fully embraced who they are by releasing Shore on the day of the fall equinox. In a year that forced us to reflect on our humanity more than some of us ever had, Shore continues Pecknold’s tradition of creating dense, layered folk sounds that stand tall on their own, making Shore the touching tribute to living that it is from start to finish.

Maybe this album stuck with me because of its timing. This record was the soundtrack to my fall, capturing the shortening days as the New England leaves changed all around me. Seasonal bias aside, Shore toys with living, memory, and nostalgia in a way that felt all too relevant in a year where many have lost and been challenged by so much.

9. Charli XCX – How I’m Feeling Now

How I’m Feeling Now was one of the first “quarantine” records released this year. Charli XCX’s frenetic sound already embodies the digital age like nothing else, but this record captured the claustrophbia that came with this year on top of it, oscillating between our distance from loved ones to the longing need for the parties and anthems that elude us with COVID.

Charli XCX has grown alongside me since her big break in 2014. The expansive sounds and features of Charli last year mirrored the massive moves I made by graduating from college and moving to Detroit. Less than a year later, How I’m Feeling Now represented a shared return to roots, with a sound focused on the essentials when all else fell by the wayside.

8. Run the Jewels – RTJ4

The fourth full-length from Run the Jewels packed an even bigger punch than any of us could have expected. Released in the early days of America’s race revolution, RTJ4 packs a dense dose of fervent anthems that accidentally soundtracked a moment the duo did not plan. The timing is just one piece of the puzzle, as the output speaks volumes on its own.

It may be hard to properly assess this record because of just how on-the-nose it seemed to be given the type of year 2020 has been. But, the duo’s production, chemistry, and lyrical potency carried the same weight of its predecessors, and then some. RTJ4 plays with all the same tricks that have earned the duo their cult status, and that alone is worth giving due credit.

7. Machine Gun Kelly – Tickets to My Downfall

The pop punk records I constantly had on loop through middle school and high school have some qualities that even my top records each year fail to fully replicate. Tickets to My Downfall captures that combination of new exposure, hormones, and faux nostalgia that made pop punk so unabashedly fun and addicting for so many folks around my age.

If nothing else, I should hold any of my favorites records to the same standard of pure fun that I attach to this brand of pop punk. This record and its deluxe edition capture an easily digestable pop punk sound that the scene has consciously moved on from (which is okay). What we get is an intoxicating sugar rush that surprised me in 2020.

6. Phoebe Bridgers – Punisher

Phoebe Bridgers rightfully earned a breakout moment with Punisher. The leap from her debut is hard to miss, balancing high energy catharsis with quieter introspection that was hard to ignore in a year that hurt so many. Even aside from the timely palette, Bridgers shows a command of sound that feels so natural it can be hard to really wrap your head around it.

I definitely took Punisher for granted this year. It was surreal to see all my friends latching onto a sound that defined my years in college radio this year. My listens carried weight each time, but part of me downplayed what the record offered because I was so familiar with this palette. Even so, in time, this record’s execution stood out in ways few others could.

5. Taylor Swift – evermore

We are still processing the deja vu that came with Taylor Swift’s second surprise record of 2020, but the impact of what we got is already clear. The slightly more experimental and mellow sister to folklore quickly affirmed to us that Swift’s “alternative” era was no fluke. Her command is as compelling as it is on folklore, but shows itself in even more distinct ways.

I know myself well enough to know that Taylor Swift’s catalog will be a significant part of my rotation for the rest of my life. This record may only be a few days old at this point, but it’s incredibly clear that evermore has all the same trappings that have made Swift’s past records some one of the most important of the century. I’m biased, but I have to stay true to me.

4. Taylor Swift – folklore

I didn’t think I had the audacity to put both Taylor Swift records back-to-back here. The first of Swift’s two surprises this year threw many for a loop, with folklore launching the “alternative” phase of her career with more even confidence than her leap from country to pop. It is hard to believe that this record came together in mere months, but we are lucky it did.

I thought about combining folklore and evermore under one roof for this post, but the subtle differences between these records feel strong enough to separate here. There is a distinct solace that comes with Swift’s more intentional pop-leanings on this record compared to its slightly moodier sister, but both shined bright lights in my life almost immediately.

3. The Chicks – Gaslighter

Gaslighter plays with love, loss, and moving on with major grace. The pairing of The Chicks and Jack Antonoff works so beautifully throughout the record, a combination that balances anthems like the title track with more somber affairs in a very natural way. It is frequently beautiful, cathartic, and funny, a potent mix from such an inherently excellent trio.

This record, like most on this list, cemented its impact in just a few listens. The Chicks build upon the intimacy of their feature on “Soon You’ll Get Better” to create such a welcoming space to share their whole selves on Gaslighter. I’m glad that my parents didn’t burn the trio’s CD during the Iraq War, because I would’ve hated missing out on this record.

2. Bad Bunny – YHLQMDLG

It is no secret that Bad Bunny had himself a year. The first of his three records this year was a masterclass that was as infectious as it was a showcase of Bad Bunny’s eclectic strengths as a songwriter. The overdue crossover smash of YHLQMDLG tells us a lot about what we can expect in the exciting decade of pop music that is on the horizon.

I found myself adddicted to these 20 tracks this year, with each one finding ways to quickly shift in a party-ready mood within seconds. I have no doubt that the clout of this record and the excellent El Ultimo Tour Del Mundo will sustain itself to the next-level world tour we will see once it is safe to see such a production come together.

1. HAIM – Women in Music, Pt. III

HAIM really freaked it on this one. HAIM was a band known for doing a small list of things really well, and blew that palette out of the water on this record. The seamless blend of modern influences on Women in Music, Pt. III feel timeless at the same time, crafting a record built for pensive afternoons, reckless nights, and everything in-between.

Women in Music, Pt. III passed the only real test that matters when I build out my end-of-the-year list. This album snuck its way into almost every part of my year, with a mix of songs that latched onto late nights, summer sunsets, and the parties I never got to have this year. HAIM made a relentlessly easy record to listen and love even more with each listen.

Total Solutions: Build a Better SharePoint Intranet by Bridging the Empathy Gap

Post author By Adit
Post date August 5, 2020

Working at Total Solutions has taught me a lot about how technology and emotional intellegence collaborate with each other. My time at Total Solutions has helped me understand how business relationships dig much deeper than the transaction at hand. I wrote a post for our company blog that captures how my team takes these values to heart.

Technology consultants bring substantial expertise to those who need it, but humility and constant learning brings that expertise to the next level. We may be a team of SharePoint experts, but working with clients demands that we build human partnerships with those who rely on what our team offers.

Drew Fitzpatrick Quotation — Some insight from one of my design colleagues on the Total Solutions team

You can click here to read about what I have to say about centering empathy when building technology and working with others. Head over to the Total Solutions blog to read more about digital transformation from members of other my team.

Minimalism and the Search for Success

Post author By Adit
Post date July 29, 2020

I did some online shopping the other day. The speaker and keyboard I bought have been treating me pretty well, and the headphones I’m looking to buy will be pretty cool too. If you’re upset that I’m talking to you about some of the fancy things I own, then don’t worry, I am too.

I’m one of the 10% of Americans who identifies as a minimalist. This may seem like a humble brag, but a few minutes on Google will remind you that there is no universally understood definition of minimalism. Your guess about what minimalism means is as good as mine, but there is a reason why I embrace this somewhat-meaningless identity label.

My embrace of minimalism is less about the label and more about the challenges it forces me to address. Minimalism forces me to ask questions about the things that matter almost constantly. Asking these questions seems exhausting on the surface, but taking the time to answer them digs deep at how we understand our personal and professional lives.

Understanding Minimalism

The surface-level impact that minimalism brings in our personal lives is well known. Images of bland grey t-shirts, blank coffee tables, and Marie Kondo flood the bandwidth that we give to minimalism. We associate minimalism with less in any form, no if, ands, or buts about it.

All of these ideas of what minimalists do make sense, but don’t tug at the same point about what minimalists don’t do. Consumers spend over $5,000 a year on impulse purchases. Our lives are designed to make consumption and consumerism easy, and it is only natural that these behaviors play a role in almost all of our lives.

1920s advertising taught us that spending and consumption was the key to happiness (Source: Crossref-it)

Physical items have value in our life, but rarely do we give ourselves the chance to ask why. To question the virtues of our consumerism is to question the millions of objects that have structured our physical world. Any progress we make as minimalists towards minimizing the excess in our physical world involves a questioning of the systems that define our lives.

Minimalism forces questions about our mindsets that we are not always wired to ask. We grow up learning to shoot for the stars, but we don’t always ask what those stars are. People around us default to money, objects, and accolades as indicators of our success, and our world is designed to perpetuate that vision of success.

Questioning Success

Young professionals are far too often plagued by similarly unclear definitions of success. We are conditioned to chase success in the same ways we’ve been wired to want more physical items in our lives. Just like material objects, we don’t often ask what value we seek from our pursuits.

Money, job titles, and accolades cloud our vision of success throughout our lives. We see this come to a head in college, where every moment can feel like an investment towards achieving this abstract concept of success. This forces us to pursue majors that amplify this vision of success that we are never given ample opportunity to question in the first place.

The Great Recession made it easy for us to justify the majors that translate nicely into potential post-grad opportunities (Source: *The Washington Post*)

It’s easy to fill a room with material things that don’t bring you joy, but we forget about how easy that is in our minds too. We all have different passions that drive us forward, but not every passion has the same metrics for success, nor are those metrics inherently aligned with our own definitions of success.

Minimalism questions the markers of success we build for ourselves. If material objects are not inherently valuable, then what does our hard work lead to? If we don’t force ourselves to ask this question, then these decisions will be made by the hundreds of other people who shape our lives from the outside, instead of by each and every one of us.

Seek Intention

The questions that minimalism forces me to ask about the objects in my world extends to how I understand success in my young professional life. Minimalism has taught me that it is okay to question the metrics of achievement that seem so simple to us growing up.

Pushing back against this status quo seems difficult early in your career, but doing so will ensure that your career aligns with the values you’ve set for yourself. If we don’t ask ourselves about what matters to us, then our heads will fill with impulsive ideas of success that may not align with what we truly want.

Our ability to improve ourselves and our world depends on us engaging with the parts of our world that excite us. The allure of “having it all” may make sense on the surface, but that concept doesn’t have to mean the same thing to every person.

Pursuing success is like grocery shopping: we have countless options for how we choose to replenish ourselves and move forward (Source: Needpix.com)

The path to our own vision of success is not paved with reminders to consider our intentions at every step. Teaching ourselves to frequently question our intentions ensures that we avoid impulsive purchases and focus on our shopping list. We can and should be willing to deviate from that list, but we do not have to make deviation a default state that distracts us from what we are really looking for.

Minimalism provides a framework to push back against the concepts of material and personal success that we are conditioned to believe are universally true. Minimalism gives us an opening to figure out that pursuit for ourselves, and encourages us to chase it with all we have.

Mind Equals Blown: Daddy’s Beemer Ain’t Scared of Nothin’

Post author By Adit
Post date July 22, 2020

I had the chance to interview South Carolina indie rockers Daddy’s Beemer for Mind Equals Blown.

The band’s story from college to now resonated with me as a recent graduate fascinated with community and setting. From building a special scene at Clemson, to recording an entire record out of a family cabin in the woods, the trio’s relationship with place was hard to ignore.

I interviewed the band with another writer on the site as they promote their debut full-length record, Denmark. The album will be available for download and streaming on Bandcamp, and wherever you stream music, this Friday.

You can read the piece here. If you want to keep up with Mind Equals Blown, be sure to head to Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

My Latest for the Site

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07-22-2020
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05-27-2020
The Post-Genre Reality of The 1975’s Notes on a Conditional Form
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Tags clemson, mind equals blown, south carolina

Music

My Top Records of 2020 (So Far)

Post author By Adit
Post date July 15, 2020

A weird amount of good music has given 2020 one point of pride amidst an otherwise complicated year (to put it lightly). All the chaos we’ve seen and legitimate uncertainty within the music industry has made all the great new records a lesser priority in our world. That may not be fully true, but the internet makes it easy to think that people’s interests are limited to complaining about Zoom and other non-musical trends of the moment.

My favorite records from the front half of the year could hold a fiddle in any end of year list from the past decade. Unless the second half of the year is a dud, these records will probably make my end of year list a tough bargain to put together.

These records are purely my favorites, so my apologies if this list doesn’t match up to greater “discourse” of music critics (and sorry if it lines up a little too closely). None of these records are ranked in any order, but I divided the listing up into a few buckets that give a sense of what I enjoyed the most.

My Top Five

Run the Jewels – RTJ4

Killer Mike and El-P’s music has had a special place with me for years. The idea of RTJ4 being anything more than another great record from an elite duo seemed pretty simple, but this record is another rock of excellence for the pair.

The RTJ formula of rock solid production, expert flows, and stellar guest spots is all in tact, but with the dense, 40-minute fervor that made the band’s sophomore record such a success. Run the Jewels writes music for revolutions, and it’s only fitting that we received another game changer from the duo in the midst of an uprising of our own.

Bad Bunny – YHLQMDLG

Bad Bunny’s career has quickly sent him to the global forefront of Spanish-language pop in the U.S. and Latin America, and YHLQMDLG capitalized on this moment in all the right ways. Released within the month of Bad Bunny’s appearance in this year’s Super Bowl halftime display of Latinx excellence, it’s quite fitting that this powerhouse of a record came when it did.

The record’s infectious pop melodies have no boundaries, and serve as the blueprint of pop music’s future, giving us a genre-bending experience that holds strong in its reggaeton roots. Bad Bunny knocked a boulder into the stylistic and linguistic walls of pop music that he had already begun to transcend. This record is simply assurance that his dominance is only just beginning.

Dua Lipa – Future Nostalgia

Mimicking the steps of Carly Rae Jepsen and Charli XCX, Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia shows us what picture perfect pop is meant to be when craft, rather than commercial success alone, is at the core. The record captures its name perfectly, giving us a futuristic sound rooted in classic tricks that click together so well.

The record’s pacing pushes and pulls in the right ways, making it an infectious listen that is hard to put down. In a world without coronavirus, this summer and the next would have been Dua Lipa’s world, driven by the expertly-produced romps that make her impossible to ignore.

HAIM – Women in Music, Pt. III

Women In Music, Pt. III seemed to blend into a busy release calendar, but it deserves full recognition for taking HAIM’s sound to the next level. I have struggled to fully embrace the band beyond their singles, but this record moved the needle for me. It mirrors Dua Lipa in its seamless blend of new and old sounds to create a wonderfully dynamic, guitar-driven sound.

Danielle Haim, Rostam Batmanglij, and Ariel Rechtshaid take cues from their shared experience on Vampire Weekend’s Father of the Bride, turning that record’s weaknesses into HAIM’s greatest strengths this time around. The melodic highs of their sunniest melodies and crunchy guitars drive the album forward, while giving space to flip those assets into intimate reflection that is as timeless as anything you might hear this year.

Dogleg – Melee

Dogleg was one of the last bands I saw live before COVID took full form, and Melee captures their greatest strengths perfectly. The band’s sound was menacingly simple but resoundingly cathartic, taking melodic tendencies and amplifying them through dense musicianship and louder influences to send waves through the crowd.

The record’s combination of hardcore and indie rock creates an emotionally invigorating sound that unleashes its power from front to back. Dogleg understands that the power of these sounds do not come in isolation, and require a dedication to excellent songwriting to give a record like Melee the cathartic elements that define it.