Greatest Song Evah 12/28/24

Ladies And Gentlemen, We Are Floating In Space

This week’s selection is a magnificently structured recording. The title track from the third album by Spiritualized, it meshes two separate vocal tracks together. The first is a loop which repeats throughout the song; the other is a more straightforward narrative. The blend between the two is seamless; this song sounds AMAZING when listened through headphones.

The loop portion is tremendously sad. “All I want in life’s a little bit of love to take the pain away. Getting strong today. A giant step each day.” That contrasts well with the other vocal portion, which is much more classically romantic and incorporates elements of the Elvis classic Can’t Help Falling In Love. That is, depending on which version of the song you are listening to. There was a period of time in which the Presley estate refused to sign off on permission to use the lyrics, but it has since been restored.

As mentioned, this is best experienced with a good set of headphones. You can really hear the way that the different elements modulate throughout the song; one track grows more prominent in a particular section and then soon afterwards the other one is turned up in the mix. It makes for a lovely atmosphere.

The Ballot Countdown

Newcomer #4 Troy Tulowitski - I am not suggesting that Tulo is HOF worthy, but I do think that in this cycle he has been ignored due to the Dustin Pedroia discourse. A lot of the “what could have been if not for injury” takes that have been said about Pedroia applies to Tulowitski as well. Now, unlike Pedroia he never won the MVP - his best finish was 5th twice - nor does he have Pedroia’s postseason record. Still, I believe that as a whole Tulo was the better player of the two.

Even taking into consideration the inflation in one’s stats that comes with playing home games in Denver, his production was quite impressive. This is where looking at ballpark-neutral stats is most valuable; he finished with an OPS+ above 130 5 times in a 6 year span. He was also a 2 time Gold Glove winner, which helped him finish with bWAR totals above 5 in 6 different seasons.

Unfortunately he had trouble remaining in the lineup. He had only 3 seasons in which he played in more than 130 games. These physical issues took their toll over time, he only played in 202 games following his age 31 season. There just is not enough volume to make any sort of strong case for his election. Still, there is a lot to like about his career. A triple slash of .290/.361/.495, coupled with an OPS+ of 118 & 44.5 in bWAR is impressive.

Holdover #4 David Wright - Next season the Mets are going to retire Wright’s #5 and induct him into the team’s Hall Of Fame. That will be the extent of his honors; in a recurring theme that is often seen on HOF ballots, he was clearly on track before injuries betrayed him. His case isn’t all that different from Tulowitski’s, in fact.

In his first several seasons he was a textbook example of Guy Who Looks Like A Future Hall Of Famer. He was a perennial all-star third baseman, with the requisite honors that comes with that: Gold Gloves, Silver Sluggers, Top 10 MVP finishes. His statistical record also checked the necessary boxes in both the standard and advanced categories. You could always count on him for at least a 25 homer, 90 RBI season, and often better. He had one 30/30 season, and OPS numbers ranging from .850-.950. Even with his injury marred decline, his career triple slash line was .296/.376/.491.

Advanced numbers similarly show how good he was. His career OPS+ was 133, and 6 seasons with a bWAR above 4 contributed to a career mark of 49.2. Sadly, it all came crashing down rather quickly. He was diagnosed with spinal stenosis, sapping him of his power and eventually his ability to even play. He fought hard to come back, and even managed to contribute to the 2015 pennant winning Mets team - including a World Series home run - but he was forced to retire prematurely. As is the case with too many players, his peak period was spectacular but there wasn’t enough quantity to merit a plaque in the Hall.

If you have been paying attention, you may have noticed that I have said “no” on every name I have discussed. (Insert Alex Rodriguez and Manny Ramirez asterisks here.) Would it a spoiler to say that my hypothetical “yes” votes are in the queue for next week? An eager nation patiently awaits. I should also note that the number of writers who have made their ballots public and have been added to Ryan Thibodeaux’s invaluable spreadsheet is almost at the point where the sample size is large enough that we can safely draw conclusions about the final vote. It’s looking like 3 men are on solid ground this year. Take a look at it and draw your own conclusion.

The Coaching Carousel

Earlier this week the 2 remaining coaching vacancies in the WNBA were filled as the Dallas Wings and Washington Mystics both hired their new coaches. I do not intend this to be a criticism over any individual choices, but the pattern is striking. Only 7 of the 13 franchises will have a female head coach in the 2025 season.

This is not to say that a man is incapable of coaching a women’s team; there is no shortage of mega successful male coaches in the women’s game, just that we have yet to see the reverse. Three years ago multiple women had interviewed for head positions in the NBA, raising hope that this glass ceiling was about to be shattered. Was not to be, and years later every NBA and men’s Division I sideline is still led by a male coach. The sight of men coaching women’s teams would not bother me if I could see a woman doing the same for a men’s team. It’s well past time, someone make it happen!

The Year End Charts

In my younger years one of my annual highlights would be the day that the year ending issue of Billboard hit the newsstands. As a geeky fan of charts and statistics that magazine provided me with a treasure trove of information. I don’t follow it as closely as I used to, but I still look forward to the annual data dump from Billboard.

No surprise, Taylor Swift was 2024’s overall top artist, and her name shows up on the top of multiple charts. A mild surprise is that even though Shaboozey’s A Bar Song tied the record for most weeks at #1, it was not 2024’s top Hot 100. That instead went to Lose Control by Teddy Swims, for 2 reasons. First, even though it was only #1 for one week, it spent almost the entire year in the top 10, racking up points. Second, Billboard’s chart year runs from October-October. On the surface, that doesn’t make a lot of sense. Billboard has the ability to compile data so instantaneously that they could make late November the cutoff and still have enough time to put the year end charts together. However, the magazine needs to tie these charts into their televised award show, which means they have to be locked down early enough to announce the lists of finalists ahead of the show. Therefore, Shaboozey, among others, only received “partial credit” for his significant achievements and his extended run will bleed into the 2025 chart year.

The bigger issue for me with the current iteration of the Billboard charts is this. To the magazine’s credit it constantly makes amendments to the ways they compile the charts so that they can accurately reflect the way that audiences consume music. Therefore, streaming is the chief component, which is generally not an issue with the exception of genre charts. For charts in more niche genres, however, they don’t really tell us what fans of those forms of music are actually listening to.

Here are 2 that illustrate the paradox. For the 5th consecutive year Bob Marley is the top reggae artist and his Legend anthology is the top reggae album. Accurate in the sense that it’s the soundtrack of every college dorm party, but hardcore reggae fans are listening to a lot more than just Bob Marley. This is even more striking when you look at the year end jazz charts. The #1 jazz album artist of 2024? Frank Sinatra for the 5th year in a row. Also tallying a 5th consecutive year at #1 is Norah Jones as top contemporary jazz albums artist as well as winning the top contemporary jazz album for the 5th consecutive year for Come Away With Me.

In one sense, the info in the above paragraph is accurate, but bestowing year end awards to content that is decades old is pointless. It would be as if the Emmys awarded a bunch of trophies to Suits. Yes, people are watching it, but…

On To 1975

Perhaps you have noticed that this year is almost over, which also means that I will turn over to a new page on my looks back at 50 year old pop culture. I was certainly aware of scattered artifacts from 1975, “oh yeah, that came out in ‘75 I’m looking forward to writing about it.” But when I really focused on the research it became clear that 1975 was a peak period for pop culture.

So many classic albums which contained banger after banger. So many perfect, or near perfect movies. So many television shows, that, um, were on television in 1975. (1970’s TV was often more hit than miss, and too many of the big hits have aged poorly.) I’ll try to cover as much as I can, both good and bad. Stay tuned.

Closing Laughs

Hope everyone has been having an enjoyable holiday season. Be good, and I shall see you all again on Monday.