There were only 17 last year. That’s down from 28 in 2020.

In other words, if you’re overwhelmed with new music, feel out of touch, think you don’t know what is going on, welcome to the club.

Those statistics are from Guy Zapoleon in the article:

“2023 Marked Fourth Year Of Worst Music Doldrums For Top 40 Radio”: http://tinyurl.com/7z8jknms

Or why don’t you mosey over to “Variety,” and look at their writers’ best albums of the year: http://tinyurl.com/s3fpeapu

They’re all different, there’s no consensus. No “Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.” No album you haven’t heard that you need to go out and buy immediately. Even worse, everything is available to you all the time and chances are you still don’t have the desire to click and listen. You would if you felt you were the only person out of the loop, but inside you believe it’s a fruitless effort. You’re going to spend time checking out something that no one you know knows, you’re going to end up just as isolated as you started off. And your goal is to feel connected. It’s everybody’s goal. That’s the human condition.

And if you really want to laugh, check out the “New York Times”‘s “Best Songs of 2023”: http://tinyurl.com/2s49u864 (That’s a free link.) What you’ll end up reflecting on is not the unfamiliar tracks themselves, but the writers who selected them. Is this what they are doing with their time, combing the untold millions of songs released each year for exactly what? Certainly not our respect. They’re the equivalent of those guys in leather jackets with long hair who never went on a date who told us everything in our music collection sucked. But that paradigm went out years ago. When someone criticizes me for being late to a project I laugh. There are only so many hours in day. If you find something, whether it be released yesterday or in 1969, that’s cool. Just like when you stumble on a ten year old TV series. There’s just too much out there, kudos for discovering anything at all. Especially in a world where Guy Zapoleon says “75% of music consumed is older than two years.”

As for that which does have consensus, other than Taylor Swift, the album I’ve seen lauded most at the end of this year is that by the supergroup boygenius. But check on Spotify and you’ll see that not a single cut on “the record” has triple digit million streams. The opening cut only has 14,258,655, meaning people are cherry-picking the hits, not listening to the whole album, since tracks 5 & 6 have 59,848,499 and 69,495,641 respectively. Of the twelve tracks on the album, seven don’t even have 20 million streams on Spotify.

Yes, this is not a definitive reflection on the quality of “the record,” but it is a declaration of popularity. The album came out on March 31st of this year. It’s not like it’s new and we’ve yet to see the build. And for perspective, the last track in the Spotify Top 50 Global chart had 2,863,445 streams yesterday. And the U.S. chart? Number 50 had 831,778 streams yesterday.

It’s not like Taylor Swift isn’t big. But of the top ten global songs on Spotify this past year, #5 is by Eslabon Armado and Peso Pluma, a regional Mexican group. That never happened before.

So what do we know?

That what is big is smaller than ever before. It reaches fewer people than ever before. Fine for the act involved, just don’t buy the hype that everybody is listening except you.

The entire system has broken down. This is what happens when the barrier to entry is almost nonexistent and the supposed powers-that-be lose control of the game. This is akin to the Republican party. Forever it was controlled by fat cats/corporations who wanted low taxes and few regulations. But now it’s the domain of the blue collar whose interests are contrary. The blue collar want health care. And although Trump lowered taxes on the rich, and despite the canard that more IRS agents will mean higher taxes on the rank and file, in truth those who used to set the path no longer do. As a matter of fact, many have become anti-Trumpers.

So there are many acts that are not on major labels that can sell thousands of tickets a night. They’re probably not on radio either. But in a country of more than 300 million, they’ve developed a fan base. Most over time. They’ve invested, made music and toured, and grown their audience. Overnight success? Even “The Voice” can’t do that. And even if you have overnight success that does not mean anybody wants to see you live, that you’ve truly got fans. I mean if everybody listening to those two boygenius tracks was really a fan they would have consumed the whole album, right?

As for the future…

We could have a new Beatles. But we haven’t had one yet. There have been big acts since the Beatles, but not one that affected an entire generation and the world, that penetrated every corner of society, that created music we all knew and could sing and people can still sing more than fifty years later. Don’t compare numbers from the “Billboard” chart. They’re nearly meaningless. How many number one hits an act has had. In the sixties a number one hit was known by everybody, we were all listening to Top Forty radio. Today? We keep being told by terrestrial radio that its listenership is going up but I can’t find anybody under twenty who tunes in.

This is akin, but not like television, As many series as there are, there’s a tiny fraction of shows compared to new music. And shows cost a ton of money and there are gatekeepers. Everybody can afford to make music today, right on their laptop, and distribute it for a de minimis cost.

So we’ve got a Tower of Babel music landscape. Consumption continues, but everybody is listening to their own thing. They don’t need you to listen to their music and you don’t need to listen to theirs. You can even ignore Taylor Swift’s music. In a pull society you don’t have to pull it, you don’t have to go to the show or the movie. Same deal with Beyonce. The Renaissance World Tour? Nearly a sideshow. And everybody is coursing the sideshow, because there are not enough acts to fill the three rings in the Big Top, ones that people will sit and want to see.

As far as breaking acts… You’re on your own there, the major labels don’t know how to do it.

Music has become cottage industry. If you’re looking for help, look in the mirror.

And if you’re a listener…chances are the scene is so overwhelming you’re just listening to the same damn stuff over and over again. With the insertion of a few new acts you hear about from friends, from trusted sources. That’s who gets you to listen to new material, your friends. You want to experience what they’re talking about, you don’t want to feel outside. But as to the world at large? It’s incomprehensible.

Tune in Saturday December 23rd to Faction Talk, channel 103, at 4 PM East, 1 PM West.

If you miss the episode, you can hear it on demand on the SiriusXM app. Search: Lefsetz

If this was in English, it would be the talk of the town, one of, if not the biggest show of the holiday season. As it is, it’s number 5 on Netflix right now, and I recommend it.

“The Golden Hour” is a Dutch show and you won’t know what is going on at first, then it will become clear, and then you’ll think it’s just another genre piece, a well-done imitation of an American production, but at the end you’ll think it’s better than that.

Netflix is killing its competitors. And it’s down to one thing and one thing only, product. The rest of the services don’t have enough. Disney thought its brand was sufficient, that if you added new “Star Wars” productions to children’s fare it’d be must-see TV.

But that’s not how it works anymore. Because we no longer live in a monoculture. Even if “The Golden Hour” were the talk of the town, it wouldn’t be anywhere near as big as a show in the three/four network world, even the cable world. Today there’s so much product no one can consume it all, no one can get a grip. You forage and find what rings a bell…

Or you don’t.

I found out about “The Golden Hour” from a reader. I checked the ratings, they were good, so I dove in.

So what we’ve got here is an Afghani guy on the Dutch police force who they think is a terrorist. You know, because you just can’t trust someone who looks different from you. The cop’s allegiance must be to Afghanistan, after all he went there recently. So, despite being married to a Dutch woman, and having a kid, he’s not to be trusted, guilty until proven innocent.

And despite all of our nation’s adventures in Afghanistan, the average American won’t be clear what the beef is. That’s half a world away, not in our ballpark. We’ve got to sit on the couch and get high and watch sports. But those abused people back there, they just can’t get over it.

International TV is where it’s at. Think about it, the U.S. is just one country, think of all the rest of the nations making television, and why should they make crappy television? Too many Americans see the rest of the world as backward, when that trope expired with the last century. They’ve got smartphones everywhere. And a cornucopia of entertainment offerings. And just like Depeche Mode sang, people are people. They just live somewhere else under different circumstances. International TV is eye-opening and educational, not as good as actually traveling to these countries, then again, how many Americans even have passports? We’re so concerned with keeping people out that our eyes are shut as to what is really going on in the rest of the world.

And the production values of “The Golden Hour” are just as good as top-notch American ones. This is not the foreign flick of yore, all cerebral, made on a budget, with talking instead of action. You could remake this in America and it would be believable. But even after 9/11, even after 10/7, we think we’re immune, that terrorism won’t happen here. Unless maybe it’s domestic terrorism.

As much as the right hates the left, that’s how much certain people hate America. It’s a delicate dance, keeping the States safe. As for burying our head in the ground, being isolated… Did you see that the U.S. is now buying Patriot missiles from Japan? How come people can’t see that we live in an interconnected world. Wow, it’s your responsibility to educate yourself. And you must peruse multiple sources. And you must be able to challenge your preconceptions.

The biggest story of the past two weeks, other than Trump being kicked off the ballot in Colorado, is how the right was right about college campuses.

The problem today is too many young people have not lived through the crises of the past. It’s not only antisemitism, it’s anti-vaccine hysteria. You’d think that vaccines were a nefarious plot to kill people. That the scientists and the government were in cahoots to take you out. You can’t trust Big Pharma, you can’t trust the government, everybody is corrupt.

But that is untrue. It’s more chiaroscuro. Sure, Big Pharma has flaws, but it also creates life-saving drugs, which you’re going to want, be begging for, if you’re in the hospital. As for the government, starve it all you want, but then don’t expect a handout when a natural disaster happens in your area, wiping out your assets.

But that’s America, people live paycheck to paycheck, they’re not prepared for the possible problem down the road. Like all the boomers who didn’t save for retirement. They’re never getting rid of Social Security, but the real story is you can’t live on Social Security, that’s the big issue. Expect more deaths of despair amongst oldsters in years to come.

Now this wouldn’t be a diatribe about culture and politics if I thought “The Golden Hour” was a slam dunk. I’d rather rave unqualifiedly. But I can’t.

Kinda like “A Murder at the End of the World.” Boy was that disappointing in the end. When the characters start talking, explaining what is going on, moving the plot forward because it can’t be shown, or won’t be shown, that’s when a series suffers.

But “The Golden Hour” is different. You’ll be riveted. You won’t know where it’s going. And then you’ll be disappointed because you’re sure you know where it’s going. But at the end you’ll be left wondering.

“The Golden Hour” is intense. If you’re the kind of person who can only watch upbeat TV, don’t bother. But if you’re aware that television is the number one art form in the world today, where story is king in a world where people live for story, I highly recommend it.

Go for the ride. It’s quite a good one. It’s gripping. And then it’s over. And all you want to do is find another series. Not to escape, but to experience, to learn, to go down the rabbit hole and then resurface not being able to let go of what just went down.

All those lists of the top ten movies of the year… Think about it, the movie business is a disaster, it has not recovered from Covid, numbers are down, yet the critics and the outlets that feature them act like nothing’s changed when everything has. Kind of like “Time” magazine’s person of the year. When was the last time you read “Time,” even saw it? In a world where “Sports Illustrated” articles are written by AI.

That’s the story of today. You’re in charge, across the board. There’s no one person who can steer for you, clue you in as to what is going on. You’ve got to figure your path out for yourself. In music, television, politics… There’s more information than ever before, and it’s right at your fingertips. And the deeper you go the more exciting it becomes. Wow, I wish I grew up with the internet, I would have never been bored.

“The Golden Hour” is never boring. Put it on your holiday list.

Spotify: http://tinyurl.com/4kvzx6ry

YouTube: http://tinyurl.com/4h6cracn

“Boy when you’re all alone

Holdin’ back when you wanna go

Take a stand ’cause it’s not over now”

I was reading Colson Whitehead’s “Harlem Shuffle,” which is far superior to its sequel, “Crook Manifesto,” when something made me think about Stage Dolls. Don’t ask me why. That’s how it works, when the day is deep, when you’ve got no obligations, that’s when your mind drifts, when it becomes creative.

And I knew there was one amazing song on the album, not that I was sure of its name. I pulled up Spotify and decided to look for it. And that’s when I found out Stage Dolls were still active. I’d forgotten they were Norwegian. As far as I knew there was only this one album, back in ’88, on Chrysalis.

So I’m shifting through the options and I find the album I’m looking for. And I remember there was one really good rocker, but also an absolutely amazing moody cut, which one was which? And I’m staring at the track listing and I think the last song on the album is the moody killer, entitled “Ammunition,” yet another memory has it earlier in the record. Am I going to have to listen to every cut on the album to find the one I desire to hear?

That was it, the last one, “Ammunition.”

“It was early in the mornin’

Back when I was five

Somebody’s knockin’ on our front door

One chilly winter’s night”

It felt so good, so right, it brought me right back to what once was.

You see CDs were once exotic, rare and expensive. And the goal was to work your way up in the business until you got on the mailing list, until you got CDs for free. And if you released a CD, you were above the fray. Most acts never got signed, if someone invested money in you your music was worth hearing. Well, if you were on Warner/Reprise, or Atlantic, and certainly Chrysalis. So I played every one.

Now I remember when Derek Shulman took over RoadRunner. He sent me a pile of CDs, and the one that resonated was Nickelback, I could hear it, this was long before “How You Remind Me,” back before most people knew who Chad Kroeger was, never mind hated him and his band. There was no radio play, that was difficult to achieve, especially in the metropolis. Then there were CDs by acts I was familiar with, like Robin Trower. I immediately played his 1990 album “In the Line of Fire,” it’s really good, and unless you’re a believer you’ve never heard it, I don’t think radio ever played it.

Not that most of these CDs were worth playing more than once. But some were, and one was Stage Dolls.

Usually the first track is the best, and if it sucks it’s hard to go much deeper into an album, but the opening cut of Stage Dolls’ album was instantly memorable, it hooked me, it was called “Still in Love.”

“New York City and I’m out with the boys

On 42nd Street makin’ some noise

Another weekend and my baby’s away

Temptation’s drivin’ me insane”

Funny that this Scandinavian band was singing about New York City.

But that’s just the verse. There’s a pre-chorus:

“Ain’t makin’ no promises I can’t keep

‘Cause I’ve got a lady back home

And she’s waitin’ there for me”

And a chorus:

“I’m in love, still in love

Oh-oh-oh

I’m in love, still in love

Oh-oh-oh”

Now if you were conscious in ’88, if you were a devotee of rock, the sound will be so familiar, it’s right in the pocket. This sound is expensive. You can’t cut it at home. You need a big studio. But that was the paradigm back then. It’s the sound of the guitar that closes you.

But was “Still in Love” the really good song I remembered along with “Ammunition”?

So I let the album play, into the second track, “Wings of Steel.”

“Workin’ in the city, it’s a heartless city

Every day’s the same

And I’m on the line from nine to five

Just playin’ the game”

“Wings of Steel” is a bit quieter than “Still in Love,” more meaningful, and the sound of the verse was great, but then I got to the accelerated chorus:

“I’ll fly like an eagle wild

On wings of steel and thunder

I’ll run with the wolves at night

I’ll go where the action is

Ride fast on an endless highway

I’ll fly like an eagle high”

And it sounded so good. Not like I’d just heard it yesterday, but like reconnecting with an old friend you went to camp with, someone you knew intimately, everything about them, but haven’t spoken to in decades.

So that’s three cuts that are ringing my bell, I decide to look at the complete track listing. And that’s when I realize I know track 3, “Lorraine,” by heart. And this seems so weird. This is just an album cut, not made to wow you, just for fans. And I know it as well as I know classics.

In truth this is a passé sound. As a matter of fact, it was squeezed off the airwaves by the Seattle sound, “Smells Like Teen Spirit” hit MTV in September 1991 and things were never the same. Kurt Cobain was authentic and credible in a way the hair bands never were, he didn’t care what you thought, he wasn’t pandering, he was just being himself.

And Stage Dolls had big hair. Not that they wrote a power ballad, at least not one I’ve heard, but they were definitely genre specific. But this kind of polished rock had a long run, from sometime in the seventies until the end of the eighties. And you might pooh-pooh it, call some of it yacht rock, but this was what dominated the airwaves back then, that resonated with the majority of the audience. We turned the records up loud on our multi-thousand dollar stereos. When our favorites played on the radio we moved our bodies, we banged our heads.

And today I hear so much that turns me right off.

But I’m listening to this Stage Dolls album and it’s turning me right on.

Kinda like that Roxette album “Joyride,” a near masterpiece, listen to “Watercolours in the Rain.” The American company didn’t want to release any Roxette music and then the band went to number one. It’s different today, the labels are interested in the international sound, but usually it’s country, region specific. Yet in this case these Scandinavian acts were doing the American sound, just as well as those born in the U.S.A. You could listen and not know they came from a foreign country. Rock dominated the world, and America was the heart and home of rock. Sure, there were great British acts, but they were influenced by American blues.

Now sometimes you play the old records and you wince. They’re period pieces that make you cringe decades later. But I’m listening to “Stage Dolls” and I feel at home, this is the sound I cotton to, that no one makes anymore. Sure, there are rock bands. But melody is not a feature. It’s like everybody listened to Metallica and jumped off from there. That music is not for everybody, just a sliver of the population, albeit lucrative. But once upon a time this rock sound was everywhere.

Stage Dolls were not a breakthrough. They were in many ways me-too. But it all comes down to the material, and that one song that closes the album is an absolute stunner.”

“It was early in the mornin’

Back when I was five

Somebody’s knockin’ on our front door

One chilly winter’s night

My father put his jeans on

And opened up the door

They were all dressed in uniforms

He was up against the wall”

Now in the Second World War Germany occupied Norway. But that was back in the forties, and this was the eighties, what exactly was the band singing about?

“My mother took us to the kitchen

My brother and me

She said ‘Listen boys, your father’s gone

There was someone he had to see’

And she cried her tears in silence

The sun began to rise

Oh, those moments I recall so well

Written down forever in my mind”

And it’s nearly eleven last night, and I’m trying to put “Ammunition” in a pocket, in context. And I think they’re singing about the U.S.S.R., Germany, Eastern Europe. This was before the wall fell.

“There was a black car on the pavement

Loud voices in the night

As they dragged him to the waiting car

He’s puttin’ up a fight

The streets were black and empty

Bedroom windows cold and damp

I held my arms ’round my brother

‘Cause he didn’t understand

The car moved from the driveway

And went into the night

Leaving two kids by the window

Holdin’ each other tight”

You can see it, you can feel it. As generic as the rest of the lyrics I’ve quoted above are, “Ammunition” is different, it’s personal, it’s a mental movie. You can only sit in the dark and contemplate it, why were these rockers singing this song, why did they write it, there’s got to be a story.

And then you play it again. And again. Because you don’t want the mood to evaporate. You don’t need to go to the show to shoot selfies, this is absolutely personal. The band is not playing to the back row, just you.

And then comes the chorus:

“Boy when you’re all alone

Holdin’ back when you wanna go

Take a stand ’cause it’s not over now

Ooh, kid, keep your head up high

Dry your eyes and touch the sky

Take a stand ’cause it’s not over now

Ammunition.”

Now this is not a unique sentiment in rock and roll. Us versus them, stand up to the power. But the lyrics are not the dumb words of so many songs imploring listeners to do that. In this case, it goes to the core, the dad is gone, unjustly, how do you cope, how do you keep your optimism?

It’s insanely difficult. This is the authoritarian system we’re fearful of. Right doesn’t matter, nor does innocence. You’ve got no power against the system. It’s inherently unjust.

And the title of the song is only mentioned twice. Ammunition. That’s what the offenders have given the oppressed. They’ve got this ammunition and they’re holding on to employ it, to shoot it in the future, when those in control least expect it.

This ammunition is the essence of rock and roll, the other. Our bands didn’t sell out to corporations, they existed in their own rarefied world, which we were drawn to, since the system didn’t understand us. They were beholden to no one, not even us, which made their words have even more power. They were soothsayers. When we listened to their music we not only felt good, we felt like we were understood. Our music provided this, nothing else could, no movie, no book. There were these people, often without portfolio, who seemed to create this sound out of thin air, who knew exactly what we felt, who were inspiring us, giving us answers, they were irresistible.

Ammunition.