bradluen
LightNews LightNews
bradluen.bsky.social
bradluen
@bradluen.bsky.social
270 followers 97 following 1.3K posts
https://bradluen.substack.com/
Posts Replies Media Videos
bradluen.bsky.social
Tomas Tranströmer, The Blue House: Collected Works (tr. Patty Crane.) Pretty succinct for a Nobelist. Peak decade is 1973–83; throw in the debut (even then, he knew how to put a collection together) and the late prose reminiscences Memories Watch Me and you get a pretty good idea of his development.
Seeing through the Ground By Tomas Tranströmer Translated By Patty Crane The white sun melts into the smog. The light drips, working its way down to my subterranean eyes that lie deep under the city and gaze upward, seeing the place from below: streets, foundations— like aerial views of a wartime city, but the reverse—a mole’s photograph: silent rectangles in muted colors. Where decisions are made. The bones of the dead can’t be told from those of the living. The sunlight intensifies and spreads, flooding into aircraft cabins and peapods.
November 17, 2025 at 7:34 AM
bradluen.bsky.social
Big blurb energy
Corook: "They!" This might end up being the most effective political song of the year—it doesn’t try to convert the meanest people on the Internet, it just makes it feel like that if you have no problem with gay and lesbian people, acceptance of being non-cisgender should be the most obvious thing in the world. That the music is clever enough for life outside TikTok (listen for the variations in the high synth accompanying the “they/them energy” chants) is also essential.
November 15, 2025 at 8:29 PM
bradluen.bsky.social
This was my clear number one, never heard it before the poll and now I wonder if it's the great Nigerian pop song of its era (pace King Sunny)
12 POINTS: SEGUN ADEWALE - "Atewo-Lara Ka Tepa Mo 'Se" 10 POINTS: MODEL 500 - "No UFOs (Instrumental)" 8 POINTS: BHUNDU BOYS - "Chekudya Chose" 7 POINTS: ORCHESTRA BAOBAB - "Utrus Horas" 6 POINTS: GWEN GUTHRIE - "Hopscotch" 5 POINTS: FRANKIE PAUL - "Pass The Tu-Sheng-Peng" 4 POINTS: TIPPA IRIE - "Complain Neighbour" 3 POINTS: SHEILA E - "The Belle Of St Mark" 2 POINTS: KING SUNNY ADE - "365 Is My Number / The Message" 1 POINT: KURTIS BLOW - "Basketball"
November 12, 2025 at 7:22 PM
bradluen.bsky.social
I don't have proof but I suspect might be the only US album that Xgau got to and A-listed due in some part to me
album review Tommy Womack: I Thought I Was Fine He of “Alpha Male & the Canine Mystery Blood” told his crowdfunders “I am very proud of this record and strongly believe it is the best album of my career” as well as “I’m not going to say it stinks, am I?” You know what, I’ll take him at his word. Ditching all country pretenses, he and drummer Jonathan Bright turned the moolah of their 245 Indiegogo backers into a trad rock record as strong as anyone not from Cincinnati has made in years. Very aware of his vocal limits as well as his mortality (the album title alludes to his count-’em three bouts with cancer), Womack delegates most of the melody to guitar and writes to ensure the not-many notes of his range encompass a celebration of lives lived with love, often monogamous, though in his brother Waymond’s case it took a few attempts and an Elvis rejection. Tonal exception: the short, spoken “Call Me Gary”—the words first a priest’s instructions to the boy he treats to a vanilla cone, then St. Peter’s, should he exist, to the priest—is chilling. It's followed by “That Lucky Old Sun”.
November 3, 2025 at 7:12 PM
bradluen.bsky.social
Comic: Charlie Brown and Linus sit in silence for three panels Fourth panel: Charlie screams: "Why couldn't Clement have hit the ball just three feet higher?"
November 2, 2025 at 5:20 AM
bradluen.bsky.social
A major punchline: Qing cultivated land went up a lot through 1850 (tho not nearly as fast as population growth) before stagnating outside of the Northeast and to an extent the Southwest. Famines became much more common. (The data seems solid for 1724 and 1850, but in between is a bit of a guess.)
Graph of Qing Dynasty cultivated land by region: North: Zhili, Shandong, Henan, Shanxi, Shaanzi, Gansu Southeast: Jiangsu, Anhui, Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong, Jiangxi Southwest: Sichuan, Guangxi, Yunnan, Guizhou Central: Hubei, Hunan Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia are excluded. Data from Shi Zhihong, Agricultural Development in Qing China.
October 30, 2025 at 7:16 AM
bradluen.bsky.social
amazing
From the Wikipedia article for Alex Warren's album You'll Be Alright, Kid: "On July 17, 2025, the album was premiered at nearly 4,000 Chipotle Mexican Grill restaurant locations prior to its worldwide release the following day."
October 30, 2025 at 6:15 AM
bradluen.bsky.social
YouTube link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=jipQ...

Album review (published a year and a half after the album came out, I'm not saying I'm quick on these things):
WizKid: Made in Lagos (2020) When “Essence” crossed over last year, he became Nigeria’s most popular international star ever (check Fela’s placement in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame fan vote before disputing this.) His major rival, Burna Boy, brings a stronger-than-usual version of his macho Auto-Tune on track two and still isn’t as interesting a singer as his host, who also has no trouble matching up with an intercontinental array of guests, the non-Brits of whom acquit themselves well. When WizKid does use evident pitch correction, as on the Damian Marley collab, he does so expressively. The Afro-with-Jamaican-characteristics beats are pleasant if not cutting edge, while the lyrics are the usual boy-girl-jollof stuff. The lack of innovation hardly matters on the best tracks, led by “Essence”, in which duet partner Tems comes across as—what’s this—an equal? (The deluxe edition adds four tracks, including an “Essence” remix in which Tems lets Justin Bieber take her place for a bit, which would be a lot funnier if it wasn’t over an hour in.)
October 28, 2025 at 5:19 PM
bradluen.bsky.social
<sighs> there's no way we could've avoided this
The OP holding the book Agricultural Development in Qing China: A Quantitative Study, 1661–1911 by Shi Zhihong
October 28, 2025 at 1:07 AM
bradluen.bsky.social
Album review:
Review of Tyla's self-titled album: She calls this “popiano”; I think of it as R&B with amapiano characteristics. The sonics are watered (some pun intended) down for global consumption, but when isn’t that the case when a regional scene blows up? The log-donk, however tamed, is novel to northern audiences, and the general chill is a salve after decades of oversinging as soul. Tyla’s a fairly neutral vocalist; perhaps one might wish she’d kiss off clingy exes with more force. Given the brisk tempos, however, her casualness is sufficient on everything barring the Travis Scott remix, and might even be the correct choice when the material is as lascivious as the breakout single, or when wildcard guests like Gunna and Skillibeng require her to maintain some sense of order. Ghanaian-Brit main beatmaker Sammy SoSo layers her on the choruses, and a dozen co-producers contribute their pet drum sounds for depth. Another guest, Tems, demonstrates possibilities that would open up if Tyla put a little more character into her singing. For now, she only needs to coo “jump” for the world to do it.
October 27, 2025 at 6:52 PM
bradluen.bsky.social
aaaaaand that's it! (Eurojazz will go in Some Other Thread.)

Next: favorite '60s soul albums, coming in a week or two
"it's over!" end screen from Homestar Runner's Teen Girl Squad
October 25, 2025 at 6:58 PM
bradluen.bsky.social
At least Botswana's ex-president liked it! Now to take a big sip of coffee and read about President Masisi's elephant hunting policy
2023 year-end blurb: 7. Lady Amar, JL SA, Cici, Murumba Pitch: “Hamba Juba” Amidst all the current innovation in South African dance this year, my fave was this back-to-basics number one hit. Lady Amar and JL SA are the producers, mostly working straight house, though the Donk does make a guest appearance. Cici and Murumba Pitch’s singer Innocent do a good old-fashioned female/male it’s over/no it ain’t duet, with Cici singing “go away my dove” and Innocent trying to live up to his name; the song gives no indication that she buys it. Botswana’s president has danced to it.
October 24, 2025 at 5:44 PM
bradluen.bsky.social
From the 2023 year-end blurb: "fjuck-the-haters singalong [that's] not only exceedingly clever but also disgustingly, sickeningly cute, with harmonies and whoops and, ick, a happy ending… Play this at every elementary school, frat party, NASCAR race etc."
2023 year-end blurb 5. Corook & Olivia Barton: “If I Were a Fish” “Why is everyone on the Internet so mean?” doesn’t require an answer; instead, it gets a response that’s a conceptual coup: own your insecurities and make your fjuck-the-haters singalong not only exceedingly clever but also disgustingly, sickeningly cute, with harmonies and whoops and, ick, a happy ending. And they’re right: everyone is a special snowflake! If I were a head of kale they’d say “that’s a healthy head of kale” and blend me into a smoothie! Play this at every elementary school, frat party, NASCAR race etc.
October 19, 2025 at 2:32 PM
bradluen.bsky.social
#GWE Jon Moxley vs. Darby Allin 10/18/25. Not their greatest match because the intention was to give a definitive winner (and have him win with a *wrestling* move.) Still sick, still funny, still enough to get me worried with a broken aquarium around. Better: Darby, that was the point (3¾*)
View of Darby Allin choking Jon Moxley from section 113, WrestleDream, St. Louis 10/18/25.
October 19, 2025 at 5:33 AM
bradluen.bsky.social
Nice arch, bros #AEW #WrestleDream
October 18, 2025 at 11:54 PM
bradluen.bsky.social
A little thunderstorm ain't stopping St. Louis #NoKings
No Kings protest, Oct 18, Chestnut St, St. Louis
October 18, 2025 at 6:43 PM
bradluen.bsky.social
Review of the most shocking top ten finisher I've had in more than a decade of doing year-end album polls. Happy No Kings Day!
Kahil El’Zabar’s America the Beautiful The shock top ten finisher on the Expert Witness readers’ poll starts with an Aylerian or Ivesian or maybe just out of tune rendition of the title anthem. It’s one of several covers by one of El’Zabar’s two bands on the record, including an anthemic “Express Yourself” and a “How Can We Mend a Broken Heart” pluralized to include both homeboy Al Green and the naturalized Barry Gibb. The other band crosses potted Afropop with a string quartet, which as someone who spent a year complaining Vampire Weekend were inauthentic I’m not nearly as fond of. Still, borrowing and recombining influences is the American way, even or especially when it isn’t an improvement. Grade: B PLUS (“Express Yourself”, “America the Beautiful - Instrumental”, “How Can We Mend a Broken Heart”)
October 18, 2025 at 3:44 PM
bradluen.bsky.social
Review of Lil Baby's My Turn. (Found It's Only Me underwhelming; should probably give Wham a spin now that my expectations have been usefully lowered.)
Lil Baby: My Turn (27-track Deluxe Edition, not to be confused with the 26-track Deluxe Edition) Key word: “Consistent”. Don’t know if it’s surprising or just very 2020 that the year’s most streamed album adheres to Ramones-level palette restriction, essaying minor variations on the same basic post-“Versace” pattern. Spice is provided by old friends (Young Thug, Gunna) and new (his gambling buddy and fellow aficionado of overpriced streetwear 42 Dugg.) Bear in and you’ll find barbed lines throughout: they’re especially concentrated on “Sum 2 Prove”, which contrasts past eviction notices with his current successes, yet still recognizes the perilous nature of black fame: “They don’t want see us on TV unless it's the news.” From there, it’s only a zoom-out to the bigger picture. Grade: A MINUS (“The Bigger Picture”, “Sum 2 Prove”, “Whoa”)
October 15, 2025 at 5:38 PM
bradluen.bsky.social
The first Grupo Frontera album is still a bit special, even if it's abundantly clear at this point that producer Edgar Barrera is the auteur (hey Taylor, you know who has a very 2020s pop sound and an impeccable resume?)
Grupo Frontera: El Comienzo It’s easy, and not wrong, to credit their unprecedented rise from South Texas norteño covers band to one of the U.S.’s most streamed artists to Bad Bunny’s rizzed-up guest spot on megahit “Un x100to” and to the song doctoring and patented artificial sweeteners of superproducer Edgar Barrera. But their momentum predates Bunny hopping on, and Barrera’s work with, say, the highly competent Becky G lacks the same zing. While the band aren’t writers, they adapt well to Barrera et al.’s tales of love in an age when a cell phone battery in the red can keep you roiling in your heartbreak for a surprisingly long time. They’re very comfortable within their home territory of Mexican cumbia, with accordionist Juan Javier Cantú measured and wistful and 20-year-old singer Payo Solis deploying his considerable Romanticism without oversinging or upstaging his senior bandmates, and they can branch out to meet guests halfway (brassy ranchera with sadboi corrido slinger Junior H, rock en español with sadgirl Yahritza) and to amuse themselves (“Cuídala” is Tejano country.) Still, they’re realest when the bajo quintos and congas have full room to maneuver, with Barrera’s programming easing their passage into the digital world. Texas ain’t big enough for them. Grade: A (“un x100to”, “Que Vuelvas”, “El Amor de Su Vida”)
October 14, 2025 at 6:00 PM
bradluen.bsky.social
Blurb was an attempt to mirror the mode of thinking of the song that didn't quite work (art, it turns out, is hard)
Rosie Tucker: "All My Exes Live in Vortexes" Analogical thinking is kind of what I do around here, but is it actually useful? Is drawing a comparison between capitalism’s mass production of waste and one’s own inability to sustain a lasting connection within the relationship-industrial complex helpful for getting oneself laid, let alone for the Great Pacific Garbage Patch? Does a descending chorus riff further emphasize that individual efforts at sustainability inevitably degrade, or is it just catchy? Now, you can argue that whatever the utility, it’s clever, and since this is art, that’s enough. But analogical thinking is set to be the first thing genuinely valued by puny humans that Pandora’s latest box, artificial intelligence, can surpass us at—it’s easier to reduce to a statistical problem than, say, narrative or pro wrestling are. One day the Great Internet Garbage Patch might be filled with extended metaphors and fragments of Master’s theses that broke off when someone mashed the Derrida button too hard. Still, progress towards AGI hasn’t been as fast as some predicted—there’s a lot of junk to maneuver around—so barring a 2024 computational breakthrough, this is a song of the year contender.
October 13, 2025 at 6:12 PM
bradluen.bsky.social
2023 year-end blurb (the legend is she got the break-up call, was distraught, went into her dressing room, and emerged forty-five minutes later with the "Vampire" lyrics)
Olivia Rodrigo: "Vampire" Her other Guts singles were cooler and more emotionally sophisticated; this one shows the dorks she’s one of us. Who else but a dork would deal with a breakup by going into her dressing room and pretending to be Gerard Way for half an hour before emerging with something that called her new ex a “famefucker” (which as a neologism fan, I appreciate)? A whole album of this would’ve been exhausting, and the most likely way her streak ends prematurely is if she makes My Chemical Romance: The Series: The Album, but three-and-a-half minutes of fjuck-that-famefucker is just right for a recent teenager.
October 11, 2025 at 4:59 PM
bradluen.bsky.social
Blurb of an album I heard about from Chuck E and which neither us expended enough hyperbole on to convince anyone else to listen to:
Tamara Stewart: Woman Australia-to-Nashville singer, a couple of decades into the grind. She’s not the most prepossessing vocalist, and the arrangements offer no special excitement. But the standout tracks are among the year’s most poignant country. “Just a Woman”, an answer to both “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World” and “Stand by Your Man”, notes there hasn’t been as much change since the Sixties as one might wish. “Mondays” is an elliptical song about trauma as well as a reminder that it’s a victim’s right to be elliptical. And “The Orphan” is possibly the finest song ever written about childlessness, not least because of its apparent ambivalence. Grade: B PLUS (“The Orphan”, “Just a Woman”, “Mondays”)
October 9, 2025 at 4:11 PM
bradluen.bsky.social
Original sarky April 2022 blurb. Definitely a song that's benefitted from me being someone who spends the week after Christmas listmaking

me in spring: well the fireworks are a bit much

me on Dec 31: WHIZZ BOOOM BANG!!!
my original April 2022 blurb for Let's Eat Grandma, "Happy New Year": "Epic Morodersynths, literal fireworks, a wisp of a song that doesn’t derive any tension from the fact that time passes despite four thousand years of precedents and is kind of moving anyway. Now that’s what we call indie pop!"
October 8, 2025 at 5:50 PM
bradluen.bsky.social
Juan Díaz Canales & Juanjo Guarnido, Blacksad: They All Fall Down, Parts 1 & 2 (tr. Schutz/Kander.) Talking cat detective and talking weasel muckraker investigate the dodgy deals of talking bird Robert Moses. A page-turner, though much more violent than that description might have you expect.
Comic page from Juan Díaz Canales & Juanjo Guarnido, Blacksad: They All Fall Down, Part One. Talking falcon Robert Moses and his talking seagull henchman discuss personal problems they need to take care of.
October 7, 2025 at 5:02 AM
bradluen.bsky.social
The hope is that if you play a gamut of games aesthetically, you *protect* yourself against gamification, and maybe Galaxy Brain Utilitarianism—against the idea of one overarching metric you need to optimize at all costs. (Is the "aesthetic" attitude to gameplay necessary or helpful for this?)
C. Thi Nguyen, Games: Art as Agency p. 402 "Aesthetic striving play, I'm suggesting, offers a way to build an analagous pair of capacities. First, it develops the capacity to submerge ourselves in temporary agencies. But it also helps to develop the capacity to manage and control that subersion. It helps us assert our own values and interest against the pull of the temporary agencies, with their compartmentalized and clear experiences of value. Aesthetic striving play builds both the agential fluidity, and the capacity to manage that fluidity." C. Thi Nguyen, Games: Agency as Art p. 403: "Games let us flirt with such seductive little agencies in a portected context. Here is the hope: if you spend a lot of time engaged in aesthetic striving play, you will have plenty of practice losing yourself in, and then drawing back from, the pleasures of value clarity. You will be used to wearing your submersion a little lightly. Then when life hands you far more pressing agenital models, and value clarities with more seriousness and force behind them—when you face the calls of the crisp and clear value systems inherent in money, grades, Twitter likes, and research impact facotrs—you will have developed the right habits of lightness and control with your agency."
October 6, 2025 at 5:11 AM