The Top 40 Songs of 2014
Swans – “A Little God in My Hands”
Marianne Faithfull – “Late Victorian Holocaust”
Though self-obsessed to the point of being a bore, Mark Kozelek’s latest Sun Kil Moon album Benji did break ground in proving how buzzy an artist could get in a youth-obsessed culture talking exclusively about old man shit. Maybe the music marketplace has now levelled enough that artists are no longer expected to disappear past a certain age? Maybe lasting fan support from a niche audience seems a suddenly respectable career path in the absence of available money stacks? Dunno.
I do know that Swans’ Micheal Gira is stalking through his golden years like a vengeful warlord. That Marianne Faithfull has sounded supernaturally wise since the 60s, and it’s not dulling.