David Emery Online
How to tell when your art is bad
Good (print) art has to pass these three tests;
The across the room test.
The 2-meters away test.
The up-close test.
If the art is interesting and engaging at all three distances then it has potential to be good art.
I love this, in the most part because trying to apply objective rules to judge “art” is inherently amusing, but also because it’s not, you know, wrong.
Via Russell Davies
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The hardest working font in Manhattan
In 2007, on my first trip to New York City, I grabbed a brand-new DSLR camera and photographed all the fonts I was supposed to love. I admired American Typewriter in all of the I <3 NYC logos, watched Akzidenz Grotesk and Helvetica fighting over the subway signs, and even caught an occasional appearance of the flawlessly-named Gotham, still a year before it skyrocketed in popularity via Barack Obama’s first campaign.
But there was one font I didn’t even notice, even though it was everywhere around me.
Last year in New York, I walked over 100 miles and took thousands of photos of one and one font only.
The font’s name is Gorton.
A beautiful deep dive into a font you have definitely seen, but likely never noticed.
The sheer craft that has gone into this article is remarkable. A reminder of the best that the web can be, and a timely palate cleanser in amongst everything else that is going on right now.
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Guericke's Unicorn by Beirut
Beirut is an artist that I have slowly found indispensable — a soothing balm for the soul whenever I most need it. His last album “Hadsel” wormed it’s way in to my listening habits to such a great extent that it was #5 in my most played albums last year, despite it coming out the year before.
The press release for this new song reports that the album that it comes from, “A Study Of Losses”, was commissioned by a Swedish circus. Judging by “Guericke’s Unicorn”, which is beautiful, circuses may be an A&R source that has been, up until this point, sorely overlooked.
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Besties by Black Country, New Road
Black Country, New Road’s recent live album is one I frequently go back to — in fact, I’m going to put it on right now, wait a minute — and while it’s increasingly clear that we are unlikely to get studio versions of those songs, if what we do get are as good as this first track from new album “Forever Howlong”, we’ll be doing ok.
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Everything is romantic by Charli xcx & Caroline Polachek
I realise that I have failed to properly post about Brat, apologies. It feels almost inappropriate to mention it in 2025, such is its foundational position in the 2024 zeitgeist, but yet here we are, in a post-Brat hellscape.
The original Brat is a masterpiece, of course, building on everything that Charli has been assembling piece by piece for years. But, somehow, the remix album “brat and it’s completely different but also still brat” is, to my mind, even better. It is not a remix album in a traditional sense, but a meta-reworking of the whole thing, capturing in audio form not just an interesting new take on the songs, but also a commentary on the cultural impact of the original album itself. While also, somehow, simultaneously deepening the aforementioned cultural impact, with the addition of Billie Eilish on ‘Guess’, and the version of ‘Girl, so confusing’ — a song, originally sub-tweeting Lorde, which, now, features Lorde.
However, with all of that to the side, the highlight of both Brat and the Brat remix is this version of Everything is Romnatic featuring Caroline Polachek, which is far deeper than it has any right to be.
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Wanna Start A Band? by Sleigh Bells
I had an unfortunate nu-metal phase in my teenage years — we all do things we regret, it could have been worse — but that primed me to be a fan of Sleigh Bells from the start. Not that they are nu-metal in any discernible way, I’m not here to slander them, but there’s a certain aggression that I think connects them both.
Interestingly, you could also draw a through line from Sleigh Bells to Brat — pop at it’s core, but revelling in an attempt to corrupt and break it.
This new song is great and weird. It’s good to have them back.
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There are no trains in Texas
Trains.FYI is a real-time map of passenger trains in North America.
Absolutely remarkable to me that when I opened this up, there were no trains at all in Texas. Or New Mexico. Or Nevada. Or Alabama. Or many, many vast stretches of land covering millions upon millions of people.
(Via Kottke)
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2024 in Music
If you checked my Apple Music Replay it would tell you that for the 3rd year in a row Taylor Swift was my post listened to artist, and who am I to argue with a data story like that? That stat was bolstered by her latest album — The Tortured Poets Department — which I thought was one of her best, especially the second disc (i.e. the one with all the songs produced by Aaron from The National).
Two other albums got heavy repeat listening: Charli xcx’s Brat (and the superb remixed version “Brat and it’s completely different but also still brat”), and latecomer GNX by Kendrick Lamar, proving why you should always wait until January 1st to do an end of year wrap up.
Other highlights include Vampire Weekend, Four Tet, Fontaines D.C., Fabiana Palladino, The Smile (who released two albums, the first one being better, slightly), Nilüfer Yanya, Sault and many, many others.
Listen ➔Curating your curation
I know from personal experience that if you work with an artist or band, you very frequently end up liking, or even loving, their music. This is true even for music that is wildly out of your comfort zone. This is also partly why whenever you see a flotilla of music execs in a industry magazine choosing their favourite music of the last year — or their tips for next — they will invariably choose their labels’ own.
The wonderful thing about this is that it is not, I think, really about egos, or capitalistic nepotism; No, it’s because music is good. In almost any piece of music you care to identify there is joy to be found, you just have to pay attention. And, if you’re being paid to do so, you may well do just that. I remember, quite some time ago now, I had the immense fortune of visiting Scott Walker for a playback at a studio of his (then) forthcoming album ‘Bish Bosch’. There was about four of us there, along with Scott, baseball cap seemingly permanently affixed to his head, sat round a mixing desk. We shared some pleasantries until he clearly was getting either bored...
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