{"id":2686,"date":"2019-01-05T03:40:10","date_gmt":"2019-01-05T11:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/billchapin.net\/allthecitylights\/?p=2686"},"modified":"2019-07-17T00:13:47","modified_gmt":"2019-07-17T07:13:47","slug":"rankstravaganza-my-30-favorite-songs-of-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/billchapin.net\/allthecitylights\/2019\/01\/rankstravaganza-my-30-favorite-songs-of-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"Rankstravaganza: My 30 Favorite Songs of 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"My<\/a>
My feelings exactly, Mr. Tillman (via YouTube<\/a>).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So there I was, walking down Franklin Street in Oakland earlier this year. Carrying an umbrella and my Thai takeout lunch in a paper bag. Skipping merrily along to the jaunty tune playing in my headphones. It was raining heavily that spring day, and just as I passed three 50-something Asian ladies standing in the doorway of a bubble tea shop, I stepped on the metal grate covering one of those sidewalk freight elevators. My feet flew out from under me. My lunch sailed through the air in a beautiful arc and rotation that I’m sure would have looked poignant in slow motion, then landed in a 6-inch-deep puddle. I landed flat on my back. It took a moment for my senses to re-calibrate and make sense of what was going on. First I was aware of the drops of water now pelting me in the face as my umbrella lay yards away. Next I registered the gasps of horror on the faces of the three ladies. And then, slowly, my brain began to process the music still playing in my ears:<\/p>\n

Everything, everything, everything, everything, everything is awful!!!<\/em><\/p>\n

That, my friends, was 2018, in all its mortifying, capricious, senseless absurdity. I can think of no better soundtrack.<\/p>\n

30. “Lonesome L.A. Cowboy,” Mapache<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Take one ’70s country-rock deep cut about down-and-out country singers “smokin’ dope (and) snortin’ coke” among the L.A. scenesters, arrange it like a great lost Louvin Brothers song, and name your resulting duo after the Spanish word for racoon. What’s that? Somebody already did these things? Never mind, you’re off the hook.<\/p>\n