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Daniel James Leith

@danthecritic.bsky.social

Music Writer. Check out my blog: danthecritic.weebly.com

677 Followers  |  528 Following  |  190 Posts  |  Joined: 27.11.2023  |  1.8821

Latest posts by danthecritic.bsky.social on Bluesky

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Today marks 4 years since my friend, mentor and brillant writer Greg Tate died at the age of 64. He'd been in my city the month before, but I'd blown off the oppertunity to hang-out, figurin' there would be a next time...
--Afrodisiac: A Textual Meditation on Greg Tate lithub.com/afrodisiac-a...

07.12.2025 21:04 β€” πŸ‘ 6    πŸ” 2    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

College football remains a perfect microcosm of America writ large. Every problem treated as intractable, zero will to do anything other than make more money, so every issue festers until it explodes

07.12.2025 21:04 β€” πŸ‘ 36    πŸ” 3    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 0
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Alabama-Oklahoma preview:

07.12.2025 17:41 β€” πŸ‘ 165    πŸ” 29    πŸ’¬ 8    πŸ“Œ 3

Easily the most actually on crack committee decisions ever. Ketamine thinking. Inhalant gorilla mind logic. Ray Liotta eating his own brain in Hannibal type arguments.

07.12.2025 18:24 β€” πŸ‘ 508    πŸ” 53    πŸ’¬ 24    πŸ“Œ 8

The debate never should have been about Notre Dame and Miami. It should have been about Oklahoma and Alabama. Because Notre Dame and Miami are clearly better than both. Alabama getting trucked yesterday and that not mattering is a complete joke. College football is the worst! 🏈

07.12.2025 17:57 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

(on a plane and catching up)

Dropping BYU for yesterday but not Alabama is such a perfect chef's kiss on top of all of this. Honestly disgraceful, makes FSU's omission in 2023 look like a picnic

07.12.2025 17:40 β€” πŸ‘ 482    πŸ” 96    πŸ’¬ 16    πŸ“Œ 13

not even dropping alabama to 10 as a β€œokay you need to punished a little bit” move is just insane. is the sport about playing football games or not?

07.12.2025 17:39 β€” πŸ‘ 176    πŸ” 15    πŸ’¬ 12    πŸ“Œ 1

The sound of every year is mid-tier Indie

06.12.2025 18:49 β€” πŸ‘ 8    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
wolves by selena gomez artwork, ft a badly cutout picture of selena next to a badly cutout picture of a howling wolf on her left and a sort of cylindrical robot head with a crude face painted on it with crosses for eyes and a line for the mouth, all set again a backdrop of a dark night and a badly cutout mountain or something in front of her. selena gomez x marshmallow wolves is written at the top and the O in wolves is a full moon

wolves by selena gomez artwork, ft a badly cutout picture of selena next to a badly cutout picture of a howling wolf on her left and a sort of cylindrical robot head with a crude face painted on it with crosses for eyes and a line for the mouth, all set again a backdrop of a dark night and a badly cutout mountain or something in front of her. selena gomez x marshmallow wolves is written at the top and the O in wolves is a full moon

from time to time i think about the artwork for wolves by selena gomez

06.12.2025 12:25 β€” πŸ‘ 13    πŸ” 2    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 0
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Lil Wayne's 'Tha Carter II' Turns 20 I couldn’t take Tha Carter II home. That wasn’t how it worked. The labels wanted their records to get reviews in glossy music magazines, which still existed then, but they were worried that critics wo...

Wrote about the 20th anniversary of Tha Carter II, an album that means something to me.

05.12.2025 14:58 β€” πŸ‘ 28    πŸ” 5    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

A goodly prize, fit for the devil’s grace!

05.12.2025 18:26 β€” πŸ‘ 369    πŸ” 90    πŸ’¬ 6    πŸ“Œ 6
CD’s by Sin Deliverance; Miki; Ano; Paledusk; Waldgefluster; Brandi Senki; Grima; Ethmebb; Broken By The Scream; Imperial Triumphant; Ava Max; Solea Morente; Histsujibigaku; Anamanaguchi; Algernon Cadwallader; PaleNe0; ByoNoiseGenerator; Hagane; Mei Semones

CD’s by Sin Deliverance; Miki; Ano; Paledusk; Waldgefluster; Brandi Senki; Grima; Ethmebb; Broken By The Scream; Imperial Triumphant; Ava Max; Solea Morente; Histsujibigaku; Anamanaguchi; Algernon Cadwallader; PaleNe0; ByoNoiseGenerator; Hagane; Mei Semones

#CDFriday #AOTY

My 20 favourite albums of 2025

05.12.2025 11:15 β€” πŸ‘ 26    πŸ” 3    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 0
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Kill Bill Is Back in Theaters in a New Version. It’ll Never Play the Same. The Whole Bloody Affair changed the way I saw Tarantino’s epic revenge filmβ€”and so did the reporting about its making.

I wrote about why cutting Kill Bill in half might have cost Uma Thurman an Oscar, and how the new 4 1/2-hour version makes whole the greatest performance of her career.

05.12.2025 00:08 β€” πŸ‘ 689    πŸ” 75    πŸ’¬ 26    πŸ“Œ 21

hi i'm a billionaire my company, which will definitely not murder everyone, is named SauronMurdersEveryone Inc after the beloved jrr tolkien character sauron whom i have always admired for his disruptive use of world changing technology and for murdering everyone

04.12.2025 20:50 β€” πŸ‘ 1589    πŸ” 422    πŸ’¬ 11    πŸ“Œ 15
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This is actually quite brilliant, up to and including the final sentence πŸ”₯

01.12.2025 11:09 β€” πŸ‘ 24846    πŸ” 9625    πŸ’¬ 511    πŸ“Œ 822
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Talking to Yacht Rock Expert "Hollywood" Steve Huey β€œAt this point, JD had started calling it yacht rock. Because you look at the cover of Loggins and Messina’s Full Sail album, they’re on a boat. They’re very, very happy to be on a boat. You look at t...

IHTOV is off today due to some scheduling shenanigans but..

my favorite yacht rock documentary is a year old, so let's repost an in depth interview @thecurmudgeon.bsky.social had with @hollywoodsteve.bsky.social about all things yacht rock ihavethatonvinyl.com/conversation...

01.12.2025 09:39 β€” πŸ‘ 26    πŸ” 10    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

Anyway if YOU feel like the algorithm has eroded your curiosity and you want to hear a bunch of varied and novel new music I strongly recommend taking part in THE WORLD CUP OF 2025 on @peoples-pop-polls.bsky.social

29.11.2025 20:23 β€” πŸ‘ 32    πŸ” 11    πŸ’¬ 3    πŸ“Œ 0

In 1989, Technotronic instructed us to "Pump up the Jam". Sound advice. If your jam is deflated it can severely impact your fuel economy.

30.11.2025 12:04 β€” πŸ‘ 7    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

Yep, you can still love Columbo and believe ACAB

28.11.2025 12:18 β€” πŸ‘ 78    πŸ” 26    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 1
A float of Goku from Dragon Ball Z, smiling and holding his hand to his head with two fingers extended. There is a caption that says [CHEERS AND APPLAUSE] overlaid on top of him.

A float of Goku from Dragon Ball Z, smiling and holding his hand to his head with two fingers extended. There is a caption that says [CHEERS AND APPLAUSE] overlaid on top of him.

27.11.2025 15:47 β€” πŸ‘ 3261    πŸ” 1348    πŸ’¬ 8    πŸ“Œ 31

We did it, folks. A huge thank you to everyone who voted, everyone who wrote Designated Cheerleaders, everyone who discussed and RT’d the matches here, everyone who reads the newsletter. It simply can’t work without you.

27.11.2025 17:17 β€” πŸ‘ 65    πŸ” 3    πŸ’¬ 14    πŸ“Œ 0
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Other Dave 2025 Songs

Final playlists for the year on multiple platforms β€” ideal for shuffle.

Spotify: open.spotify.com/playlist/3NT...

YouTube: www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...

Tidal: tidal.com/browse/playl...

Deezer: link.deezer.com/s/30uHAbCg3m...

27.11.2025 16:03 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 2

"An observant life"

This is beautiful. Read and reflect on it.

27.11.2025 14:50 β€” πŸ‘ 4    πŸ” 2    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
ROOTS ROCK REGGAE πŸ‡―πŸ‡² The Jamaican Music Scene In 1977 πŸ‡―πŸ‡²
YouTube video by Twice's Classic Reggae Vault ROOTS ROCK REGGAE πŸ‡―πŸ‡² The Jamaican Music Scene In 1977 πŸ‡―πŸ‡²

This whole doc is filled with amazing footage: www.youtube.com/watch?v=QP_I...

24.11.2025 16:23 β€” πŸ‘ 27    πŸ” 7    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Doing this challenge made me firm up what I like about the 2020s and realise more than ever that people who think current music has stagnated are just weird. Surges of creativity across Africa, Asia and South America; a golden generation of women pop stars; tons of funny, filthy rap - good times!

25.11.2025 09:44 β€” πŸ‘ 57    πŸ” 7    πŸ’¬ 9    πŸ“Œ 0
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RIP Jimmy Cliff πŸ™

24.11.2025 14:43 β€” πŸ‘ 536    πŸ” 125    πŸ’¬ 20    πŸ“Œ 22

#TheTwen2ie5 Playlist

music.apple.com/us/playlist/...

25.11.2025 13:44 β€” πŸ‘ 5    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

#TheTwen2ie5 Day 50

1 (12 Points)

Hikaru Utada-"Somewhere Near Marseilles" (2022, Epic Japan) www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-ek...

25.11.2025 10:12 β€” πŸ‘ 18    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 1

#TheTwen2ie5 Day 49

2 (11 Points)

Fred Again ft. Skepta and PlaqueBoyMax-"Victory Lap" (2025, Atlantic) www.youtube.com/watch?v=08C9...

24.11.2025 12:46 β€” πŸ‘ 12    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 1
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Tough Breaks: The Story of Baltimore Club Music - YouTube songs featured in Al Shipley's book Tough Breaks

I made a YouTube playlist of records I mentioned in Tough Breaks: The Story of Baltimore Club Music. I'm still adding to it, but there's over 100 tracks in there so far.
www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...

18.11.2025 00:34 β€” πŸ‘ 40    πŸ” 17    πŸ’¬ 3    πŸ“Œ 2

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