Elizabeth Nelson

I am so, so excited to see Joe Jackson live later this year!

Agreed in the perfect single designation. I've known this song since it came out. I've heard it intermittently in the years since. Never thought much about it either way. These past few weeks, 43 years on, I cannot stop playing it. It bides its time!

This song is an industrial grade earworm

I didn’t really care for this song when it came out but I’ve come to love it as I’ve gotten older.

I’ve seen him 5 or 6 times. One of the best performers I’ve seen, always with a different but outstanding band.

That's why he's the man!

PERFECTION

Hands down one of the best performances I've seen in person. Completely blown away

Is it weird that I find the song soothing? Maybe it's the piano part?

Between this song and “Got the Time” Joe knows anxiety

YouTube video by JoeJacksonVEVO Joe Jackson - Steppin' Out

At once impeccably cool and aggressively unfashionable, Joe Jackson’s Steppin’ Out is four minutes of nightmare disco and nightclub jitters which paves the way from ‘Goodbye Yellow Brick Road’ to the Magnetic Fields. Detours through Motown and Freud. A perfect single. www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJwt...

Belle and Sebastian: If You’re Feeling Sinister Read Elizabeth Nelson’s review of the album.

In celebration of its 30th anniversary, @paranoiacs.bsky.social dissects the deep poignant charms of Belle And Sebastian’s 2nd LP—"a streamlined juggernaut whose layered character studies were filled with exquisite literary & musical detail.” Still brilliant & moving.
pitchfork.com/reviews/albu...

I think @paranoiacs.bsky.social is correct to bring in Martin Amis’ “The Information” as a comparison to Belle And Sebastian’s songs, and I agree with her judgment that their musical structures and arrangements are better than critics usually give them credit for.

YouTube video by BruceSpringsteenVEVO Bruce Springsteen - Atlantic City

A song that sounds scared of what it knows, Springsteen's 'Atlantic City' is the moment when the ultra-violence always latent in his urban picaresques turns manifest and terrifying. Some say to live outside the law you must be honest. Some debts no honest man can pay. www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3eu...

New Playlist: February 2026 Here it is: the February 2026 playlist! The new year feels in full swing, and we’ve got selections from some truly great albums below. Gentle Brontosaurus, Cootie Catcher, Friends of Cesar Ro…

New blog post! Wrote about songs I enjoyed in February, featuring @paranoiacs.bsky.social @douggillard.bsky.social @teenbeat.bsky.social @t3hrecords.bsky.social @kerrinconnolly.com Toadies, Triples, Lande Hekt, Guided by Voices, All Feels @tapeterecords.bsky.social @meritoriorec.bsky.social & more:

Thanks for coming out! We will be convening in May in Baltimore at the great Club 603- more on this shortly. And yeah, Peter, well he's been known to pick a song or two, eh? Stalwart.

I have actually added verses...

YouTube video by LeonardCohenVEVO Leonard Cohen - I'm Your Man (Official Live in London 2008)

Forty years later the klezmer-noir of Leonard Cohen’s ‘I’m Your Man’ LP remains the most radically successful reinvention of any of the major songwriters from the 1960’s. A moral and geopolitical hellscape staged as Vegas review. One part Rat Pack, one part Leviticus. www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZOT...

Everyone go see The Paranoid Style when they come to your town. Everybody gets down!

It's not bad.

YouTube video by The Paranoid Style - Topic Doug Yule

An LP whose adjacency to mainstream pop only underscores the deep reservoir of subversiveness at its core, VU's ‘Loaded’ is forty minutes of cracked actors, midnight cowboys and perverse singalongs for anyone who ever had a heart. Happy 79th birthday to old Doug Yule. www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrJT...

Interviewing Graham for my podcast next week!

Another banger from @paranoiacs.bsky.social

Reviews: The Paranoid Style, U2, Charli xcx, Eric Church Plus Billy Steinberg, Ratboys, Velocity Girl

“Elizabeth Nelson's wry, wounded reflections and shared jokes that bond the songs on Known Associates amount to a shared cultural vernacular." The great critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine writing brilliantly about the new Paranoid Style at his essential substack So It Goes. substack.com/home/post/p-...

My second hour on wrkc.kings.edu tonight starts off with

@paranoiacs.bsky.social - Shut Up and Deal
Dim Stars - All My Witches Come True
Magnetic Fields - Washington, D.C.
@augstone.bsky.social - Don't Put a Time on Love

cc: @paranoiacs.bsky.social

Season 63. Apple TV+.

Carl Wilson is always a joy to read, and the newest edition of his essential substack "Crritic!" is no exception. Thrilled for the kind words about the Paranoid Style's "Known Associates", available for purchase now by the discerning and bold!

Wake Up Little Susie