Brighter Side cover
What am I supposed to do with the new Gustafer Yellowgold album, Gustafer Yellowgold's Brighter Side, since it's the first one that comes without a full DVD to accompany it? All seven Gustafer prior albums dating back to 2007's Gustafer Yellowgold's Wide Wild World, were produced as DVD/CD sets with a video for each song, and, to greater or lesser degrees, a unifying story linking the songs together.
But for the new album, musician and illustrator Morgan Taylor, the mastermind behind Gustafer, eschewed a full set of videos. He'll be doing videos for some songs -- shout-outs to "Hot Nights" and "Baconstein" -- but not all. Perhaps Taylor is just looking to mix things up. (And if it means he releases music a little bit more often, even better.)
While I could do the standard review thing, I think I will take a cue from Taylor's decision and mix things up myself. So I put together a list of the best Gustafer Yellowgold songs from all eight albums (including Brighter Side). It wasn't a terribly difficult process -- quite enjoyable, actually -- because Taylor is one of kindie's most gifted pop songwriters, with an oblique sense of humor.
I tend to go for the more uptempo Gustafer tracks, so while you could easily make a solid compilation of nothing but the mellow tracks for cooling-down/nighttime purposes -- and Brighter Side tends to lean slightly more towards that softer, mellower side -- this playlist features more of the punchier tracks, either in tempo or arrangement.
So here's a Spotify playlist of my 40 favorite Gustafer Yellowgold tracks, organized chronologically, up to and including music from Brighter Side, out today. Grab your favorite foods (or least favorite foods, depending on how pugilistic your kids are feeling), tune in, and enjoy!
