Past Prime

About Past Prime

Wherein middle-aged men assess the music of middle-aged men. Past Prime is a series of conversations about the music that artists make after their youthful peak. Middle age can be like an inverse puberty for Rock stars. Do they all “lose it”? Can they rediscover it? Will they ever be great again? Often these albums are flaccid. Sometimes they are just sad. But, every once in a while they can be glorious. And so, we keep on listening. Join middle-aged dads, Matty Wishnow and Steve Collins as they consider albums by Lou Reed, James Taylor, Van Morrison and many more.

Publisher

Past Prime

Category

music

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

2 Feb 2021

Latest episode

17 Jan 2024

Latest episodes

25 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   17 Jan 2024

   Van Morrison "What's It Gonna Take?"

   On episode 25 of ⁠⁠Past Prime⁠⁠ (https://www.pastpri.me/), we travel through The Mystic to the other side, where, in 2022, lockdown Van was consumed with "the data," Bill Gates and Klaus Schwab (head of the World Economic Forum). In Van's hard to explain new phase, however, Matty and Steve discover an unexpected new frontier -- Past Past Prime. Past Past Prime Van Morrison is part freedom fighter, part scientist and part Don Quixote. Steve, who believes that Van is his "twin flame," wonders if there is radical honesty and vulnerability in these curious songs. Matty (and the rest of the world) is less convinced. "What's It Gonna Take" sold poorly and was alternately ignored or reviled by critics. In this -- our twenty-fifth episode -- we return to the artist who inspired our Past Prime project way back when. Van's forty-third studio album is confounding, infuriating, trolling and -- yes -- daring. It may be performance art. It may be dangerous. But, for avowed fans, it cannot be ignored. This is the work we do. To read more about Van Morrison's "What's It Gonna Take?", check out the full essay at ⁠⁠Past Prime⁠⁠ (https://www.pastpri.me/).

2. 

   7 Dec 2023

   The National "Sleep Well Beast"

   On episode 24 of ⁠Past Prime⁠ (https://www.pastpri.me/), we go full “Sad Dad.” In 2017, after a decade being carried in the arms of cheerleaders, The National were disoriented. Their unexpected stardom was bumping up against their middle-aged domesticity. There was the scary new President. Members of the band even dared to leave Brooklyn for “the ru-burbs.” “Sleep Well Beast” was the band anxiously experimenting their way through the malaise of middle-age complacency. In this episode we discuss the contemporary compulsion for change (“Kid A Syndrome”), modern farmhouse architecture & the fine line between anxiety & depression in The National’s seventh studio album. To read more about The National, check out the full essay at ⁠Past Prime⁠ (https://www.pastpri.me/).

3. 

   8 Aug 2023

   Michael Jackson "HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I"

   On episode 23 of Past Prime (https://www.pastpri.me/), Steve and Matty revisit The King of Pop's penultimate album, which was really a double album, consisting of one greatest hits record and one lavish, eighty minute, fifteen track selection of new songs. "HIStory" was made while Jackson was being investigated by the Santa Barbara District Attorney for child abuse & endangerment, while he was also in the midst of his brief, mind-exploding marriage to Lisa Marie Presley, and while every aspect of his public and private persona was being obsessed over by paparazzi, headlines and gossip. Suffice it to say, it's a lot. The credits for "HIStory" name 260 individuals, including R. Kelly, Janet Jackson, Quincy Jones, Notorious BIG, David Foster, Shaquille O'Neil and Elizabeth Taylor. It features defiant New Jack Swing, goopy ballads and thinly veiled defenses and threats. But, most of all, it features the most famous man on the planet assuring us that he could never hurt a child because he is the true victim and the true savior. Though it's perhaps the saddest, angriest and least relatable album Michael ever made, it is also luxurious in its arrangements and quite fierce in its rhythms. There will never be anything else like it and while Matty cowers from its tawdriness, Steve is more than a little fascinated by its psychological thrills. Buckle up -- Wacko Jacko is Backo. To read more about "HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I," check out the full essay at Past Prime (https://www.pastpri.me/).

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

4.5 / 5

8 ratings

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Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.