Time to play catch up - spring is gone, summer's here. I’ve been listening to and living with a lot of new releases over the last few months, giving the ones that grab my ears a fair chance to stick to my long-term playlist. A few got close, like Murray Lightburn’s Once Upon a Time in Montreal and Youth Lagoon’s Heaven is a Junkyard, but after the initial excitement they faded from the rotation a little too quickly. I landed on eight that I’m still dropping the needle on or hitting “play” for pretty regularly. I split them into two posts so nobody has to spend half a day reading. The next batch will follow shortly. I’m starting with the biggest cover shown (my favorite of this four) and taking them clockwise, if you want to follow along at home.
• Lemon Twigs, Everything Harmony - Brian and Michael D’Addario are musical brothers from Long Island who actually get along, a novelty in the music biz. They come from a musical family, spent their youth performing in Broadway musicals, and started making albums with friends in high school. Until now, their records have leaned primarily on a throwback glam-rock vibe. Record #5 adds an overall laid-back LA rock texture to the sound, but they don't abandon the power-pop sugar rush completely, they just use it like seasoning in a stew of more carefully melodic songs. You're getting, say, a Fleetwood Mac vibe and suddenly Sweet (or Matthew Sweet) joins the party. Their prettiest record to date, not to be mistaken for blandest, highlighting the brothers' exceptional songwriting and harmonies.
EARWORM: "When Winter Comes Around" - You could be forgiven for thinking you stumbled across an obscure Simon & Garfunkel song until the power pop wall of sound kicks in about halfway.
• Marty Stuart & the Fabulous Superlatives, Altitude - The first single from this one, “Country Star,” showed up in my YouTube feed a couple months ago and hooked me from the first listen. Big brash verses and a killer chorus, with the superlative twin Telecasters of Stuart and Kenny Vaughn. The rest of Altitude is more of the same familiar but wonderfully fresh sounding country rock, plus a few explorations in a surprisingly spacy landscape. The songs come from 2018, when MS&HFS were opening for a Roger McGuinn / Chris Hillman pseudo-Byrds tour, which directly inspired the spacier stuff. Altitude opens with “Lost Byrd Space Train (Scene 1),” breaks in the middle for “Lost Byrd Space Train (Scene 2),” and closes with “Lost Byrd Space Train (Epilogue)” – three instrumentals that could have come from the Fifth Dimension sessions. If that’s not enough diversion, you also get “Space” – so floaty and dreamy over its 5+ minutes Marty puts down the Telecaster to play the sitar. A varied, surprising album, I feel like I’m still getting to know it after a bunch of listens.
EARWORM: "Country Star" - In a perfect world, you'd be hearing this everywhere.
• Cowboy Junkies, Such Ferocious Beauty - This sounds like a new Cowboy Junkies record, for better or worse. They haven’t changed their approach much over their 25 album career, and the band still consists of the three Timmins siblings (Margo, Michael, and Peter) and bassist Alan Anton, the lineup they started with back in 1986. The band has added a few extra musicians and some slightly experimental textures over the years, but Such Ferocious Beauty is still an album of laconic, folkish rockers, held together by Margo’s wounded, gliding voice and Michael’s fascinatingly textural guitar playing. This album won’t likely gain them a heap of new fans, but for those of us already on board, it’s deeply satisfying. I have no doubt I’ll check back in from time to time as 2023 moves along.
EARWORM: "Hard to Build. Easy to Break" - Swinging, soft, melodic, and smart. It's what they do.
• Samantha Fish/Jesse Dayton, Death Wish Blues - First off, this is harder, blusier Samantha than her management/label has let her do lately, so bonus. They’re still trying to make some kind of pop star out of her, I guess. This time out she gets to play the kind of blues rock she started with, teamed up with Austin pro Jesse Dayton, guitarist to country legends like Johnny and Willie and film score go-to guy for Rob Zombie. Another attempt to increase her visibility, I presume, but a better one than junking up her songs with electronics and cameos by rappers (I’m looking at you Faster). She gets to shred on the guitar, and the production showcases her slinky feline vocals front and center, especially effective in contrast to Dayton’s smoother singing style. My only caveat is that the record is a bit front-loaded – side two doesn’t have quite as many killer tracks as side one, but the great ones keep me hitting play.
EARWORM: "Riders" - Funky, bluesy, and spiky; the best blend of their respective talents on the album.
Four more next time - let me know what's on your best-of-2023 list so far.
I streamed that Samantha/Jesse thing and hated it. Sounded like cookie-cutter modern Nashville to me. So far this year I've been agush about The Runaway Grooms, Rose City Band (not on Qobuz), Esther Rose, Riverside, Death Valley Girls and The Fire Mystical.