I took a slightly different approach to this roundup. I tried to put myself in other's shoes and rank these records in order of accessibility for the casual music fan. I could be completely wrong about this, of course, but I took my best guess. Feel free to let me know if you agree or disagree.
• Elton John, Madman Across the Water - 50th Anniversary Deluxe Box Set (6/10) - This one's a no-brainer. Who doesn't love Elton, especially early 70s Elton? Well, some people, I suppose, but you don't need to talk to them. Granted, he wasn't quite king of the pop world yet, but "Levon" and "Tiny Dancer" got him close and Honky Chateau was next up. The new mega box set is, as expected, far too expensive for casual fans, especially those who (like me) don't care much about the outtakes and demos that were wisely left off the original album. But it is available for streaming in its entirety, and there's one genuinely essential disc in the box - Elton's appearance on the BBC's Sounds for Saturday TV series in April of 1972, five months after Madman's release.
The set was one of the last appearances by the trio version of the Elton John Band, with Dee Murray on bass and Nigel Olsson on drums. Davey Johnstone played some guitar on Madman but hadn't officially joined the lineup yet. For those of us who count 11-17-70 as one of the great live albums of all time, having another trio set to listen to is a gift. The BBC set doesn't have the bombast of the earlier record, the eight Madman songs played are generally quieter and more introspective than the dramatic set captured on 11-17-70, and the small BBC studio audience doesn't react with the same explosiveness as their American counterparts. But the still-new songs sound intimate and focused with Paul Buckmaster's studio orchestration stripped away, and it's, once again, a treat to hear the way these guys played as a trio. Undoubtedly, Elton needed to add a guitarist to move forward, and he added a great one, but I'll never tire of hearing that original threesome. They had something special going on.
EARWORM: "Madman Across the Water" - The album version of this one is heavily orchestrated, the strings stuff the arrangement nearly to bursting. This stripped down performance lets the beauty of the melody and Elton's piano work shine.
• Stephen Clair, To the Trees (5/20) - Almost as easy to recommend as Elton, because he just seems so...nice. Clair lives in a 19th century homestead in upstate New York, claims to write songs inspired by classic American authors, and doesn't travel too far from home to record his uplifting, friendly songs. It all sounds so pastoral, right?
Clair's songs bounce along pleasantly, with charming melodies and thoughtful, low-key arrangements. His band augments the usual guitar/bass/drums/keys with a couple of horn players, just to add that extra measure of lilt to some of the songs. A handful of his melodies wouldn't sound out of place on an early Jackson Browne album, others veer a little closer to Harry Nilsson or Randy Newman territory. Clair's singing voice sounds like the love child of Bob Dylan and Tom Petty - some Dylan rasp and Petty melodicism, with a little shot of nasal from both parents. Few people know Clair's music, and I can't imagine any sales charts his simple, sprightly tunes would dominate, but I think most classic singer/songwriter fans could toss this on one and have a good time until it ended.
EARWORM: "Lousy Butterfly" - Only two of the songs from To the Trees have had any streams on Spotify, so we're not looking at a hit record here, but this one reminds me of Joe Henry's exquisite "Meanest Flower" and that's a very good thing.
• Alanis Morissette, the storm before the calm (6/17) - Very quiet and placid ambient music, composed by the artist as accompaniment to her meditation sessions, this is 180 degrees from Jagged Little Pill. Not unlike Lou Reed's tai chi music, Hudson River Wind Meditations. I didn't put this record on the harder end of the list because it's difficult to listen to, it's so soft and whispery it's barely there. I put it in this this slot because it's not what any of Alanis' fans would be expecting and ambient music is definitely not a commercially viable choice, unless your name is Brian Eno. the storm before the calm is ambient in the full Eno sense, waves of slow-crawling synthesizers, making patterns rather than melodies, occasional percussion that sounds like far-off thunder, single notes that seem to hang in the air forever. Alanis' voice does appear on occasion, but only as soft, wordless notes in the background. This is music for doing something else to, like household chores or solving today's Wordle. Or, of course, meditating.
So why am I including it here? Because I like it in the same way I like Eno's ambient albums. Despite the genre being a commercial non-starter, there are dozens of musicians who have dabbled in it or devoted their careers to this type of musical wallpaper. Most of their records fail one simple test for me - when I want the full ambient immersion would I choose it over Eno's Discreet Music or Music for Airports? Alanis has made one of the very few examples that captures what I call the "complex stillness" of Eno's ambient work. the storm before the calm rewards deeper listening if you're in the mood. Like Eno, the slow weaving of instrument layers and shifting patterns of tempo and tonality can take you somewhere satisfying if you're open to making the trip.
EARWORM: "safety - empath in paradise" - I could've picked any track from the album, the variations between them are subtle, at best, but I decided to go with the one that's been streamed ten times more than the next closest one. No idea why, maybe because it has a bit more pulse than the others.
• Horsegirl, Version of Modern Performance (6/3) - I think it's fair to say that my music tastes have changed subtly over the years. I listen to less balls-to-the-wall noisy rock than I used to, and have become more inclined to pull out thoughtful, more artfully arranged music more often than head-banging stuff. But these three young women (one graduated from high school right before the album's release) from Chicago pulled me in for a deep dive into their complex, dense indie rock. There's a lot to unpack here, their music references some heavy influences amid their thump and swirl. There are echoes of Jesus and Mary Chain and My Bloody Valentine shoegaze, the sharp, slashing guitars bring Gang of Four to mind. Add a dash of Velvet Underground drone and Yo La Tengo drift, and you have the intriguing rock stew of Version of Modern Performance.
Despite the obvious nods to the bands that inspired them, Horsegirl makes a noise that is uniquely their own. They sound expansive but never unfocused, the album is dense but precisely arranged and recorded. It took me several listens to sort it all out, and I thoroughly enjoyed the process. There are sly hooks everywhere, new pieces of songs and arrangements stuck with me after every listen. "Beautiful Song" is exactly that, with an effervescent vocal beneath the dense shoegaze guitars, "Live and Ski" plays around with the Nirvana soft/loud framework, going from the ladies' delicate vocals to guitar slashing that sounds like Neil Young at his Crazy Horse grungiest. The vocal-less "Bog Bog 1" drones along on some gently flowing guitar-mangling, followed by "Dirtbag Transformation (Still Dirty)," which starts like punk explosion, only to pull up and chug along as catchy, melodic rocker with some high-register "ooo-ooos" just to drive it into your brain. "Option 8" is so damn catchy it sounds like a radio hit from some other universe. Thinking person's art-rock, not for casual listening maybe, but truly worth a deep dive to unlock its delightful surprises.
EARWORM: "Option 8" - A song that calls to mind the propulsive hookiness of early R.E.M., no small achievement.
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