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Sharon Van Etten, We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong, 2022 on Jagjaguwar
Van Etten’s sixth full length and fourth on Jagjaguwar, this was one of my favorite albums of 2022. Van Etten produced along with Daniel Knowles, with musicians Devin Hoff (bass), Jorge Baibi (drums), and Charley Damski (keys) joining on most tracks (along with a few others). My copy via Newbury Comics in the Natick Mall
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John Coltrane, Sun Ship, 1971 on Impulse!
Recorded in August of 1965 at RCA Victor studios in NYC, and released (posthumously) in 1971. Jimmy Garrison (bass), Elvin Jones (drums), and McCoy Tyner (piano) with Coltrane. All song s written by Coltrane. Produced (“Prepared for release”) by Alice Coltrane and Ed Michel. Engineered by Bob Simpson (not Rudy Gelder like the other quartet…
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Otis Redding, The Immortal Otis Redding, 1968 on ATCO
The second of a number of posthumous releases that came after Redding died in December 1967 – recordings made during the spring, summer and fall of 1967. Atlantic owned the rights to Redding’s catalog and all unreleased masters, so issued these albums under the ATCO label in the US. Personnel not credited on the release,…
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Various Artists, Bills & Aches & Blues, 2021 on 4AD
Compilation 4AD issued in celebration of their 40th anniversary. It’s a bit hit-and-miss, as such collections often are – for some reason the two Breeder’s tracks (Tune-Yards take on “Cannonball” and Big Thief’s take on “Off You”) stand out to me as does Tkay Maidza’s take on The Pixies’ “Where is My Mind?.” My copy…
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Kristin Hersh, Crooked, 2019 on Fire Records
Crooked actually first came out in 2009 (digital/online) or 2010 (CD), but this Fire Records issue for Record Store Day 2019 was the first vinyl issue. Hersh wrote all the songs, produced and played all the instruments, with Steve Rizzo as recording engineer at Stable Sound (his studio at Sandy Point Stables) in Portsmouth Rhode…
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R.E.M., Green, 1988 on Warner Bros.
R.E.M.’s sixth studio album, which came out my freshman year of college – I believe the last time I saw them live was on the Green tour at Boston Garden in April of ’89. Some of my fellow R.E.M. fans going back to Chronic Town, Murmur, and Reckoning felt like Green was the one where…
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Talking Heads, Live on Tour, 1979 on Warner Bros
The Warner Bros. Music Show was a series of releases sent to radio stations for broadcast between 1979 and 1988 – they weren’t ever really intended to be released to consumers, but because they were distributed on vinyl they show up in vintage stores from time to time. I was not hip enough (as a…
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Muddy Waters, Otis Spann, Mike Bloomfield, Paul Butterfield, Donald “Duck” Dunn, Sam Lay, and Buddy Miles – Fathers and Sons, 1969 on Chess
Vinyl Me Please just credits the LP to Muddy Waters, but the back cover really credits everyone in the all star band. It was Waters’s biggest seller. One LP is studio recordings from Chicago (Ter Mar Studios), the other LP is a live recording from the Super Cosmic Joy-Scout Jamboree. This Vinyl Me Please reissue…
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Cat Power, Covers, 2022 on Domino
Chan Marshall’s third album of covers. Like the previous two, it includes a re-recording of one of her own – the song “Hate” covered here as “Unhate.” Favorites for me include The Replacements’ “Here Comes a Regular,” Nico’s “These Days.” and Kitty Wells’ “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels.” My copy is the…
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Japandroids, Near to the Wild Heart of Life, 2017 on Anti- Records
Third full length from Vancouver BC rock duo Japandroids, and their first on Anti-. Came with a 24 page booklet insert and poster. There was a ~5 year break after Celebration Rock and lots of incessant touring. I think it’s a more mature record than the previous two and look forward to more. My copy…
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Fiona Apple, When the Pawn . . . , 1999 on Clean Slate / Epic
The full title is: When The Pawn Hits The Conflicts He Thinks Like A King What He Knows Throws The Blows When He Goes To The Fight And He’ll Win The Whole Thing ‘Fore He Enters The Ring There’s No Body To Batter When Your Mind Is Your Might So When You Go Solo, You…
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R.E.M., reckoning, 1984 on IRS
R.E.M.’s second full length LP (following Murmur – Chronic Town was just an EP) and the best album titled Reckoning to come out in the 80s (the second best being the Grateful Dead’s acoustic Reckoning). To be fair there isn’t really an R.E.M. album I don’t love, but this is one of my favorites –…
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Eddie Harris & Les McCann, Second Movement, 1971 on Atlantic
Follow-up to the massively successful Swiss Movement (“Compared to What”), recorded at Atlantic Studios. Harris and McCann are joined by Cornell Dupree, James Rowser, Donald Dean, and Bernard Purdie. Doesn’t quite live up to Swiss Movement but it’s a great early seventies jazz LP My copy via Beverly Coin & Jewelry in Beverly MA
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Gerry Mulligan Quartet, self-titled, 1962 on Verve
The Mulligan Quartet with Bob Brookmeyer, Bill Crow, and Gus Johnson – mostly recorded at Tom Nola’s studio in New York in May 1962, with one live track from The Village Vanguard, February 1962. Love how full of character liner notes on old jazz records are – on this one Willis Conover describes Mulligan: [Mulligan]…
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Golden Gate Groove: The Sound of Philadelphia Live in San Francisco 1973, 2021 on Philadelphia International Records
There’s a complicated set of dates here – recorded in 1973 and released originally in 2012 on CD by Philadelphia International Records and Legacy (Sony’s label for reissues), but then released for the first time on vinyl for Record Store Day 2021. The performers are MFSB, Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes, The Three Degrees,…
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Peter Case, HWY 62, 2015 on Omnivore Recordings
I’ve been a big fan of Peter Case since discovering The Man With The Blue Postmodern Fragmented Neo-Traditionalist Guitar in the 80s. I didn’t know it at the time but he has a great long history with The Nerves (who recorded the original “Hanging On the Telephone” that Blondie later made big), The Plimsouls (“A…
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Bronski Beat, Truthdate Doubledare, 1986 on MCA Records
This was Bronski Beat’s second full lengthy, after the mega success of The Age of Consent – and the first after Jimmy Somerville departed (to form the Communards). “Hit That Perfect Beat” was the big single. Despite Somerville’s departure (he was replaced by John Foster), it’s much in the same vein. I still really like…
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Willie Nelson, Stardust, 1978 on Columbia
Probably my favorite Willie Nelson album. Produced by Booker T Jones – Nelson using his newly found creative control to follow successful outlaw country records with a bunch of covers of pop songs and standards. His sister Bobbie on piano. Great version of Blue Skies, All of Me, and Georgia on My Mind, plus the…