Albums and Thoughts about the Year 2023
As 2023 comes to a close, I realize that I have listened to very little new music over the past few months, preferring to tune into audiobooks instead and reissues. Perhaps it is my age. More likely it is the abject lack of new artist development by major and minor record labels.
Having said that there are a good few recordings in the Metacritic top reviews list that I haven’t heard.
Strangely, in my list of new releases below there are 6 Irish albums; that was unintentional but may display a local bias. You also have to love the Lemon Twigs – yes they are retromania – but don’t tell me that all that “urban” “R&B” pop and rap that dominate the playlists (?charts) is anything other that derivative. I enjoyed the comeback albums by Blur and the Rolling Stones (the latter was ruined by 2000s loudness war styled dynamic range compression and, arguably, the worst album cover in history).
It was an unbelievable year, in my view, for reissues – with vinyl re-releases coming thick and fast. Analogue Productions controversially released some of the Steely Dan catalogue in their ultra expensive UHQR format – at 45rpm on clear vinyl all analogue; the standard market edition was produced from “digital masters” that Bernie Grundman provided for no name engineers to cut (no Bernie 33rpm AAA yet). I was adamant that I would not buy these records, except for Aja. Well I had to. I ended up buying all four releases produced to date. In summary, the AP UHQR AJA was the best sounding record that I bought this year. Frankly it is amazing. Conversely the UNQR Pretzel Logic was the single most disappointing record that I have ever bought: ever. It exists in an undynamic mid range fog.
Craft recordings are releasing lots of Kevin Gray engineered reissues – the cream of the crop are the Village Vanguard albums from Bill Evans. I also really enjoyed the one step of Thelonius Monk’s Brilliant Corners. In fact between the Blue Note Classic Series, the Acoustic Sounds Jazz Series (Verve and Impulse!), the Craft/AP Contemporary Series and some of the Rhino-Atlantic releases, this has been a bumper year for Jazz. The Acoustic Sounds records have all been amazing (particularly “Karma” by Pharoah Sanders). The Tone Poet series continues to astonish, but I feel that the quality is gradually creeping downwards. The Contemporary records series continues to be good but not great. Hardly any of the releases to date have matched the sound quality of the original generations (OG) or early reissues. The best jazz news of the year was the reinvigoration of “OJC” by Craft – with a bunch of awesomely presented and cut (Kevin Gray). I was delighted to obtain “The Cats” (Idrees Sulieman, John Coltrane, Kenny Burrell, Tommy Flanagan) – I had been looking for a copy for years. Expensive records but really excellent products.
My favourite new release reissue was “Chrome Dreams” by Neil Young. I cannot understand why this amazing album was not released when recorded back in the 1970s – a firm 9/10. I also thoroughly enjoyed “Shadow Kingdom” – an album of re-recordings by Bob Dylan with the most sumptuous audiophile (Ryan Smith) sound. No sleeve notes or credits, though.
There seems to be a mega box set thing going on. I have several of them – usually too big and unwieldy to listen to. This year I bought the Horslips and Camel sets. Forget about listening to them – I don’t have enough time to even rip them to my server. Beautiful products, nonetheless.
Although I didn’t notice them in the end of year lists – but all of the Little Feat reissues have been excellent. I have the Mobile Fidelity “audiophile” versions of most of their albums – but this years’ releases “Dixie Chicken” and “Sailin’ Shoes” cut by Bernie Grundman – were far superior (there were a lot of complaints about the vinyl quality in the US – my records were perfect).
It being 20 years since 2003 – there were, obviously, a few “20th Anniversary” reissues. My favourites were “Sumday” by Grandaddy (there was an accompanying demos disc), “Feast of Wire” by Calexico and “Phantom Power” by Super Furry Animals.
I have always been a bit of a closet fan of early 1970s Elvis – and I must recommend the two box sets – Elvis on Tour and Aloha from Hawaii – phenomenal performances. Stream while you drive albums.
All of the Ian Carr and Nucleus albums have been rereleased on vinyl now, I believe, the best are “Elastic Rock” and “We’ll Talk About it Later” – and they came out this year. Recommended if you like British style fusion.
Just a note about musicians whom we lost this year. I was devastated by the death of Sinead O’Connor, she was an extraordinary talent but also a tireless campaigner for those whom society chooses to forget. My favourite artist of the past decade, David Crosby. I am hoping that there is some more Lighthouse Band material in the can. Carla Bley was, in many ways, my favourite modern jazz musician and composer. At least she had a long life unlike, Shane McGowan – who seemed to be dying since he was a teenager, but passed away peacefully a couple of weeks ago. Johnny Fean was the guitarist in Horslips – he of so many great riffs (Dearg Doom is practically an alternate Irish anthem). Wayne Shorter, Christy Dignam (Aslam), Robbie Robertson, Jeff Beck, Randy Meisner, Tony Bennett, Tina Turner, Andy Rourke (the Smiths), Steve Mackey (Pulp), Gordon Lightfoot, Ahmad Jamal, Burt Bacharach, Tom Verlaine, Brendan Croker, John Marshall (Nucleus, Soft Machine), Dwight Twilley and others. All gone but not forgotten.
NEW RELEASES 2023
The Lemon Twigs – Everything Harmony
Steve Mason – Brothers & Sisters
The National – First Two Pages Of Frankenstein
Shana Cleveland – Manzanita
Lankum – False Lankum
Depeche Mode – Memento Mori
Boygenius – The Record
Ron Sexsmith – The Vivian Line
Lisa O’Neill – All Of This Is Chance
Margo Price – Strays
The Murder Capital – Gigi’s Recovery
Belle And Sebastian – Late Developers
Caroline Polachek – Desire, I Want To Turn Into You
Slowdive – Everything Is Alive
Teenage Fanclub – Nothing Lasts Forever
Jonathan Wilson – Eat The Worm
The Academic – Sitting Pretty
Bob Dylan – Shadow Kingdom
Rolling Stones – Hackney Diamonds
Paul Simon – Seven Palms
Sofa Blond – Big Dream
Ferris & Sylvester – Superhuman (2022 release but only obtained in 2023!)
JAZZ
London Brew – London Brew
Knoel Scott Featuring Marshall Allen – Celestial
Dominic Miller – Vagabond
The Bad Plus – The Bad Plus (vinyl).
NOT SURE IF IT’S A REISSUE OR A NEW ALBUM
Neil Young – Chrome Dreams
Pink Floyd – The Dark Side Of The Moon (Live At Wembley 1974)
REISSUES AND BOX SETS
FAVORITES
Steely Dan – Aja (Analogue Productions 2 x 45 UHQR)
The Who – Who’s Next | Life House (superdeluxe)
Bill Evans Trio – Waltz For Debby (Craft)
Horslips – More Than You Can Chew
Thelonious Monk – Brilliant Corners
Woody Shaw – Blackstone Legacy
Freddie Hubbard – Blue Spirits
Pernice Brothers – Overcome By Happiness
ABC – The Lexicon Of Love (SDE BluRay)
THE REST
Bob Dylan – Fragments (Time Out Of Mind Sessions [1996-1997]) (The Bootleg Series Vol. 17)
Bryan Ferry – Mamouna
Calexico – Feast Of Wire / More Cowboys In Sweden (Live)
Camel – Air Born The MCA & Decca Years 1973-1984
Cannonball Adderley Quintet – Cannonball Adderley Quintet in Chicago
Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell, Charles Mingus, Max Roach – Hot House (The Complete Jazz At Massey Hall Recordings)
Coleman Hawkins Encounters Ben Webster – Coleman Hawkins Encounters Ben Webster
The Durutti Column – Time Was Gigantic… When We Were Kids
Elvis- Aloha From Hawaii Via Satellite
Eric Clapton – 24 Nights: Blues
The Flaming Lips – Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots
Frank Zappa – Funky Nothingness
Grandaddy – Sumday
John Coltrane – Coltrane’s Sound
Kenny Wheeler – Gnu High
Little Feat – Dixie Chicken
Mal Waldron With Jackie McLean, John Coltrane, Idrees Sulieman, Sahib Shihab And Bill Hardman – Mal/2
Neil Young – Official Release Series Discs 22, 23+, 24 & 25 (Ragged Glory particularly)
New Order – Low-Life
Nucleus (Ian Carr) – Elastic Rock
Paul McCartney & Wings – Red Rose Speedway (half speed)
Pharoah Sanders – Pharoah
The Rolling Stones – The Rolling Stones In Mono
Sam Rivers – Fuchsia Swing Song
Sonny Rollins – Go West!: The Contemporary Records Albums
Stevie Ray Vaughan And Double Trouble – Texas Flood (Vinyl Me Please)
Super Furry Animals – Phantom Power
The Strokes – The Singles (06.25.2001-09.06.2006) – Volume 01
Vince Guaraldi Trio – Jazz Impressions Of Black Orpheus
Wynton Kelly Trio / Wes Montgomery – Smokin’ At The Half Note
XTC – The Big Express (CD and Bluray)
Worst Reissue of The Year:
Steely Dan – Pretzel Logic (Analogue Productions UHQR!)
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