Diner Review Best CD's of 2013

Sooo… I did not listen to enough good music this year.  I listened to my favorites but did not find a lot for my friends and...what kind of friend is that?  I blame myself for watching TV and rotting my sensibilities.  I also blame the Obama administration and… and global warming.  Fortunately I stopped watching, listening to and reading the news and avoided practicing law for December and it allowed me to catch up on the important things in life...new music and gluten free cooking.  I did not put numbers by them but generally put them in order with the CD OF THE YEAR upfront.  Enjoy… or don't.

Jason Isbell: Southeastern:  Jason Isbell started his musical career or more appropriately “came of age” in the seminal, sometimes brilliant Drive By Truckers as one of the three lead guitarist/songwriters that made the band so interesting.  If you are of an age and miss the sublime raggedness of the Allman Brother… go by the Drive By Truckers  “Southern Rock Anthem”.  Unfortunately for Isbell the band and his… youthful exuberance” almost killed him.  Happily it did not. This new CD Southeastern is nothing but brilliant all the way through.  Isbell if he never does anything else gave us a perfect CD of loss and finding yourself in middle age and coming to peace with… at least a significant number of demons.  

“Cover Me Up”, “Stockholm”, “Elephant”, “Flying Over Water” and “Different Days” are songwriting tutorials and his voice carries a nice Ryan Adams accessibility that I really was not expecting.

This Is the CD/Album of the year for me… although it did not make Pitchfork's top 50 Album list.  WTF?  Why do they hate America?

Okkervil River:  Silver Gymnasium.  Sheff and his band are long time favorites of mine and I never miss their releases but I consider this CD a return to form.  Sheff is in the blessed position of doing whatever he wants and his side trips to work with Roky Erickson  and the somewhat slight CD that followed were a not so fun of a side trip.  The new CD has been covered adnauseum and it is Will Sheff’s ode to growing up in a small New England town and I have already reviewed it but it is pretty brilliant.  “On The Balcony”, “Pink Slips”, “It Was My Season”, and “Down The Deep River” are just tuneful pop romps.  Buy the whole CD.  It holds up as a narrative of growing up and the references to 80’s pop culture are intuitive and delightful.Live a little.  More important it did not make Pitchfork's top 50 albums either. It gets better each time I listen… still.
Neko Case:  “The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You”... trying to battle Fiona Apple for the long, imponderable CD title (“The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do”) but if we get by this contrivance we discover one of the best CD’s of the year and certainly her best work to date.  She has progressed from a Vancouver Punk to a faux country standards singer, and then by hooking up sequentially with The Sadies and then becoming the best vocal chops for The New Pornographers has...defied genres and it manifests itself in this great, broad piece of work.  Kelly Hogan, AC Newman and M. Ward help along the way.  My favorite song…”City Swans”.  This is also one that should not be missed.

Waxahatchee:  Cerulean Salt:  This is a totally different “Southern Thing” from Kacey Musgraves or Brandy Clarkson.  This is dark introspective stuff and more evocative of William Faulkner than “Hee Haw”.  This is excellent, I had never heard of her and Pitchfork put it on their best of list which caused me to listen.  It has no hits.  It is solid throughout.  I think she is in her early 20s and there's a lot of angst. Buy this one to be ahead of the curve.  Think of Chan Marshall and her band Cat Power accept that she has something to say and when you listen to her you don't want to shoot yourself in the head.  This is another CD that everytime I listen I grab something else.  “Hollow Bedroom”, “Dixie Cups and Jars” and “Your Damaged” are play listing in the Mazda mobile listening room.  Seriously, this is a band and an artist almost no one has heard and you should.  Impress your friends, or at least stump them.

Natalie Maines: “Mother”  I seem to be on a twangy female binge but that is only because they are producing so much great music. Natalie is of course daughter of Lloyd Maines the renowned pedal steel player and session man.  She of course was also the lead voice and songwriting chops of “The Dixie Chicks” but their demise for me was...unlamented.  This album is brilliant beginning with the title track which she got from Pink Floyd’s “The Wall”.  On “The Wall” I ignored this song.  Here it is...epic.  She brings in a host of talented admirers to play with her on this CD including Gary Louris of the Jayhawks, Jeff Buckley, Ben Harper and even Eddie Vedder on “Without You”.  The whole CD is flawless and a statement but “Mother”, “Without You”, “Silver Bell” and her cover of the Jayhawks “I’d Run Away” with Louris are worth the price of the download.

Parquet Courts:"Light Up The Gold".  OK… this is the funnest CD of the year.  This is the full length CD review of Brooklyn Punkers.  I dont know what these guys were doing before but you can take everything I love from early Built To Spill and here it here as these guys thrash around beautifully.  This is car music or club music but it great music and for those of you that know me and love me, there is no twang involved.  Buy this one.  Play it loud.  Smile.

Kurt Vile:  "Wakin On A Pretty Daze".  OK… this is another one that just grabbed me at the end of the year.  This guy is really an excellent find.  Think of Lou Reed/R.E.M. with a sense of humor. It made number 1 in the UK on the indie charts.  According to Vile (which is a great name) “It’s just about my life, without thinking too much about it. I feel comfortable with the lyrics.”  Cannot pick a good song.  The whole thing rocks.

*

The Lorde CD/EP.  16 or 17 from New Zealand.  Total pop chops. He 5 song EP does not have a bad tune on it but “Tennis Court” and the ubiquitous “Royals” are brilliant.  Normally I hate this type of music finding it contrived and over produced but what she has done here, is brilliant.  Whether it was her, or her handlers… brilliant.  Look, even a pretentious, twangy bastard like myself can appreciate something brilliant even in a genre I don’t wander into.  This is not Katy Perry or Miley Cyrus.  This is talent, sans “twerk”.

Kacey Musgraves: Same Trailer Different Park:  This is her 4th studio album and i was at best unfamiliar with her.  Normally I would dismiss her as “Big hat” country and “Eagles Esque” this album will not be dismissed.  Her songs are almost Springsteen like in their ability to describe the desolation, the hopelessness and… the beauty of rural American life.  If you have not listened to the hit, “Merry Go Round”, do download it now. “If you ain’t got two kids by 21 you're probably going to die alone.”  Wow.  Who says that out loud, even as an indictment.

Inside Llewyn Davis:  If you can wait until the Showtime Movie “One Night Only, A Town Hall Tribute To The Music Of Llewyn Davis” comes out as a CD do it.  Nonesuch records will be releasing:

http://www.nonesuch.com/journal/nonesuch-releases-live-recording-one-night-only-town-hall-concert-inside-llewyn-davis-2013-12-12

T-Bone Burnett who produced this gem gathered a bunch of other musicians and it is brilliant set and I cannot wait.  Until then you feed on this a little.  It is really good.  “Hang Me Oh Hang Me” is such a great classic and it is performed more than adequately here and the Timberlake dominated “Please Mr. Kennedy” is a gem.  Don’t be confused though, this is no “Oh Brother Where Art Thou” but you do have to marvel at the consistency of Burnette in the genre and the performances he gets out of musicians.Brandy Clarkson: 12 Stories.  This CD is just what it says.  Clarkson is ALL Nashville and has been writing hits for Miranda Lambert and others over the last few years but this is a tour de force and is exactly what advertises.  Twelve Stories from the perspective of 12 different women, none of them particularly happy.  There is nothing about drinking, cars and “America” in this country songwriting tour de force.  This is more like Lucinda Williams than Miranda Lambert.

Pistol Annies: “Annie Up”  This is just a lighthearted romp but it is really well done.  This is the girls answer to all those stupid country boy CD’s.  “Being Pretty Ain’t Pretty” and “Unhappily Married” are great country tunes and these ladies can wail in harmony in a manner I find...tuneful.  I am embarrassed to list this CD here but what the hell, I liked it.This is a throw away but what the hell?

Some Singles From NPR From 2013

Soooo...I am listening to NPR’s Critics 50 picks for 2013 and picking them for you.  I am troubled this year that I seem to be listening to more well produced music, often with loops and...God forbid, automated drums.  WTF is wrong with me?  I have been recently wrestling with the paradigm shift that has already taken place in the industry which is away from the CD or Album or the idea that you need to pay for 10-13 songs when all you really want is the hit or the one song that grabs you.  I still like listening to whatever my favorites are doing but have fallen into the habit of just “owning” (buying on iTunes) the one song I really want or maybe two or three rather than the whole CD.  So I am going to look at music in a copule of different ways when looking back on 2013 and NPR’s list seemed like a good way to start but we are talking tunes or singles here rather than the CD they are connected with.  NPR had some interesting stuff I had not heard of and others that I did and here are my thoughts on whaty I gleaned from the list:

1. Bambino: “Amidinine”  This is motorcycle music for you.  I know it is out of season.  They are African Tauregs or some bullshit.  Who cares, this is really good and hooky and has balls. There is something about thisthat I know nothing about and I like.  I think they are from the Taureg tribe from Africa.  I am of the Becker tribe of Webster.  We can march but we do not rock like this.

2. Brandy Clark:  "Pray to Jesus”  70’s Country adapted for modern country poverty… and maybe hope…I don’t know.  “We Pray To Jesus and we play the lotto.”  That sounds like me. This entire CD was well reviewed and I think I probably grab the whole thing but this is “classis country” and I go to tell you, I love it.

3. BUIKA  "LA NOCHE MAS LARGA”  Latin Jazz for a late night…kind of like going to church.  That is all I have to say about that.

4. Haim “The Wire”  Though the intro seems to be “Heartache Tonight” this is interesting in the way Lorde is interesting.  There is something fresh sounding about it.  None essential but a Friday afternoon smile.  I kind of hate myself for even putting this in a list.  I hate myself for a lot of different reasons but let’s add Haim to the list.  I am told the whole CD is good.  I am not sure I can live with myself if I find out.

5. Jason Isbell:  “Elephant”.  If I have not already sold you this album it is my album of the year.  This song is a heart breaking homage to bar culture, cancer and how people die… as best they can.  See upcoming for my list.  Which is… limited but is my traditional CD list. “Different Days”, “Flying Over Water”...lots of depth here.

6. Kasey Musgraves:  “Merry Go Round”.  Really simply well written and performed classic country.  Americana at it’s best.  “Same trailer, different park”, “we get bored so we get married, just like dust we settle in this town”.  That is good shit. I don’t know whether she wrote this song but it is a study in songwriting.  If you like Brandy Clark you should LOVE Kasey Musgraves.

7. Laura Marling “Master Hunter”  NPR calls it "English Cosmic Folk”… Really?  It is driving and literary, she has a sneering little voice and it worth a listen.  It does not sound like most anything else out there.

8. Pedro Martinez Group:  “La Habana”…. there is a critical buzz… all Spanish…brilliant hand drumming… late night…why not?  For simple minded people like me think “quiet, talented Ricky Ricardo”.

9. San Fermin  “Renaissance”  I bought this CD at Euclid Records because of the CD art…it took NPR to make me listen.  Embarrassing.  This is mournful and the song is too “big” but it is pretty.  More listening will ensue.  I report, you decide.

10. Valerie June “Pushing Against A Stone”  Spare like a “Cat Power” song.  But better, with a twang and frankly more interesting.  I will need to check out the whole CD now.  I hate that.

11. Vampire Weekend:  “Step”  The CD is the best thing they have done since their debut.  Once again I have ignored but they are relentlessly pleasant and interesting.  Not enough for me to wax poetically about but seriously, who could really object to having this shit playing softly in the background while talking?  Nobody that you would want to talk to.

12. Waxahatchee:  Hollow Bedroom  All I could think of is Suzanne Vega singing “My Name Is Luka” but then the guitar came in and it got….compelling.

13. The Lorde CD:  I am sure for most of America it is overplayed but I never hear it unless I play it so the song “Royals” and “Tennis Court” are as finely crafted pop as you going to here.  

It has been a pretty good year. So that is NPR and if you don’t pay attention to their web site for music you need to re-evaluate your life.  They keep track of the new stuff as well as classic artists.  Their “Tiny Desk Concerts” are a trove of brilliance that one day might be compared to what the Smithsonian did for the Delta Blues.

Jason Isbell: Southeastern BUY THIS

So.... These pages have once again been blank for too long. During this time your writer has not been idle attending two national Lutheran events and deciding whether or not to leave the one true church as well as going to Michigan a couple of times and maintaining a failing law practice and staying married blah, blah, blah... We still do not know. What this space will become but since I found something really excellent I wanted to share.

Jason Isbell formerly of the band The Drive By Truckers went solo a number of years ago. That band is much admired having reestablished the three guitar Allman Brother/Lynard Skynard brand of Southern (read American) rock music. Isbells singing is in the vain of Ryan Adams as far as tunefulness and mournfulness and that is quite a bit of fullness.  He really has a great voice.

Isbell eventually left the band (or they kicked him out) after descending into alcoholism and having a very public break up with his wife, the bands bass player Shonna Tucker. It was ugly, akin to the Richard and Linda Thompson break up where they would almost attack each other on stage. Isbell released a number of CDs with his band The 400 Unit but everything release had kind of a cursory feel to it.  Happily he tried out and found a new love, (singer songwriter Amanda Shires) but now has now come out with a solo CD that is easily, on the basis of songwriting alone, the best CD thus far in 2013. Hitting the high spots...

Stockholm could be a Ryan Adams song with his voice and as far as the harmonies. Just a really pretty song.

Elephant is simply a powerful, elemental song about a friend slow death from cancer. It is wrenching.  It is heartfelt. Isbell states. That inspiration was no specific person but when he was on his long binge, he frequented a bar over period of time and people just...disappeared as cancer took them.  So he made up a character and chronicled his relationship with her as she declined...
"She said Andy your better than your past.
Winked at me and drained her glass.
Sitting cross legged on a bar stool
Like no one sits anymore.
***
"I'd play her classic country songs,
She'd get high and sing along".
***
"I've buried her 1000 times.
Given up my place in line.
I don't give a damn about that now".
***
"One things very clear to me,
No one dies. With dignity.
You just try and ignore, the Elephant some how".

The Elephant becomes more and more of an issue and it is good to have it called out and in some cases acknowledged and even stared down. This is a little bit too heavy a song but it is awesomely constructed and presented on this CD. There are no wasted words in this song.  

But he alleviates the heaviness with his song about a night out on the. Road and almost dying in a Super 8 Motel with my favorite line being:
"It wasn't quite morning and I wasn't quite breathing".
I have felt like that.  Even in a. Fun song he looks pretty hard at the choices he was making.

Songs She Sang In The Shower is just a great song about being an asshole and going through relationships. It starts with being in a bar and our narrator saying to another patron, 
"There are two kinds. Of men and your not either one". 
It was the kind of thing I would have said in college if clever enough.  He thinks he is funny as he gets a black eye and his girlfriend on the way home, asks if he has "considered living alone", and leaves him.  Then he laments being the type of asshole that drives women away and he does so by being haunted by the songs the vicarious women sang in the shower. Great vehicle.  

Different Days is my favorite song on the CD talking at first to a stripper about how as a younger man he might have tried to help her out:
"But those were different days". 
Amen. 

He goes through a couple of vignettes reflecting how we all grow up, grow old and change. For me this is the stellar question in my. Life. How to age gracefully or more gracefully and how to reconcile the way I know I am supposed to be living my life with the mistakes I have made. In the past and he gives us great insight and perhaps even a little compassion. We get better and smarter if we are lucky and pay attention and although he never gets to redemption...

"Jesus lose the sinner but the highway loves the sin". 

Amen again.

This is just a brilliantly written and performed CD. I can recommend it without hesitation. Ad will stake my limited reputation on your. Enjoyment of it... But you got to listen to it.