Recent Album Releases

I haven't had many music posts in awhile. Thought I'd just mention a few things I'd been thinking lately about new releases.

Probably the best new release of 2006 so far is Alejandro Escovedo's The Boxing Mirror. Produced by John Cale, this is Escovedo's first new album in 5 years. Since then, he almost died of a combination of Hepatitis C, cirrhosis of the liver, and internal bleeding. Fun. I don't think it is quite as good as that 2001 album, A Man Under The Influence, but it is a worthy addition to anyone's collection nonetheless. The songs are solid. "Died A Little Today" is a particular early favorite after a few listens. He has such a great band. Brian Standefer's cello really brings that band together and Jon Dee Graham's guitar playing is great. Just a first rate production.

Also of note is the new 5 CD Richard Thompson box set. Comprised of a variety of live performances, covers, alternative versions of songs, novelty songs, and other rarieties, this collection is a great box set. RT is so great. An amazing writer, wonderful guitar player, and charismatic performer. I can't believe I haven't seem him play since 1996. I don't think he plays the red states much. The book that comes with the set is pretty lame but the music is first rate. One CD is all live performances, another is his "essential" songs, a third consists of songs that present RT's views of life, a fourth is covers, and the fifth is rareities. Just hearing live versions of "Walking on a Wire" or "Walking the Long Miles Home" makes me remember why I fell in love with his music so many years ago now. If you have the money, buy this. Buy it now.

Also worth owning is the Drive-By Truckers, A Blessing and A Curse. This is a very solid album. Songs like "Gravity's Gone," "A World of Hurt," and "Easy on Yourself" would be the best songs most bands ever wrote. Honestly though, it is a step down for the band. The last three albums, Southern Rock Opera, Decoration Day, and The Dirty South, are among the best albums put out in the last 10 years. And you can be damn sure that no other band has 3 albums worthy of this kind of consideration. The fact that this album is a step down is hardly an insult. But I doubt people will be listening to it for as long as they will the other three albums. I do understand that there is a serious backlog of songs from those albums that are unreleased, and perhaps unrecorded. I sure would like to hear those songs. Maybe they'll show up on solo albums or some future box set.

Two artists I find both interesting and frustrating have released new albums this year: Neko Case and Hank Williams III. Neko's new album, Fox Confessor Brings The Flood is a strong piece of work, more so than Hank's new album, Straight to Hell. She's just a more advanced and complete artist. But both suffer from the same problem in my view. They do the same thing over and over again. Hank has nothing to sing about except getting drunk, getting high, or hating Nashville. That's all fine and good but there is a lot more in the world than that. Neko's topics are more obscure than Hank and the songs are better. But ultimately, the albums all blend together. She has always had way too many mid-tempo songs on her albums. She started out in punk bands. Where did that go? She needs some damn screaming on an album. She has a great voice and can do different things with it. She is great doing "If I'm Gonna Sink, I Might As Well Go To The Bottom" on the Johnny Paycheck tribute album and also in her performances on the New Pornographers albums. Why can't she combine some of this in her own work?

Tom Russell's Love and Fear is also a solid album. Somehow though I thought this album would be better. I saw him live last year and he played 5 songs off the album. Some of them are really great--"The Pugilist at 59," "Stealing Electricity," "Ash Wednesday." But somehow, the sum doesn't quite equal to the parts. It is a good album, his best in a few years. It's just not the masterpiece I thought it would be. And "Ash Wednesday" really is one of his best songs ever I think.

I've been a little slower on new jazz releases this year for some reason but I do have a couple of recommendations. Matthew Shipp's One is a fine solo piano record. Usually I'm not a huge fan of solo piano. And I prefer Shipp with a larger group. But this is an album worth owning. He is so inventive on the piano that hearing him alone is worthwhile. I saw him play a show in Albuquerque last month. I think that piano had things done to it last night that it hadn't ever experienced before. If it's Vince Guaraldi's Charlie Brown piano music you're looking for, don't listen to this. But if you like sonic experimentation, this is the piano album for you.

Also of interest is William Parker's new album, Long Hidden: The Olmec Series. This is a quite varied album, featuring solo bass peformances, along with pieces by The Olmec Group, younger musicians working in the merengue tradition. I'm not at all biased toward this album because my good friend Todd Nicholson plays bass on some of the songs where Parker is on the doson'ngoni. It's just a very solid piece of work and highly recommended.

I have been a little remiss on not acquiring a lot of new albums this year--I buy a lot but I also look to the past for a lot of my music so I don't buy all the new albums that I want. Still on tap to buy (that I know of) are the new Built to Spill, Dave Alvin, Flaming Lips, Kris Kristofferson, and Guy Clark. So many albums, so little money.

I'll try to review albums as they come out in the near future so that I don't get so far behind and have to write such a long post.