Best New Records I Heard in October 2023
24 Albums That Pleased Me Multiple Times During the Last 31 Days
Brian Setzer – The Devil Always Collects. For my money, Setzer stands proudly with the very best of the rockabilly and other roots oriented performers of the past few decades. Whether in the Stray Cats, in his swingin’ years, or just rockin’ out with a small combo, Setzer has consistently used old forms in fresh ways. His songwriting – and he co-wrote most of the tracks here – puts stories and images to invigorating hook-filled melodies. And then he plays these guitar riffs and leads that fit the songs perfectly, and yet are complex enough to spin the heads of anybody whose ever tried to pick their way through a Mel Bay lesson on the instrument. I love his singing, too – he’s got that crooning baritone that pushes its way through the impact of the rocking behind him. Bonus points – a great version of Nick Lowe’s “Play That Fast Thing One More Time.”
Jenni Muldaur & Teddy Thompson – Once More: Jenni Muldaur & Teddy Thompson Sing the Great Country Duets. You could say this is like karaoke, but these are not amateur singers hanging out with friends and taking a drunken stab at familiar favorites. Muldaur (daughter of Geoff and Maria Muldaur) and Thompson (son of Richard and Linda Thompson) have long-standing careers of their own (though hers are more often in guest spot roles than his, which include a whole bunch of records these past couple decades). Thompson has actually done a couple of straight country covers records before, including one earlier this year, but he’s never shown the fire he ignites when teamed with Muldaur here. Actually, two thirds of this were released previously on EPs, but I never heard them. So, we’ve got four songs by Porter Wagoner & Dolly Parton, four by George Jones and Tammy Wynette, and four new ones by Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn. I wasn’t familiar with most of the original versions, but these are great songs, sung and played with enthusiasm and love.
Corinne Bailey Rae – Black Rainbows. It’s not very often that you get a new record from a singer renowned for her impeccable vocal chops which for more than half the running time refuses to emphasize the vocals. Buried beneath squalling guitars, distorted via modern technology, mixed as one element in a sea of sounds, Rae’s vocals are not unimportant, but they aren’t always the focus. By the time the album gets around to reminding us what range and phrasing she has, the songs are still unusual – “Peach Velvet Sky” reminds me of Kate Bush singing a middle of the show Broadway number, while “Before the Throne of the Invisible God” conjures up visions of Martin Denny producing Sun Ra. The first time I heard this album, I was befuddled, but it gains in stature with every spin. She’s still got jazz and r&b bones, with a whole lot more sonic possibilities opened up to her.
Gordon Grdina / Mat Maneri / Christian Lillinger – Live at the Armoury. What do you get when you throw a guitarist / oud player, a viola player, and a drummer in a room and let them start playing? You get three sources of improvised sound paying close attention to the ideas of each, and bouncing musical ideas back and forth as if they always belonged together. This was recorded in 2018 and was the first time these three played as a group. The first piece, “Conjure,” at almost a half hour in length takes up 2/3 of the album. It’s an ebb and flow of rhythmic bits and pieces that comes across as contemplative and urgent at the same time. “Ballistic” turns up the volume and the energy for a much shorter and fiercer wailing piece. And finally, “Communion” brings Grdina’s interest in Arabic music to the fore, and finds Maneri’s viola more often plucked then bowed. It’s an album that reveals no connections and secrets every time it’s heard.
Miki Yamanaka – Shades of Rainbow. Here we have a terrific jazz pianist who moved from Japan to New York about eleven years ago where she eventually formed a very tight trio with bassist Tyrone Allen and drummer Jimmy Macbride. For this new album, the trio is augmented by tenor saxophonist Mark Turner. The four musicians lean in to eight delightful compositions by Yamanaka who has an ability to write catchy, intoxicating melodies which lead to sharp improvisations. It’s an old-school classic jazz approach which will call to mind the likes of Horace Silver, Wayne Shorter, and other icons of the sixties. I eagerly await the late 60s-style sitcom which must be created in order to use “Oatmeal” for a theme song.
Andrew Bird – Outside Problems. The follow-up to his 2021 release Inside Problems, this is Andrew Bird with his violin, maybe a guitar, his looping pedal, and a bunch of simple thematic ideas that turn into quite lovely and intricately arranged instrumental pieces. (There are some occasional vocal sounds, and, of course, a bit of whistling.) It may be for serious Andrew Bird fans only, but I’ve been following this guy since he seemed to be in the avant-garde wing of the 30s hepcat revival back in the 90s. Of course, it occurs to me that maybe there are people who really don’t care for his singing who might find this to be more up their alley. At any rate, it’s not a major release, but it is a nice comfy armchair of music to settle your soul.
Ivo Perelman / Dave Burrell / Bobby Kapp – Trichotomy. Perelman’s been busy this year, releasing at least four records with different partners, and maybe more – Discogs hasn’t kept up with him yet. This particular trio album consists of two pieces – a half hour long barn burner called “Part One,” and a fifteen minute slower number called “Part Two.” Perelman’s tenor sax, Burrell’s piano, and Kapp’s drums egg each other on throughout. Rhythms are fast and furious in the first piece, with a lot more breathing room in the second. Both have so many musical ideas floating in and out of the spotlight that it will take multiple listens to catch them all. From the first time I heard it, though, I was captivated by the sheer force and the powerful musicianship on display.
Bobby Kapp – Synergy: Bobby Kapp Plays the Music of Richard Sussman. Hey, there’s that same drummer, this time on an entirely different sort of project. Richard Sussman is a pianist and composer I’ve never encountered before. His tunes are vibrant, catchy, and written for a range of tonal colors. He’s on piano here, surrounded by Aaron Irwin on clarinet and bass clarinet; Zach Brock on violin; John Clark on French horn; Abraham Burton on tenor sax; Harvie S on bass, and Kapp on drums. The music is complex enough there’s even a conductor, one Scott Reeves. This unusual instrumentation works beautifully on the long written sections, and just about everybody gets to take some solos, most notably Burton on most tracks, and Brock on just a couple, but with impressive fire.
Buddy & Julie Miller – In the Throes. I’ll listen to just about anything Buddy Miller gets his guitar playing hands on, so of course I’m down for the latest of four intermittent team-ups with his longtime wife Julie. The Millers are an interesting songwriting pair – they can each write gut-wrenching songs about agonizing love situations, yet they’ve been happily married for more than 40 years. They also know how to sing about the good side of love, as here on “I Love You,” a much richer song than that basic title lets on. Throw in their frequent bent for Christian themes, and you’ve got a typical B&JM album. This time, all the songs are by Julie, though on one Bob Dylan & Regina McCrary get co-writer’s credits. Great musicianship by Viktor Krauss, Stuart Duncan, and others, and guest backing vocals from Emmylou Harris. Larry Campbell, Gurf Morlix, and Regina McCrary, too.
Kurt Elling – SuperBlue: The Iridescent Spree. I resisted Kurt Elling for a long time – I never really fell hard for any vocalese stuff, and that was kind of where I slotted him without actually paying attention. As with many such decisions in my listening history, that was wrong. Yeah, he writes lyrics to jazz pieces – Ornette Coleman’s “Lonely Woman” is given that honor here – but he does so much more than just sing the solos. His chops are impeccable – very few humans can handle the rhythmic rigamarole of some of his songs, here fed by the great guitarist Charlie Hunter and their band together, SuperBlue. It kind of makes sense for him to do a Bob Dorough song from Schoolhouse Rock but I was pleasantly surprised by his take on Joni Mitchell’s “Black Crow” and Ron Sexsmith’s “Right About Now.” Also, check out the last cut here, “The Afterlife,” in which Elling auditions for a second career as an audiobook reader, and makes me chuckle as he allows for a variety of post-death experiences.
Pretenders – Relentless. Chrissie Hynde just keeps on making records – I’m pretty sure I’ve heard them all since that fabulous debut album back in 1980. While Martin Chambers is still listed as a band member on Wikipedia, he isn’t on this album, leaving guitarist James Walbourne (aka Richard Thompson’s son-in-law) as the longest tenured Pretender on this record, having been around since 2008. He’s also Hynde’s co-writer on all the songs here. And these are mostly good songs, if none are likely to edge any classics out of a future box set. The closest, in my book, are “I’ve Lost My Sense of Taste,” possibly the most interesting song to come out of a Covid-19 metaphor, as Hynde sings of declining passions while the band rocks out with plenty of oomph; and “I Think About You Daily,” a standard-issue Hynde piano ballad made way better by Jonny Greenwood’s wondrous string arrangement.
The National – Laugh Track. Just a few months after releasing First Two Pages of Frankenstein, the National snuck this one out to the internet, with a physical release due in the next few weeks. This time around, the band is playing a few more fast songs, but tempo is never vital to a National song. Instead, it’s the peculiar phrasing and melodic taste of Matt Berninger’s vocals and songwriting, mixed with the tightly strung musicianship of the two sets of brothers comprising the rest of the band. You can’t really point to individual contributions so much as the effective interweaving of the instruments. Guest vocalists Bon Iver, Phoebe Bridgers, and Rosanne Cash make terrific foils for Berninger – all three have voices considerably higher than his baritone. I’m also very fond of the onrushing freight train approach to “Smoke Detector,” the extra-long final track here.
Mariner 5 – Wabi Sabi. Four veteran St. Louis musicians I’ve seen play in various bands dozens of times over the years, including a few times with this one. When they formed, there was a fifth member, but I think the name is cool enough it can withstand the incorrect math. This is all instrumental rock’n’roll’n’occasionally reggae. Guitarist Tony Fafoglia and keyboardist Jeff Schneider come up with catchy riffs and dazzling runs on their instruments while bassist Dave Hilditch and drummer Bill Costello push and pull the rhythms in a neatly elastic approach, and show off some mighty impressive chops as well. Every time I listen I like the tunes more and more, and I notice more nifty musical bits. I think they could stand face to face with any instrumental rock combo out there right now.
Of Tropique – Buster Goes West. Here’s an instrumental combo that’s not exactly rock, and not exactly classifiable. As far as I know, these four guys from Tokyo are the only band mining whatever you want to call this stuff. The lead instrument is a clarinet, but it’s backed by electric guitar, keyboards, bass, drums, congos, and assorted other soundmakers. The tunes draw from klezmer, Caribbean, funk, and other groove-oriented styles. It’s catchy as all git out, practically guaranteed to provide a different earworm every time you listen to the album. And, it will give you happy feet. This record came out back in February, but it took a while to reach my ears. Now I’m ready to proselytize.
Steve Lehman and Orchestre National de Jazz – Ex Machina. A thrilling album of dense jazz compositions by Lehman and Orchestre director Frédéric Maurin, this is a big band record filled with wide open spaces, inventive harmonies, crazy-quilt electronic sounds, and just plain good musicianship. Lehman doesn’t even play his alto saxophone on every cut, but when he does, he is clearly the most individualistic improviser here. I really love the vibraphones played by Chris Dingman and Orchestre member Stéphan Caracci – put them together with the rhythm section and Lehman’s sax, and there are occasional echoes of Eric Dolphy’s masterpiece Out to Lunch. But that’s just one aspect of an immersive and constantly shifting ride.
Dengue Fever – Ting Mong. It’s been eight years since we’ve had a full-length album from my favorite Cambodian language garage/surf/psychedelic band. Actually, this time around, things seem a little less eclectic, a little more focused on the Cambodian style songs they first made their name with. The great vocalist Chhom Nimol still dominates, but the Americans in the band manage to be simultaneously sympathetic to the original approach and willing to push things out across cultural boundaries. It may be an acquired taste for American audiences, which is why after more than twenty years, these guys are still very much a cult band. But the deep grooves and hypnotic melodies can win over anybody who gives them half a chance.
Various Artists – More Than a Whisper: Celebrating the Music of Nanci Griffith. For a few years there back in the late 80s and early 90s, I really connected with Nanci Griffith’s records. Something didn’t work for me when I saw her live, though, and I stopped keeping up with her records. A few weeks ago, though, Charles Hughes, in the excellent No Fences Review Substack he shares with David Cantwell, wrote a wonderful piece celebrating 16 of his favorite Griffith songs, and I was reminded of her melodic grace, her questing heart, her way with words. This tribute album brings even more of it back. Unlike so many tribute records, the performers assembled over the last few years to cover her songs are not afraid to mess with the original arrangements. (This project has been in the works long enough to include John Prine, who died a year before Griffith did.) While there are certain songs that are indelible in Griffith’s renditions, every cut here soars with her spirit and the love the singers have for her. And such a line up – Sarah Jarosz, Emmylou Harris, Iris DeMent, Lyle Lovett, Mary Gauthier, the War and Treaty, Molly Tuttle and Billy Strings together! A beautiful, heartfelt, and powerful collection.
Roger Joseph Manning Jr. – Radio Daze & Glamping. Manning was the founder and main songwriter of the fabulous power pop-ish band Jellyfish back in the early 90s, and he’s kept on making music in various bands and as a solo artist (and sometime sideman) ever since. His stuff tends to appeal to those of us with a background in melodic rock-based pop music. I think his melodic sensibility is as developed as anybody’s, though he does rely on templates from older records for his presentation. That’s alright – heck, his Fleetwood Mac pastiche here, “Is It All a Dream,” shows he could sub for almost anybody in that band. Also fun are the Steely Dan and Tommy Tutone references in “Operator.” I gather some of these songs were released as an EP a few years ago, and are mixed with new stuff for this Omnivore release.
Wilco – Cousin. It’s kind of easy to take Wilco for granted, as they have churned out a steady stream of records, especially since the current six-man line-up coalesced some 16 years back on Sky Blue Sky. These six – singer/songwriter Jeff Tweedy, bassist John Stirratt, guitarists Nels Cline and Pat Sansone, keyboardist Mikael Jorgensen, and drummer Glenn Kotche – have also turned up on dozens of other people’s records as producers, as guest musicians, as session players, as leaders. Tweedy has the luxury of being in the eye of an eloquent storm, as his melodies and straight forward vocals are surrounded by nuanced and impressive musicianship. This particular record strikes me as their best in a number of years – the players aren’t holding themselves back quite as much as on recent records, and Tweedy’s songs are sharper and more memorable than they’ve been of late.
Ivo Perelman and James Emery – The Whisperers. Here’s Ivo again, this time in a series of free improv duets with guitarist James Emery. These two achieve superhuman communication, with each taking turns leading the other into a new phase of the thirteen numbered pieces here. Sometimes they achieve a free jazz romanticism – see especially “7” and “13” where it’s not hard to imagine whole sections of the piece being pulled for a luscious ballad. At other times they build to powerhouse crescendos as in “6.” On “10,” Emery even throws in some blues turnarounds that are very effective. This might be my fave album of the three Perelman recordings I’ve heard this year.
Lindsay Lou – Queen of Time. I admit, sometimes I check out an artist I haven’t heard when I see they have guest appearances by people I like. Lou roped in Jerry Douglas to play some gorgeous dobro (as is his wont), and Billy Strings to pick some guitar on another track. But I discovered that these players were just the icing – the cake is Lindsay Lou’s sharp melodic songwriting with potent lyrics, and her pitch-perfect and evocative vocals. She comes from a bluegrass background, and that’s obvious on several songs here, but she also has a penchant for indie rock. One especially gorgeous track features phone conversations with her late grandmother whose voice and accent are perfect for the tales she tells of hippy gatherings and literally life-saving communications. These are played over delicately dancing instrumental bits and occasionally interrupted by Lou’s love-drenched vocals.
Matana Roberts – Coin Coin Chapter 5: In the Garden. Roberts is a saxophonist, a composer, a storyteller. Her Coin Coin project is an ongoing series which examines African-American history through events in the lives of her ancestors. This particular tale is set in 1925, when Roberts’ great-grandmother was in a heavily patriarchal marriage, trapped into sex where her pleasure was not at all important. She actually left the man after having two sons, but when she found herself pregnant a third time, she attempted to end the pregnancy herself, and died a few days after a fall down a set of stairs. Roberts gives this woman a vibrant voice, capable of matter-of-factly telling horrible details and constantly reminding us of her true spirit. All of this is set against dense, sometimes frantic, sometimes calming saxophones, violins, pianos, percussion, and more. The album is like one long symphony with spoken word storytelling and sixteen segments which either blend together or serve as hard juxtapositions. I think it’s probably a masterpiece.
Ann Wilson – Another Door. I’m down for pretty much anything this great rock vocalist wants to sing. With little chance of Heart ever getting back together again, Ann has put together a solid band she calls Tripsitter. At first listen, it reminded me a bit of Robert Plant’s Band of Joy, but that’s probably more because Wilson has always been keenly aware of what Plant does as a singer. The music is more or less straight-ahead rock’n’roll, and Wilson’s vocals have lost none of her power 47 years after we first heard her. Some catchy songs with weird lyrics – I’m still puzzling about the robots rusting in the rain storm that talks. Another classic rock singer, Paul Rodgers, put out a new record a couple months back, Midnight Rose, which finds him in equally great voice, but with much weaker new material. Ann Wilson wins.
The Rolling Stones – Hackney Diamonds. Well, hell, I can’t find anything not to love about this record. Oh, sure, I can say that it’s not as good as (fill in the name of any of the all-time classic Stones albums from the 60s and 70s). I can definitely say that the two songs with Charlie Watts still in the drum chair before he died have much more swing, much more openness in the rhythm (even more in the one that has Watts and the return of Bill Wyman). I can admit the Keith Richards song is kind of a retread. But, damn, this does what I want from a rock record. The songs are memorable, even ear-wormy at times. (If these guys plan to live another ten years and somehow keep touring, “Angry” just might sneak its way into their permanent setlist.) The guitars are first-rate – I was worried because of Keith’s arthritis issues, but while he isn’t playing the same as we’ve heard him before, he’s figured out how to say something potent with what he can do, and Ron Wood is aligned perfectly with him. Jagger’s vocals are ridiculously good, and if there’s autotune involved, as some say, it’s impossible for me to detect. The rhythms are sharp and distinctive, the guest stars (especially McCartney playing punk bass and Lady Gaga comparing herself to Merry Clayton) are on point. It’s a very good record that just so happens to have been made by guys who are legendary.