I am not a singles guy, but an album guy. So my “best of” is my favorite albums for 2015. I am behind schedule, but better late than never right?
I will cut to the chase, my favorite album of 2015 is Kamasi Washington’s The Epic. This is a very ambitious jazz album: 3CDs/3LPs, choir, strings and famous friends (Thundercat). I got to see Kamasi’s touring band and that was pretty ambitious too (e.g. two drummers and a vocalist). The music has a 70s soul jazz feel for the most part, but also there are some John Coltrane moments. This is very accessible jazz, yet it is not light.
The rest of this list is in no particular order.
Another ambitious album is Titus Andronicus The Most Lamentable Tragedy. This a rock opera by a punk band. I would be dismissive of that description – but don’t let it dissuade you from checking this album out.
Titus Andronicus reminded me of Springsteen. Continuing with the “ambitious” theme, Bruce also had an ambitious release The Ties That Bind: The River Collection. I did not get a chance to review that collection, so I will share a bit here. Springsteen had been on a roll with some great albums, but they did not catch the magic of his live shows. Springsteen’s goal with The River was to capture some of that live magic. It worked, The River had a great bar band feel and it yielded Springsteen’s first top 40 hit with “Hungry Heart” (written in few minutes as a for the Ramones). It turns out Springsteen wrote a boatload of unreleased material for The River and the purpose of this collection is to pull all the material together. This is truely bonus material – these are not leftovers that should have never seen the light of day – this is a great desert to a gourmet dinner.
Yet another ambitious release was from Bob Dylan: The Cutting Edge 1965 – 1966: The Bootleg Series Vol.12: Collector’s Edition. I am embarrassed to admit I laid out $600 for this epic collectable. Allegedly every thing cut to tape in the studio during Dylan’s most important period (Bring it Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde).
What do we learn from this collection of master takes, alternative takes and stops and starts? That Dylan was pretty spontaneous in the studio and at the same time pretty concise (18 CDs for 3 albums originally spread across 4 CDs does not seem like a lot of excess junk to me). My favorite cuts are the deconstructed multi-tracks of “Like A Rolling Stone.”
The 18 CD edition includes Dylan’s original nine mono 45 RPM singles released during the time period, packaged in newly created picture sleeves featuring global images from the era. The limited edition includes rare hotel room recordings from the Savoy Hotel in London (May 4, 1965), the North British Station Hotel in Glasgow (May 13, 1966) and a Denver, Colorado hotel (March 12, 1966) as well as a strip of original film cels from “Don’t Look Back.” In addition you have the privilege of downloading a pile of MP3s of live material from the period. I am still working through all this material.
This is for the truly obsessive – but their are less expensive choices too – including the Spotify sampler below.
This could have been so bad: Dylan as crooner singing songs made famous by Sinatra, but it worked. Bob Dylan’s Shadows In The Light was so enthusiastic and genuine that it was impossible to deny. In addition to being a labor of love, I think the reason it worked is because the arrangements were pulled together from Dylan’s regular working band.
Chris Potter Underground Orchestra’s Imaginary Cities is a very nice jazz piece. Similar to Kamasi Washington it is accessible without selling out. Unfortunately ECM releases are not available on Spotify so if you want to check this out you will have to layout the cash.
I was not a Gov’t Mule fan before hearing this release. The hook for me was John Scofield. Sco-Mule is a treasure and turned me into a Gov’t Mule fan. Unfortunately the live show promoting the album I saw at the State Theater in Minneapolis was a disappointment – Sco phoned it in.
Knopfler never disappoints – Tracker was another success.
As great a studio band as Weather Report was, they where just as good (if not better) live. This collection captures them in the era when I saw them live.
Coldplay is a guilty pleasure.
Adele’s 25 is good, but you know that because it is the last album that everyone bought. Congratulations Adele for getting people to actually buy music.
If you have not heard St Germain, you don’t know what you are missing and you have to check this out.
Last year’s Pink Floyd leftovers was a nice little gift, but this year’s David Gilmour solo was a shock – had no idea it was coming and so it was extra special. Extra kudos for taking advantage of modern technology.
Low is such a wonderful quite storm. Here is another gorgeous slow burner from them.
Wilco delivered a sneak attack with Star Wars.
If not for Kamasi Washington, Ferry’s Avonmore may have been my #1.
Father John Misty put out a great album and he rivaled the Stones for the best live show I saw this year.
Every bit as good as her last album, Short Movie got slighted in my listening when it first came out, but I made it up by listening to it later in the year.
I have a half-written review of this album in my draft posts- I doubt it will ever see the light of day. But don’t that let that suggest that Crosseyed Heart isn’t a great album. I saw the Stones live this past summer and they where shockingly good – better than when I saw them in the 80s.
Another half-written post, that will likely never see the light of day. Unlike Dan Auerbach, Craig Finn is not afraid to try something different when he is away from his day job.
It took me a while, but I finally learned that T-Swift is a talent. It took Ryan Adams to convince me.
I can’t forget my perennial best of: the love of my life, the lovely Laura. For tolerating – no fanning my music passion (and other passions). For example, she is the one who insisted that I sit down and watch the Kennedy Center Honors. I want to thank her for discovering pre-sales for concerts, making Record Store day a family event, and making our home a shrine to music. Love you Pea!
Nothing delights my ears more than when a legacy act delivers an album late in their career that is as daring as anything from their prime. That is rare, but even rarer is when they deliver a masterpiece that holds its own against the meat of their catalog. And rarest of all is when they deliver something that is totally contemporary, yet totally themselves. Well Bowie delivers on all counts with Blackstar.
The sound bites are that this is Bowie’s jazz album. That is simplistic. Yes Bowie uses a jazz band (Donny McCaslin’s band), but he uses that band not to play jazz, but to play Bowie music. There are jazz instruments and textures but this is Bowie rock.
I can’t begin to describe how amazing this album sounds. This is not easy music. It is cacophony at times, but it consistently swings. It is stunning beautiful. The best way to describe it is to imagine if Radiohead did a jazz album.
At no point does Bowie sound like he is pandering or trying to be young. This a mature album, yet fresh. It is the kind of album that makes you wonder “where the hell did this come from?” But then you remember that Bowie is one of the greats of pop music – the master of both sound and vision. A true original. Why wouldn’t he birth another masterpiece? He is Bowie.
Bowie has thrown down the gauntlet to the pop world that he is not over the hill, but king of the hill. Blackstar has reserved a spot on lot of best of 2016 lists the first week of year.
I don’t consider myself a cinephile, but I was shocked at the shoddy quality of the roadshow presentation of The Hateful Eight. The projection was blurry on the edges, lines on the sides and wobbly. It reminded me of the highly used films that my junior high used to show at lunch hour – well that is an exaggeration, but I was expecting pristine visuals and to be visually blown away. My assumption is the renovated projector and an inexperienced projectionist are to blame.
The idea was great: do an old style epic with state of the art antique equipment and present it roadshow-style like back in the late 50s and early 60s. I am an analog guy – I love my vinyl LPs – this should have been right up my alley. Oh well, a swing and a miss, but nice try. You won’t have missed a thing when you see it via DLP.
So how was the movie? It was very much a Tarantino movie: wordy, visually clever, non-liniar plot, comical violence, great music, unabashed borrowing from other movies, etc. I love Tarantino movies, but frankly I found this one a slow and unadventurous. If you are a fan of Tarantino, love westerns and have a sick sense of humor you will like this move. I liked it – it just did not blow me away – but frankly Tarantino has not blown me away since Pulp Fiction (my all-time favorite film).
The novelty of this movie was going to be the 70 mm analog film, when that stumbled, this movie became nothing more than another notch in Tarantino’s belt. We only have two Tarantino movies left – lets hope he blows our minds at least once more before he goes off to write the great American novel.
Sometimes Spotify undermines an album due to lack of investment by the listener. When While You Were Sleeping came out in 2014 I gave it a couple spins on Spotify, but I never really listened.
Recently I found a new copy of the vinyl LP at the Electric Fetus in the closeout rack and I thought I would give it a second chance because No Beginning No End was so good.
When I put down cash on a physical copy of an album I listen to it differently. I am committed – it is not just a drive by.
I have been listening to the album the last few days and I am hooked. James is hard to classify: is it jazz, pop, hip hop, electronica? I love music that is hard to classify – where you are reduced to having to call it merely good or bad music. Needless to say this is good music.
James has a beautiful baritone that he can leap into higher registers with the greatest of ease. It is a smooth fine whiskey.
On this album James strays pretty far from jazz. It is a combination of an electronica and Radiohead vibe, yet very soulful. The production values are top-notch. This would make a great reference record to test drive a stereo. If you like soul music, but are tired of young artist who just rehash the classics and are willing to take an adventure check this album out. José James is a true original.
This collection could have easily been titled Weather Report The Jaco Years. As much as Weather Report was the Joe and Wayne show, when Jaco Pastorius graced the band he was an equal voice. I discovered Jaco via Joni Mitchell and Jaco delivered me to Weather Report’s Heavy Weather. So I am a little biased about Jaco’s prominence in the band.
I was pretty stoked when I saw this collection was coming out because, in addition to being a Jaco fan, this was the era I saw Weather Report live in a Minneapolis theater. I got a little nervous when I read this was mainly soundboard to cassette recordings – but my concern was in vain – the audio quality is 5-star.
Most of my experience with Weather Report is via their studio recordings – and they were very much a studio band. But as I learned that night 35 years ago, these cats are a great live band and this collection is the definitive evidence for posterity.
The collection sprawls four CDs. It is breathtaking. It pops out of the speakers in a way the studio albums never did. This is the band raw, yet they are tight. Wayne Shorter’s role was sometimes a bit too subtle on the studio albums. In these live cuts he shreds.
And then there is Jaco. This was the perfect band for Jaco. Zawinul and Shorter were jazz cats, but they had rock and roll hearts and sense of showmanship. They were the perfect mentors for the bass genius.
Zawinul is at times experimental and esoteric and then swinging. He is a soloist and a horn section. He is sound effects, but never gimmicky. He is the leader and the foundation of the sound. It is an absolute privilege to hear him do it live.
It is going to take me awhile for me to fully digest the four hours of this collection. But the early listens have engaged me. This is one great artifact of a world-class jazz band at the height of their powers. This is what I most love about jazz: sophisticated fun. There is a reason they call it playing music. If you want a shortcut check out CD 4 “Black Market.”
I have been a Coldplay fan since 2000’s Parachutes, which was a pretty brilliant debut. Although I have liked some albums less than others, Coldplay has never issued a stiff. They have continuously evolved their sound, but they have remained true to who they are – an unabashed pop band. I have often considered them U2 wannabes and/or Radiohead-lite. But that characterization seems derogatory for a band I like. They are just a pop band that has been churning out hits for 15 years. If that was so easy, why don’t more bands turn that trick? Paul McCartney proved writing “Silly Love Songs” takes expert craftsmenship if not artistry.
I liked their last album even though it was not full of arena anthems. Head Full Of Dreams is a return to classic arena anthem form. It is pure ear candy. You can imagine every one of these songs as an arena sing-along.
The album opens with the titular track. It is quintessential Coldplay. This track would not sound out-of-place on any of their albums.
“Birds” emphasizes rhythm over melody and nods to hip hop (something the band has been doing since Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends).
“Hymns For The Weekend” opens with a Beyoncé vocal (it helps to have friends I high places). This a hip hop song without a rap. It is the ultimate in-the-moment pop.
“Everglow” has a nice minimalistic Bruce Hornsby feel. A gorgeous ballad.
“Adventure Of A Lifetown” has a disco feel. It. Has a great clubbing sound. It reminds me of Bryan Ferry/Roxy Music with a bit of Daft Punk. This is the debut single.
“Fun” is currently my favorite cut. It absolutely swirls. The second half is a duet with Swedish singer/songwriter Tove Lo.
“Kaleidoscope” is an ambitious segue that has spoken word (poem by Persian poet Rumi) and a sample of Obama singing “Amazing Grace.”
No “Army Of One” is my favorite song on the album. An ear worm. The track includes a hidden track “X Marks the Spot” at 3:23 mark. That hidden track is pure Kanye.
My wife remarked,when hearing “Amazing Day,” that it had a prom slow-dance feel. I could not have said it better myself. Close your eyes and you can see the disco ball shards of light littering the room.
“Colour Spectrum” is a brief interlude.
“Up&Up” is a wonderful finale. It pulls all the stops. A full on champagne supernova – featuring a brilliant Noel Gallagher solo of course.
I don’t know who the hell Stargate is, but he/she/it is one hell of a great collaborator with Coldplay as the primary producer along with long time Coldplay producer/engineer Rik Simpson on this album.
I believe this may be Coldplay’s best album since their 2002 breakthrough A Rush of Blood to the Head. My only complaint is that it is not on Spotify – I would have bought the physical copy anyway, but it is damn inconvenient that it is not on my streaming service.
Overall a great album and this will clearly be on my best of 2015.
Coldplay is now available on Spotify. Assume it because Spotify will filter availability to premium customers .
This album was first released in late 2008 and I had a download version. It was an extremely well recorded live set that was basically a greatest hits album. It was also a DVD, but I have never watched that. This past summer a deluxe edition was released with a second disk and Record Store Day – Black Friday released that deluxe edition on vinyl.
To me, Jeff Beck is the most talented of the 60s guitar gods. Well at least he is the most diverse in his styles: blues, heavy rock, funk and jazz rock fusion (sometimes in the same song). He has gorgeous tone and is a great interpreter of songs. He can showoff with the best of the guitar heroes, but his gift is his lyrical playing – his guitar sings.
This album is a great introduction to Jeff Beck’s work. The original album (disk 1 and 2 of this vinyl version) do not have single clunker. For a live album, it has studio quality sonics. The LP version of the album is lush (of course I am comparing to an MP3).
A great sequence that defines Jeff Beck is LP 2 Side 1 (AKA Side C). It opens with “Angel (Footsteps),” which is Beck at his most lyrical – he sounds more like a horn player than guitar player. Think late 50s Miles Davis. He juxtapositions that with “Scatterrbrain” which is pure guitar god pyrotechnics (this version was features on the hardest set list of Guitar Hero 5). He closes out with the pure jazz of Mingus’ “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat” which segues into “Brush With The Blues” which is down and dirty (yet pretty damn fancy) blues . I won’t bore you with a track by track account of the whole album. This sequence pretty much defines the album: brilliance, genius and most of all joy. And by the way his band is perfect.
The bonus disk side 1 (side E) is filled with guest vocalists: Joss Stone for one song, Imogine Heap for two songs and Eric Clapton for a couple (and of course he adds a little fret work with his appearance). The vocalist distract you from Beck’s guitar, but if you give it a careful listen you realize what a sensitive accompanist Beck is. For me Imogine Heap and Beck work the best because she matches closest to his lyrical ballad style (although “Rollin’ And Tumblin'” is pretty damn bluesy). Clapton is a gentleman and does not try to get into a guitar cutting session with Beck, opting for a friendly conversation and deferring to Beck for the big statements.
The final slide is with The Big Town Playboys who accompanied Beck on his 1993 Gene Vincent tribute Crazy Legs. Clearly Jeff Beck enjoys playing vintage rock and roll. This genre may seem corny, but this is no different from Wynton Marsalis playing Dixieland jazz – this is foundation stuff. You need to acknowledge the base. For me it is Chuck Berry, but Vincent must have been Beck’s drug of choice.
Overall this album is a great overview of Jeff Beck’s career in one sitting. An extraordinary document of the guitar genius and guitar diversity that is Jeff Beck.
There are not many mega pop stars that I followed from day one, but Adele is one of them. Her debut album 19 was great and “Chasing Pavements” was an amazing single (and the fact she invented a clever phrase was a triple bonus). 21 was even better and she became the biggest and brightest star in the pop world. People loved her music so much they actually paid for it. She has made her fans wait 4 years for the follow-up – this is one of the most anticipated releases in a long time. It sold a record setting 2.3 million albums in the first three days.
I love Adele, but it is annoying she is not streaming the album and she issued the vinyl LP without a download. Oh well, that just forces me to listen on my home system and fully appreciate the sounds vs. listening in the car or on Spotify through buds. This is big music that deserves to be listened to in the proper context.
I did listen to the pre-album single and LP opening song “Hello” before buying the LP and I thought it was a Lionel Richie song. The song did not grab me at first, but on repeated listens it has grown on me. When I bought the LP and looked at the liner notes I was surprised it was not a Ritchie song. I pulled out Can’t Slow Down just to make sure. It is a different song but clearly inspired by the Richie original. Ultimately this is a great single – a worthy calling card for the rest of the album.
“Send My Love (To Your New Lover) has a Radiohead like guitar riff, which is a pretty cool way to frame Adele.
“I Miss You” is a nice contemporary sounding song with echoey Phil Collins drums. It has just a touch of funk and risk.
One of the things I like about Adele’s voice is that it conventionally pretty, but it has just a touch of a growl. Her production values are epic, yet not over powering. The focus is always on the voice. “When We Were Young” is a great example of what I am talking about. This is my favorite song on the album.
“Remedy” closes side A with a simple voice and piano arrangement. Adele sings her ass off and you don’t need anything more. Her voice is an orchestra.
“Water Under The Bridge” open side B and is one of the more anonymous songs on the album. It is catchy but it seems a bit light weight for Adele. Over produced and it already sounds dated (seems like she is trying to be Taylor Swift – a move that is unnecessary).
“River Lea” is a Danger Mouse production. Adele and DM are a pretty good duo: his cinematic production values and Adele’s epic voice. You can imagine this song behind the end credits of a great movie and you would be Shazaming it because it sounded so foreign and familiar at the same time. This song begs for more Adele/Danger Mouse collaborations.
“Love The Dark” is a simple piano and strings arrangement that allows Adele to shine on the top. A real showcase for her.
“Million Years Ago” has a beautiful stark arrangement-just Adele and guitar (with some other subtle shading). It has a very retro feel to me. This could be from a 60s chanteuse.
Adele does a second simple arrangement in row (just voice and piano) with “All I Ask.”
The album concludes with “Sweet Devotion” – a bang. This is a big room anthem.
So does it live up to the hype and is it worthy of earning the all time one week album sales record? Nope, but no album could live up to that hype. This is a solid album and a worthy follow-up to 21. Adele does not sell out, she just does her thing (which just happens to monetize really well). I like the record but there is nothing on it that blows you away like “Rolling In The Deep.” I like that it has a diversity of styles but holds together. Ultimately it is Adele’s voice that defines her – she could sing a telephone book. Amazingly her cowriters/producers don’t get in the way, but properly elevate her. In the end this album appeals to me more than Taylor Swift’s 1989. It is a more grown up album and is fits better into my baby boomer aesthetics. It is gimmick free – just a great voice showcased.
Again it does annoy me this album is not streaming and even worse the vinyl did not come with a download (especially without a streaming option). It comes off as a money grab and disrespectful of the fans. It leaves just enough of a bad taste in my mouth to keep me from totally falling for the album (and frankly it just won’t be convenient enough to fall for).
I am not much of a punk music fan so I ignored Titus Andronicus despite all the hype over that last few years. I recently heard the band’s leader Patrick Stickles on a WTF podcast and was absolutely charmed and intrigued to check out the band’s ambitious new album The Most Lamentable Tragedy.
I listened to it on Spotify and was blown away. This is epic Born To Run Springsteen, The Who, Queen, Johnny Rotten and The Pouges inspired rock and roll. The band’s tag line for the album is: “a rock opera in five acts.”
I am in no position to provide a plot synopsis. So I will defer to the Pitchfork review:
The Most Lamentable Tragedy is a story told in five acts that follows the Hero, an unnamed man (who’s someone like Stickles) in an unnamed city (which is somewhere like New York) grappling with his neuroses. He’s confronted by his doppelgänger—an alternate self that seems to have everything figured out, and pushes him to find solace outside of sin. It’s a protracted allegory for manic depression, which Stickles has publicly struggled with since the band first came to attention.
I can speak to the music. It is both majestic and messy. It is both stadium rock and dive bar punk. It has tremendous anger and tender moments.
This is the second three-LP masterpiece I have enjoyed this year. Kamasi Washington’s The Epic being the first. Washington mined a couple of generations of jazz for his album. Titus Andronicus has done the same with rock and roll.
Patrick Stickles has an amazing voice. Once you get used to the shredding vocal chords and phlegmatic scream you come to appreciate what a brilliant and expressive instrument it is.
This is never garden variety garage rock, it is more in line with the ambitious wall of sound of mid-70s Springsteen. Lots of big guitar, but also plenty of keyboards, woodwinds, strings and back up vocals. If you want to dip your toe in the water with one of their more accessible yet complex numbers try “Lonely Boy.”
Some may find the album pretentious, I prefer to call it ambitious. It is albums like this that restore my faith in rock and roll. This is a dramatic presentation of raw human emotion: pissed, in love, self loathing, in lust, adrenaline fueled euphoria and an occasional fist through the wall. In short: rock and roll and I like it (if you don’t póg mo thóin).
I learned about Lenny White from his drumming with Return To Forever (RTF). RTF was one of the great fusion bands of the 70s where every member of the band was a virtuoso.
I don’t know the story of this album, but it is a hodgepodge.
The LP opens with the titular track where Lenny joins forces with Brian Auger’s Oblivion Express and the Tower Of Power horns. As you might expect it is badass jazz rock with a twist of funk.
The next is a soul jazz ballad featuring vocalist Linda Tillery and pianist Herbie Hancock. “Sweet Dreamer” is pretty anonymous, except for the Hancock keys.
Lenny juxtapositions the ballad with two disjointed “Interludes.” The first is a minute jam between Lenny and bassist Marcus Miller. The second a minute and half of an orchestra.
Lenny takes another hard turn on extended jam between Lenny, Herbie Hancock and Ray Gomaz (on guitar). “Rapid Transit” Is a punk-jazz jam. This song would have sounded perfectly fine after the first cut.
Side one ends with drum solo (“Ritmo Loco”) and an uncredited heavy guitar riff for a couple of bars.
Side two starts out with “Dreams Come And Go Away” a literal definition of jazz rock fusion. Heavy guitars from Journey’s Neal Schon and jazz piano from Onaje Allan Gumbs.
White then presents the ambitious “Enchanted Pool Suite.” A RTF-like composition featuring Mahavishnu Orchestra’s Jerry Goodman (violin) and Jan Hammer.
The album ends with a live cut featuring Brian Auger and the dueling guitars of Neal Schon (left channel) and Ray Gomez (right channel). A dash of sax from from Bernie Maupin spices things up.
Although this is a disjointed album, the individual cuts are worth the price of admission. The best cuts are on the rock side of the fusion spectrum. This album must have a following amongst collectors: used CDs are $100 and quality vinyl is in the $25 range. I picked up a decent vinyl copy for $4. I just wish the album had a little more continuity to it. It reminds me of another fusion drummer’s brilliant mess – Tony Williams The Joy Of Flying from about the same era. The album is not on Spotify, so start digging.
Axl's Catch Groove 