Record Review- Five Recent Purchases

Call Me Old Fashioned

 

Yes, I still buy music. This means purchasing CDs, albums, and even tapes when appropriate. It doesn’t mean that I am anti-streaming. In fact, I find it handy to preview artists on such platforms as Youtube or Spotify (and in certain cases, when downloading an album via Bandcamp or Itunes is the only option, I do it). The following is a record review of five recent purchases. 

My issue with solely streaming is that I want to have a relationship with my music. This may mean listening to less quantity but hopefully, more quality. If I no longer had my CDs, records, or tapes, I would forget about a good number of bands, albums, or songs, and they’d be forever lost to the sands of time. For instance, without actually owning the album, I’d probably not stream Spacehog. Since owning not one, not two, but three Spacehog albums, they’re still on my radar, albeit not in heavy rotation, although I still really enjoy their first album, Resident Alien, (and some of the tracks on the second, the Chinese Album, still make the cut). 

 

Whenever I’m out running (literally), I use my iPhone for my playlist. I’m cheap so I make sure I’m using downloaded music and not running off the internet, so my options are limited. For this though, the same songs are on the few hundred song playlist, including Jason Isbell, Nick Cave, Tom Waits, all favorites of mine. Others too that were once added to the playlist: Neon Indian, Terrence Trent D’Arby, Matt Pond PA, I like, but I listen to them too much. I forget to update the playlist and by the time I’m ready to go, I’m not going to take the time to do this arduous task. 

This would be my fate if I were to only stream. It’d be nonstop Jason Isbell, Josh Ritter, Tom Waits, Ryan Adams, Nick Cave, Chris Isaak, George Winston, some of my absolute favorites. Yes, there are worse things, but just as with a flight of beer or a breakfast buffet, I need variety. I need physical albums even when it’s an ill-fated choice (such as Lou Reed and Metallica’s Lulu collaboration) that I put on, it’s something different. I’d probably not stream Native American flute music, Tyrolean dance numbers, or club hits of 2009, but sometimes I play these actual albums.

 

Not that I need to defend myself. The younger me would peruse record shops for hours. Head off to Cambridge or Northampton, Massachusetts, and just dig for records. This doesn’t happen too much anymore. First of all, brick and mortar stores are unfortunately not around in great quantities. Secondly, spending an hour looking for new music is not on the top of the list for the rest of my family, (although when I was a child, my own father would literally spend hours at record stores when we visited a city).

 

Mystery Train Records

Gloucester, Massachusetts’ Mystery Train Records is a throwback. It’s a record store in that classic sense. Walk inside and there is literally music everywhere. There are organized albums to look at but then piles underneath in every nook and cranny. Recently a friend and I stopped here, sopping wet after an unsuccessful trip to Dogtown in Gloucester, a ghost town of sorts. Instead, we found ourselves a few miles into the woods in the middle of torrential rain, thunder, and lightning. Being in the store with only my friend, I was allowed to take as long as I wished. I took advantage of it, as I brought home roughly 20 new albums that day. Couple that with a recent Secondspin.com order and I’ve had a lot of music to get through this summer.

 

My recent purchases range from Cheryl Wheeler to Ice Cube, so truly anything and everything. I took a flyer at writing about music for this blog, and was met with positive feedback. A few months back, I wrote a really fun piece on my most inspirational seasonal music for a whole year for Upjourney.com. It all got me thinking, when I was wandering around with my own family and sampling breweries, and before I knew it, I was up to my neck in music. 

That (long-windedly) gets to my post today. Here are five recommended albums from my recent purchases. Some of the listings are short, while others give a bit of a backstory. Without further ado, let’s begin. 

 

Warning: these aren’t new releases, simply new to me. Like buying that used car. 

 

LCD Soundsystem – American Dream

I have been on a bit of an LCD Soundsystem resurgence due to recently watching their “final” concert at Madison Square Garden Shut Up and Play the Hits. The group always holds a soft spot in my record collection. Ultra-cool with “Daft Punk is Playing at My House” from their first self-titled disc generated significant buzz as a single (along with others from James Murphy and Co. on that first double set). 

 

For me, it was the soundtrack to the last part of my last year at college. The early stuff was much rawer than what’s to be found on American Dream. I loved it as they name-checked the Modern Lovers and Nation of Ulysses on “Losing My Edge.” That double-disc was the unheralded soundtrack of the end of college, the end of a way of life never to be had again. 

 

Maybe that’s why when their next, Sound of Silver, and then their next, This is Happening, came out, I didn’t pay them much attention. I bought the albums and liked them. But as a now jaded adult, listening to LCD Soundsystem hit too close to home, with too many fond recollections of time that can’t be repeated, playing their self-titled disc.

 

Fast forward to 2019. When even the memory of being able to eat a bologna sandwich in peace and quiet after work makes me sentimental, I can now dive deep into LCD Soundsystem since there really is no time to sit and ponder memories. 

 

American Dream starts with “Oh Baby” a slower track that sets the tone of the disc, but speeds up quickly with “Other Voices” which sets me back to their earliest stuff. Many of the tracks are big sounding, surround sound big. The title track is such a song as that. 

I first listened to the album–just me and the stereo. It worked to really get into it, although it works just as well in the car. It’s a really solid album, through and through. 

 

I think it’s time to go back to those other LCD Soundsystem albums I overlooked too.

Gaslight Anthem – American Slang

 

It’s always fun when a new buzz band I learn about through my dad. (Especially ten years ago when I was younger, but he was still over 60.) The Gaslight Anthem to me is the band of 2019. Yes, I am way late to this party. I’ve owned The ‘59 Sound and Handwritten for years, but they finally made an imprint on me this year.

 

I was listening to The ‘59 Sound and eating up every minute of it–the lyrics, the heartfelt hard rock sound, to the point where I cruised around the block a few times extra to hear more. You can tell it’s a good album if it makes you want to stay in the car. 

 

I completely got pulled in by the references, including Springsteen in “No Surrender, my Bobby Jean” in the song “Meet me by the River’s Edge,” Charles Dickens’ “Great Expectations” and the love of vinyl with “45.” Those two albums I actually took the time to upload onto my iPhone and have been accompanying me on every run since. 

 

The band is from Jersey, a la Bruce. And their music has the same effect on me as my first hearing Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ or The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle. It’s like I’ve lived the stories in the songs. Such vivid imagery! 

 

I was super pleased to find American Slang at the store. As soon as I put it on, it fit perfectly alongside the other two Gaslight Anthem albums that I’ve been spinning nonstop for the last six months. The title track starts out with a bang. The driving guitar, singer Brian Fallon’s strong lyrics and emotional vocals, perfect. Other favorites on this album include “Bring it On” and “The Diamond Street Church Choir.” 

 

If you haven’t checked out this band, do it. Comparisons to Bruce and one of my favorite all-time bands, Social Distortion, are warranted, but they do it on their own. Great sound, impassioned lyrics and catchy to boot. 

Cheryl Wheeler -Sylvia Hotel

 

Talk about vivid songwriting, check out folk artist Cheryl Wheeler. Wheeler first struck me with her beautiful ode to the autumn season with “When Fall Comes to New England.” Somehow she was able to bottle up all that is sentimental about this season into a few minute song, highly recommended. 

 

Cheryl Wheeler has a strong voice. Her lyrics often tell a great story with beautiful songs.  (She’s also a lot of fun in concert). Many more traditional folk singers are too bland for me, but Wheeler stands out. 

 

“His Hometown” is such a pretty song of reverence about a farmer and the work he does. “But the Days and Nights are Long” is sad and she sells it. The most striking track is “If It Were Up to Me.” The sound is much different than the other tracks. Instead of acoustic guitar with minimal instrumentation, it starts out with an electric guitar. She starts listing what could be to blame for the incessant violence in this country. The last line is “If it were up to me, I’d take away the guns.” Hearing this (and not expecting it) was incredible poignant after another month with two mass shootings of homegrown terror. Powerful.

Sugar – Copper Blue

Bob Mould is at his rip-roaringest, picking up from where he left off in Husker Du. Take the track “Helpless,” with loud textured guitars, alterna-rock surges, but the basis, as he does so well, a great pop song. I have many albums from Mould’s various incarnations; Husker Du, solo, Sugar and this is a winner. Literally the first track “The Way We Act” starts the album’s groove and continues the theme throughout. 

Twin Shadow – Caer

Twin Shadow a friend introduced to me with “Confess,” Twin Shadow’s second album. The music is a nice mix between danceable indie and electronic. He has a great voice that mixes well with the modern sound. I first played “Saturdays” since it features Haim (one of my favorite tracks of the last little bit is Haim’s “Want You Back”). The song moves along, with nice input from the group of sisters and led by Twin Shadow. Much of this album takes the electropop and funkifies it; little hints of Prince shine through. Along with “Saturdays,” “When You’re Wrong” and “Sympathy” are among my favorites. 

I’m happy about most of my choices from my recent record purchases. For more BYRT record reviews, click here. 

Anything great you’ve been into lately? Leave a comment!

PS: the idea for the photo was both boys with headphones on, holding albums and looking at the camera.