By Scott
Bruce Cockburn, Bone on Bone.
This is something like Cockburn’s thirty-third album
overall, and it’s astounding how he continues to be so damn good. The six years
since his last album have put a little age in his voice, but there’s a great
deal of personality and even some eccentricity there, too. And while the songs
didn’t all grab me at first, I grew to love this album pretty quickly. “3 Al
Purdy’s” may be one of his best songs.
Son Volt, Notes of Blue.
I had a similar reaction to this as I did to the new Bruce
Cockburn album: it felt a little familiar and understated on the first listen,
but soon revealed itself to be a solid and welcome entry in the Son Volt
catalog.
Shrinebuilder, Shrinebuilder.
I’ve had this album for a few years, but, for some reason,
it went into heavy rotation in 2017. Shrinebuilder is like the Traveling
Wilburys but made up of musicians from the doomier precincts of the metal
world. Here’s hoping they release another one someday.
The Obsessed, The Obsessed.
Listening to Shrinebuilder got me exploring more of the work
of Scott “Wino” Weinrich, whom I knew mostly from St. Vitus. Where better to
start than the beginning?
Amorphis, Tuonela.
I bought this album many years ago but was losing interest
in the direction that Amorphis was heading in, specifically a kind of
prog-flavored hard rock. (Since then, they’re released a handful of albums with
a new vocalist that are closer to their classic sound.) I nearly forgot that
this album existed, but when I gave it another try this year, I found that I
really liked it. Who knew?
Jason Isbell, The Nashville Sound.
I don’t know if I would name a certain Isbell album as his
best, but this one certainly seems like the most consistent and well-formed. He
has a talent for writing quiet, meticulously crafted, extremely depressing
ballads that I admire but never want to listen to, and thankfully there’s only
one of those here. (It’s also interesting to compare his “White Man’s World”
with a song like “What It Means” by his former bandmates in the Drive-By
Truckers, from their last, and more overtly political, album.)
Steven Wilson, Hand Cannot Erase and The
Raven that Refused to Sing.
I’ve been a fan of Wilson’s band Porcupine Tree for a long
time, and I enjoyed his first two solo albums but thought they were a little
spacey and underwhelming. It wasn’t until this year that I got these subsequent
two albums (from 2015 and 2013). I was really missing out. His newest, To
the Bone from this year, is much more of a pop-inflected album, and
while there are some great moments—along with some frankly cheesy ones – I
prefer his sprawling prog albums, such as these two. They sound great (not for
nothing is Wilson an acclaimed audio engineer as well as a bandleader) and
there are fantastic guitar solos galore.
The Tierney Sutton Band, The Sting Variations.
Sutton is a contemporary jazz vocalist and this album is
made up entirely of songs by Sting (solo and a few from The Police). I realize
this may not be for everyone but, hey – I like that kinda shit!
Corrosion of Conformity live (opening for Danzig on tour).
I’ve wanted to see this band (with singer/guitarist Pepper
Keenan in the mix) for many years, and finally got the chance, albeit for a
brief opening set. Still, it was excellent. Song of the night: “Vote with a
Bullet.”
Bill Frisell Trio live at the Village Vanguard.
Frisell has one of the most recognizable sounds around (you
can hear him on another album I listened to quite a bit this year, Lucinda
Williams’s The Ghosts of Highway 20), and seeing him perform in
this intimate, historic venue was a thrill. Watching the great drummer Rudy
Royston from only a few feet away was an extra bonus.
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