My 20 favorite albums of 2020 - In Alphabetical Order #6-10

 

Bob Dylan – Rough and Rowdy Ways (Columbia)- What is there to say about the new Dylan album that hasn’t been said? Surely nothing.

But If I am going to try and write about what I am listening to,I owe it a few words. It is the first album of original Dylan material in eight years, so there was no way that it would be treated in the same manner of albums in the late 80s/early 90s that came out every year or two.

That said, even with high expectations, I find this to be a success.

The sixteen minute Murder Most Foul largely overshadowed the release. It’s a monster epic.

For me, given enough time from release, I think I can give it an appraisal.

Murder Most Foul is still a monster. That said, I am less beholden to its spell. The album, particularly opener ‘I Contain Multitudes’ suffers in comparison. Both seem to be drawn from the same place- a stream of consciousness word association.

Multitudes doesn’t have the same level of seriousness, but it adds Dylan’s humor which makes me (blasphemously) prefer it some days.

When Dylan compares himself to Anne Frank, you aren’t sure how to take it. The Dylan of the infamous 1965 San Francisco press conference never really left. He’s always been hard to read and hellbound on doing his own thing.

But if he means that he will be taught in the history book, he’s not wrong. At this point, it is long into the National lexicon that any promising songwriter is called a “new Dylan”

The album surely draws a bit from his Sinatra era, and towards the back half, the Blues. He is at once, an elder statesmen of American music and the guy who led the Rolling Thunder Revue.

He is why we are sad when our artists like Bowie, Prince and Lou Reed pass before attaining a century of life. Who can say what gems our classic writers can create in their Autumn years.

This is a strong set of songs that really leave an impact.

I suspect though Dylan would think I am being too serious. Does this album give me enjoyment when I listen? My lands, yes.

Steve Earle – Ghosts of West Virginia (New West)-  If you know me, you know that I will take any chance I get to talk about Steve Earle.

His first and third albums of his “Nashville” career are essential. I prefer Copperhead Road to Guitar Town, but both are essential records. The second album “Exit 0” is in the shadows of the two landmarks. It is probably the most obvious bid for airplay, but it is also a very strong album- just perhaps too slick for most.

The two albums from his comeback are also genre defining- “I Feel Alright” and “El Corazon”. “Train A Comin” was released a year before the “comeback” on a small label and so didn't get a lot of notice. These three records make a shortlist of required listening.

Earle kept that momentum going. If I have five albums in the top tier, then the next record “The Mountain” immediately goes on the second tier list. It is a collaboration with the Del McCoury Band- a bluegrass album, and a pattern emerges that Earle's best albums have themes (if not, all his albums).

I won't review every album since there are so many good ones, and there is an inevitable trend downward. I am partial to 2004 “The Revolution Starts Now”. Released a couple of months after Micheal Moore's “Fahrenheit 911”, it is a soundtrack for a certain time, and certainly defined that point in Earle's career. There were a couple of songs that got a great deal of attention, though in retrospect, it's the songs like “Home to Houston” and “Rich Man's War” that stand with Earle's best work.

In recent years, Earle seems to be getting his mojo back- the Blues-based Terraplane from 2015, a duet album with Shawn Colvin in 2016, and So You Wannabe an Outlaw from 2017 show a steady upward tick. “Outlaw” wasn't perfect but it did feel like his best album in years.

The new record “Ghosts of West Virginia” hits hard on first listening. It checks off all the marks for a great Earle record. It harkens back to “The Mountain” where the theme is coal mining. Of note, it should be a song cycle since it was written for a play about a 2010 mine disaster.

A couple of things that stand out is that it's a well constructed set of songs. Interestingly, the album wouldn't sound bad on country radio, especially a song like “Union God and Country”. There's no chance of that, of course, but it talks to Earle's strengths as a songwriter. There's nothing overtly subversive about that song – it's just we live in a political environment. “The Mine” is another song that might fit on an early Earle record when he was getting airplay.

The songs “Black Lung” and “Devil Put the Coal in the Ground”) are cut from the same cloth of the Steve Earle who might hang out with the Supersuckers. There is a fury that Earle doesn't always bring to the fore, but he can and certainly will, when needed. They sound like cousins to his earlier “Oxycontin Blues” (and of course, its father “Copperhead Road”) with a Banjo playing the part of say, Johnny Ramone's guitar.

Another facet of a great Earle albums is a mix of songs- there's “Heaven Ain't Goin' Nowhere” (spiritual or gospel), “Fastest Man Alive” (country boogie or rockabilly), and “If I could see your face again” ( a sweet folky ballad sang by fiddler Eleanor Whitmore which recalls Emmylou Harris). “It's About Blood” draws from the same AOR territory (Seger, Springsteen, Mellencamp) that Earle was embraced by back in 1986. It is also a song that lists the name of the deceased miners- a fact I heard before I heard the song. I suspected that would make it resistant to repeated listening. I was wrong.

This album is another highlight in a career of highlights, likely to fall into that second tier of albums to recommend for the new listener. If you know me, you know I think Earle's the best songwriter alive. Objectively, I will at least say he's caught Springsteen and is going after Dylan.

Fun Fact: Allmusic lists of Similar Albums include the Rocky Horror Show by Richard O'Brien. While, I am indeed also a Rocky Horror fan, someone will have to explain how they arrived at that. I suppose “Hot Patootie” might fit if you worked it up with fiddle.

Matt Elliott- Farewell to All We Know (Ici d'ailleurs) - One of the artists that I have watched closely over the last 15 years is Matt Elliott. Pushed to describe him, I would say he certainly falls in a category of Nick Cave and Tom Waits in dramatic music, though perhaps closer to the Tinderstsicks, Piano Magic, and others who dabble in baroque pop, as well as more esoteric fare like Swans and Current 93. The atmosphere of the music comes first, and lyrics second.

Of course, Elliott has been around longer than that. He was a member of Flying Saucer Attack on their first album, before making many records as the Third Eye Foundation. 3EF was active in the 90s, and I am not knowledgeable enough to speak on them, but Elliott's run in the 21st Century as a “solo” artist is worthwhile. His best starting spot is perhaps the albums that have a theme (04's Drinking Songs, 06's Failing Songs, and 08's Howling Songs). Plus somewhere in here, I want to work in that he has an album with the fantastic title “Only Myocardial Infarcation Can Break Your Heart” (2013).

2020's Farewell to All We Know may be his best. Coincidentally, it's hard to listen to without thinking of last year's Leonard Cohen album Thanks for the Dance. Smoky, husky vocals, Spanish guitar, cello and apocalyptic folk minimalism. Of course, Elliott has charted this course long ago. In any case, this appears to be worthwhile

Jim Bob- Pop Up Jim Bob (Cherry Red) - I was recently reminded by a new social media friend how much I enjoyed Carter USM.

In fact, 1992:The Love Album is a record that I liked as much as any of its day.

But for whatever reason, Carter USM has faded from memory. Surely the product of a goofy name (the Unstoppable Sex Machine) and a genre that incorporated dance music into traditional rock.

I suspect the fact that they never had American success means they aren’t looked at with as much reverence as similar (and similarly named) bands of the day like Ned's Atomic Dustbin, Jesus Jones and the Happy Mondays.

In 2014, the Guardian (upon the band’s dissolution) wondered why the band has been written out of 90s UK indie history) but was the same publication that in 2007 posited that no one will ever cite Carter USM as an influence.

If you can get passed the ridiculous name, ridiculous hair and the duo’s ridiculous sobriquets (JimBob and FruitBat), they were a clever band- very satirical and very informed.

One can’t help but think of things would have been different if they had arrived post-Radiohead. Would JimBob have fronted a four piece and maybe been a Guy Garvey kind of character? Would he have been characterized as an esoteric songwriter like Damon Gough? Or a lo-fi band in the golden era of ‘circa 2005’.

In any case, this one slowly snuck on my radar, but in 2020, the ‘return of JimBob’ is going to hardly be on the list of most surprising things to happen.

I am struck by two things. First, this is very much in line with what a Carter USM album should sound like. It is a worthy successor to the Love Album. Secondly, is how contemporary it is. JimBob hits 2020 and it’s all there (just look at the song titles for a start)- a 30 second blast called ‘2020 WTF!’, “You’re Cancelled and We’re Done”, “Ted Talks” and “#thoughtsandprayers”.

I hesitate to think if any songwriter tried to capture these most unusual of times, that they would err somehow - too cloying, perhaps or tone deaf or clunky. Which isn’t to say JimBob is perfect, but this is actually a pretty solid record. Which makes me think he might be the artist we didn’t know we needed, but I am glad he is here for us.

The Killers – Imploding the Mirage (Island) -  Wonderful Wonderful was on my Best of 2018 but to be honest, I had started to count the Killers out. The band had went five years between records when WW came out, each member had a solo record or project, bassist Mark Stoermer had retired from touring and Guitarist/cofounder Dave Keuning is on an indefinite hiatus that at least looks like he may never return. Moreover, the album’s best song Run For Cover originated from the 2008 Day and Age sessions.

To be honest, my early impression of Imploding the Mirage wasn’t particularly favorable. I am not a fan of early single Fire in Bone. Still, I saw rave reviews for the album and glad I sought it out.

While the specter of U2 has always loomed over the Killers, it feels it is here in a different way. By now, the band has done well to forge their own unique style. However, this album feels like they are striving for the Big Record. It is like something we would expect from a band like U2.

Without Keuning, producer Jonathan Rado and Stoermer pick up the guitar duties. Rado is best known as the multi-instrumentalist from the duo Foxygen and seems an inspired choice.

Lending to the Big Album feel also is that it is an All-Star affair. Guest performers include Lindsay Buckingham, kd lang, Weyes Blood, Lucius, Roger Manning of Jellyfish, Blake Mills, and members of the Lemon Twigs and the War on Drugs.

Like latter day U2, the band isn’t afraid to experiment and bring in people like Alex Cameron (who has helped co-write some of the band’s best recent songs), and heavy hitting engineers/mixers like Flood, Alan Moulder and Emily Lazar ( Beck, Foo Fighters, Sia, Vampire Weekend). The album writing credits also include Can, Neu! and Frankie Knuckles as the band uses some samples from 80s Chicago House music and early 70s Krautrock.

Now, what does this mean in a post- CD, post- Album, post-seemingly everything rock music environment? It’s hard to say. But they do present us with a fully realized often sonic record that sounds like the direction the band wants to move in and it’s the type of record that improves on subsequent listening.

Yes, with Lindsay Buckingham on board (the secret weapon on the soaring single Caution) it’s hard not to think of them as the Fleetwood Mac of today or any of the huge 70s monster pop bands, eyes pointed to Heaven (or at least the arena stage). Does that world still exist? I doubt it matters much if it only exists in Brandon Flowers’s mind and those of his fans when you have an album like this.