Keepers 2023

I tried a lot of new music in 2023. Very little stuck. Andre 3000’s album of flute music seemed preordained about the wacky Outkast reunion envisioned by Key and Peele. Lush reissued their catalogue. The surviving Conner brother found a forgotten live Screaming Trees session from 1991, and every moment is bliss. If only the vinyl pressing hadn't come out of the wrapper without immediate skips.  

Sparklehorse, Bird Machine
I never expected any new Sparklehorse music. No one did. But Mark with Danger Mouse and director David Lynch. Then he was gone. A spin through the two sides of Bird Machine helps the loss stings a little less. Linkous had Bird Machine mostly finished when he died, and his family took a light touch in finishing it for release.

Boygenius, the record
Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacius and Julien Baker bonded over the idea that women in rock should not be remarkable. Fortunately, the long-anticipated album as boygenius is more than remarkable. 

Slowdive, Everything is Alive
These shoegaze veterans took a 1980s detour on Everything is Alive. Then again, the rediscovery of shoegaze by a new generation (seriously, Slowdive's 2023 tour sold out everywhere) might lead us to a mandatory widening of the shoegaze genre. 

Sufjan Stevens, Javelin
At this point, it’s fair to say that few modern musicians wring great work from pathos the way that Sufjan does. Carrie and Lowell was a mid-2010s masterpiece. Javelin doesn’t land far behind. Written after the death of his longtime partner - but before he was diagnosed with Guilliame-Barre Syndrome, which requires that he learn to walk again – his hushed lyrics and fingerpicking are embellished by bigger arrangements but never lose their intimacy. He doesn’t hide his frailty, and the music never feels mournful. 

Thundercat and Tame Impala, No More Lies
I badly wanted this single to signal a full-length collaboration to come – even an EP. But for the moment, this is all there is between these two, a collaboration that teases us painfully. 

Reissues 

Bob Weir, Ace
Nevermind the cheesecake cover. Weir’s original solo album hit 50 in 2023 and upon first listen, it isn’t a solo album as much as a stealth Grateful Dead record. Most of the band appears on Ace, and almost every song became a live Dead staple. I’m fond of the original Playing in the Band as well as Mexicali Blues. The songs have a looseness often lacking on Dead studio albums (of which I only honor American Beauty and Workingman’s Dead). Even under Weir’s name, it’s a tight collection deserving praise among the best Dead records. 

Willie Nelson, … And Then I Wrote 
Some artists are more fully formed than we credit them. Nashville’s machine never got Willie Nelson, but even the clean-cut crooner on his debut, which turned 60 this year when he turned 90, feels like the long-haired Texan’s work. These songs have stayed with him his whole career – Crazy, Touch Me, Hello Walls, Funny How Time Slips Away. Some artists have short primes. But Willie has been playing these night after night for six decades. 

Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington, The Legendary Summit 
Once again, I forget that unlike some genres, jazz giants of a certain age often played live or recorded together. Armstrong’s warm, comforting voice welcomes us to “Duke’s Place” then the rest is a clinic of trumpet and piano.