Keepers 2025

Late with the list this year, I lament it is so short. But I filled in gaps from past years rather than focus on new releases. 

Cindy Lee, Diamond Jubilee
There aren't many two-hour, 31-track albums that compel to listen all the way through every time. But this record comes from somewhere else - don't ask me where. It's clearly crossing over from a world adjacent to our own. There's an undeniable  late 50s/early 60s vibe but it's processed through something rough yet ethereal. I put it on in the car and the two hours blink past. But I think it's a record suited to a night drive, a time when you can devote attention to every song. For most of 2024, Diamond Jubilee was only available on YouTube and a geocities site, then it finally came to Bandcamp. Hopefully it will become better discovered as time goes on, as its songs already feel timeless. The physical release won't arrive till February 2025 so there's still time to join the Cindy Lee train. 

The Cure, Songs from a Lost World
Somehow, The Cure broght me back to the fold.  Songs from a Lost World sounds like the Cure record I hoped would Wish, not the occasional moments of brilliance and long gaps between albums that started in the mid-1990s. Words of caution - This is not a record to devour when you're already depressed. But Robert Smith and company reward repeated listens.

Hurray for the Riff Raff, The Past is Still Alive
This one hit me hard, and the incisive lyrics challenge me with every listen. It's a batch of unsentimental Americana that resides in rare air. Few albums could boast such rich songwriting. I keep returning to The Colossus of Roads, and so should you. 

Reissues
Mark Lanegan, Bubblegum XX
Remember those constant Mark Lanegan releases of a decade ago, sometimes 2-3 albums and EPs a year. I complained then. But the solo album that kicked off Lanegan's impressive solo run gets a deserving anniversary reissue. The deluxe four-LP boxed set includes the original record spread onto two albums, the Here Comes that Weird Chill EP that preceded Bubblegum, and a record of recently discovered hotel-room demos that show how Lanegan could work up music anywhere (several are early versions of tunes that appear later in his solo career). If it's the last Lanegan release I buy (aside from the continued Screaming Trees archival releases), it's a worthy finish, a leap back to the point at which Lanegan's solo work took a major leap. The demos star as much as the album, because they reveal an artist always in motion, creating at every step.

Bad Brains, I Against I
I longed for a vinyl reissue of this mid-80s masterpiece. Bad Brains started off playing hardcore at a blistering pace but had heavy roots in reggae and 80s rock. She's Calling You could have been a hit in a different universe, with dizzying guitar work among lyrics that could have come from Prince. You can feel the influence on everyone from Guns N Roses to 311 to the Roots. It's wide-reaching, influential, and sold about 1,000 copies when it deserved to go multiplatinum. This vinyl reissue includes a Punk Note variant cover - copying the style of venerable jazz label Blue Note.I feel like that cover is appropriate, since I Against I is a timeless masterpiece barely known to the masses. 

Guided by Voices, Tonics and Twisted Chasers
Of course they join the list. But this reissue of a fan club-only vinyl from their prime mid-1990s output has a major draw - the studio version of Dayton, Ohio 19-something-and 5, what might be the band's best song, an autobiographical track from Robert Pollard that drops you into a cookout in suburban Dayton. It's such a beautiful song in way only GBV can claim.   

Best discoveries
Big Bill Broonzy, The Blues
There's always something new to discover in music. My preference lies with acoustic blues, and somehow I neglected to sample Big Bill Broonzy until picking some records to purchase from my friend's divestiture. The muscular songs go far beyond a man with a guitar.

Squeeze, The Singles
Chalk this long-player up as another "I can't believe how many of these songs I know" listen. I bought it blind, not convinced I knew Squeeze at all. It came with a happy coincidence - a week before, I heard a song on a Spotify playlist that sounded a lot like Spoon. The song turned out to be "Pulling Mussels from a Shell," a Squeeze single. So it turns out that Spoon sounds a lot like Squeeze at times.