slaw

Nice to see your Thread up this year.

Happy Listening!

Trying to navigate the albums recorded in 2023 but just released. 

Think they should be classified as 2024.

I did that in the past.

Broadcast - Spell Blanket

Released on CD only in 2001, Rodney Crowell’s The Houston Kid is finally available on LP. It is the current Vinyl Me Please Country Music Record Of The Month (March), and is one of those rare animals: a perfect album. Eleven excellent songs, comprising a thematic (rather than concept) album. One song tells Rodney’s autobiographical story of his first hearing of Johnny Cashes "I Walk The Line", sung as a duet with Johnny himself. Johnny was of course Rodney’s father-in-law when Rodney was married to Rosanne Cash.

The Houston Kid is in my Top 10 Albums Of All-Time list. Not just great songs, but superb musicianship by some of Nashville’s A-List players. Great singing by Rodney, and lots of great harmony singing too. I have listened to this album every day for many years, and it hasn’t gotten old. Rodney also wrote a memoir (Chinaberry Sidewalks), which can be viewed as a companion piece.

Think VMP has a few others coming including Tony Rice. Their pressing plant is open now.

Sarah Jarosz "Polaroid Lovers"

Have several AAA remasters of honorable mention 

Marty Stuart "Busy Bee Cafe" 

Aretha Franklin "I've Never Loved a Man Like I Love You" 

Fleetwood Mac " Tango in the Night " 

All are VMP remasters

Another VMP 

Kris Kristofferson "The Silver Tongued Devil and I"

@slaw: Yup the Tony Rice album VMP is soon releasing is his Church Street Blues album, on colored vinyl. Craft Recordings has just put out the album on black vinyl, and may have provided the metal parts to VMP for their pressing.

I already have the original pressing on Sugar Hill Records, a great label that also released two albums by Chris Hillman in the 1980’s. Excellent recorded sound quality on all of them.

Hey @deep_333, these albums are a great place to discover how good LP’s (kids call them vinyls) can sound. I have thousands more just like ’em. 😉 But I'm no vinyl purist: I also have about 3500 CD's/SACD's.

When I contribute to threads about best music for the current year, I only consider new music from that year, or with regards to classical music, music that was composed recently, but it first recorded in the current year.

Mary Halvorson - Cloudward / This great jazz guitarist and composer has been on a roll for several years. Excellent, modern, progressive jazz. Creative and complex.

Present - this is NOT the end / Unfortunately for this brilliant Belgian avant-prog, chamber-prog band, with the death of leader, Roger Trigaux, it will be the end. What an amazing recording to leave behind as their last, Complex, darkly emotional, incredible musicianship.

Sleepytime Gorilla Museum - of the Last Human Being / After a 17 year hiatus, this US avant-prog returned with their best recording.

The Aristocrats - Duck / Intense, fiery heavy jazz-fusion with frightening levels of musicianship. But the music is more than a just vehicle for the musician to show off.

Black Art Jazz Collective - Truth to Power / Great 9 piece jazz ensemble. Sounds both modern but without straying too far from tradition, Fantastic playing and arrangements.

Isildurs Bane & Jinian Wilde - The Peal of Everchanging Shell / This Swedish prog band has been doing interesting collaborations recently (Peter Hammill, Steve Hogarth). Moody, bordering on ambient at times, introspective prog. Nice melodies, layered vocals.

Rob Mazurek and Exploding Star Orchestra - Spectral Fiction / Avant-garde jazz.

Vijay Iyer, Linda May Han Oh, Tyshawn Sorey - Compassion / Great jazz trio on the ECM label.

Thomas Adès – Aquifer / Another great piece from Ades. Dramatic, unmistakably modern, and approachable.

José Manuel López López - Infinita Domenica / Not very approachable. Great, thorny sounding chamber music from this great Spanish composer.

There's room for all here 😊