Mid-Year Means More Music: The LPs
Why review records we've already talked about, when there's so much more out there-here are some great long players from Freeman DeJongh, PONY, Bob Dylan, Eddie Chacon, and MSPAINT.
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Earlier this week, I used the mid-year celebration to discuss a bunch of 2023’s EPs that I haven’t had the room to print. Thanks for all the comments and messages - they made it clear that Crushed’s Extra Life is a runaway favorite for many of you as well.
Now, let’s dive into a bunch of long players from the past six months that I love and ensure you’ve got them on your list, too. These records come with the same disclaimer as the EP review: just because I don’t have many notes on an album doesn’t mean I’m not digging the hell out of it. Sometimes you have to shut up and take it all in!
For my stateside readers, there’s no better use of a long holiday weekend than spinning new music while alternating between limb-endangering pyrotechnics and cold beers. I’m taking next Tuesday off and will return with the week’s playlist on Wednesday.
Enjoy the break, and most importantly, enjoy the music!
Freeman DeJongh - Dreadful Feelings
We’ve got a saying around CTO! HQ - if an album is out on Curation Records, it will probably kick ass. The Los Angeles-based label is now taking trips outside the city with phenomenal results, like last year’s Sean Thompson’s Weird Ears out of Nashville. Like clockwork, they’ve done it again, this time with a detour through the mountains of Idaho, where we find Freeman DeJongh’s outstanding debut, Dreadful Feelings. DeJongh explores heavy yet universally human subjects over a widescreen western pallet of Telecasters, pedal steel, and droning synthesizers. There are moments in every song where DeJongh really goes for it, like on the title track opener, which is full of soothing brass and is a testament to his work with engineer Jared Goodpaster - the two of them make basements and backrooms sound like Muscle Shoals, and this is a million-dollar sounding record. All ten songs are crucial pieces for DeJongh’s narrative but don’t miss out on the crushing “Sad Eyed Mariposa,” the shit-kickin’ “Part To Please,” or the devastating album highlight “Where Does the Wind Go,” where DeJongh softly croons, “where does the wind go, to lay in her grave and die, where does the wind go, lay me down by her side.” What an introduction to a true folk and western talent who isn’t afraid to play these traditional American sounds into the desert night’s cosmos.
PONY - Velveteen
Power pop is one of those genres I can listen to almost endlessly until I have a stomach ache from the power chords’ sweetness. Velveteen fits this bill as the sophomore record from Toronto’s PONY, the duo of Sam Bielanksi and Matty Morand, who together are an earworm factory. I first heard of this record from Kevin Alexander over at On Repeat Records, who wondered, “I don’t know if there is a per-minute legal limit for hooks, but if there is, Velveteen is definitely testing those limits.”
Yeah, it’s that good.
I’ll let you read his interview with them to get the rest of the delicious picture.
Bob Dylan: Fragments - Time Out of Mind Sessions (1996-1997): The Bootleg Series Vol. 17
Suppose you weren’t around for Bob Dylan’s “return” twenty-five years ago when Time Out of Mind was released. In that case, it’s hard to describe this massive moment for the legendary troubadour that has been counted out so many times throughout the decades. Dylan’s output post-Oh Mercy (my personal favorite if I have to choose) was spotty in quality, and the prolific songwriter’s albums were fewer and far between. This narrative that Dylan was toast isn’t fully warranted - Good As I’ve Been To You, his album of traditional covers, should have pleased old heads as it was a return to solo days and is underrated. Still, I also understand why people weren’t looking for Bobby D. in 1992, as the industry underwent a massive shift in trends with grunge and hip-hop. Counted out by the press through so many phases, music writers and fans should have known better that the Greenwich Village Jokerman always has another great one up his sleeve. Teaming up again with the legendary Daniel Lanois, who also produced Oh Mercy, Dylan faces mortality on Time Out of Mind, with a landmark career moment being the result: “It’s not dark yet, but it’s getting there,” sang the man who has released ten studio records in the twenty-six years since.
If you’ve never listened to Time Out of Mind, or it’s one of your favorite records, all parties should be impressed with this latest version of his never-miss Bootleg Series. The new mix is fantastic, a feat not all that common that often butchers the album’s intent (I’m looking at you, R.E.M.’s Monster remix), which would be reason enough to listen to this. The second disc offers so many numbers that flirt with greatness, and the songs could have easily formed another excellent record - “Dreamin’ of You” is never in a hurry through its eight minutes, yet the warm piano and signature giant Lanois soundscape make it worth the price of admission alone. “Mississippi” is another one I’ve fallen in love with, and we get three different versions of it (I’m currently partial to “version 2”’s bluesy strutter, but it’s a fantastic song in any iteration). We also get multiple takes of the album’s songs that made the cut, like a version of “Love Sick” that takes it from sounding like the saloon doors swinging open into a smoky bar that fans of the record are familiar with, and instead plays it as a subdued, more sparse take (I think the album version is best in this case). The opposite is true for “Not Dark Yet,” a now iconic Dylan song that builds on nocturnal Lanois textures, with the archive “version 1” including some wicked organ that will have you wiping the sweat off your brow. Not everyone needs all five parts to this epic, but the first three discs are absolutely essential.
Time Out of Mind is the Dylan record that made me pause Blur, The Verve, and Third Eye Blind to take in the folk maestro, sending me on my path of mammoth fandom. It could very well make you see Bob Dylan in a new light, as well.
Eddie Chacon - Sundown
Eddie Chacon is best known as half of the duo Charles & Eddie, who hit worldwide success with their 1992 smash, “Would I Lie To You?” which is most certainly one of the defining songs of my childhood. After the soul brothers released a second record in 1995, it would be twenty-five years before Chacon re-captured the spotlight. Enter pianist and producer extraordinaire, and Check This Out! favorite, John Carroll Kirby, who produced and played on Chacon’s solo debut Pleasure, Joy, and Happiness, which was rightfully met with universal critical acclaim. As great as that record is, this year’s Sundown is even better - Chacon’s vocals are freer and more persuasive, Kirby gets headier with the music (always a good thing), and there’s an undeniable breezy vibe to the album recorded in Los Angeles and Ibiza. Let’s hope this perfect collaboration and their phenomenal supporting players continue because there’s nothing else quite like it.
(If you’re looking for more John Carroll Kirby, his latest called Blowout is out today, and the first few listens are proving to be an instant gem.)
MSPAINT - Post-American
This debut from Hattiesburg, Mississippi quartet, MSPAINT, seems to have come out of nowhere, and now I see them everywhere. Post-American dropped in March, but a month ago, my buddy sent it to me after seeing the band open for Drug Church and Drain, with a text that read, “kind of interesting hardcore with heavy synth and drums with triggers. No guitar player.”
Consider me intrigued.
After quickly falling for this unicorn of a record, it was only a week or two later that Stereogum named it their third-best album of the year so far. The hype is worth it - is it hardcore? Rap rock? Synth punk? I don’t really care. All I know is I can’t get enough.
What’s your favorite record of the year so far? Any unexpected gems you’ve come across? Let me know in the comments!
Hadn’t heard of this DeJongh album but I’m checking it out rn!
Oh man, I'm really glad you're digging that PONY record (and thank you for linking to the interview)! It's perfect for summer. MSPAINT came up in one of the Monday discussions, but I haven't checked it out yet. Like you, they've gone from 0-100 on all of my feeds. I'm taking it as a sign.