For the longtime music fans in your life...
The Beatles
The Beatles (White Album)
[3CD/4LP/BOX](Apple/Capitol)
Giles Martin has never remixed the Beatles like this. On "Love" and "Sgt. Pepper" he restored color to these ornate pieces. However, the disparate Beatles myth is formally extinguished thanks to his attention to reassembling this set of songs for warmth, variance and surprisingly cohesion. Add to the sparkling new mixes, an unheard wealth of demos, outtakes (many that become the basis for solo work) and long takes (the deluxe box features a 13-minute jam on "Helter Skelter") and you have crafted the ultimate Beatles experience.
Bruce Springsteen
Springsteen on Broadway
[2CD](Columbia)
After this groundbreaking show, get ready for more performances like this. The Tony winner richly deserves all of the praise heaped upon it. "Broadway" is the culmination of Springsteen's entire career. Minimally staged, even the most familiar songs feel intimate and fresh. His stories (drawn from his beautifully written "Born To Run" autobiography) stitch everything together into a rich tapestry. Most importantly, unlike "Unplugged" or even the quiet moments of a live album, this is Springsteen at home in front of an audience proving night after night that the Atlaean task of any songwriter is to always make your music resonate long after the lights are raised and the crowd is gone.
Aretha Franklin
The Atlantic Singles Collection 1967-1970
[LP/CD](Atlantic/Rhino)
One of the most heartbreaking losses of 2018 led to music everywhere being tuned into the long, glorious career of Franklin for days on end in August. The mixtures of seminal singles and deep album cuts really brought home that Aretha truly cut a wide swath in the history of music. After a middling run at Columbia (under John Hammond who also signed Bob Dylan,) Jerry Wexler brought the Gospel singer to Atlantic and gave us the true definition of Soul. These 34 songs bring everything Aretha brought into those classic sessions. She smolders ("Going Down Slow,") she inspires ("A Natural Woman,") she makes numerous covers her own and then delivers the hits.
and the shorter-term bunch...
Christine and the Queens-Chris
[LP/CD](Because)
So much has not been written about the glorious return of Pop in 2018. In the middle of Hip-Hop's ascension to "most popular" music and yet another declaration that "Rock is Dead" (yeah, right) - the real story is the shimmering new conscious Pop. French chanteuse Heloise Letisser concocts a true confection on "Chris." The album elegantly throws back to the Eighties in production and style, but uniquely casts its songs as case studies in 21st century love, identity and growth. A consummate performer, her shows are staged like performance art each framing her songs with imagination, vulnerability and like no other.
Kacey Musgraves
Golden Hour
[LP/CD](MCA/Nashville)
The other trend of the year (that is starting to bubble up into the conversation finally) is the dearth of women from the Country charts. Despite winning critical huzzahs and a CMA for "Album of the Year," Musgraves' masterful "Golden Hour," staid Country radio ignored not one, not two, but three singles. Despite the latter two being among the best singles of the year as well (and each notching nearly 3 million views on YouTube,) Musgraves was clearly shunned for being too Pop. "Golden Hour" stands on its own as important. Musgraves' songs have never been as poignant ("Slow Burn,") clever (you will have a hard time finding a better comeback in 2018 than "You can have your space, cowboy") and danceable ("High Horse" is sensational.) Still, despite being in release and written about since March - "Golden Hour" sits outside the Country charts whereas of December 8th - just six females have singles in the Top 60.
MITSKI
Be The Cowboy
[LP/CD](Dead Oceans)
2018 was definitely the Year of the Woman (look above.) No new artist made music that sounded as familiar and yet completely different than Mitski. Taking her cues from St. Vincent, "Be The Cowboy" is a brand-maker for the multi-instrumentalist. At times thrillingly dramatic ("Geyser") and others spacious ("Blue Light,") "Be The Cowboy" is both unflinching and unable to stop. The best aspect however is her innate ability to mix emotions in a single track. The freeing disco of "Nobody" feels like sweet release until you examine those lyrics.
