The Best of 2024

I really shouldn't call it the "Best of". Maybe "My Favorites of 2024" would be better. I've looked at the lists on most of the major music publications, and there's a lot that I haven't heard. I actually got through Charli XCX's Brat, and Beyonce's Cowboy Carter (Beyonce was mildly entertaining). I couldn't make it through Sabrina Carpenter's Short n' Sweet. Hey, I don't really like music that is manufactured rather than performed, so there's that. I did appreciate a few songs from contemporary popular artists on a stroll through The Best Songs of 2024 from a mainstream publication, but not enough to run out and buy or bookmark anything. So, here's the one's I liked a lot this year:

The Lemon Twigs A Dream Is All We Know

New York's finest power-poppers come through in spades. Beatles, Beach Boys, Byrds, Raspberries, they do it all and make it sound fresh and new.

Fantastic Cat Now That's What I Call Fantastic Cat

An indie rock "super group" of singer songwriter multi-instrumentalists makes a rollicking fun record with a positive attitude. Only slightly more rocking than power-pop, think Rockpile, Cheap Trick and a touch of Americana.

The Weeklings Raspberry Park

This one forms a great power-pop triumvirate with the two previous. Weeklings have made their mark as a Beatles cover band, and a really good one. The originals are all solid pop/rock. Super covers of She's Leaving Home and I've Just Seen A Face, and a mash-up of Satisfaction and Mr. Soul that is brilliant.

Nick Lowe Indoor Safari

Not really a new record, but a collection of singles and EPs from the last ten years or so, all done with Los Straightjackets. It's nice to have it all in one place, and they have really become a great band together. The excellent Trombone and Don't Be Nice To Me are standouts, but it's all solid Nick Lowe after ten years since his last LP. 

Bill Charlap Trio And Then Again

Just one great jazz trio doing standards. But with Charlap and his talented sidemen, it is inventive and spontaneous jazz with what Downbeat magazine calls "seamless interaction and extrasensory communication". Great jazz.

Jenny Scheinman All Species Parade

Scheinman has been making interestingly unique jazz for quite a while, and almost all of it is easy to approach and yet challenging in it's own way. Featuring a cast of greats that Scheinmen has worked with before, everything comes out very fine. The sound of a mature artist with ideas to spare.

The Palomar Trio The Song In Our Soul

Hearkening back to the early swing jazz of the 1920s and 1930s, and featuring songs from that era, this record is just a joy. Tap your foot, sway in your chair, and smile, smile smile. 

Louis Cole nothing

Jazz fusion/pop/funk/ electronic/orchestral music. When have you heard that combination before? Louis Cole teams up with the Metropole Orkest jazz orchestra to produce a great record that is a genre to itself.

Continental Drifters White Noise & Lightening: The Best of Continental Drifters

A "best of" from a band that last recorded in 2001. I really loved everything they did (all four records). One of my favorite neglected bands of all time.

Shelby Lynn Consequences of the Crown

We've been waiting for twenty years for I Am Shelby Lynn #2. This isn't quite that, but it is closer than she's ever come, and one heck of a great record. 

St. Vincent All Born Screaming

Another solid outing from Ms. Clark, with great songs, killer vocals, and scary aggression. What can't this woman do with a guitar? 

Vampire Weekend Only God Was Above Us

The smartest indie rock band around gives us a great one, the best since Contra. If you were a little disappointed with Father of the Bride, they are back in spades.

Willis, Carper, Leigh Wonder Women of Country

A six-song EP that lives up to the title. Everything's good, and there's two new ones from Kelly Willis' pen. Carper and Leigh hold up their end of the bargain just fine.

Lance Cowen So Far, So Good

A respected Nashville publicist makes his first record in his sixties. A little bit like a new Guy Clark album sometimes, and of course that is high praise. He can sound a bit like John Denver, and he can get a little twee, but there are lots of great songs and beautifully recorded acoustic instrumentation.

Wings Band On The Run (Underdubbed Mixes)

Often considered McCartney's best Wings/solo effort, it sounds even better stripped of the orchestration. The live-in-the-studio One Hand Clapping from the same time period is big fun too.

John Leventhal Rumble Strip

After producing a gazillion great records, Leventhal steps out on his own. Gentle, lovely, mostly instrumental acoustic gems with two vocals by wife Rosanne Cash. Relax and listen to some darn good music. 

Mark Knopfler One Deep River

Craftsmanship. Since 1996, Knopfler has made one subtly great record after another. Yes, he's a wonderful guitarist, but he's also an equally gifted songwriter, and his singing has a heartfelt and well-worn comfort to it. You can get just over Dire Straits by now. 

Zappadan 2024

It's Zappadan again. The celebration of the life and art of the iconoclast Frank Zappa.

There's Zappadan on Facebook, Instagram, X, Reddit, and of course in the blogosphere.

Zappadan can be found around the blogosphere at Mad Blog Media, Arts Meme, And Now It's All This, eVille Times, You Call That News?, Cirdec Songs, Ketchup Is A Vegetable, We're Only In It For The Music, and archival posts at Fried Green al-Qaedas, Mark Hoback's blog. Mark was there at the beginning, along with Blue Gal when Zappadan was birthed.

I've written extensively for the celebration in the past. It's all right here. There's even a few Zappa posts in addition to Zappadan content, and that stuff is included here.

You can listen to my personal favorite Zappa record at YouTube.

Continental Drifters

One of my favorite nineties bands has been busy with the back catalog lately, and it's great news for fans. The band made four studio records between 1994 and 2001. The eponymous debut 1994, Vermillion 1998, Better Day 2001, and the German market release Listen, Listen 2001, a tribute to Richard Thompson and Sandy Denny. In 2003, they released Nineteen Ninety-Three, recorded in the title year before Vickie Peterson and Susan Cowsill joined. 

In 2015 came Drifted: In The Beginning and Beyond, a two CD set that re-released the Nineteen Ninety-Three material, the entirety of Listen, Listen (both of which were out of print), and a slew of demos, rarities, live tracks, and one-offs done for tribute records. The earliest recordings (1993) are good but are not quite as exciting as their main releases. The Listen, Listen material is essential listening. The rest of the various material is solid and nice to have collected. The set is a must for fans of this excellent band. 

Continental Drifters Live at the 2023 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival 2023 documents a recent reunion set that samples most of the catalog and the band sounds great. The recording is good, but maybe not great, probably from the soundboard. They're having lots of fun and it is a hot set.

And now in 2024 comes White Noise & Lightening The Best of the Continental Drifters. It's a well-curated single CD (or vinyl LP) that shows off most of their ample talents and top notch songcraft. In the annals of wonderful bands woefully neglected, Continental Drifters are near the top of the list. If you've never heard them, the recent Best Of is the place to start. If you loved the band and didn't catch the Drifted release, it is well worth your time and money.

Spinning Vinyl

This is the special Saturday night after-dinner nightcap version of Spinning Vinyl. After an outstanding Italian dinner, we returned home for a nightcap and a card game and some music, all featuring pianists. 

First up was side two of Diana Krall's From This Moment On 2006. There isn't anything earth-shattering about this particular Diana Krall Record, but it is a solid outing of standards featuring the Clayton/Hamilton Jazz Orchestra and Krall's lovely voice and fine piano. It is a swell selection of songs performed flawlessly and arranged beautifully. Day In Day Out, Come Dance With Me, and Little Girl Blue stood out, but the whole side is just about perfect.

Next was Allen Toussaint's swan song American Tunes 2106, side one, featuring Toussaint's Delores' Boyfriend, Fats Waller's Viper's Drag, Professor Longhair's Mardi Gras In New Orleans, and Billy Strayhorn's Lotus Blossom, and everything works.The record is a mix of Toussaint solo piano recordings from 2013 and what would have been a new studio record that was unfinished before he died in 2015. The 2015 recordings are done with a stellar cast including Bill Frisell, Jay Belerose, Greg Leisz, Charles Lloyd, David Piltch, Adam Levy, and Van Dyke Parks. It is a wonderful Toussaint record, almost as good as his high water mark The Bright Mississippi 2009.

My wife and I are both huge fans of Ahmad Jamal. We both saw him live many moons ago and then had a chance to see him together in Seattle in 2006. I love his work from the fifties and sixties as much as any jazz pianist, and he continued to make great music in his rhythmically inventive style until 2019, just four years before his death at age 93. Saturday Morning 2013 is merely another of his great late career masterpieces. We listened to side one, with the title track and Back To The Future (both by Jamal) as well as I'll Always Be With You, the 1945 Perry Como hit.

Lastly we heard Ellis Marsalis' For All We Know 2020, side two. This recording is just outstanding, and Marsalis plays with his son Jason on vibes, who gets to shine frequently. The record, on the audiophile vinyl-only Newvelle records, has amazing sound, with both piano and vibraphone beautifully captured. Marsalis is a wonderfully fluid player, song selection is lovely, and we get to hear Marsalis' relaxed style one more time just months before his passing.

The one thing all these records have in common (other than piano) is great sound. Tommy LiPuma always made Krall's records sound great, as did Joe Henry on Toussaint's last three albums. Saturday Morning was recorded in France by some talented engineers using state of the art equipment, and everything on Newvelle Records is lovingly produced with attention to sonic detail. That doesn't matter if the music isn't up to the same high bar, but all of these performances are truly special.

Elton John in the 2000s

Elton John has had a long and successful career, especially considering the quality of his output throughout the eighties and nineties. He has toured frequently and puts on a good show, usually heavy on his seventies hits.

Between Elton John 1970 and Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy 1975, Elton made nine records that were either darn good or great. Then, around 1975-1976, quality dropped off. Rock of the Westies was pretty bad, and Blue Moves could have been a decent single disc, but didn't impress as a double album. I liked it, but even I have had to reexamine my opinion, and it isn't the last great one I once thought it was. But I still love side three.

Between A Single Man 1978 and The Big Picture 1997, Elton made fourteen unsatisfying records. There were almost always one or two keepers, but as albums, it was a very rough period, and it lasted 20 years. A few of them showed potential, and several were just awful.

Then in 2001 came Songs From The West Coast. A stellar return to form, and sounding similar to his seventies greats, it contained a whole bunch of great songs in I Want Love, This Train Don't Stop Here Anymore, Original Sin, Dark Diamond, Birds, Love Her Like Me, and Ballad of the Boy in the Red Shoes. You could listen to the whole thing.

Peachtree Road 2004 came very close to matching Songs From The West Coast, with Weight of the World, Answer In The Sky, All That I'm Allowed, and Turn The Lights Out When You Leave.

The sequel to Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy, The Captain and the Kid 2006 kept the quality high, and remarkably almost matched the original in it's ability to write Bernie Taupin's and Elton John's musical biography.

2010 saw the release of The Union with Leon Russell. The two record set, unfortunately produced by T-Bone Burnett, was light on great songs, and had a thick, overly layered, sound that didn't help. Like so many other two-record affairs, it would have been a really fine single disc.

The Diving Board 2013 saw T-Bone Burnett return to the producer's chair, but instead of the big production and millions of players on The Union, most of the record is recorded by piano, bass and drums trio, with occasional additional keyboards. A Town Called Jubilee, Mexican Vacation, The Ballad of Blind Tom, and Can't Stay Alone Tonight were all good, and so was most of the rest.

Finally, in 2016, Elton gave us Wonderful Crazy Night. Strong songs include In The Name of You, Tambourine, Blue Wonderful, Looking Up, and the title track. T-Bone Burnett stays out of the way for a record featuring the touring band and a bunch of good songs. Again, you can listen to the whole thing without needing to fast forward. Pretty amazing after making records for something like fifty years.

I'll skip the Pnau remix album Good Morning to the Night 2012 (it's remixes, and it sold well), the duets record The Lockdown Sessions 2021 (has anyone made a great duets record?) and Regimental Sgt. Zippo 2021 (recorded in 1967 before even Empty Sky, and never released, for good reason).

Given the dearth of good records for some twenty years, Elton John has made a miraculous recovery in this century. If you liked his early work and wrote him off somewhere in the eighties, you should give him another shot. The last twenty years have been darn good for Elton John, and his fans. 

Bette Midler

She's not the greatest singer ever, but she's a darn good one. She isn't the greatest actress ever, but she's a darn good one. She's not the greatest comedienne either, but she's, again, a darn good one. I'll leave her acting and comedic performances to one with more knowledge of those things. She's not the easiest singer to appreciate, but let's give it a try.

She started so strong that it almost set the stage for mid-career problems. Her first two, The Devine Miss M 1972 and Bette Midler 1973 set up her entire career. Everything was on - her love of female harmonies expressed through the Andrews Sisters and the Ronettes, her heart-on-the-sleeve delivery of a big ballad, and a touch of rock and roll. These were not only her first records, but they were also her best.

The three that followed that fine pair (Songs for the New Depression 1976, Broken Blossom 1977, and Thighs and Whispers 1979) were, for lack of a better word, disappointing. They don't figure prominently on her hits compilations. But her soundtrack to The Rose 1979 held her solid versions of When A Man Loves A Woman and Stay With Me, both of which, along with the title track, would feature in her live performances and compilations. Two uneven live records failed to capture her energetic live shows. Even her awful No Frills 1983, which suffered from everything wrong with the eighties, at least held her solid versions of the Stones' Beast of Burden and Marshall Crenshaw's Favorite Waste of Time, a couple of her better rockers.

Between 1988 and 1993 she did three more soundtracks for movies in which she starred, and of course Beaches 1988 includes her biggest hit Wind Beneath My Wings. Some People's Lives 1990 continued her big ballad period, and is one of her better records. Arif Mardin did an excellent job with a sympathetic production that let Midler shine.

As for big hit records that make a lot of money, her ballads The Wind Beneath My Wings, The Rose, and From A Distance, made her a household name, and she milked that big ballad thing for a while on her album releases. But that didn't really help her work between 1995 and 2000. Bette of Roses 1995 at least had To Deserve You, Bathhouse Betty 1998 has a nice Song of Bernadette, and I Sold My Heart To The Junkman and One Monkey Don't Stop No Show, both classics. Bette 2000 included a decent cover of Kirsty MacColl's In These Shoes and an OK Just My Imagination. 

I forgot to mention Barry Manilow earlier. He was responsible for much/most of Bette's first two records. He was her pianist in her early days, and his work with Midler is his finest contribution to recorded music. Both Bette Midler Sings The Rosemary Clooney Songbook 2003 and Bette Midler Sings The Peggy Lee Songbook 2005 benefit from Manilow's production and arrangement work. Both are solid tributes, and Midler sounds good fronting a big band. 

Cool Yule 2006 is a Christmas record. As those things go, it's fine. 

But then in 2014 Bette released It's The Girls!.  A remarkable record that hearkens back to her earliest work in a super good way. It's all girl groups, but not just from the sixties. There''s Teach Me Tonight (from 1956) and Waterfalls (from 1995) and plenty of sixties in between. It is just about as perfect a record as we could expect from Bette Midler in 2014.

There's a bunch of compilations out there, and surprisingly, they don't all cover the same ground. For a good overview and all the essentials, Experience The Divine: Greatest Hits 1993 is the one, and the single disc Jackpot! The Best of Bette 2008 comes close, but omits a few choice moments. The more recent Memories of You 2010 (standards) and A Gift of Love 2015 (ballads) are more narrowly focused and not really hits collections. 

The first two and It's The Girls! are her best records, and Experience The Divine captures pretty much all the career highlights, including her wonderful One For My Baby (And One More For The Road) that she serenaded Johnny Carson with on his last show.

The Weeklings Raspberry Park 2024, Fantastic Cat Now That's What I Call Fantastic Cat 2024

The Weeklings have paid tribute to the Beatles, but they are so much more than that. Not that they aren't great at it. The band are all veteran musicians with deep and varied backgrounds. This new one finds them doing eight new originals as well as The Beatles' I've Just Seen A Face and She's Leaving Home, Bruce Springsteen's I'm On Fire, and a mash-up of The Buffalo Springfields' Mr. Soul and Satisfaction featuring guest vocalist Peter Noone. The record is non-stop energetic fun. If you love melodic, hook-filled pop/rock, you can't go wrong.

Something of a supergroup with four singer-songwriters hailing from other indie groups, these guys bring the songs, the hooks, the harmonies, and tight musicianship to drive a fine power-pop vehicle. Mixed with some folky Americana touches (but not too much), the record keeps coming with great stuff. Toe tapping will ensue, and the songs are both hook-filled and lyrically smart. If you love melodic, hook-filled pop/rock, you can't go wrong.

Check them both out. Available streaming, YouTube, or of course you can also purchase on CD or vinyl.