Best of 2025

 

Galactic and Irma Thomas Audience with the Queen. My #1. (The rest are in no particular order.). Irma Thomas continues to produce one late-career masterpiece after another. After The Rain 2006, Simply Grand 2008, Love Is The Foundation 2020, and now Audience with the Queen. Galactic shines with songs, arrangements and knockout playing.

Sloan Based On The Best Seller. Canadian pop-rockers continue a hot streak. 

Ricky Byrd NYC Made. Veteran rocker and long-time Blackheart makes a great record. It doesn't need to be complicated, it's rock 'n' roll.

Gyasi Here Comes The Good Part. Bowie/Bolan hybrid brings back the 1970s without stealing every riff. Great songs, solid musicianship, right attitude.

London Suede Antidepressants. Since their return in 2013, London Suede has made five well-received records. Glam is not dead. See Gyasi above.

Wet Leg Moisturizer. A big step forward from their solid debut, and a fine record all around.

Haim I Quit. Another big leap forward from their previous work, See Wet Leg above.

Van Morrison Remembering Now. Van returns to greatness. Shockingly good after several years of real junk. Remarkable recovery, and way unexpected.

Mavis Staples Sad and Beautiful World. Mavis never shies away from politics, protest or faith. A great song selection, lots of reverent guests, and Staples' magnificent, weathered voice. Revel in her very deep and spiritual soul.

Peter Holsapple The Face of 68. Holsapple has been a part of much great music. In the dBs, as a touring pro with REM and Hootie and the Blowfish, in the Continental Drifters, with Chris Stamey as a duo, and on his solo records, Out of My Way in 1997, and Game Day in 2018. He puts it all together on this new one.

Honorable Mention Just Part of the Whole Release: David Bowie Montreux Jazz Festival. This 2002 concert recording was broadcast on radio and unofficial versions have been around. Technically it isn't a new release of its own, but it is two of the CDs in the 13 CD I Can't Give Everything Away (2002-2016) box set. The tour was promoting Heathen, so eight of the twelve songs from Heathen are included, and the live versions beat the studio ones. Well chosen career highlights fill the rest. But wait, there's more, for the final encore, Bowie and the band play all of Low. It is a monster show. The set is available for streaming.

Honorable Mention Reissue/Compilation: Fleetwood Mac Like Crying: The Songs of Danny Kirwin. Every song Kirwin wrote for Fleetwood Mac and released on Then Play On, Kiln House, Future Games, and Bare Trees in chronological order. Kirwin's songwriting, guitar and singing during Fleetwood Mac's most oft-neglected period. Kirwin's songs were balanced with those of Christine McVie and Bob Welsh. Isolating Kirwin's songs is a lovely exercise. Digital only release, at least for now.

Zappadan 2025, Cheaper Than Cheep 2025, One Size Fits All 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe 2025

Well it's that time again. The annual celebration of Frank's life and artistry from Dec. 4 to Dec 21. There are plenty of previous entries at this blog, just click Frank Zappa. There are also others that celebrate around the net. Break out in song or just play some percussion. And vote.

I have been both overwhelmed by the sheer volume, and underwhelmed by the excitement provided by the archival releases of Frank's work from the vault. There have been great ones of course, but not unlike the Grateful Dead, we really don't need every live gig Zappa ever performed released to the music buying public.

But this is Zappa's best band during his period of greatest musical treasure. Some may argue that the original Mothers of Invention were his best band, and I certainly must respect that as an equally valid opinion.

Cheaper Than Cheep was a two hour video Frank produced for television in 1974. Technical difficulties that apparently could not be corrected without modern technology left the video and it's audio in the can until now. This is the same six piece band (plus Jeff Simmons) that made One Size Fits All later in 1974. The only previously available live recording by this group is You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore Volume 2 (The Helsinki Concert). 

Highlights are many. Inca Roads is great, as is Let's Make The Water Turn Black, Dupree's Paradise and More Trouble Every Day. Ruth Underwood shines on everything, but especially RDNZL. The video is currently available on YouTube for your entertainment.

They really opened the flood gates for the 1974 band this year, as they also released One Size Fits All 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe. The original record is one of Zappa's best, and the Deluxe version includes over a CDs worth of outtakes, basic tracks, and alternates that are at least as good as most of those things. But wait, you also get two CDs of a live performance recorded in Rotterdam in September of 1974. Great performances of Florentine Pogen, Montana and Cosmic Debris shine, and the entire show is special. (OK, the drum solo is too long, but aren't they all?)

So if you aren't sick of new/old Zappa live recordings, they've delivered two this year that are as good as any of them. Happy Zappadan!

Stranger Cole Rough and Tough 2025

 

Stranger Cole isn't the household reggae name that Marley, Tosh, Cliff, Heptones and Steel Pulse are, at least in the USA, and that is a shame. He released his first single, Rough and Tough, rerecorded here, in 1963. Throughout the sixties and early seventies he released over 70 singles as a solo performer and also in duet with Patsy Todd, another woefully neglected Jamaican singer. A star of the pre-reggae rocksteady and ska styles, he started releasing albums from 1976 through 1986, after which he took twenty years off and was employed in a variety of jobs in his adopted home of Toronto. He returned to recording and touring in 2006.

This new record presents new recordings of several of his hits from the sixties- the title track, Bangarrang, Crying Every Night and Just Like a River. Added to those are a variety of covers, some of which seem like odd choices, yet they come off as inspired. War's Low Rider and Marley's No Woman, No Cry make perfect sense. Journey's Don't Stop Believing and Tears For Fears' Everybody Wants to Rule the World done reggae style are both fun and barely recognizable. Everything else on the record is just delightful, and rock solid.

The band is talented, the recording is excellent, and the 83 year old Cole is a fine singer. What, you didn't know there was great new reggae? 

Television Marquee Moon 1977, Adventure 1978

My brother plays this game I call "If Golf". He discusses a good round with me, and he'll say, "If I hadn't three-putted those last two holes, I would have had an 82", or some such thing. I tease him about it, because of course that isn't what happened. I also recognize that it is the way he analyses his game performance, and one of several reasons that he is a better golfer than I am. What's that got to do with Television?

Television released Marquee Moon in 1977 to critical acclaim and disappointing sales (except in the UK, where it made it to #30 on the charts). The next year, they made Adventure, which was again well received critically, and again didn't sell. Then the band broke up for multiple reasons, only one being their lack of sales.

But "What If" Adventure had been the debut followed by the masterpiece of Marquee Moon? Would things have been different? Adventure is a good record, and would seem to be more accessible than Marquee Moon. It may have attracted more listeners with its easier to take, somewhat less challenging sound, while still being smart art punk just right for 1977. Then Marquee Moon would have been a bold, dramatic step forward and been successful. Then maybe Television would have had a career like Talking Heads or the Ramones, two bands they shared the CBGB stage with.

Probably the records weren't marketed enough, or correctly, and that's why they didn't sell. But Marquee Moon has become such a highly praised landmark of a record, and it is such a killer, it seems a shame that it went mostly ignored when it was released. 

"What if" you wished you could hear a record with similarities to Marquee Moon? Well you can. Just dance on down to the record store, or Bandcamp, or your streaming service, and check out Evolution Here We Come from 2022 by Chris Forsyth. The guitar interplay between Forsyth and Tom Malach is interestingly angular and similar to the fascinating work of Television. Not a clone, but not so far removed  either.

A Few Power Pop Gems

Power Pop. The sound of melodies and hooks produced by big guitar-based rhythms and sweet harmonies. Usually. The sound dates back to the Beatles, Who, Beach Boys and Byrds. The tag was originally applied to Raspberries, Big Star, and Badfinger in the early seventies and later to Romantics, Dave Edmunds and Dwight Twilly. I took a stab at definition by example back here.

Since the eighties, there's been many a great power pop band. Only a few, and those are often on the fringe of the genre, have become big stars. The rest develop cult followings and tour clubs like mad to make a living. Whatever music you like, it can be hard to keep up, and so some slip through the cracks. Like most of these:

Splinter The Place I Love 1974. This overlooked gem was released on George Harrison's Dark Horse label and features Harrison producing and playing guitar. Never straying far from Badfinger/Beatles territory, the harmonies and songwriting are excellent.

Beagle Sound On Sound 1992. A Swedish band that sounds surprisingly American. None of those awkward non-English phrasings. Pretty much perfect power pop. The 1993 follow-up Within is good, too.

Something Fierce (MN) A Sound For Sore Ears 1996. Not to be confused with the Houston punk band with the same name, This Something Fierce pounds out catchy toe-tapping melodies.

Ice Cream Hands' Memory Lane Traffic Jam 1997 (great title) is a great place to start. The Good China 2007 rivals and maybe even betters it. Aussie band does power pop like they were born to it. 

Sloan's latest is right there with their best. It's been since the late nineties that they put together a string of three great ones, but 12 2018, Steady 2022, and now Based on the Best Seller 2025 are all excellent.

I've also updated the the Labels list over on the right so there is now a Power Pop label you can click on to see all of the Power Pop related entries.

Jerry Lee Lewis Rock & Roll Time 2014

Jerry Lee Lewis was the wild man in the early days of rock and roll and rockabilly, crashed his career early when he scandalously married his 13 year-old cousin, reinvented himself as a country star in the seventies (his greatest success), was inducted into the rock and roll hall of fame in the inaugural class, toured regularly throughout his life, had his best selling album in 2006 (Last Man Standing, a duets record), and died in 2023. Nine years before his passing, at age 79, he made this record.

What makes it so good? 

1. Jerry Lee Lewis was a great singer. His phrasing, his depth of feeling, his swagger, he really is a fine singer. He's different at 79, but not enough to matter.

2. Great songs. Two by Kris Kristofferson, two by Chuck Berry, others by Jimmie Rodgers, Johnny Cash, Jimmy Reed, Al Kooper and Ronnie Van Zant, Chris Kenner and Dave Bartholomew, Mack Vickery, and an obscure one by Bob Dylan.

3. Fine sympathetic and supportive production from Steve Bing and Jim Keltner, who also plays drums. 

4. Killer band. Jerry Lee plays piano in his idiosyncratic style while Keltner and Rick Rosas hold down the rhythm, and then there's an army of talented guitarists: Ronnie Wood, Keith Richards, Neil Young, Kenny Lovelace, Waddy Wachtel, Doyle Brammel III, Nils Lofgren, James Walbourne, Greg Leisz, Robbie Robertson, Jon Brion, and Derek Trucks. 

5. Unlike the two successful records before this, it's not a duets record, so Jerry Lee gets to shine without sharing the spotlight.

It was, for all intents and purposes, his last record. Talk about your late career masterpiece.

Allen Toussaint 1938-2016, Jon Cleary Occapella! 2012, Stanton Moore With You In Mind 2017

 

Allen Toussaint was a producer, songwriter, pianist, singer and arranger of skill and renown. He produced many hits for New Orleans artists in the sixties. He continued to produce for many non-New Orleans artists throughout the 20th century, and recorded twelve solo records. His late career solo output was outstanding, including The Bright Mississippi 2009, Songbook 2013 and American Tunes (2016).

His work is represented by many wonderful records. His own seventies output is summarized on The Allen Toussaint Collection 1991. His writing and producing can be enjoyed on Holy Cow! The Best of Lee Dorsey 1985, any of a number of Irma Thomas compilations such as Sweet Soul Queen of New Orleans: The Irma Thomas Collection 1996, or any of the fine records by The Meters, who were his house studio band for many years. He arranged the horns for The Band's great live Rock of Ages 1972.

Jon Cleary, a New Orleans transplant, made his delightful tribute Occapella! in 2012. The record features Cleary on all instruments on eight of the twelve songs. Like most New Orleans artists, Cleary is reverential, and having a real good time. You will, too.

 

Stanton Moore entered the studio in 2017 shortly after Toussaint's passing and cancelled previous plans for the session so he could honor Toussaint. His deft trio is joined by mostly New Orleans guests singing or playing horns on another selection of Toussaint's marvelous songbook. 

One of Allen Toussaint's famous compositions is Everything I Do Gone Be Funky. The title sums up his career. Dive into Allen Toussaint's output, and you gone be funky too.