(in no particular order mind you)
Buy from amazon
Green Day – American Idiot
Green Day jubilantly explore and explode the punk/post-punk dictionary to exhilarating effect, resulting in a ‘Who Sells Out’ / ‘London Calling’ / ‘Rocket To Russia’/ ‘Nevermind’ joyride through Red State
Amerika.
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Elvis Costello – The Delivery Man
EC’s most significant release in years, period. While you’re
at it, check out his Gershwinly classical disc ‘Il Sogno’,
wherein he teaches many his aspiring peers – McCartney, Joel,
and Joe Jackson among them – a thing or three about how this
orchestral stuff works.
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Diana Krall – The Girl In The Other Room
Mrs. EC, who needn’t be Mrs. Anybody to get attention, scores big with this strong dose of jazz-blues singer/songwriting.
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Patti Smith – trampin’
Wanna know why Patti Smith still commands our attention? ‘Stride Of The Mind’, ‘Mother Rose’, ‘My Blakean Year’ and the fire breathin’ CBGB flashbacks ‘Ghandi’ and ‘Radio Baghdad’ that’s why.
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John Lennon – Acoustic
Timing out at just under 45 minutes, Yoko, the bootleggers and I all know this disc could have been 30 minutes longer and stronger. But it’s John, so I’ll take it.
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Bob Dylan – Live 1964
C’mon, does it get any better than this?
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Mindy Smith – One Moment More
I surely hope Smith doesn’t fade out any time soon. It would be a damn shame if ‘Come To Jesus’, ‘Raggedy Ann’, the title tune and her searing take on Dolly Parton’s ‘Jolene’ is all we’re left with.
Gandalf Murphy and the Slambovian Circle of Dreams – Flapjacks From The Sky
I’ll take another tall stack, please.
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David Byrne – Growin’ Backwards
Even when devolving, Byrne makes more headway then most.
Tie Dyed Tie:
Jerry Garcia Band – After Mindnight (Kean College, 2/28/80) Buy from amazon
Lunt-Fontaine Theater 10/31/87 Best of the Rest (Lunt-Fontaine 10-15-31/87)
Garcia himself would say “I played like shit too many times.” These collective 9 discs weren’t any of those times.
POOPer Bomb # 1:
Gwen Stefani – Love Dance Music Baby
Everyone’s favorite little girl hands herself over too easily to the trendsetters and hip-hop moguls for an urban-empty exercise in early Madonna vamp. I was expecting so much more.
POOPer Bomb #2:
U2 – How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb
Fellow POOP-ologist Bob Fino and I prayed that ‘Vertigo’ wouldn’t be the best song on this new disc. It would appear that every once in a while prayers don’t get answered as you’d like them to.
POOPer Bomb #3:
Tom Waits – Real Gone
Bombing Waits is like bombing my own home but what can I say? Waits gets wired, wilder and weirder without maintaining that scorched-earth genius we’ve all voyeuristically thrilled in for decades.
Still On The Fence With a Picket In Me Britches: Wilco – A Ghost Is Born
Here’s to better listening in ’05:
Jude Johnstone – On A Good Day
Wondering where that early Jackson Browne, Southern California pathos disappeared to? Look no further, oh my Poopies.