This is part two of a two-part series…which is why there are only five records listed here. You have to go here to see the other five.
The Rolling Stones, “Hackney Diamonds”
Whenever an elder artist you like a lot puts out new albums, you always hold your breath. You never know what you will get, and it’s always sad if a one-time great demonstrates they should have hung it up a long time ago. Well, Keith Richard’s band (go ahead, ask him whose band the Stones are) put out a new one in 2023 and stuck the landing, quite an achievement given Richards turned 80 this month. This, in my opinion, is their best since “Tattoo You.” A lot of the most beloved Stones elements are here. The classic Stones Big Rawk song in “Angry.” The classic dirty sleazy Stones song, “Live By the Sword.” The raggedy Stones-go-country of “Dreamy Skies.” The blues work out of “Rolling Stones Blues.” A superstar list of guests help out, including Paul McCartney, Bill Wyman, and Elton John, but the best contributions by superstar ringers are by Lady Gaga and Stevie Wonder, who helped make the ambitious “Sweet Sounds of Heaven” a triumph the Stones haven’t managed in quite a while. And touchingly, Charlie Watts contributes to two songs in a post-humous swan song for one of rock’s endearing gentlemen.
Lana Del Rey, “Did You Know There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Boulevard”
Following up on a career-high point is always difficult for an artist, and Lana Del Rey faced that after 2019’s “Norman Fucking Rockwell!”. That album took her sad girl torch songs to new heights and raised the bar for the Queen of Chamber Pop, creating instant classics like “Mariner’s Apartment Complex.” She released two solid albums since then, “Chemtrails Over the Country Club” and “Blue Banisters,” that did not quite hit the heights that “NFR!” did, but this year, she released another album with a memorable title that has plenty of memorable music. Del Rey has never been the kind of person to put on at a party, more of a quiet day bedroom listen, and on “Did You Know There’s a Tunnel Ocean Boulevard” she experiments with her dream-state style in some new and interesting ways, never falling on her face. The closest thing to party music on this album is the murky funk of “Peppers,” which spins quite a trippy soundscape and the spacey trip-hop-after-a-couple-hits-of-indica of “Fishtail.” But at her best, Del Rey’s music has a beauty within it that is unique to her, and she does a lot with her standard formula on standout tracks such as “A&W” and the haunting “Candy Necklace” where she teams with the great Jon Batiste. The album is interspersed with “interludes” such as “Jon Batiste” where Del Rey, Batiste, and others are recorded laughing and apparently having a great time set to wispy piano, making one think of a memory of a long-ago party.
Peter Gabriel, “i/0”
Another elder statesperson on my list, and with good reason: Peter Gabriel put out one of the best albums of his career this year at age 73. The album’s title “i/o” stands for input/output as any stereo fan or musician knows, and it finds the prog pioneer in very fine form. This is the first release of new songs by Gabriel in 21 years, as the project was slowed by things like Gabriel’s perfection and his wife’s illness when he rightfully took a break to care for her. This is a Gabriel album through and through, with unique percussion, big choruses, incredible songwriting, and emotive lyrics. The title track is a meditation on our place in the world and our mortality, and when the chorus kicks in, you get that stirring feeling you get with Gabriel. “Four Kinds of Horses” has that classic eerie, unsettling Gabriel vibe and in my opinion is the masterpiece of the album. Curiously enough and sort of typical for someone like Gabriel who is rarely conventional, the album includes two mixes of each song, “The Bright Side Mix” and “The Dark Side Mix.” You sort of get a two-for-one deal. Both mixes are worth a listen, as the mixes give each song a slightly different feel.
Caroline Polachek, “Desire, I Want to Turn Into You”
I had to think through these last two because I had a fair amount of stuff I liked this year to choose from, so I came down to one example of how pop in the right hands can transcend its own limitations, along with yet another example from this year that rock ain’t dead. First off, Caroline Polachek’s “Desire, I Want to Turn Into You” reminds me of the more danceable side of 90s’ female singer-songwriters. There are moments in “Desire” where she mines the depths of trip-hop and others where she channels the arty electronica of 90s artists like Everything But the Girl (who have their own great album out this year). She even has 90s icon Dido guest on the song “Fly to You” (also joined by Elon Musk’s ex, Grimes). The album’s cover finds Polachek crawling in a club dress with headphones on in a bus or subway that is transitioning into a sandy beach. That sense of escapism is a recurring theme, especially on the club-style hit “Bunny Is a Rider” and the flamenco-infused “Sunset.” The album’s high point, however, is “Butterfly Net,” a fantastic ballad that features both a vintage organ and a children’s choir. With “Desire,” Polachek demonstrates that pop music can be transcendent when it goes beyond repetitive canned beats and auto-tune.
The Hold Steady, The Price of Progress
Despite rumors of its demise, rock music soldiers on into the third decade of the 21st Century, and it made quite a comeback in 2023. The kids LOVE to rawk now. Hell, pop princess Olivia Rodrigo made a straight-up rock album this year with “GUTS.” So it seems that rock is “back” and one of the better rock albums released during this rockin’ year was by grizzled vets The Hold Steady, who celebrated their 20th anniversary with their ninth album, “The Price of Progress.” If you are one of those lost souls who say “I don’t listen to the lyrics,” then this band is not for you, as their songs are really songwriter/lead vocalist Craig Finn’s short stories set to rock music. If you know The Hold Steady, you know the formula – stirring hard-rocking music, Finn’s speak-sing style of vocals, and wildly creative stories. One such tale that Finn spins, “Carlos Is Crying” is about a guy having a nervous breakdown in a bar with his friends, as life’s struggles begin to close in on him. Finn’s dry sense of humor shines in the rocker “Sideways Skull” about musicians planning their next move while stuck in rehab. His knack for uniquely told romantic tragedy drives the narrative in “Sixers” about a drug-addicted and lonely woman falling for a successful guy in her apartment building, and how her addictions get in the way of true love. “Distortions of Faith” is a waltz-like ballad about a fading and addicted pop star going so low she agrees to perform for an authoritarian despot, which ends with her needing to be hustled out of the country when a revolution begins. The album’s opener, “Grand Junction” is a sweeping, beautiful mini-epic about a couple sorting out their problems during a trip through the American west that demonstrates this band is more than a three-chord bar band from Brooklyn. Rock out but don’t miss the stories, they’re like 10 incredible mini-movies.
