CD Odyssey: The Road to 1,700

Each 100 reviews I like to reflect back and recap some of the highlights and lowlights along the way. Here we are at 1,700 reviews so let’s do that.

In a few days, I’ll post my reflections on the best records released in 2023, but in this article I’m going to reflect on the best and worst albums reviewed over the past 100 entries, regardless of the release year. There were seven 5-star albums over the last 100. They were:

• Beastie Boys – Paul’s Boutique (1989)
• Amyl and the Sniffers – Comfort to Me (2021)
• Joan Shelley – The Spur (2022)
• Beastie Boys – Licensed to Ill (1986)
• Run the Jewels– Run the Jewels 2 (2014)
• Mr. Lif– Mo’ Mega (2006)
• Boy Golden – For Jimmy (2023)

Of some interest, four of the seven were rap/hip hop albums. That is more of a statistical anomaly than any change in my listening habits. The others were punk, folk and country respectively. Collectively, they also represent music spanning across 37 years, so still lots of variety going on.

I got a lot more picky in 2023 about what it takes for a record to stay in my collection, parting with 14 albums. Most of these records aren’t objectively terrible, they’re just not for me. Here’s a list of them grouped together by the reason I let them go:

Category 1: But I like this band!

• Sunflower Bean – Handful of Sugar
• Lyle Lovett – 12^th of June
• Lone Bellow– Love Song for Losers
• John Moreland – Birds in the Ceiling
• Jess Williamson – Cosmic Wink
• Okkervil River – Away

These five are all by artists where I have one or more albums by them already, and know I like them. In each case I did not scout the record before buying it, and in each case I regretted it. The one exception is the Okkervil River record, which I did listen to first, but that has not aged well since I purchased it in 2016.

Category 2: Since I’ve already paid the shipping…

• Alex Lahey – The Best of Luck Club

I ordered three Alex Lahey albums at once, likely influenced by the savings on shipping. Turns out at least one of them (Best of Luck Club) wasn’t worth the freight. Here’s hoping the other two fare better when I roll them.

Category 3: I really like that one song

• Wild Rivers – Sidelines
• Amanda Shires – Take it Like a Man

Wild Rivers write catchy tunes and a couple of them (Bedrock, Long Time) were so catchy they momentarily blinded me to the merely OK listening experience for the rest of the album. I guess you could say that they did not provide sufficient ‘bedrock’ for me to keep the record for a ‘long time’.

Amanda Shires’ song “Hawk for the Dove” is a gorgeous tune, and I also liked that she’s part of Jason Isbell’s band, the 400 Unit. In the end, neither the song nor the pedigree could save the full record.

Category 4: I saw them live!

• Scimitar – Black Waters

I saw Scimitar live when they opened for Alestorm. I thought this magic moment would somehow be part of my listening experience but alas, it was not. Enjoy live shows in the moment my friends, because the magic isn’t collectible. If you don’t believe me go watch a half dozen crap videos people upload to Youtube from their phones featuring tin-can sound and a close up view of the backs of people’s heads. Does it feel magical? Reader, it does not.

Category 5: F*** you, The Band

• The Band – Music from Big Pink, and subsequently their self-titled album

I only reviewed “Music from Big Pink” in 2023 (I had reviewed the Band’s self-titled release in 2021). However, Music from Big Pink was so self-absorbed and annoying it broke the spell that the Band had briefly cast over me in the months after I watched the 2019 documentary “Once Were Brothers”. I was so incensed I went back and purged my other Band album from the shelves as well. Also, who calls their band “The Band”? Stupid.

Category 6: The Fading Fires of Folk

• Maire Brennan – Maire

This was a tough one. I’ve owned this CD since it was first released in 1992, making it one of the oldest in my collections. Back in 1992 I was seriously into Celtic folk music and would snap up records with little more to go on than they were in the right part of the “world” music in the record store and had song titles in Gaelic.

I still love Celtic folk, but not with the burning singularity of desire I once had for it. I thought about keeping it for nostalgia alone, but the practicality of available space won out. God speed to your new home, Maire Brennan.

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for the best of 2023, coming soon!