Not an album, but I am really interested in (and looking forward to) Lucinda Williams' biography/memoir "Don't Tell Anybody The Secrets I Told You".

Well chosen title. That's one of my favorite Lu lines: The relationship has ended before she was ready for its end, the guy —who told her she was his queen, his biker, his everything, that he was obsessed about her, that it was for all time— has moved on, and now all she has is one last humble request: "All I ask / Don't tell anybody the secrets / I told you". Rips your heart right out of your chest - a masterpiece from an A+ 10/10 five-star PERFECT album.

Speaking of stuff that will come out next year, it may be time to start the "Best new/most anticipated albums of 2023" thread already. Severian, you have the priority, but if you don't do it soon I'm afraid I'll have to, dammit. :D Anyway, how about beginning with this:



John Cale announces MERCY, his first new album of original songs in a decade, out January 20th via Double Six / Domino, and presents a new single/video, “STORY OF BLOOD feat. Weyes Blood.” For nearly 60 years, or at least since he was a young Welshman who moved to New York and formed The Velvet Underground, Cale has been reinventing his music with dazzling and inspiring regularity. There was the bewitching chamber folk of Paris 1919 followed instantly by the gnarled rock of Fear, the provocative and spare song cycle Music for a New Society followed more than 30 years later by mighty and unabashed electronic updates. Once again, here is Cale, reimagining how his music is made, sounds, and even works. His engrossing 12-track MERCY moves through true dark-night-of-the-soul electronics toward vulnerable love songs and hopeful considerations for the future.

On MERCY, Cale enlists some of music’s most curious young minds: Animal Collective, Sylvan Esso, Laurel Halo, Tei Shi, Actress. They’re only some of the astounding cast who climb inside Cale’s consummate vision of the world and help him redecorate there. As Cale turned 80 in March, MERCY is the continuation of a long career’s work with wonder. Cale has always searched for new ways to explore old ideas of alienation, hurt, and joy; MERCY is the latest transfixing find of this unsatisfied mind.

The writings and recordings that shaped MERCY piled up for years, as Cale watched society totter at the brink of dystopia. Trump and Brexit, Covid and climate change, civil rights and right-wing extremism—Cale let the bad news of the day filter into his lines, whether that meant contemplating the sovereignty and legal status of sea ice melting near the poles or the unhinged arming of Americans. Lessons from a life (still being) richly lived floated to the fore, too, nodded to on the previously released “NIGHT CRAWLING.” If we’re always regretting our past, aren’t we conscripting ourselves to permanent disappointment? And in the end, as he considers alongside Weyes Blood during “STORY OF BLOOD,” aren’t we more capable of saving one another than a god we will never know?

During “STORY OF BLOOD,” after the piano prelude gives way to a frame-rattling beat and synthesizers that feel like sunshine splashed across a snowfield, the voices of Cale and Weyes Blood’s Natalie Mering slide past one another, two phantoms trying to find a partner amid the modern din. “Swing your soul,” they both sing in aspiration. In the final verse, Cale remembers this existence is not just about himself. “I’m going back to get them, my friends in the morning. Bring them with me into the light.” The accompanying video by Emmy-winning director Jethro Waters is a mix of disturbing and serene featuring both Cale and Weyes Blood. Its deep tones and religious images emphasize the track’s dark, spiritual mood.

Cale elaborates: “I’d been listening to Weyes Blood’s latest record and remembered Natalie’s puritanical vocals. I thought if I could get her to come and sing with me on the ‘Swing your soul’ section, and a few other harmonies, it would be beautiful. What I got from her was something else! Once I understood the versatility in her voice, it was as if I’d written the song with her in mind all along. Her range and fearless approach to tonality was an unexpected surprise. There’s even a little passage in there where she’s a dead-ringer for Nico.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgwOid8vdwE

Upcoming tour dates
Sun 23rd Oct - The Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh
Mon 24th Oct – Barbican, York
Fri 28th Oct - Llais Festival, Cardiff *
Mon 31st Oct - Playhouse Whitley Bay, Whitley Bay
Thu 3rd Nov - Birmingham Town Hall, Birmingham
Mon 7th Nov - De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill on Sea
Wed 9th Nov - The London Palladium, London
Thun 10th Nov - Cambridge Corn Exchange, Cambridge
Fri 11th Nov - Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool
* = John Cale + special guests, 80th Birthday Celebration

one more for next year:
dEUS will release their first new album in 10 years in February 2023

Meg Baird - Furling (January 27)
Quasi - Breaking The Balls Of History (February 10)

Back to 2022:

Mike Baggetta/Jim Keltner/Mike Watt - Everywhen We Go (November 18)

Really cool post hardcore from France

https://birdsinrow.bandcamp.com/album/gris-klein

gotta agree on that one

Anja Lauvdal - From A Story Now Lost (download/streaming out now, LP November 11). Produced by Laurel Halo. Sounds freakin' great!

Yo La Tengo - This Stupid World (February 10)

Ah! YLT gonna tell it like it is!!

Den svenska vreden by Fågelle



releases January 27, 2023

You're just too
Too obscure for me...

;)

if everyone buys her new album, she will become less obscure


speaking of Cure, I'm anticipating their new album as well. I listened to their latest gigs, and some of the new songs they played were quite good.

What the fuck is up with all these "best of 2022" lists published already? What do these publications know? There's still a whole month left. What if The Beatles reunite and release a brand new album? Or, better yet, what if Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers reunite and release a brand new album? Think about THAT!

Swans - The Beggar - June 2023.

Did You Know That There's A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd? - Lana Del Rey

March 10th 2023.

The title song is out. It gives me If You Lie Down With Me vibes from Blue Bannisters, which I fucking adored. Maybe the new album is The Bluest Fucking Bannisters Ever Which Surround A Fucking Blue House.

(Listen to the song before cursing me for so much swearing.)

Never mind the swearing; I was gonna curse you for getting all fucking giddy over Lana del fucking Rey.

In shock news, local man likes popular acclaimed songwriter.

Some albums I have liked from 2022, in alphabetical order (not in a top 10 list yet, better do that in the next week and a half):
-Alvvays - Blue Rev
-Asian Glow - Stalled Flutes, Means
-beabadoobee - Beatopia
-The Beths - Expert in a Dying Field
-Black Country, New Road - Ants From Up There
-Brutus - Unison Life
-Chat Pile - God's Country
-Courting - Guitar Music
-death's dynamic shroud - Darklife
-Ghais Guevara - There Will Be No Super-Slave
-Hatchie - Giving the World Away
-MJ Lenderman - Boat Songs
-Niños del Cerro - Suave pendiente
-Petrol Girls - Baby
-PVA - BLUSH
-The Smile - A Light for Attracting Attention
-Sobs - Air Guitar
-Sudan Archives - Natural Brown Prom Queen
-Yawners - Duplo