50 Years, 50 Albums (1988): The Trinity Session by Cowboy Junkies

 

I will turn 50 in November of this year, so my project for 2023 will be to listen to and review one album from each year of my life, 1973 to 2022.  The only qualification is that it has to be an album I’ve not reviewed previously. 

1988

Top Grossing Albums of 1988:

1. Faith – George Michael
2. Dirty Dancing soundtrack
3. Hysteria – Def Leppard
4. Kick – INXS
5. Bad – Michael Jackson

Grammy Award for Album of the Year of 1988:

• Faith – George Michael
• Tracy Chapman – Tracy Chapman
• Simple Pleasures – Bobby McFerrin
• …Nothing Like the Sun – Sting
• Roll with It – Steve Winwood

Other Albums I’ve Reviewed from 1988:

• • The Innocents – Erasure
  • Truth and Soul  – Fishbone
  • Nothing’s Shocking – Jane’s Addiction
  • Diesel And Dust  – Midnight Oil
  • Straight Outta Compton – N.W.A.
  • Surfer Rosa – Pixies
  • If I Should Fall From The Grace of God – The Pogues
  • It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back – Public Enemy
  • Daydream Nation – Sonic Youth
  • Lincoln – They Might Be Giants
  • Lucinda Williams – Lucinda Williams

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Album: The Trinity Session
Artist: Cowboy Junkies
Release Date: November 15, 1988
Label: Latent RCA
Favorite Tracks:

• Mining for Gold
• Misguided Angel
• Blue Moon Revisited (Song for Elvis)
• I Don’t Get It
• 200 More Miles
• Dreaming My Dreams with You
• Sweet Jane

Thoughts: The Trinity Session was on my 2009 list of all-time favorite albums but not on my 2022 list.  The reason? I screwed up!  Luckily, I get to address this error by reviewing the album now.  And it really is a great album full of bangers.  Margo Timmins’ ethereal vocals are balances with music that feels pulled up from the roots of the earth.  The album mixes original songs with traditional tunes and covers, most notably a hit reinvention of Velvet Underground’s “Sweet Jane.” The album was notably recorded in the Church of the Holy Trinity in Toronto around one microphone and mostly in one day which helps lend it the raw and rustic sound.  This album was a big one in my college years and I still feel bad that I’ve never gotten around to exploring any of the other parts of the Cowboy Junkies oeuvre.

Rating: ****1/2

Album Review: Hell-On by Neko Case

Album: Hell-On
Artist: Neko Case
Release Date: June 1, 2018
Favorite Tracks:

• Hell-On
• Halls of Sarah
• Curse Of The I-5 Corridor
• Sleep All Summer
• Pitch or Honey

Thoughts:

Looking through my archive I’m surprised that I’ve never reviewed a Neko Case album before as she is one of the great voices of our times, whether on her own or with the New Pornographers and side projects like case/lang/veirs.  Turns out this is Case’s first solo album in five years, and I haven’t been reviewing albums that long.  Hell-On offers what you expect from Neko Case – strong singing, heartfelt and poetic lyrics, and dynamic music that surprises and pleases.  This album also has a lot of guest artists including Beth Ditto, k.d. lang, AC Newman, Kelly Hogan, Doug Gillard, Laura Veirs, Joey Burns, Mark Lanegan, and Eric Bachmann (the last two each share vocals with Case on a pair of stunning duets).  This isn’t Case’s best album (it’s a few notches below Fox Confessor Brings the Flood and Middle Cyclone) but a merely good Neko Case album is still a wonder to behold.

Rating: ***1/2

 

Related Posts:

• Concert Review: Neko Case
• Music Discoveries: The New Pornographers
• Song of the Week #2: “Atomic Number” by case/lang/veirs

 

Album Review: The Thread That Keeps Us by Calexico

Album: The Thread That Keeps Us 
Artist: Calexico
Release Date: 2018 January 26
Favorite Tracks: “Under the Wheels,” “Flores Y Tamales,” “Eyes Wide Awake,” and “Shortboard”
Thoughts:

Calexico is a band that’s been active for more than two decades, although I was not familiar with their work until I heard “Under the Wheels” and decided to check out the rest of the album.  As the name implies, this Arizona-based indie rock band takes inspiration from the borderlands between Mexico and the southwestern United States. Those aren’t their only influences though, as listening to this album I heard music similar to John Lennon’s solo work, the 1980s oeuvre of bands like U2 and Midnight Oil, and even surf rock.  The feel of the music is cinematic, painting pictures of the desert landscape and the people who inhabit.  Lyrically, the songs are topically relevant – perhaps gaining significance from our national political disorder – as border politics and wildfires color the stories of everyday people.

Rating: ***

Album Reviews: Fever Ray, Blitzen Trapper, The Barr Brothers

This week, quick thoughts on three new albums I listened to today.

Album: Plunge
Artist: Fever Ray
Release Date: 2017 October 27
Favorite Tracks: “Wanna Sip” and “IDK About You”
Thoughts: Fever Ray is the solo project of Swedish electronic musician Karin Dreijer, also of the duo The Knife. The album has some sick beats and synths, but Dreijer’s voice is unpleasant and the frequent profanity seems to be juvenile attempt to be shocking.
Rating: **1/2

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Album: Wild and Reckless
Artist: Blitzen Trapper
Release Date: 2017 November 3
Favorite Tracks: “Joanna” and “Stolen Hearts”
Thoughts: A twangier, pure country outing from Blitzen Trapper grew out of a “rock opera” staged in their native Portland, OR that tells a sci-fi love story of two kids on the run.
Rating: **1/2

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Album: Queens of the Breakers
Artist: The Barr Brothers
Release Date: 2017 October 13
Favorite Tracks: “You Would Have to Lose Your Mind” and “It Came To Me”
Thoughts: The Montreal-based Americana jam band with a harp received good reviews for their innovative sound, but the album sounds kind of like generic folk-pop to me.  Not my thing.
Rating: **