New Sounds for September

Recent releases from David Gilmour, George Strait, MJ Lenderman, The War on Drugs, Jon Anderson, Nick Lowe, and classic live Faces

Moving toward the fourth quarter of 2024, the challenge of picking a best-of-the-year list gets tougher, as both hot young artists and legacy acts start flooding the record stores and streaming platforms with material. Here are a few that have caught my ear in the last week or so.

David Gilmour - Luck and Strange

There’s comfort in the sound of Gilmour’s mournful Strat as it creeps in from the ether on the opening instrumental “Black Cat,” leading its way to the epic title cut of his latest solo excursion. Luck and Strange allows the rock veteran to explore his tastes much further than his old band (and its fans) allowed. Not that he abuses that privilege. Quite the contrary. Gilmour gives the people what they want in soulful explorations and subtle, yet anthemic balladry (“The Piper’s Call,” “Scattered”) and mid-tempo rockers that recall the glory days (“Dark and Velvet Nights”) while passing the torch to the next generation (“Between Two Points” and “Yes, I Have Ghosts,” featuring lead and harmony vocals by daughter Romany, respectively).

George Strait - Cowboys and Dreamers

In a way, George Strait could be seen as the AC/DC of country music. He’s going to sound the way he sounds, regardless of current trends, and except for a few production flourishes here and there, you could put on any album from any part of his career and not really know in which era it was recorded. That’s not a bad thing; that’s sturdy consistency, something both ol’ King George and Angus Young know something about. His latest, Cowboys and Dreamers, delivers more of the same. He even pulls Chris Stapleton back into the honky tonk (“Honky-Tonk Hall of Fame”). Although his take on “Waymore’s Blues” wasn’t asked for and isn’t needed, he makes up for it by offering a touching tribute to Keith Gattis and Guy Clark with their brilliant co-write, “Rent.” In this uncertain world, Strait’s grounded reliability is more than welcome, it’s needed.

MJ Lenderman - Manning Fireworks

Although I’m hesitant to fully embrace MJ Lenderman’s thing, select moments of Manning Fireworks are helping slowly push me toward it. It’s a thing I feel has been done many times before, and better: a hearty mix of Neil Young, Todd Snider, Drive-By Truckers, etc. A lot of it is a bit too hyper-hipster-centric for me. Yet he can turn a phrase that can definitely turn your head. Also, it’s moments like the lazy, loping “Wristwatch,” the matter-of-fact devastating brilliance of “She’s Leaving You,” and the irresistible “Joker Lips” that are slowly pushing me toward Lenderman devotee status after all. Dammit.

The War On Drugs - Live Drugs Again

A sequel to one of the best live rock albums in a generation? Yes, please. The War On Drugs follows 2020’s Live Drugs with the no-nonsense-titled, Live Drugs Again. It’s teased with a positively fierce version of the Lost In the Dream track “Burning,” which showcases the band’s mastery of pretty much all the best parts of album rock (what the young’uns call “dad rock” now) condensed into five minutes.

Jon Anderson and the Band Geeks - True

Jon Anderson discovered his new ensemble, the Band Geeks, the new-fashioned way - on YouTube. Since leaving Yes in 2008, Anderson has not exactly been in hiding; reuniting with Rick Wakeman and Trevor Rabin in 2016 for a tour (and another in 2018), and releasing occasional new music. Still, it’s quite remarkable how consistently great True is. Arguably a more enjoyable listen than the last few Yes albums, True takes twists, turns, and chances that signal a welcome return to the halcyon days of prog while keeping an ear on the present. And, yes, that voice is just as pure as ever.

Nick Lowe & Los Straitjackets - Indoor Safari

Easy, confident, joyous - Basher’s first in-studio straight-up collab with Los Straitjackets yields one of the most delightful albums of the year. I previewed “Went to a Party” earlier in the summer, but the full hootenanny hits stores this Friday. Check out his breezy new treatment of the 20+ year old “Different Kind of Blue” below…

Faces - At the BBC: Complete BBC Concert & Session Recordings (1970-1973)

“The excessively rowdy Faces” is how they’re introduced at the beginning of this massively glorious - and gloriously massive - package from Rhino. As fitting as any introduction ever could be, the 8 CDs + Blu-Ray included proceed to prove John Peel’s deadpan words to be characteristically understated. As with all BBC concerts from this era and beyond, the relative attentiveness and politeness of the audience is jarring to us Yanks, but welcome, as the energy lies in the performance. Throughout seven and a half hours of music, Rod, Woody, Plonk, Mac, and Kenney prove that when they were on - as they absolutely were here - no one could touch the Faces.

Of course, here’s the Mixtape. In most cases, I’ve added different tracks below from what I featured above.