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SPEW pronounces the 21st-30th best albums of 2017. Shazam!

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(Steven J Wilson)

21.    Wire – Silver/Lead (Pink Flag)
          Wire are one of my staples, consistent and consistently surprising: https://spewrocks.blogspot.com/search?q=wire




22.    John Murry – A Short History of Decay (TV)
         And then I wrote … https://spewrocks.blogspot.com/search?q=john+murry


23.    Whiffs – Take a Whiff (High Dive)
          I liked it then https://spewrocks.blogspot.com/search?q=whiffs … I like it now. 


24.    Aldous Harding – Party (4AD)
Not that anyone asked, but if Aldous Harding reminds me of any of her contemporaries, it’s Cate LeBon. They both have this striking ability to swing from the confidential to the bel canto stentorian more than once over the course of an album. Harding’s songs, mostly accompanied by her guitar and piano, are koan-like without being obscure. Harding uses space deftly, yet her spare arrangements sound full, partly because her voice is so personal and pre-possessing. I’ve seen Party described as everything from alt-country (she’s from New Zealand) to Goth. And I guess it’s all true, Harding’s songs and performances are declarative without being rigidly defining; she makes room for you in these songs - It’s a skill, people. 

25.    Low Cut Connie – Dirty Pictures 1 (Contender)
Were the cake as good as its ingredients Low Cut Connie would be the saviors of rock n’ roll. Not quite, their composite of Stones, Jerry Lee, and ‘Mats only occasionally lives up to its lineage. But close gets a cigar because these Philly believers are pretty damn good. On this, their fourth album, Low Cut Connie dig deeper, get more soulful, and even show a working class embattled patriotism, providing roadhouse kicks and something almost like vision. 
26.    Kevin Morby – City Music (Dead Oceans)
Kansas City kid, Kevin Morby moved to New York right after he got his GED. With Cassie Ramone from the Vivian Girls he formed the Babies, a refreshingly, unaffected rock band that released two albums. Going solo in 2013, City Music is his fourth solo record, and his best. Recorded with his live band it’s a compelling mixture of introspection and sinewy rock that Lou Reed would have enjoyed for its sly intelligence. 


27.   Courtneys - II (Flying Nun)
These three women sound like a Flying Nun band, veering between power pop and buzzing shoegaze, complete with breathy female vocals floating on the band’s bed of distorted, jangly guitars. A Vancouver band recording for the New Zealand label, the Courtneys measured pop aggression is more market friendly than most of the Nun stable because the Courtneys drive the groove home. Singer and drummer Jen Payne sings about infatuation and heartbreak and the usual ‘girl group’ emotional menu, but the band powers these songs well beyond twee. 

28.    Endless Boogie – Vibe Killer (No Quarter)
The concept almost seems like a joke. Endless Boogie = Blues Hammer. Ha ha ha. But these guys, who all started jamming at the record store in Brooklyn (can’t remember which one), take the most searing parts of Canned Heat’s “Endless Boogie” and the Stones’ “Midnight Rambler” (the sped up part, all wailing harp and guitars) and jam on their facsimiles ad infinitum. You’d be excused for thinking that sounds dull. It’s actually strangely mesmerizing. This is their third album, featuring the closest thing to tunes they’ve arrived at yet, without sacrificing the drone-buzz that stoner rocks you into nirvana. 


29.    JD McPherson – Undivided Heart and Soul (New West)
I gave JD’s first two records a little more respect. His first was a co-number one, his second a top ten record for Reverberations, my older blog. This is a really good record, good writing, inspired performance, and maturity that occasionally slides into mannerism. Such are the perils of excellence, if this were the first thing I ever heard by McPherson I’d think it was amazing. And it kinda is. 

30.    Joan Shelley – s/t (No Quarter)

When an artist goes the self-titled route for a fifth album it suggests either a lack of inspiration or a belief they’ve done definitive work. It’s safe to say that the latter applies in the case of Joan Shelley. Jeff Tweedy’s attentive, but unobtrusive production focuses on Shelley’s guitar playing and riveting vocals. Hers is a voice that’s ice and fire, a Yankee emotional analog to the incomparable Sandy Denny, with a similar emotional range, her songs expressing romantic isolation, romantic gratitude, and most points in between.
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The people have spoken.

There is a town in Arkansas called Elaine.

(Steven J Wilson)
Elaine, Arkansas is in Phillips County, one of the poorest counties in the United States, a flat expanse of deprivation where your Google Maps won’t keep you from getting lost. Elaine is lost. It looks like a place where nothing good has happened in a very long time.  That's, at least in part, because something terrible happened there. Something a majority of Americans don't know about.  I'm educated as a historian, but I lack the imprimatur of an advanced degree. I will do my best to offer a concise history lesson.  The facts are straightforward. In order to escape destitution and indentured servitude, black sharecroppers in the Arkansas delta organized under the banner of the Progressive Farmers and Household Union of America. On the 30th of September 1919, a prominent, white attorney named Ulysses Bratton traveled the three hours from Little Rock to meet with the workers to discuss strategy. They met at a small church on the outskirts of Elaine at a place c...
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Robert Pollard and Richard Davies were COSMOS. At least in 2009. I like to keep up to date.

(Steven J Wilson)
I’ve been such a good lad. Writing almost like a responsible journalist. That’s not a bad thing, but I promised myself (and you) that SPEW would be a place for more dashed off bits.   Well, here’s one.   Cosmos. Ever heard of them? Unless you’re a Robert Pollard completist, probably not. Their sole release, Jar of Jam Ton of Bricks was released in 2009 (one of Pollard’s 100+ issues, only about a 1/4 of which are Guided by Voices titles). Cosmos was a collaboration with Richard Davies, Australian pop oddball and auteur behind the cult faves the Moles. The two of them share a certain aesthetic, a vision that embraces early John Cale, the first two Brian Eno records, Pete Townshend’s Scoop demos, bits and pieces of the Beatles, and a dash of early Syd Barrett.   Some of the songs on J ar of Jam are based on little more than acoustic guitar and percussion, especially woodblock, others are full band janglers. Because of the duo’s shared sensibility it all hangs...
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Jessica Lea Mayfield's unapologetic "Sorry is Gone"

(Steven J Wilson)
Jessica Lea Mayfield, of Kent, Ohio, released her first album With Blasphemy so Heartfelt ( produced by Dan Auerbach, fellow Ohioan) at the tender age of nineteen. I missed it. I probably shouldn’t have.   Her second Auerbach (Black Keys) produced record Tell Me arrived in 2011 when she was 22, 23 maybe. I listened to it. I heard talent. But somehow the combination of songs, performance and production didn’t really hook me.   Never bothered with her alleged grunge-rock record, the two previous had been loosely in the roots-rock/Americana idiom, called Make My Head Sing . No Dan Auerbach. I don’t know who produced it, but Mayfield described it loosely as dedicated to one of her favorite artists, Dave Grohl. Not being a huge fan of the Zelig of contemporary rock, that dedication probably soured me on the project. Sorry. For me and Jessica it was a matter of timing. The time is now. And the record is Sorry is Gone. Which is pretty great.   Mayfield and pr...
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