Staff Picks for December 2023
December 31, 2023
Sam Phillips and T-Bone Burnett made fine records together before and after Martinis & Bikinis, but they rarely applied themselves to the discipline of the studio more completely than they did with this album, and never with more satisfying results. The songs and production found Phillips reaching to the Beatles for inspiration, in particular the warm but immaculate tone of Rubber Soul and the cooler, more visionary textures of Revolver.
December 30, 2023
This sixth album by the French extreme metallers is a bold step forward into new territory. Having already cemented their place as one of the best technical death metal bands in history, here they broaden their horizons considerably, experimenting with melody, groove, shorter songs, more straightforward structures, and actual singing.
December 29, 2023
Mix a shimmering new wave-meets-indie pop-meets-neo-disco sound that's totaly retro, but somehow quite futuristic, with a batch of heartfelt songs with really sticky melodies and the occasional teardrop and the result is one of the best albums of 2008, and one that's still pretty darn good in 2023.
December 28, 2023
Given that the Del-Lords were founded by former members of the Dictators and Joan Jett's Blackhearts, it was no surprise that they could rock, but their mix of hard-hitting, barroom-ready rock, rootsy soul, and pure passion made them an inspiring, one-of-a-kind combo. 1988's Based on a True Story was their best album, full of common-man anthems and walloping drums, sounding like heartland rock with all pretense stripped away. R.I.P. guitarist Scott Kempner.
December 27, 2023
After a couple decades spent floating around with the likes of George Clinton, Prince, and fellow Detroiter Moodymann, keyboardist/vocalist Fiddler finally came up with his first solo album. Just like his 1991 album as one-half of Mr. Fiddler, this is something of an anomaly, mixing up the occasional house track with funky R&B reminiscent of There's a Riot Goin' On-era Sly Stone and Fiddler's past connections. It's a joy to hear Fiddler's sensitive keyboard wriggles, butter-smooth croon, and full-throated yowl throughout the course of a full LP.
December 26, 2023
On Slide Rule, Jerry Douglas moves away from the jazz experiments of Plant Early, returning to the straightforward bluegrass of his early work. The result is a stunner, featuring not only a remarkable performance from Douglas, but also from an impressive list of guest musicians, including Alison Krauss, Sam Bush, Maura O'Connell, Stuart Duncan, and Tim O'Brien.
![A Charlie Brown Christmas [Original TV Soundtrack]](https://fastly-s3.allmusic.com/release/mr0005760461/front/400/S2JEGko64M2k_4LXUIu38D6KsMttLlyBmmVTZ6_CLs0=.jpg)
December 25, 2023
Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz called on pianist extraordinaire Vince Guaraldi and his trio to compose and perform music that would reflect the humor, charm, and innocence of Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and the entire Peanuts gang for their 1965 Christmas TV special. It was a perfect match: Guaraldi strings together elegant, enticing arrangements that reflect the spirit and mood of Schulz's work and introduce contemporary jazz to youngsters with grace, charm, and creativity.
December 24, 2023
A Christmas Gift for You From Phil Spector stands as inarguably the greatest Christmas record of all time. Spector believed he could produce a record for the holidays that would capture not only the essence of the Christmas spirit, but also be a pop masterpiece that would stand against any work these artists had already done. He succeeded on every level, with all four groups/singers recording some of their most memorable performances.
December 23, 2023
Various Artists
A Motown Christmas is an outstanding 12-track sampler of highlights from holiday efforts like the Jackson 5's Christmas Album, Stevie Wonder's Someday at Christmas, and Smokey Robinson & the Miracles' The Season of Miracles, all recorded during the label's late-'60s peak and infused with the same beautifully soulful vibe which defined the Sound of Young America at its best. Although the set leans primarily on seasonal chestnuts like "Rudolph, the Red Nosed Reindeer," "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus," and "Silver Bells."
December 22, 2023
First issued in the early '60s, this collection of musical Christmas cheer is packed full of the smoothly sung, sentimental favorites associated as much with Nat King Cole himself as with the season. The singer's performance of "The Christmas Song" is an unforgettable classic reprised here twice, once in an updated version that includes a contemporary vocal from his daughter, Natalie, and also in Cole's original 1946 recording.
December 21, 2023
A collection of Ol' Blue Eyes best holiday interpretations, this particular Christmas collection was released in 2003 by EMI as a digital download. Featuring Sinatra's renderings of "Jingle Bells," "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," and "Silent Night," the Sinatra Christmas Album should be a welcome addition to anyone's holiday cheer.
December 20, 2023
Part of Hip-O Select's exhaustive and terrific James Brown reissue series, 2010’s The Complete James Brown Christmas is a double-disc set that rounds up his three seasonal albums for King and a handful of non-LP singles and single edits. Unlike most artists who bend themselves to fit the standards of the season, Brown didn’t abandon his carefully crafted style for Christmas: he made records that sounded like his hits, they just happened to be about Santa Claus and Christmastime.
December 19, 2023
After its original release on Cadet Records in 1966, Have Yourself a Soulful Little Christmas was out of print for years until a 1992 reissue. With pensive, meditative, precise playing, it's a must-have and features a definitive jazz hit version of "Little Drummer Boy."
December 18, 2023
Released 25 years ago this month, DMX unleashed his dogs again on an album overflowing with raw energy and spiritual catharsis. The irascible Yonkers MC, 27 at the time of this recording, continues the Ruff Ryder legacy on this release. DMX's canine split personality flow is like none other, not only rhyming over tracks, but barking expression over explosive beats.
December 17, 2023
Various Artists
Despite the rather unfortunate title, Ultra Chilled, Vol. 1 assembles some of the most established names in down-tempo electronica and trip-hop, mixing them with some relative unknowns. The flow from Dido to Gorillaz to St. Germain to Morcheeba is deceptively smooth, as is what may be some listeners' introductions to acts like Zero 7 and Goldfrapp, with each song seamlessly blending into one another. If just listening to an album could make you instantly cooler, this could very well be it.
December 16, 2023
Original Soundtrack
Sofia Coppola's impressionistic 2003 cityscape of a film was made all the more dreamlike by its soundtrack, which is heavy on textural electronics and liminal rock from My Bloody Valentine's Kevin Shields. Along with incidental sounds and the MBV-esque song "City Girl" from Shields, the perfectly sequenced soundtrack includes moments from Death in Vegas, the Jesus & Mary Chain, Air, and other big names in ambient pop.
December 15, 2023
The fourth LP from Greenwich Village native and classically trained pianist Elizabeth Ziman was recorded over the course of three years with six different producers, including Richard Swift and former Catapult bandmate Dan Molad (Lucius). It's tied together by themes of moving forward from hard-earned life lessons. She puts the piano front and center on the Randy Newman-esque "Mea Culpa," a pair of character sketches about reaching personal crossroads, and gets downright forlorn on the arresting "Land of Lost Things," a reverb-rich piano-and-strings lament with Sondheim-ian overtones., Thoughtful and ultimately hopeful, the album doubles as a songwriting showcase.
December 14, 2023
Released 50 years ago today, Electric Light Orchestra's third album showed a marked advancement, with a fuller, more cohesive sound from the band as a whole and major improvements in Jeff Lynne's singing and songwriting. This is where the band took on its familiar sound, Lynne's voice suddenly showing an attractive expressiveness reminiscent of John Lennon in his early solo years, and also sporting a convincing white British soulful quality that was utterly lacking earlier.
![Girl 6 [Music from the Motion Picture]](https://fastly-s3.allmusic.com/release/mr0000854569/front/400/w4xUkUz-uYNQdW2J_DLJyB_TZlp6n_cq-Emr2zx15tU=.jpg)
December 13, 2023
Featuring a handful of new tracks with the New Power Generation, in addition to several classic Prince-performed and -produced tracks, this soundtrack from Spike Lee's phone-sex comedy is populated by funky keyboards and smooth soul ballads that sound like they could have been recorded in 1986. Nearly every song is about sex.
December 12, 2023
After taking on topics like contemporary media, technology, politics, and world events on 2015's Get to Heaven, the art-rockers continue in kind, addressing escalating instability on their fourth album. Altogether, A Fever Dream is confrontational, warped, emotionally and aurally high-contrast, and full of turmoil but reliable in its infectiousness
December 11, 2023
Scorch-porch? Beergrass? Hick-hop? All three tags have attempted, and ultimately failed, to successfully relate to the masses the eclectic bits of meat and bone that make up the Gourds.The band describes their sepia-tone, gravy-drenched fools-gold nuggets as ""music for the unwashed and well-read,"" and that sentiment couldn't be more apt in illustrating the dizzying redneck poetry that runs rampant on their sixth full-length release.
December 10, 2023
Stankonia was OutKast's second straight masterstroke, an album just as ambitious, just as all-over-the-map, and even hookier than its predecessor. With producers Organized Noize playing a diminished role, Stankonia reclaims the duo's futuristic bent. While the live-performance approach is still present, there's more reliance on programmed percussion, otherworldly synthesizers, and surreal sound effects. Yet the results are surprisingly warm and soulful, a trippy sort of techno-psychedelic funk.
December 9, 2023
While the group still had elements of their bar band boogie, they began to streamline their approach on this album, released 50 years ago this month. Although it only resulted in one minor hit, with the title track scraping the bottom of the singles charts, the record was one of their most consistent efforts.
December 8, 2023
Despite the long-term damage this film and the soundtrack's title theme did to bluegrass, the soundtrack stands as one of the best introductions to instrumental bluegrass available. The blistering virtuosity of multi-instrumentalists Eric Weissberg and Marshall Brickman ripple through such traditional numbers as "Shuckin' the Corn," "Little Maggie," and "Mountain Dew" with such fervor and passion, it's hard to believe that all this music is coming from two city slickers.
December 7, 2023
Tales from Topographic Oceans, released 50 years ago today, contains some of the most sublimely beautiful musical passages ever to come from the group, and develops a major chunk of that music in depth and degrees that one can only marvel at, although there's a big leap from simply marveling to wholeheartedly enjoying. If one can grab onto it, Tales is a long, sometimes glorious musical ride across landscapes strange and wonderful, thick with enticing musical textures; it offers the Yes fan the chance to be a true "astral traveler."
December 6, 2023
Blue River, with its themes of uncertainty and struggle, is by no means a casual record, although songs such as the bittersweet "Is It Really Love at All" and the title track, featuring Joni Mitchell's ethereal supporting vocal, will draw the listener in with their sheer beauty. Andersen, then in his late twenties, was dealing with questions of love, life, and desire with a maturity matched only by a handful of songwriters at the time.
December 5, 2023
Released 50 years ago today, Band on the Run is generally considered to be Paul McCartney's strongest solo effort. The album was also his most commercially successful, selling well and spawning two hit singles, the multi-part pop suite of the title track and the roaring rocker "Jet." Though it lacks the emotional resonance of contemporaneous releases by John Lennon and George Harrison, McCartney's infallible instinct for popcraft overflows on this excellent release.
December 4, 2023
After playing enhancing roles in Vivian Girls, Dum Dum Girls, and Crystal Stilts in the late 2000s, Frankie Rose's mostly solo debut was among the best of the cavernous reverb and shadowy pop indie scene of its time. It drew from the same C-86 and girl group influences, but with exceptional songwriting and the unexpected twist of occasional Cramps-styled demented swagger. An overlooked gem.
December 3, 2023
A searing opening salvo from the underrated U.K. rock band whose best known song, "Birth, School, Work, Death" led off their excellent major label debut.
December 2, 2023
Heard on four songs apiece on tenor and soprano (he was one of the first bop-oriented soprano players), Thompson plays two standards and six originals in a quartet with pianist Hank Jones, bassist Richard Davis, and drummer Connie Kay. The playing time on this straight reissue of an earlier LP is a bit brief (just over 38 minutes), but the quality is quite high.
December 1, 2023
A real treat for Hank-o-philes who really drooled over the few gritty demo recordings that appeared on the extensive box set The Complete of Hank Williams. Ten of the 18 cuts here come from early '49 appearances on Shreveport, Louisiana's KWKH; and the rest are demo recordings made to pitch songs to his label. These provide a warm, intimate look at a man playing songs on his guitar that would change the world.