A Few of My Favorite Things, 2023 Edition -- Part One, The Albums

By Henry Lipput

Another year, another year-end list. Twelve albums are featured in my round-up of favorites from 2023. Once again there are the bands and artists I've enjoyed for a while as well as new faces and voices and two collaborations. I've reviewed many of these albums last year so I've edited them for this post and wrote new text for the entries I either didn't get to in 2023 or missed until recently.  Part Two of the Pure Pop blog will include my favorite EPs, singles, a live one, compilations, and a reissue.

For each album I've included a link to where you can buy the music (as well as a song from each album) and, as aways, I encourage you to support indie music by purchasing a download, a CD, or a record. 

The Boo Radleys – Eight (BooSTR Records) 

In 2022, following a gap of 24 years, The Boo Radleys released Keep On With Falling, an album I liked a lot. Their new album, Eight, is not only a giant step in the band’s regeneration, it continues their brilliant sonic journey. It’s also where the new album fits in Boo Radleys discography and makes it clear there’s a throughline in the history of a band that before last year had not released an album since 1998 and where the band is now. Favorite song: “Seeker”

Maia Sharp – Reckless Thoughts (maiasharp.com) 

On Reckless Thoughts Maia Sharp builds on the relationships she’s made with the many musicians and songwriters she’s known over the years since her debut in 1995. Sharp’s production on Reckless Thoughts is a low-key affair highlighting each song’s melody with subtle arrangements that wash over you like a warm bath and then come back to revisit you. The literate lyrics for each song are polished to a gem-like finish. Favorite song: “Fallen Angel”

Bill Pritchard – Pritchard Sings Poems by Patrick Woodcock (Tapete Records) 

You may think after having written both words and music for wonderful songs on 2016’s Mother Town Hall and 2019’s Midland Lullabies that Bill Pritchard would have little incentive to collaborate with the Canadian poet Patrick Woodcock. But it turns out this is a genius move. Pritchard has lost none of his ability to create brilliant melodies and his vocals and simple arrangements make you stop what you’re doing and listen to Woodcock’s words. Favorite song: “The Lowering"

The Cleaners From Venus – K7 (Bandcamp) 

Since the 1970s, Martin Newell, has released music under many monikers including The Stray Trolleys, The Brotherhood of Lizards, The Cleaners From Venus, and his own name in the 90s when he gave us the wonderful The Greatest Living Englishman and The Off-White Album. For the last few years Newell has released an album’s worth of material each year as the one-man band that is The Cleaners From Venus. His latest, K7, is once again filled with tunes that jangle (he’s known as the Jangling Man) and lyrics that recall the working-class vignettes of Ray Davies. There’s also the gorgeous “Postcard to Heaven” about the loss of a friend and “The Beautiful Stoned” where he cranks up the jangle. Favorite song: “Postcard to Heaven”

The Lost Days – In The Store (Speakeasy Studios SF) 

I’ve been a fan of Tony Molina’s work since his great Kill The Lights album in 2018. A master of short, extremely melodic songs recorded in a very lo-fi DIY way, all of his labels (In The Store is the fourth since Kill The Lights) release his full-size records (about 15 minutes of playing time) that are to be played at 45 RPM for “maximum sound quality.” On In The Store Molina is joined by Sarah Rose Janko of Dawn Riding who provides a wonderful take on his lyrics. The duo is joined by Nick Bassett on drums and keyboards (he also supplied the basement in which the album was recorded) and Jasper Leach on piano and Hammond organ. Favorite song: “For Today”

Lydia Loveless – Nothing’s Gonna Stand In My Way Again (digital: Bloodshot Records/CD and vinyl: lydialoveless.com) 

Loveless has an awesome voice that makes it clear it’s not going to take crap from anyone; she’s also very good on the album’s more emotional turns. Along with her crackerjack band the results are not unlike Carlene Carter on her 1980 Musical Shapes album where she matched her twangly vocals with the lads from Rockpile (just check out “I’m So Cool”). On Nothing’s Gonna Stand In My Way Again, Loveless has songs that alternate between hitting the big time (“Sex and Money”) and leaving behind a bad relationship (“Toothache”). Favorite song: “Toothache”

Robert Forster – The Candle and the Flame (Tapete Records) 

Robert Forster had three years’ worth of songs he had written for a new album before his wife and musical partner Karin Baumler was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. While Baumler underwent chemotherapy, Forster set out to quickly record songs at a local studio in Brisbane. The sessions turned into an extended family affair with their son Louis taking part along with Adele Pickvance, a long-time friend and bass player on the last three Go-Betweens albums (and the Adele of Adele and the Chandeliers). The result is a literate and heartfelt album. Favorite song: “Tender Years

Steve Stoeckel – The Power Of And (Big Stir Records) 

What do you get when you put a musical mix of styles in a blender and hit the puree button? If you’re lucky (and it turns out we definitely are this time) you’ll end up with The Power Of And the debut solo album from Steve Stoeckel. The Power Of And alternates between the Rockpile rockabilly of “Laura Lynn” to the wonderful acoustic treats of “Heather Gray,” “Birds” (a lovely melody as good as anything on a McCartney album), and “Strange Cameo” with its “I’ll Follow The Sun” vibe. Favorite song: “Birds”

Gramercy Arms – Deleted Scenes (Magic Door Record Label) 

The music and lyrics of Deleted Scenes recall the 1970s, a time when young people -- artists, writers, actors, filmmakers – flocked to New York City. Gramercy Arms fits into the zeitgeist of the time as it’s a collective led by Dave Derby who was also a member of another collective of sorts: The Negatives, a band led by Lloyd Cole resulting in 2001’s The Negatives.  Cole, it turns out, is also part of Gramercy Arms and co-wrote and plays on “Yesterday’s Girl,” the first single from the album. Having worked with Cole for more than 20 years, Derby has, especially on this song, picked up some of the former’s vocal mannerisms. Favorite song: “Fucked Up and Beautiful”

Tamar Berk – little injuries (Bandcamp) 

On tiny injuries Berk hits the ground rocking and then opens up to include heart-felt and heartbreaking ballads and, with the addition of horns, she’s building on her musical palette. Berk plays the quiet, acoustic card when she needs to and she and her band know how to bring the loud guitars. Berk has a songwriter’s gift for collecting the important parts of overheard conversations between lovers and friends especially the ones that signal the end of relationships. Favorite song: “sunday driving”

SUPER 8 – HOOPLA (The Beautiful Music) 

HOOPLA is a cornucopia of musical delights. Written and performed by the super-talented one-man band Paul Ryan, also known as Trip, he’s been releasing high-quality tuneage since 2018 (including the amazing hat trick of three albums of all new material that year). The new album not only continues his streak of presenting technicolor melodies (the title of his first 2018 album) but the time he’s spent since then, tinkering in his shed, has given his songs more textures, sounds, and arrangements. Favorite song: “Out of my Head”

The New Fools – seashells (Bandcamp)

On seashells, The New Fools adds trumpet and saxophone to the mix and the result is a rousing blast of sound. It’s their first “full-length” album (being more than the eight songs of previous ones) and their best yet. The band shares duties on creating lyrics and tunes for seashells. For example, bassist Dave Seabright was asked to write a theme song for the band which could be used to open shows. The resulting instrumental “Mr. Grimsdale” opens the album with a burst of sound. It’s both an overture and a statement of intent.  Favorite song: “Nice One Pete”

The New Fools are not phoning it in

By Henry Lipput

seashells, the excellent new album from The New Fools (Bandcamp), adds trumpets and saxophones to the mix and the result is a hornucopia of sound. It’s their first “full-length” album (being more than the eight songs of previous ones) and their best yet (although I have a very soft spot in my heart for 2020's papillion -- the "lockdown" album [have you heard "D.N.S"?]).

It’s not the first time The New Fools have added horns to their songs. Their previous album, last year’s vanille, had horns especially on “Better Days.” But there’s something different about the band’s sound on the new album. It’s hard to know if the horns were recorded at the same time as the band was playing but the Fools sound better and tighter than ever before.

The band shares duties on creating lyrics and tunes for seashells. For example, bassist Dave Seabright was asked to write a theme song for the band which could be used to open shows. The resulting instrumental “Mr. Grimsdale” opens the album with a burst of sound. It’s both an overture and a statement of intent.

The horns are used again on “Tickets Still Available at The Door,” one of two songs about being in a band and also being a fan. “Tickets” describes a Thursday evening pub gig for a local band and it doesn’t go well: “The guitar’s not quite in tune/The singer comes in too soon/And the drums are too loud for the room/And what’s that buzzing?” But you just know there’s some lonely fan (is it you? it might be me) standing at the back of the room taking it all in and enjoying every minute.

In the fast-moving pop of “Chortle and the Wheelies” lyricist and vocalist Tony Jenkins reminisces about the music he grew up with and thinks about the music of the present. It’s a discussion many of us have had not only with friends but also in our heads on a daily basis. He sings about being late for school so he can hear the rest of his favorite song on the radio or trying to get home in time to watch a favorite TV program after buying a new single. Jenkins wonders about the shelf life of new bands: “I said to Dave/Hey Dave, I was watching Get Back I thought my head was about to explode/And do you think in fifty years people will be listening to Idles and Black Country New Road?”

Although XTC’s “Making Plans For Nigel” was a slap at British Steel, The New Fools’ take on the song, “(Oh yeah) I’m Making Plans for Nigel,” uses it as an opportunity to put it to Nigel Farage, a well-known UK broadcaster, former politician, and former Brexit supporter: “Oh yeah I’m making plans for Nigel/I only want what’s worst for him/Start with a long walk on a short pier/A wicker man to lock him in.” Using some of the lyrics as well as the melody and some of the arrangements of the original song this new version becomes an ear worm (especially if you’re from the UK) to gloat by.

The lost-love treasure that is “Hopelessly Alone” has a wonderful acoustic guitar solo from The Druid and there’s as a lovely flute solo too. Sitting outside during the summer is, for this person, a time to recall the one who got away: “To the girl in a million/The one that got away/And if I hadn’t been stupid/She’d be here today.”

The New Fools works in pairs

 By Henry Lipput 

The outstanding new album Vanille (Everlasting Records) from The New Fools is their third (although I’d argue that it’s their fourth because the terrific lockdown sessions collection released as Papillion in 2020 is, to my mind, a proper album). The CD version of Vanille comes with an eight-song disc with new songs while the second disc contains bits of radio interviews and song introductions for the four singles released between Papillion and Vanille and there’s also solo acoustic versions of four songs from Vanille performed by Tony Jenkins, the band’s lyricist and singer, for Stagger radio in Cambridge UK.

Why do I say The New Fools work in pairs? Well, for me six of the eight songs on Vanille are connected in a bizarre reverse mirror way: one song is a character study about a lonely, troubled person and the following song is hopeful and sometimes about love. It’s as if on the Revolver album track listing “Eleanor Rigby” was followed by “Here, There and Everywhere.”

The best example is “The Boy Needs a Miracle.” A man sits in his local café, “Every day is just like the last/He sits watching the world going past.” Like his favorite music, now repackaged and remastered, his life has lost its meaning, it “seems empty now.” The world is changing too fast, his favorite programs are no longer on the television, and in a nod to Anthony Newley’s 1960’s musical, he screams “Stop the world!” he wants to get off.

As you begin to listen to the next song, with the lyrics “When you’re alone/Your footsteps seem to echo down/This city street hollow/A sound so desolate/It cuts right to the bone” you might think it’s a continuation of the previous song. But the song takes a joyous turn and “I Found You” becomes an ode to a new-found love that is so out-of-the-blue it doesn’t seem real: “I put my finger to your lips/Brush them with my fingertips/Just to make sure you are real.”

The next pairing consists of “Samantha Sits” and “Better Days.” Samantha “sits and thinks about her life/Ponders on the things she’s never done/She’s never been anybody’s wife/Never been somebody’s mum.” She’s happy that she’s never had to tow the line or bite her tongue but the choices she’s made have resulted in a life of loneliness.

As a result, Samantha has never had to deal with the difficulties that the couple in “Better Days” are having. But is that a good thing? It can be hard work: “We’ve had some hard times, Baby, but we’ve seen enough/To feel secure when the going gets tough/And though we’re not smart girl, we know it’s not enough/To close our eyes and pray for better days.” And he promises: “I’d go the extra mile for the sight of your smile.”

“If Things Don’t Change” and “…A Campfire Song” may be more of a stretch but stay with me on this. The man in “If Things Don’t Change” is the polar opposite of the people in Vanille’s first song “New Fools.” “New Fools” is not the band’s theme song but a look at all the people who bite down hard on the lies and misinformation they get from the government and media. “If Things Don’t Change” is the picture of a man who makes up his own mind and can’t sleep or even get out of bed because of it: “I can’t fall into line and have someone/Whose language and culture is different than mine.”

But what’s the solution? Well, as a certain foursome once sang “All you need is love” and “…A Campfire Song” finds another way of saying it: “But when I wake up and the sun still shines/And there’s magic when your eyes meet mine.” And it’s both friends and lovers that make a community: “Let’s start ourselves a fire/Hold hands and laugh for a while/Don’t you know nothing can go wrong/Cos you got me and we’ve got this song.”

There are no fools like The New Fools

 By Henry Lipput

“What did you do during the lock down, Daddy?”

If you were The New Fools, a Cambridge, England-based band consisting of Tony Jenkins on lead vocals and acoustic guitar, The Druid on electric guitar, Dave Seabright on bass guitar, Pete Carter on drums, and Shay Jenkins on keyboards, you recorded eight brand-new songs on each member's mobile phones and then everything was mixed together by Christian Gustafsson. The first single, “Nothing Toulouse,” was released in May and another seven were released during the summer. They’ve now been assembled on the splendid album Papillion - The Complete Lock Down Sessions (Everlasting Records/Bandcamp).

You might think, like I did, that the title of the lock down album was a reference to the Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman movie about prisoners trying to escape an island prison and these songs were escaping from the lock down. But it turns out, according to Tony Jenkins, the album title (with an extra ‘i’) is in fact a nod to that great band The Go-Betweens who had a loose  rule that album titles would have two LLs (Tallulah and 16 Lovers Lane, for example).  The New Fools have adopted this rule and so far have released their three albums with two LLs in the title: last year’s Brilliant, Mershmellow from earlier this year, and now Papillion. 

One of my favorite songs from the sessions is “D.N.S.” a wonderful salute to the skiffle era. For you kids too young to know about skiffle, it was England’s pre-rock-and-roll craze popularized by singers like Lonnie Donegan and embraced by groups such as The Quarrymen which later became The Beatles. The song rocks in a quiet sort of way and it’s a joyous look back at that time: “Won’t someone tell me where that sound is coming from/Just four people dressed in black and they’re kicking up a storm” and “They can’t believe they make that sound with just four people playing.”

Although bands like The New Fools haven’t been able to perform live for their fans since the spring, “Sunday Night” is about a musician with a much-loved back catalogue having to perform the old tunes again and again to an audience who are also people of a certain age. It’s not an angry or mean song, but presented with a sense of resignation: “And I’ve written so many songs/But no one wants to hear the new ones/Or face their sorrows.”  There’s a lovely flugel horn played by James Stygall that introduces the song.

Age is also a topic in “Old Bones” and also a feeling of both sadness and resignation: “I don’t think I can take another winter/These old bones sure feel the cold” and the chorus echoes the feeling of time having gone by “So much has changed/Are you still the same?/Or have you gone the way I’ve gone?” There’s a wonderful guitar solo from The Druid, some fine organ work by Shay Jenkins, and, as always, a warm vocal turn from Tony Jenkins. 

“Witch,” which gallops at full speed, opens with Kristin Hersh reading an except from her 'Rat Girl' memoir: “This is the story of a girl/A girl who flew from this world/On the fender of a witch/A too bad hard luck don’t stop drive away.” It might just be me but I’m hearing a bit of Donovan’s “Season Of The Witch” on this tune.

The last song to be released and the closing track on the album, “We’ll Meet Again,” is the only one that touches on the difficulties people are facing during these difficult times. But it’s also an uplifting message with the hope that we can meet again when things get back to some sort of normal.  “We’ll meet again/Along with our old friends/And the one’s we won’t see again/We’ll drink to them,” sings Tony Jenkins. “We’ve never known times so strange/So many things we had to change/It hurts so bad/We’ve been through hell/And back again.” But, like those four lads from Liverpool once sang, we’ll be okay because “All you need is Love” and the song ends with a sing-along of that grand sentiment.

Next time: Tugboat Captain’s album is not a Rut you’ll want to get out of any time soon