Everything melted in less than a week

Continuing my trip down The Guardian's top 50 albums of 2023

#40 : Sundown - Eddie Chacon

The spectral second solo album by the low-key R&B legend seemed to waft the veil between pleasure and pain, between having everything and losing it all, between life and the great beyond. Eddie Chacon and producer John Carroll Kirby stripped back the comparatively heavy keys of 2020’s Pleasure, Joy and Happiness for an album of slurred synths and flute solos barely of this earth, percussion that evoked rain dappling the roof of a Frank Lloyd Wright bungalow and melted funk designed to soundtrack a smooth shuffle on the carpet inside, cocktail in hand. Cast in a twilit hue and preoccupied with loss, Sundown nevertheless found the revivified Chacon at the outset of a stunning creative frontier.

I've never heard of Eddie but I'm interested to hear the album that made The Guardian write such a complete load of rubbish - "percussion that evoked rain dappling the roof of a Frank Lloyd Wright bungalow" my arse.

Well, this is smoooooth and no mistake.  He's got a lovely voice and the accompaniment just blends in beautifully - evoking the rain dappling the roof of a Frank Lloyd Wright bungalow unless I'm much mistaken.  I can't say any one track jumped out at me or I even remember any of them, but the whole mood was very calming and I found myself enjoying the general vibe.  

Wikipedia doesn't have loads on the album, but it does tell me it was recorded in California and Ibiza and it certainly sounds like some sunshine was involved (recording in the Scottish winter would not have produced the same sound).  It also tells me that Eddie is one half of "Charles & Eddie" that wouldn't lie to you back in '92 - I also didn't know that Charles died from cancer at 37 back in '01.  This album got to #19 in the indie album chart but didn't hit the main chart - which is a bit of a shame because there were far worse albums that got to #1!

"Customers also listened to" John Carroll Kirby (who produced this album), Lonely Pirate Committee (great name!), Pearl & The Oysters and Mndsgn (just don't ask me to pronounce it).  This was a lovely little album though - it's a shame I didn't discover it in the summer when it would have felt much more weather-appropriate.

#39 : Laugh Track - The National

As frontman Matt Berninger confronted a debilitating breakdown towards the end of 2019, the National wondered if they would ever even make another album. Then they made two, of which Laugh Track was the surprise second release this year – and which proved that they hadn’t just regrouped but revitalised. For the first time in several years, they sounded like five guys hunkered down in the engine room, smelting lean, light-headed epics such as Deep End and Dreaming, and leaning on a quarter-century’s worth of trust to get out of their own way, letting classic ballads remain unfussed (Laugh Track) and manic dirges untrammelled (Smoke Detector – maybe their best ever song). And almost losing it all gave Berninger’s lyrics a newfound clarity about what’s worth holding on to, most strikingly expressed in Space Invader, which conveyed a kind of panicked gratitude for having recognised love and pursued it years ago when it could so easily have dissolved in a letter that went unwritten, a subway stop missed. 

I liked The National in their early days, but recent albums have felt somewhat of a let-down for me - just a bit too unsubstantial to hold my attention.  However (spoiler alert) I'm going to get two opportunities to see if they've addressed my concerns this year...

And this is definitely showing signs of hope - the tracks still feel quite delicate, but they've got a bit more substance to them.  It's probably too early to declare success, but it definitely feels like it would be worth a re-listen - I particularly liked the title track, which also features Phoebe Bridgers (Roseanne Cash and Justin Vernon also feature elsewhere on the album).  I like the album cover too.

Wikipedia has quite a lot on the album (138 milliPeppers), with it explaining the somewhat unusual creation process - "Weird Goodbyes" was released as a single before First Two Pages Of Frankenstein, which was the album they released in April.  However, they decided that single didn't live on that album but it deserved to live somewhere, so they spent their time on tour working out what other tracks would go along with it and then this came out in September.

The critics were very nice about the album with some declaring it the better of the two (but not The Guardian, obviously).  It did pretty well commercially too, getting to #24 here, #13 in Germany and #14 in The Netherlands.  It also got to #3 in the UK Americana album chart, which seems like a very niche chart that absolutely no-one was asking for.

"Customers also listened to" EL VY, Sufjan Stevens, Wilco and Big Red Machine - none of whom are my area of expertise.  Which is also pretty much true for anything The National have done in the last 15 years, but this is certainly showing enough signs of life to draw me back.

I liked both of these albums and I think this is our best pairing of the year so far.  I'd be quite happy to listen to either of them again - Eddie in particular on a balmy summer evening would be very fine indeed.

#42/41 - A decent pair of albums
#38/37 - A contrasting pair of albums