The Year 2021 in Music

Continuing with our year in review, Matt Lynn Digital invites you to look back at the last year in reviews of books, movies, music and television. We look at these with individual categories, one per day through Friday. Today we share music reviews offered by Matt Lynn Digital in 2021.

(The 2006 album The Open Door by Evanescence opens our look in 2021 album reviews).

We looked into the Evanescence album The Open Door in September, marking an anniversary for the second studio album for the band. Amy Lee leads the vocals for Evanescence, looking into the connection Lee had with a former love interest as well as the fans of the band. The album looks further into early life experiences, loss and the finding of meaning through the course of life that the band explores with us through the experience.

(We reviewed the 1996 album Recovering the Satellites by Counting Crows in October).

The Recovering the Satellites album by Counting Crows responds to unexpected success and the adulation that, like with Evanescence in dealing with their debut album, offered some emotional feedback to the fanbase. The interpersonal for the Counting Crows and their lead singer and lyricist Adam Duritz, after acknowledging the fans appreciation, tends less with a romantic relationship lost than to an eagerness to connect on an individual level. Recovering the Satellites, like with The Open Door, seeks direction in the emotional realm.

(August brought us the review of the 1996 album Dust by Screaming Trees).

The 1996 album Dust followed 1992’s Sweet Oblivion for Screaming Trees, a band that in my humble opinion deserves a higher level of acclaim than they physically achieved. The thematic references to biblical passages in speaking to contemplations of death. Whether the band was thinking of directing their aspirational reach personally, within the genre of grunge music they played, or the death of Kurt Cobain as with the song Dying Days, there is a gloom that pervades the album. That experience, in all its depth, feels like the point of the album Dust.

(Matt Lynn Digital shared the David Foster produced album The Christmas Album, from 1993, in December of 2021).

The Christmas Album of 1993 by David Foster featured songs performed with stars, including Vanessa Williams, Céline Dion, Natalie Cole and Wynonna Judd. The album’s mood combines secular and religious feeling with a respectful admiration for the season underpinning the songs offered.

(March brought the Matt Lynn Digital sharing of the album Ten by Pearl Jam).

A hit album of the grunge genre characteristic of the early 1990s is Pearl Jam‘s 1991 album Ten. Grunge was the style of the day, as was a confessional storytelling notion that included homelessness, divorce, remarriage, stepparents and emotional health concerns for school age kids. Coping with notions of bullying or scorn, the song Jeremy takes perhaps the harshest response to the trauma of any song on the album.

(The post-punk, alternative stylings of R.E.M. with the 1991 album Out of Time).

The post-punk, alternative sound of the band R.E.M. were permitted a spotlight with the album Out of Time in February of 2021. The composition and sequencing of the songs with Out of Time were artfully done to offer the careful listener a crafted argument against themes strictly of sex and violence. The album speaks to notions of self-defining depth in love, political awareness, relationships with parents and other intimates, and differing perspectives on pregnancy.

(The 1986 album Licensed to Ill by Beastie Boys was reviewed by Matt Lynn Digital in November of 2021).

The debut album Licensed to Ill for Beastie Boys fused hip hop and hard rock when created in advanced of the album’s November of 1986 release. The incorporation of the hard rock influence with sampling conventions in hip hop made for a successful launching of a sounds that already existed separately, broadening an appeal for audiences that sensed they wanted a sound while waiting for the proper audio clues. Licensed to Ill would become the first #1 album that also was in the hip hop genre.

(Matt Lynn Digital offered a look into the 1985 album Scarecrow by John Mellencamp in July of 2021).

John Mellencamp offered a look into small town America with the 1985 album Scarecrow. The social concern that came through for Mellencamp with this album looked into taking advantage of farmers making a living on their land, modest living outside of steel mills, and the strong connection Mellencamp himself felt for the heartland of the United States.

(The 1982 self-titled album Asia by Asia earned a look by Matt Lynn Digital in March of 2021).

Asia formed as a super band formed from parts of King Crimson, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Yes and Buggles to create an album named after the new band itself, namely Asia. The interplay of Heat of the Moment and Only Time Will Tell in offering an apology for poor behavior and a realization of lost love announce a thematic direction for the 1982 album. The notion of love’s sting later drifts into questions of class in military service, feeling seen in professional and relationship pursuits, and finally growing through experience to see life more fully.

(Matt Lynn Digital offered a look into the 1971 James Taylor album Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon in January of 2021).

A calm, understated style greeted our ears with the 1971 album Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon by James Taylor. You’ve Got a Friend remains a meaningful song for me from the album, with the song itself originally being written and recorded by Carole King. The song reflects on the practical quality nature of friendship, trust and the permission to be vulnerable in a safe space. This album resonates for me on these terms.

(The 1971 album Aqualung by Jethro Tull was reviewed by Matt Lynn Digital in May of 2021).

The album Aqualung by Jethro Tull was released in March of 1971. The album itself questions the orthodoxy of formal religion while maintaining a belief in God. Notions of justice are questioned through the music, as well as the role of humanity in the conduct of those purposes. The questions raised in this album are quite relevant to the human experience.

(The 1968 album Now He Sings, Now He Sobs by Chick Corea was reviewed shortly after the musician’s death in February of 2021).

The Chick Corea album Now He Sings, Now He Sobs released in 1968. Matt Lynn Digital looked into this album shortly after Mr. Corea’s death in February of 2021. The album itself offers five songs of Jazz, which is the style of the pianist played in.

Matt Lynn Digital appreciates your continued interest in the content we offer. Should you have albums that you’d like us to review, or similar work to that mentioned above, please be sure to let us know.

Matt – Wednesday, December 29, 2021

Fifty years and the James Taylor album ‘Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon’

April 1971 brought the release of a follow-up album to the first album to bring commercial success for the calm, understated stylings of musician and 2000 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee James Taylor. Today we listen into the 1971 album Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon.

(Here is the album cover for the James Taylor album Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon, which was released in April 1971).

Love Has Brought Me Around opens the album Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon with a desire to continue a conversation of recovery, contemplation and better days. As mentioned in a review of the album for AllMusic, a receptive audience was “recovering from the political and cultural storms of the [19]60s,” making this song resonate then. For many others, similar recovery fits today.

You’ve Got a Friend as written and originally recorded by Carole King as a response to James Taylor‘s Fire and Rain of 1970 as a musical response saying, per Songfacts, “you’ve got a friend right here.” You’ve Got a Friend was Taylor‘s only #1 album in America, winning Grammy Awards for Taylor and King.

Places in My Past continues the personal introspection into the biography of James Taylor at the tender age of 23. Listen closely for the subtle accordion play, which is joined by piano, guitar, bass and, of course, singing.

(James Taylor is featured on the March 1, 1971 cover of Time magazine).

The accompanying violin and banjo play adds a homey, afternoon journey feeling to the song Riding on a Railroad. The invitation to sing along in the spirit of the pan underpins the sensibility of this tune.

Soldiers offers perhaps the shortest song to the Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon with a length less than 80-seconds long. Whether or not you consider the 55-seconds of Isn’t It Nice to Be Home Again that ends the album a song, Soldiers is a close second. The optimism that brings an end to the lyrical tale offers an uplift perhaps unexpected yet sweet nonetheless.

Mud Slide Slim brings conclusion to the opening album side of Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon. Finding consolation and friendship in contemporary troubadours and likeminded folks that understand moods and uplift the spirit. Taylor himself said in 1997, according to Songfacts, that the song was inspired by a picture of a tree washed down a hill in a mudslide with a random message affixed to it. I am fond of the electric guitar and congas accompanying the sound of this production.

(Here is the backside of the James Taylor album Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon, which was released in April 1971).

Hey Mister, That’s Me up on the Jukebox takes a more subdued sound with drums, vocals and guitar contributing to the lyrical lead of a young man’s sadness. The notion of being in a bar with a jukebox somewhere with a stranger playing a sad and sweet song of a man wearing a younger man’s clothes as sung at a later date by Billy Joel comes to mind.

You Can Close Your Eyes performed this song in the original construction of it as a song to Joni Mitchell, his girlfriend at the time. The song would be performed by other musicians and in duets with different performance ideas over time, yet this original version offers the consolation of a cherished memory of the song after romantic feelings of a relationship separate two brought together as one, which would later happen for Mitchell and Taylor.

Danny Kortchmar wrote the song Machine Gun Kelly, playing acoustic guitar along with James Taylor. Kortchmar also played congas on this track. The song tells a clear story warning of the ambitious Katherine Kelly seeking bolder crimes, putting the pair at risk of more heat than Machine Gun Kelly might be willing to reckon with.

(James Taylor circa 1971).

Long Ago and Far Away is a follow-up single with a folk music sensibility to the song You’ve Got a Friend, with backup vocals by Joni Mitchell and piano playing by Carole King. Per the book Fire And Rain: The James Taylor Story by Ian Halperin, the song deals with “how things don’t turn out as planned, how dreams don’t usually match the ultimate reality and how expectations don’t last.”

Let Me Ride brings a mixture of electric and acoustic guitar combined with an arrangement of horns to boot. The ode to highway traveling between destinations, not unlike a free bird that travels unbound to the rigors of daily routine or feeling that can feel at times like chains that bind our souls.

Highway Song brings piano, bass and drums to the foreground with a hymnal quality that aspires to the apostolic notion of fishing for men and women of faith. The subtext flips quickly to realization that the narrator’s heart, that is, James Taylor‘s heart, rests not there or in settling down to a more traditional sense of marriage. Like a tumbleweed, like an unchained bird unburdened, the calling rests with the journey of movement.

(A contemporary image of James Taylor).

Isn’t It Nice to Be Home Again offers perhaps the most intimate nugget of music on the whole album. Lasting just 55-seconds, the acoustic guitar with lyric overlay has James Taylor back home, missing the road, questioning how much his spirit that reveled in the being on the road really belongs tied to the place he calls home.

Matt – Saturday, January 23, 2021