The Year 2023 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 Sunday. Today we share music reviews offered by Matt Lynn Digital in 2023.

(Cover art for the Weathervanes album by Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit).

Beginning with our most recent review with a guest review of the Weathervanes album by Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit, as reviewed by friend of the blog Cobra. The 2023 album presented alternative country-rock that mixed in with roots rock and southern rock to entertain their fans. Our review of the Rick Rubin book The Creative Act: A Way of Being also represented 2023 with a top notch look into how creativity works in music production and other fields as well.

(Cover art for the 2011 Tedeschi Trucks Band album Revelator).

The 2011 release of the album Revelator by the Tedeschi Trucks Band offers the first of two albums from the 2010s in our annual review. Offering a taste of American traditional rock, blues rock and roots rock from a guitar virtuoso opens an album that I can and do listen to over and over again. The 2010 A Christmas Cornucopia album by Annie Lennox also presented a more contemporary music mix.

(The biopic Walk the Line depicted aspects of the lives of Johnny Cash and June Carter).

The movie Walk the Line (2005) provided a mostly autobiographical portrayal of the musical life of country musician Johnny Cash and his second wife, June Carter. Music from both performers were featured throughout the movie, which offered a compelling movie experience of the respective lives of the couple up to the point of their marriage.

(Cover art for the R.L. Burnside album Mr. Wizard).

A modern sound for the delta blues comes to us with the 1997 album Mr. Wizard by R.L. Burnside. The music tends to more of a jam format than some of Burnside‘s earlier work with influences on musicians making music into the current day.

(Cover art for the Van Halen album OU812).

The 1988 album OU812 (Oh, you ate one too!) by Van Halen incorporates the most hard rock or pop metal sound for the three albums we reviewed for the 1980s. Both the 1986 album The Way It Is by Bruce Hornsby and the Range and the 1985 No Jacket Required album by Phil Collins delve more into the so-called adult contemporary genre with a focus on message and sound this still hit for a somewhat different audience.

(Cover art for the Christopher Cross album Christopher Cross).

We’ve taken the 1970s decade seriously with a review of nine separate albums. The self-titled 1979 album Christopher Cross by Christopher Cross continues the adult contemporary appeal before the 1974 soft rock appeal of the Jackson Browne album Late for the Sky. Second Helping by Lynyrd Skynyrd gave 1974 a more southern rock or boogie rock sound with their second album.

(Cover art for the Dr. John album In the Right Place).

The 1973 Dr. John funk and piano blues album In the Right Place gives way to the more progressive rock sounds of Pink Floyd‘s 1973 album The Dark Side of the Moon and Yes‘ 1972 album Fragile.

(Cover art for the Chuck Mangione Quartet album Alive!).

The contemporary jazz and easy listening album Alive! by Chuck Mangione Quartet from 1972 introduces the final three albums with a largely instrumental sound. The soft rock album Teaser and the Firecat by Cat Stevens stands next to the blues rock, hard rock and heavy metal sound of Led Zeppelin IV by Led Zeppelin for the music of 1971.

(Cover art for the Miles Davis album Sketches of Spain).

Jazz and rock and roll provide our 2023 soundtrack for the 1960s. Holiday music for 1968 leads us to Christmas Album by Herb Alpert & Tijuana Brass. The seventh album for The Beatles gave us the rock and roll in the form of 1966’s Revolver. The John Coltrane album Giant Steps and the album Sketches of Spain by Miles Davis round out 1960 with jazz performances that warm our heart.

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

Matt – Friday, December 29, 2023

Cat Stevens and the album ‘Teaser and the Firecat’

The fifth studio album for Cat Stevens, who would later rename himself Yusuf Islam, was released this month in 1971. Teaser and the Firecat offered ten songs in the pop/rock, album rock, soft rock and singer/songwriter categories suggested by the American online music database. Stevens was born in London, England.

(Shown here is the cover art for the album Teaser and the Firecat, the fifth studio effort released by Cat Stevens).

The Wind opens Teaser and the Firecat seeing Stevens, as quoted on Songfacts here, examining “spirituality and fate, listening to the wind of his soul to find his direction. At the time, he was exploring Eastern philosophy following a life-threatening bout of tuberculosis.” Recorded in London, the song would be used in the Cameron Crowe movie Almost Famous (2000), among others.

With a verse sung in Greek, Rubylove was recorded in Los Angeles, California of the United States. As noted on the Playing Cat Stevens blog here, this song allowed friends of Cat Stevens’ father “over to the studio to play on the record with their bouzouki.” The instrument is similar to a mandolin in sound, though Greek in origin.

If I Laugh meditates on the aftermath of a deeply impactful relationship that has run its course to an unhappy ending. The relationship need only be meaningful and missed, with Stevens making a statement for doing the work for recovery. The meaning here helps me greatly.

The fourth song on the album, Changes IV, as noted on the Playing Cat Stevens blog here, “was recorded with Gerry Conway playing live drums. Those background claps on the album recording were actually Cat’s ingenious idea.” The song amplifies the message of change being a necessary teacher in life, as raised in the song If I Laugh.

(An image of Cat Stevens, later renamed Yusuf Islam, from 1971).

How Can I Tell You gets into the notion of a writer feeling “something so immense that he can’t think of words to describe how he is feeling[, thus] it becomes difficult to write songs,” as stated here. The song captures the elusiveness of this forthrightly.

Tuesday’s Dead brings an uplifting playfulness to finding the peace of mind and purpose in a life that hasn’t provided the experiences to light the path through the confusion. That the human condition is this kind of messy need not diminish the light; Stevens says to lift the bushel and shine despite what embarrassment or pain you feel to get to peace, allowing the past to remain there once you can.

Morning Has Broken, along with the remainder of the songs on Teaser and the Firecat, were recorded in London. Charting ninth in the United Kingdom and sixth in the United States, as noted here, the song provides a “reworking of a 1931 children’s hymn by Eleanor Farjeon, who also wrote a lot of children’s poetry. The lyric is a reference to the book of Genesis in the Bible, where God creates Earth on the “first morning.””

Bitterblue is a negotiation of sorts in coming to some form of understanding about moving forward with understanding and acceptance. While I can see this living in the context of a human relationship, I see this more expansively within the context of the Teaser and the Firecat album as an effort to reach spiritual understanding with the divine, perhaps existentially. I hear a distinct sense for what Cat Stevens is trying to reject within the dialogue he shares with us in Bitterblue.

(Moonshadow, released as a single in the United Kingdom in 1970 and in the United States a year later, is a part of the Cat Stevens album Teaser and the Firecat).

Moonshadow charted 22nd in the United Kingdom and 30th in the United States, as noted here. This song gets into finding hope in any situation; being present and joyful; seeing life as it is, right now, and not comparing it to others’ lives, or other times in your life. The message is to be present in the current moment rather than worrying about what could be, or what has been, since the richness of life rests in experiencing the present moment.

Peace Train charted as high as seventh in the United States, as indicated here. In the song, Cat Stevens sings of a hopefulness for people coming together, peacefully, to form a unified togetherness of purpose, direction and peace. Stevens is quoted as saying he was “was revisiting a very Greek-sounding riff – the kind of thing you’d hear on a Greek island. The words were attached to that time, my peace anthem. It ended every show that I did and was quite a show stopper. It was a very important song for me because it stated one of the big goals of my life which was heading straight for that peace.”

(Released in the United States after Moonshadow, Peace Train became the first U.S. Top 10 hit for the performer. Stevens would later change his name to Yusuf Islam).

Musicians accompanying Stevens on Teaser and the Firecat include Harvey Burns on drums, Gerry Conway on drums and voices, Alun Davies on guitar, Angelos Hatzipavli on the bouzouki, Del Newman on strings, Paul Samwell-Smith on finger cymbals and vocals, Larry Steele on bass and congas, Andreas Toumazis on the bouzouki and Rick Wakeman on the piano and organ.

Matt – Wednesday, October 18, 2023