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

Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit and the album ‘Weathervanes’

A special event to Matt Lynn Digital. This guest post brought to you by Cobra.

When Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit announced their new album, Weathervanes, they billed it as “life and death songs played for and by grown-ass people.” That clues the listener in even before the first note is played that this isn’t Top 40 fare meant to be background noise. Then again, Isbell albums never are.

(The cover art for the album Weathervanes, released by Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit on June 9th, 2023).

I’ve long said “there’s a difference between truth and honesty” (and yeah, that’s the title of my debut album if and when I finally decide to write and record it, so don’t none of y’all go stealing that). Just because something is true doesn’t need it needs to be sung about endlessly (I’m looking at you pop-“country” radio). And just because something might not be a true to life experience for one person doesn’t mean it doesn’t require an honesty to tell the story, because as Greg House once said “it’s true for somebody.”

Weathervanes kicks off with the heavy song “Death Wish.” Isbell admitted he’s wanted to write this type of song for a while and that, sonically, it was experimental for him, but it kicks off the album in fine fashion. This was also the first song Isbell released prior to the release of the full album.

That leads into “King of Oklahoma,” a story about a man resorting to a plan to steal copper wire from his workplace because a work injury has left him unable to work and with a pill addiction that he needs the monetary funds to feed. He also has a wife who’s threatening to leave and take the kids due to his inability to work and support her. He reflects on the things he misses about the relationship: “She used to wake me up with coffee every morning / And I’d hear her homemade house shoes slide across the floor / She used to make me feel like the king of Oklahoma / But nothing makes me feel like much of nothing anymore.”

In Track 5, Isbell reflects on the collective strain and despair the endless wave of mass shootings, particularly in schools, takes on us all. “Balloon popping at the grocery store / My heart jumping in my chest / I look around to find the exit door / Which way out of here’s the best?” he sings in the second verse before pleading with his wife to keep their child at home and be home-schooled.

“Cast Iron Skillet” is another album highlight (and the song from which the album title comes) as the narrator reflects on small-town old-time values and wisdom that does not and should not be adhered to. He first tells a story that seems reminiscent of Nathan Lee Boyd, an Alabama man who died in prison after stabbing a man 27 times (“or was it 29”) and then follows up with a story of a father who disowns his daughter for dating someone of a different skin color. As Isbell leads into the final chorus, he sings “don’t wash the cast iron skillet / this town won’t get no better will it / she found love and it was simple as a weathervane / but her own family tried to kill it.”

Of the song “Volunteer,” Isbell writes, “This story is a narrative based on a character that is fictional, but it came from that idea of like the Steve Earle song, ‘nothing brings you down like your hometown,’ that same thing. It’s like, why can’t I really feel like I have a strong emotional connection to this place where I grew up?”  Isbell reflects that his relationship with his home is complicated as he is critical of much of it, but in other ways very proud of where he comes from.

One of my favorite songs on the album is the somber “White Beretta,” our narrator finds himself thanking and apologizing to a former lover for having the strength to make one of the hardest of choices that, further, he was unable to help her make due to her being raised with religious guilt. “I thank God you weren’t brought up like me, with all that shame and certainty / And I’m sorry you had to go in that room alone” he sings. “It was so many years ago, oh, and I just didn’t know / But that ain’t no excuse / For being who you are, I thank you and I’m sorry / For what you went through.”

I’ve long said that Jason Isbell’s 2013 album “Southeastern,” reviewed here, is my number one favorite album of all time.  When the dust settles, Weathervanes might be the first album with a chance to claim that title. It’s certainly climbing the hill to make a challenge as king of the mountain.

This album is Best Album Grammy caliber.  Stunningly brilliant from start to finish.

5/5 stars

Cobra – Saturday, June 17, 2023

[Editorial Note: Guest posts such as this one may occasionally appear on Matt Lynn Digital.]