Wednesday 6 April 2016

A Dearth of Good New Music

Yesterday I met up with friends for a spot of lunch followed by a visit to a fairly recently opened vinyl cafe. Unfortunately while my flat white coffee was very good indeed, the venue was unable to entertain us with a selection of music played on vinyl. Something to do with waiting for a new stylus I understand.

Oh well!

Despite that minor setback, a good time was had by all I believe, but during our chat it struck me that here we are in April already and usually at this time of the year I have started to develop quite a list of favourite albums of the year. However that is certainly not the case this year and I confessed to owning only one album that was actually issued in 2016. The album in question is of course 'Blackstar' by David Bowie.

So where the hell is all the good stuff this year, or am I missing something? I admit to having been tempted by 'The Ghosts of Highway 20' by Lucinda Williams but when I tried streaming the record, I found myself unable to sustain the melancholia of the album for anything close to the full 84 minute duration. It was just all so terribly depressing.

I have also flirted with the possibility of buying 'You Can't Go Back if There's Nothing to Go Back To' by old favourites Richmond Fontaine, a band I have seen live on a couple of occasions and whose complete back catalogue I own. One of my lunch friends encouraged me to go for it and I am not entirely sure why I have been reluctant. Perhaps it is because we know it is to be the swan song of Richmond Fontaine as Willy Vlautin looks set to concentrate on his writing career and possibly his other band The Delines. Maybe my thoughts are that Vlautin has already turned his attention to other matters so we may have already heard the best from Richmond Fontaine. I'm certainly not ruling the album out and may defer my decision until I hopefully see them at a venue near here later this month.

Other records that have been on my radar this year are 'Where Have You Been All My Life' by Villagers and the self titled 'Jesu & Sun Kil Moon', but so far I have not been tempted. Even worse is that when I look at a list of forthcoming releases, I am hardly filled with eager anticipation.

It's a good job that I have a very healthy music library to delve into.

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