One I haven't had a chance to listen to very much and one that came out a couple months ago that I'm just getting into now.
Linda Thompson Versatile Heart I gave son Teddy and ex-husband Richard both the RIYL treatment this year, so why not Linda? While Richard has mostly moved away from his Fairport Convention-era English folk roots, Linda has stuck with them. On 2002's brilliant Fashionably Late, Linda somehow made very old-fashion-sounding music without sounding dated (I don't mean it no longer sounds "traditional," I mean it doesn't sound like it's been pulled out of a time capsule from 1972). From what I've heard of the new album, it sounds like she's done it again. AOL and MSN are both streaming it this week, and her myspace page has four of the new songs on it.
Nick Lowe At My Age I heard on WXPN that it was exactly 31 years ago today that Stiff Records had its first release - Nick Lowe's "And So It Goes" B/W "Heart of the City." That reminded me that I had neglected to add Mr. Lowe's new disc to the big list.
Lowe's voice sounds nothing like it did thirty-one years ago, and - like many other aging rockers (such as Steve Forbert) - as he gets older he seems to write more songs about getting older. While both his style (which has crept into the same Americana/country/blues sound that Mark Knopfler has adopted in his old age) and his song topics may have mellowed, his current sound fits the older him very well. And c'mon, he's still the Jesus of Cool - he just looks more like God than Jesus these days. Nick only has one new song streaming at his website, but NPR has an excellent interview that he did with Terry Gross archived here.
This week's list:
- JOSH ROUSE Country Mouse City House
- TEGAN AND SARA The Con
- JULIE DOIRON Woke Myself Up
- SPOON Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
- KELLY WILLIS Translated from Love
- RYAN ADAMS Easy Tiger
- GOLDRUSH The Heart is the Place
- ROSIE THOMAS These Friends of Mine
- WILCO Sky Blue Sky
- LINDA THOMPSON Versatile Heart
- NICK LOWE At My Age
- BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN Live in Dublin
- THE WHITE STRIPES Icky Thump
- TEDDY THOMPSON Up Front and Down Low
- G. LOVE A Year and a Night with G. Love and Special Sauce
- KIM RICHEY Chinese Boxes
- THE NATIONAL Boxer
- SUZANNE VEGA Beauty & Crime
- ALBERT HAMMOND, JR. Yours To Keep
- AU REVOIR SIMONE The Bird of Music
- PETER BJORN AND JOHN Writer's Block
- THE CLIENTELE God Save the Clientele
- FEIST The Reminder
- THE POLYPHONIC SPREE The Fragile Army
- GREAT LAKE SWIMMERS Ongiara
- THE SHINS Wincing the Night Away
- LOUDON WAINWRIGHT III Strange Weirdos
- TRAVIS The Boy With No Name
- MY MORNING JACKET Okonokos
- SON VOLT The Search
Dropping off the list this week:
- BRIGHT EYES Cassadaga
- FOUNTAINS OF WAYNE Traffic and Weather
RIYL for the week beginning August 13, 2007. Backstory here.
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