Author: hankkalet

Hank Kalet is a poet and freelance journalist. He is the economic needs reporter for NJ Spotlight, teaches journalism at Rutgers University and writing at Middlesex County College and Brookdale Community College. He writes a semi-monthly column for the Progressive Populist. He is a lifelong fan of the New York Mets and New York Knicks, drinks too much coffee and attends as many Bruce Springsteen concerts as his meager finances will allow. He lives in South Brunswick with his wife Annie.

The Year in Music, vol 4

With the Top Ten out of the way — and focusing only on the new — I offer this list of five compilation/soundtrack/reissues worth discussing:

1. Dylan, Cash, and the Nashville Cats: A New Music City. This brings together work from a wide array of artists who relied on a small set of session musicians during the late 1960s and early 1970s and in doing so changed the way Nashville was perceived. It was released in connection with the fabulous exhibit at the Country Music Hall of Fame.

2. Nina Revisited: A Tribute to Nina Simone. I like this album a lot more than the folks at Rolling Stone. I agree that it can be uneven, but it is never dull.

3. Selma. The soundtrack, by bringing together the old and the new in civil rights music, finds a way to work on its own.

4. Bob Dylan, The Cutting Edge 1965-66: Bootlegs Vol. 12. These are the sessions that produced Dylan’s three greatest albums and this collection gives a glimpse into how they came about.

5. Bruce Springsteen, The Ties That Bind: The River Collection. As with the Dylan collection, this gives a glimpse into the recording process that resulted in the Boss’ most underrated album.

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The Year in Music, vol. 3 — My Top Ten

This is my 2015 Top Ten. I don’t pretend that these were the best records issued in 2015; my only claim is that these are the ones I liked best of the admittedly small percentage of albums issued during the year. Let the debate continue.

1. Courtney Barnett, Sometimes I Sit and Think, Sometimes I Just Sit

2. Kendrick Lamar, To Pimp a Butterfly

3. Sleater-Kinney, No Cities to Love

4. Kamasi Washington, The Epic

5. Leon Bridges, Coming Home

6. Wilco, Star Wars

7. Shamir, Ratchet

8. Blackalicious, Imani, Vol. 1

9. The Decemberists, What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World

10. Barrence Whitfield and the Savages, Under the Savage Sky

There are other records that could have made the list — and might have were my mood different on the day I write this, which is the beauty of moods and our response to art. Five records, however, did come really close to making this list and are worth mentioning as Honorable Mentions: Titus Andronicus, The Most Lamentable Tragedy; Mikail Cronin, MCIII; Chris Stapleton, Traveller; Death Cab for Cutie, Kintsago; Steve Earle, Terraplane Blues.

The Year in Music, vol. 2

Earlier today I offered what I view not so much as the bad records from 2015, but as the disappointments. In part 2, I offer the good — my favorite records by genre.

Jazz: Kamasi Washington, The Epic

Country: Chris Stapleton, Traveller

Hip-Hop: Kendrick Lamar, To Pimp a Butterfly

Rock: Courtney Barnett, Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit

Soul: Leon Bridges, Coming Home

N.J. Band: Screaming Females, Rose Mountain

Duet: Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell, The Traveling Kind

Soundtrack: Selma

Blues: Steve Earle, Terraplane Blues

Pop: Shamir, Ratchet

Still to come: My top ten, my favorite debuts, and my favorite compilations.

Debating ‘Judeo-Christian’

I posed a question on Twitter yesterday, which has mushroomed into what I think is a vibrant and worthwhile debate over the phrase “Judeo-Christian.” For those who might be interested, I’m embedding it here:

Anyone else have a problem w/the term Judeo-Christian?

Posted by Hank Kalet on Wednesday, December 30, 2015

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The Year in Music, vol. 1

I’m trying something a bit different this year. Rather than an alphabet soup offering my take on the year just passed, I’ll be rolling out several short lists — starting today with the five biggest disappointments of 2015.

I want to be clear up front: These are not necessarily albums I disliked. They are albums that under-performed when compared to earlier work by these artists. In that way, they stand as disappointments.

One other caveat: I only included records that I bought — so that leaves a lot of music on the floor.

The list:

1. Neil Young, The Monsanto Years. I love Neil’s music, but this one is a real dog — in a long line of recent dogs. Musically, The Monsanto Years rocks. It is Crazy Horse muscular and full of distortion. But the lyrics are pedantic and unimaginative, overtly political without being poetic or inspiring.

2. Adele, 25. The most apt way to describe what may have been the most-hyped record of the year is meh. See my review here.

3. Father John Misty, I Love You, Honeybear. I liked this on first listen, but found that it faded and couldn’t withstand repeated hearings, going from intriguing to pedestrian quickly.

4. Best Coast, California Nights. I like this album, but it feels flat when compared to the band’s much more creative earlier work.

5. Kacey Musgraves, Pageant Material. Another album I liked on my first few passes, it ends up sounding like too much contemporary country — which is unfortunate, given the excellence of her debut.