Christone "Kingfish" Ingram - 662 (2021)

The second release from this blues phenom who was only 22 at the time he recorded the album. From the album's press release:

Ingram describes 662 (the number is northern Mississippi's telephone area code) as "a presentation of my life in and away from the Delta." The album overflows with hard-hitting original songs, jaw-dropping guitar work and deep, soul-possessed vocals.

Right up my alley. This Mississippi rockin' boogie blues with hooks galore is perfect for summer driving and/or just sittin' and sippin' on the porch in the South Texas heat and humidity (speaking from personal experience).

The album won the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album. Kingfish and the album won five(!) awards at the 29th Annual Living Blues Awards from Living Blues magazine. Speaking of magazine awards, DownBeat magazine named it as Best Blues Album in its 70th Annual Critics Poll:

Press of the time:

• Living Blues: "each note sounds right, each string-bend and grunge-flecked wail appropriate in its place"
• Blues Blast: "No longer the 'future of the blues' - as Guitar Player magazine once called him, Kingfish’s time is NOW!"
• Blues Rock Review (9 out 10): "Ingram shows that he has only sharpened his ability to cut, soar, and amaze with nothing more than a couple of choice guitar licks, or a flurry of emotive runs."

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard 200: Did not chart
• Billboard Blues: #1

Tracks: Unlike many blues albums, there's enough variety here to make this a top-to-bottom listen. If pressed to pick favorites, today I'll go with 662, Another Life Goes By, Not Gonna Lie, I Got To See You, and the autobiographical Something In The Dirt.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: I picked up my copy of this CD in an autographed digisleeve at the Delta Blues Museum in Clarksdale, Mississippi in October 2025 when my wife and I traveled parts of the Mississippi Blues Trail.

The Beach Boys - Feel Flows: The Sunflower & Surf's Up Sessions 1969–1971 (2021)

Here in sunny South Texas it's been a relatively cool summer, with high temperatures in the 90s instead of the usual 100s. And while any time is a good time to listen to the Beach Boys, their music seems especially suited to summer, so let's spin this two-fer this morning.

A 2 CD set consisting of expanded reissues of the "comeback" albums Sunflower (1970) and Surf's Up (1971); the title is taken from the Surf's Up track Feel Flows (track 6 on disc 2 here). I bought these discs back in 2023 after listening to a few of the tracks in a Beach Boys box set. Metacritic rates this reissue at 87/100 which falls within their "universal acclaim" parameters. To be honest, I was completely unfamiliar with these two albums before inheriting the aforementioned box set and I was pleasantly surprised after taking a chance on this two disc set. The original albums get playing time around here, the 34(!) bonus tracks not as much.

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: #83

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SUNFLOWER (1970)

The band's 16th studio album and their first on the Reprise label. It sold poorly, but would later gain appreciation as many fans today consider Sunflower to be among the group's finest post-Pet Sounds albums. The band functions as a band with Carl Wilson, Dennis Wilson, Bruce Johnston, Mike Love, and Al Jardine emerged from Brian Wilson's shadow as songwriters. Nevertheless, we're still treated to the Beach Boys' trademark vocal harmonies mixed with elements of soft rock, soul, and sophisticated pop.

#380 in the 2003 version of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time and #66 in the 1997 version of The Guardian's 100 Best Albums Ever.

Press of the time:

• Record World: "They stay very close to the fluid, close harmony songs they used to sing when they first started out."
• CashBox: "Brian's back, the group is happy and the album shows it."
• Billboard: "Chart hits for the tapping."
• Robert Christgau (A-): "Maybe they weren't really surfers or hot rodders, but they were really Southern Californians, and that's what their music was about. It still is, too, only now they sing about water, broken marriages, and the love of life. Still a lot of fun, too."
• Rolling Stone: "the Beach Boys have finally produced an album that can stand with Pet Sounds."

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: #151

Tracks:

Four singles were released from the album but only one charted, Add Some Music To Your Day peaked at #64 on Billboard's Hot 100. By 1970, I imagine the general public might have been suffering from overexposure to the group and was somewhat fatigued on their sound. Admittedly, I'm coming to the album decades later, but a few favorite tracks have come to stand out: Slip On Through, This Whole World, It's About Time, All I Wanna Do, and Forever.

Bonus tracks: Listed above. B-sides, alternate takes, promos, live versions, outtakes. As with most bonus tracks of this ilk, interesting to hear once or twice, but I really only want the first 12 tracks. For completists only, I'd say. Trying to be a completist is a dangerous game that is seldom winnable and I'm trying my hardest to retire from that game. Fingers crossed.

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SURF'S UP (1972)

In which Brian Wilson helped invent indie rock. More importantly, the album ends with two songs that are the most beautiful things Wilson ever wrote outside of God Only Knows. Rather than celebrating California surf culture, the album explores themes of mortality, nostalgia, environmental responsibility, and disillusionment. Plus, there's a song about feet. I prefer Surf's Up to Sunflower but I'm only comparing the two because they put them together in this set.

Press of the time:

• Rolling Stone: "This is a good album, probably as good as Sunflower, which is terrific"
• Record World: "songs that alternate between high class bubble gum and contemporary social comment. Hit."
• CashBox: "Beautiful."
• Robert Christgau (B-): "the songs on the first side are all right...but the pop impressionism of side two drags hither and yon."
• Stereo Review: "It's a great album."

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard 200: #29
• CashBox: #25

Tracks:

In addition to 'Til I Die and Surf's Up, my preferred tracks on this album include Long Promised Road, Disney Girls (1957), and Feel Flows.

The Australian edition of Rolling Stone placed Student Demonstration Time (an altered version of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller's "Riot in Cell Block Number 9" with new lyrics by Mike Love) at #7 on its 2025 list of 50 Terrible Songs on Great Albums. I concur.

Bonus tracks: as above.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: I was going through some stuff in August 2023 and the songs 'Til I Die & Surf's Up played on repeat helped me through it. Today, they continue to bring me comfort, not so much in the lyrics but the beauty of the music.

Previously revisited for the blog:
The SMiLE Sessions (1967/2011)
That's Why God Made The Radio (2012)
20 Good Vibrations: The Greatest Hits (1995)
Good Vibrations: Thirty Years Of The Beach Boys (1993)
Pet Sounds (1966)

Donald Fagen's The Nightfly Live (2021)

Credits are provided, but liner notes are non-existent. From what I can piece together, these tracks were recorded in 2019 at tour stops at the Beacon Theatre in New York City (Oct. 19) and the Orpheum Theatre in Boston (Oct. 26).

For decades, I've had Fagen's 1982 Nightfly release on my proverbial "desert island" list of albums; my thoughts on that particular masterpiece are available at a previous CDP post. When I read that a live recording was going to be released, I wasn't particularly interested. The original is great as is - why mess up a good thing, right? So I avoided it until I saw this disc in the used bin (still sealed) with a $2 sticker on it. For that price, why not give it a shot? So let's break open the shrink wrap and give this a listen.

...

Music? Fantastic. Performances? Solid. Necessary? No. The CD is enjoyable and you can tell the audience got their money's worth, but it's mostly rote recreations so I think I'll stick with the '82 original.

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart

Tracks: The only cut that veers from the familiar '82 recording is Maxine, in which the background vocalists completely take over singing duties. I guess Donnie's voice needed a break and at his age (71 at the time of recording), I can hardly blame him. My favorite track from the album has always been New Frontier and they pick up the tempo ever so slightly here and I like the urgency and intensity that slight, simple change brings to the tune. And I appreciate the absence of any between song patter.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None

Previously revisited for the blog:
Sunken Condos (2012)
Morph the Cat (2006)
Kamakiriad (1993)
New Frontier CD Video (1988)
The Nightfly (1982)

See also:
The New York Rock And Soul Revue - Live At The Beacon (1991)

Tom Shotton - Forever Home (2021)

Because I'm old and set in my ways, I don't often get excited about newly released music. However, I've come across some tasty new albums of late. This is one of those. Nevertheless, you kids get off my lawn.

On his bandcamp page, Tom Shotton offers up this description: "South London singing and songwriting multi-instrumentalist who's played with absolutely everyone finally drops solo album after years of threatening to." I've seen the album's '70s pop sound compared to Billy Joel, Rupert Holmes, Steely Dan, also Gilbert O’Sullivan, Christopher Cross, Chicago, and I'm hearing some Barry Manilow and Ben Folds. I think you get the point. But those retro similarities are what attracted me to this hook-filled CD.

After finding a suggestion via social media, I streamed maybe two songs then headed off to bandcamp to order the album. And I've listened to it almost daily for the past two months. This review ends with the phrase "hopefully there will be plenty more goodies to follow." Fingers crossed.

Tracks: 10 tracks in 42 minutes and don't skip any of 'em. Today, my favorites are Hold On To The Best Times, Back Home, Hear The Babies Talking, and Oh Angelina!,  There's also some well-crafted ballads to be had: What Becomes Of The Broken Hearts and the title track.

Now go over to bandcamp post haste and support the artist by purchasing this album in your preferred format.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None

Silk Sonic - An Evening with Silk Sonic (2021)

German import.

This album brings a smile to my face and scratches me right where I itch. Hell, even my arthritic joints are movin' a bit more than usual. A neo-R&B-funk-pop-soul album by a duo who were apparently brought up on a steady diet of '60's & '70s soul music: Motown, Al Green, Delfonics, Isley Brothers, etc. The music would be good enough on its own but then they add some lyrics with a sense of humor. Fantastic, if not for the occasional misogyny. It would be wrong to call this retro or derivative - like good artists, the duo takes the best parts of their influences and creates something they can call their own. Just dig those harmonies and the groove the rhythm section is laying down. Have mercy.

Metacritic currently has it rated at 83 out of 100, with the best description coming from the review in Variety:

Wisely, at just a half hour in length, the album doesn’t outstay its welcome, and although not every song is great, the vibe carries through from end to end — and once it’s over there’s no way you’re not playing it again.

You know there's something special going on when most everybody I know (including the wife and kids!) like the thing. I thought it was a shoe-in to sweep the Grammy awards and, in my mind, it should have won Album Of The Year but it wasn't even nominated. However, the single Leave The Door Open won every category in which it was nominated: Record of the Year, Song of the Year, Best R&B Performance, and Best R&B song.

Evidently the whole thing started as an in-joke between Bruno and Anderson - I'm just grateful fate brought those two together. Whatever they're selling musically, I'm buying. Here's hoping there's more where this came from.

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard Top 200: #2
• Billboard R&B: #1

Tracks: I know the award-winning hit is Leave The Door Open, but for me that particular track comes in second to Smokin Out The Window. But there's nothing skippable and a solid album when taken as a whole. Sequenced perfectly.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: When Anderson .Paak showed up for a cameo at the Super Bowl LVI halftime show, me and my oldest son got excited because we thought Silk Sonic was about to make an surprise appearance. Didn't happen, but there's always next year.

Various Artists - Relief (2021)

Six record labels – Blue Note, Mack Avenue, Verve, Concord, Nonesuch and Warner Music – joined together to release this an all-star compilation of previously unreleased music. All profits from its sale will go directly to the JFA COVID-19 Musicians’ Emergency Fund. More info here: https://jazzfoundation.org/relief-a-benefit-for-the-jazz-foundation-of-americas-musicians-emergency-fund/

One buys benefit CDs to help out a cause and if there's some good music to be had, that's a bonus. As you might expect, this is a mixed bag of different styles and instrumentation.

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart

Tracks:

My favorite cut is Green Tea Farm by Hiromi, followed closely by the tracks from Cécile McLorin Salvant, Jon Batiste, and Herbie Hancock.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None