This week’s album-length playlist with artists including Tom Petty, Hozier and Elton John (oh and bonus videos from The Beatles)

This is the ‘Gems’ playlist #8, curated by Ian Sharp of ‘LP’

Nov 03, 2023

Welcome to ‘Gems’, the Friday playlist, the length of a vinyl album/one side of a C90, featuring tracks I’m currently enjoying. These may be new, or they may go back years. One of the tracks is from the album I’m writing about in the next what I’m now calling a ‘Glimpse’, which goes out every Monday evening. This week it’s Elton John’s ‘Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy’.

Each ‘Gems’ playlist includes Track Notes (below), giving the source, release dates, and a little background into the song or artist.

‘Gems’. Albums, not algorithms. Created on Spotify and never by Spotify.

Listen on Apple Music

Side 1 (18 mins)

Ingrid and the Ministers - ‘Kerosene’ (single, out now)

https://ingridandtheministers.bandcamp

Old-fashioned blues rock and all the better for it. As with several other tracks this week, I followed the rabbit-hole of “you may like this” suggestions made by Apple Music and Spotify. In some cases, they were way wide of the mark, but this one is spot-on. Sometimes it’s good to start a playlist with a counterintuitive quiet track. Mostly it’s good to make an impact and, perhaps, calm it down a little later.

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - ‘Jefferson Jerrico Blues’ (from ‘Mojo’, out now)

https://www.tompetty.com/

‘Mojo’ carries on the blues theme. Tom Petty doesn’t always get enough credit for the range of his music, and The Heartbreakers helped him stretch into all sorts of bluesy directions, as on this album. It’s been reissued with some extra tracks as the mining of the Petty vault continues. The Heartbreakers continue, too - check out Mike Campbell & The Dirty Knobs.

Guided By Voices - ‘For the Home’ (from ‘Nowhere to Go but Up’ out 24/11/23)

https://www.guidedbyvoices.com/

I’ve been known to comment on artists who don’t actually release that much. Well, Guided By Voices are at the opposite end of the scale. Here’s a track from their third album this year, and their 39th in total. They’ve been together for 40 years (not three albums every year then? See, bands are lazy).

The Weeklings - ‘Brian Jones’ (single, out now)

http://www.weeklings.com/

In the week when The Beatles … well, you know what The Beatles have done this week, here’s “America’s most unique celebration of the music and muse of The Beatles” (according to their record company, Jem) with a bouncy song about … er … Brian Jones. Obviously.

Mouths of Babes - ‘I Do’ (from ‘World Brand New’, out now)

https://mouthsofbabesmusic.com/

I don’t normally do this, but I cannot write a better track note than the one on the band’s website:

“World Brand New, the stunning self-produced follow-up to Mouths of Babes' award-winning full-length debut Brighter in the Dark, is a Folk/Americana album in the old-fashioned sense: an album with an arc, meant to be listened to all the way through on good headphones with no distractions. [...]The album can be read as an inner journey, a relationship coming full-circle, and/or a national reckoning — and is meant as all of these.”1

This description immediately speaks to me because it’s a reminder of my focus for ‘LP’, and the curation of these ‘Gems’ playlists; to feature albums with an all-the-way-through flow - okay, an arc.

Side 2 (22 mins)

Advent Horizon - ‘Rain on Open Water’ (from ‘A Cell to Call Home’ out now)

https://www.adventhorizonmusic.com

I’ve been rewriting my Substack ‘About’ page and noting I feature plenty of prog, which is a good thing. Then I realised there wasn’t really any prog in this week’s playlist. I saw someone recommending this album and they’re right, they’re a good band. This is a lovely, vibrant song - although not typical prog. What is typical prog, though?

Kirt Vile - ‘Another Good Year for the Roses’ (from ‘Back to Moon Beach’ out 17/11/23)

https://www.kurtvile.com/

Another suggestion I followed up on because of the title. Elvis Costello once released a cover of ‘A Good Year for the Roses’ from his country album - a record which came as a shock after his first few post-punk LPs. This Kirt Vile song is great, and there’s a certain Lou Reed quality to Vile’s voice. The full album’s not out yet but I note there’s a track called ‘Tom Petty’s Gone (but tell him I asked for him)’ which sounds promising to this Tom Petty fan.

Hozier & Brandi Carlisle - ‘Damage Gets Done’ (from ‘Unreal Earth’, out now)

https://hozier.com/

Hozier’s recent album also has a flowy arc; another one you don’t want to go near with shuffle mode on. This is a lovely collaboration with Brandi Carlisle, who I first discovered when she collaborated with the next artist …

Elton John ‘Someone Saved My Life Tonight’ (from ‘Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy’, out now)

https://www.eltonjohn.com/

Much more to say about ‘Captain Fantastic’ on Monday, (including a diversion into the prices being asked for physical music media now). This song is so heartfelt and emotional. Elton is one of those artists who are so ubiquitous we are in danger of taking him for granted - not often enough really listening.

Bonus Video

Okay, I’m including it. Because ‘Now and Then’ is wonderful, and this video is a tear-jerker.

Here’s the mini-documentary. I know it’s here, there and everywhere, but how could a Beatles nut not take the last chance to include something new?

See you on Monday.

LAST CHANCE!

The Christmas ‘Gems’ - a ‘double album’ playlist of songs about Christmas or with a Christmas feel - is coming along nicely. It features songs not often heard on the radio, or on compilations such as ‘Now That’s What I Call Christmas’.

The ‘Gems’ Christmas album will be posted on Friday 1st December 2023. There’s still time for your favourite track to be considered.

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