Where have the last two months gone? And how many new releases have I enjoyed in the interim? Enough that I’ll be shooting to summarize each one included below in two to four sentences, max! (Though I can’t guarantee they’ll be short sentences.) Purchase/streaming links embedded as usual, so here we gooo . . .

New Music

As teased in our October interview with mainman Jem Godfrey, Frost*’s Life in the Wires (listen here) is the conceptual album of a prog fan’s fondest dreams; the storyline is vintage dystopia (1984 meets Who’s Next), the music a full-on sonic assault from the get-go (replete with widdly synthesizer solos). Pitted against the required cybernetic supervillain, in search of freedom out there in the fields, can Godfrey’s protagonist Naio escape permanent lockdown in teenage wasteland? The ultimate answer is well worth the winding journey; powered by the heady backing of John Mitchell, Nathan King and Craig Blundell, Godfrey easily conjures up the equal of previous band high points Milliontown and Falling Satellites.

On his fresh solo album Bringing It Down to the Bass, Tony Levin launches 14 low-end odysseys with (to quote the hype sticker) “too many virtuoso collaborators to list.” But whether proving that “Boston Rocks” with Bowie guitarist Earl Slick and Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy, “Floating in Dark Waves” below Robert Fripp’s soundscapes, or reuniting with fellow Peter Gabriel bandmembers on multiple jams, Levin always grabs the ear with his supremely melodic bass, Stick and cello work. And his low-key, half-spoken vocals prove surprisingly effective, especially on dry barbershop throwbacks “Side B/Turn It Over” and “On the Drums” and the moving John Lennon tribute “Fire Cross the Sky.”

Pioneer garage rock guitarist Wayne Kramer had one more winner in him before his passing earlier this year. Credited in tribute to Kramer’s seminal Detroit collective MC5, Heavy Lifting (listen here) rages against the political and cultural machines still standing since the band’s original heyday, agitating for a better deal with 13 brash, irresistible helpings of punk (“Barbarians at the Gate”), rock (“Edge of the Switchblade”) and soul (Edwin Starr cover “Twenty-Five Miles”). For the full skinny on why Kramer & company finally snuck into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame through the back door this year, the new MC5: A Oral Biography of Rock’s Most Revolutionary Band is essential reading.

As his long-time collaborators spin off in other directions, Neal Morse just keeps on keeping on! Teaming with The Resonance, a purpose-built quartet of young Nashville hotshots, Morse’s latest No Hill for a Climber (listen here) is a bit of a throwback; instead of full-blown rock opera, Morse builds a multi-faceted album, sandwiching creepy swinger “Thief”, head-down rocker “All the Rage” and melting ballad “Ever Interceding” between twin epics (opener “Eternity in Your Eyes” and the closing title suite). The more straight-on vibe Morse embraced on his Joseph duology predominates here, but with enough detours to keep long-time listeners coming back and intrigue new hearers.

Straight-on is a pretty good description of the new The Pineapple Thief EP Last to Run (listen here) as well; far more than leftovers from the fine It Leads to This, the five songs included here strike hard and deep. As Gavin Harrison weaves enticing rhythmic illusions on drums, Bruce Soord spins up dark, pensive vignettes of personalities in crisis (“All Because of Me”), relationships snarled by dysfunction (“No Friend of Mine”) and societies on the brink (“Election Day”). Another band that mines a familiar vein repeatedly, yet consistently leaves listeners craving more.

Speaking of dysfunction, The Smile’s Cutouts (listen here) resembles nothing so much as a numbed comedown, trailing the apocalypses unflinchingly depicted earlier this year on their Wall of Eyes. Thom Yorke’s nonsense lyrics and bleached-out vocal affect sound light-years away from the redemption Radiohead intimated even at their most jaundiced; Jonny Greenwood spins up orchestral/electronics, evoking distant, forgotten nightmares; Tom Skinner holds down the spare, spacey beat, blithely driving into nothingness. If not as gripping as this trio’s first two albums, Cutouts can still compel with its chill.

But where The Smile chills, Tears for Fears seeks warmth; the four fresh tracks on TfF’s mostly-live Songs for a Nervous Planet (listen here) home in on healing (“Say Goodbye to Mom and Dad”), lasting love (the lush “The Girl that I Call Home” and the psychedelic “Emily Says”) and self-actualization (the quirkily glib “Astronaut”). And there’s plenty more catharsis in concert, as Roland Orzbaal, Curt Smith and backing band blast out the hits of yesteryear and revisit the highlights of their fine 2022 comeback The Tipping Point, all with plenty of enthusiasm and aplomb.

(Live albums and archival releases – box set time! – follow the jump.)

Live & Archival

Seventies Krautrockers Can wrap up their superb series of concert bootlegs with Live in Keele 1977, another first-rate show that starts funky, then heads straight for the outer limits. Augmented by the bubbling bass of Rosko Gee, drummer Jaki Liebezeit’s motorik groove mesmerizes, guitarist Michael Karoli and keyboardist Irmin Schmidt stupefy with their telepathic interplay, and Holger Czukay shocks with bizarre proto-samples picked up on shortwave receiver. Snippets from albums flow into group improvisation into full-on craziness; you’ve never heard anything like these guys, but you should!

On the cusp of burnout from another odd, petulant attempt to crack the US market, Elvis Costello pulled back to explore deeper inspirations, with roots music pioneer-to-be T. Bone Burnett as tutor/producer. King of America and Other Realms documents the results with an appealing remaster of Costello’s 1981 album; the intensity can be forced and the harangues can drone on, but when Costello taps into more vulnerable emotional states on “Brilliant Mistake,” “Indoor Fireworks” and “I’ll Wear It Proudly”, his singing and songwriting soars over the tasty retro backings. A bonus disc of later efforts in the same vein (live tracks, collaborations, acoustic tracks and more) from a larger eight-disc box set (listen here) confirms that Costello learned his lessons well.

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Live at the Fillmore East 1969 (listen here) pretty much sums up what’s on offer here. Flying high from their hit debut, CS&N had challenges integrating Y into the fold, as this concert recording attests; gorgeous harmony vocals from David Crosby and Graham Nash frame the opening acoustic session, while Neil Young and Stephen Stills rev up their amps for a raving electric set, climaxed by the extended Young workout “Down by the River”. While there’s nothing here from Deja Vu, the classic quartet album that followed, this nicely encapsulates what drew CSNY together, then pulled them apart – and kept the cycle going, again and again.

Dropped by EMI due to fading sales, Marillion regrouped, then quickly reemerged with 1997’s This Strange Engine. Often more straightforward than had been typical for Los Marillos, the album still provided edgy, piledriving rockers (“Man of A Thousand Faces”), atmospheric balladry (the glorious “Estonia”) and a supremely wiggy, extended title track. A new deluxe edition (listen here) that’s already made my Favorites lists for this year tacks on B-sides, rough drafts and a complete show (in my hometown!) from the band’s fan-funded American tour. But the highlight here may well be the bootleg video of a Danish show; with Steve Hogarth’s voice on the fritz, the band turns up to 11 and lets rip, while a boisterously involved crowd belts out the words as needed, whether by invitation or not.

Volume 4 of Joni Mitchell’s Archives project digs into her jazz-rock fusion period of the late Seventies and consistently strikes gold. Songs from albums past (Court and Spark, The Hissing of Summer Lawns) and future (Hejira, Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter, Mingus) are here in acoustic takes from Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue, smooth soul-jazz variations with the L. A. Express, solo demos, rough drafts with jazz legends (including a stunning duet with Herbie Hancock on piano) and a complete show with Pat Metheny on guitar, Jaco Pastorius on bass, and a cappella vocal legends the Persuasions. Listen to history in the making here!

Porcupine Tree’s conceptual Fear of a Blank Planet isn’t my favorite of their albums, but it might be their most consistent – and it unquestionably rocks the hardest. The new deluxe edition of FOABP (listen to a sampler here) is one impressive package: pristine remasters and surround mixes of the album and its viciously metallic companion EP Nil Recurring, complete demos, a live in-progress version of the entire cycle and more. Plus, the extensive notes by Stephen Humphries are genuinely exceptional, rich in both background from the band and insight into the continuing resonance of Steven Wilson’s take on medicated, distracted, disaffected youth. Straight to the 2024 Favorites list for this one!

At the mike and on the bass (whether solo, or for King Crimson, UK and Asia), John Wetton consistently brought a confident presence, an unmistakable flair, and a tangible connection with the audience to the stage. Concentus: The John Wetton Live Collection, Volume One (the first of three!) provides abundant evidence for all the above virtues; over the course of seven shows from the 1990s collected on ten discs, Wetton sings and plays his heart out, solo and fronting his band, whether laying down by-the-book takes on “In the Dead of Night” and “Easy Money” or whipping up acoustic reinventions of smash hits like “Heat of the Moment” and “The Smile Has Left Your Eyes”. Perhaps best taken in small doses, live Wetton remains inspiring — and hearing him majestically emote on Crimson’s “Starless” (multiple times in this box) never gets old. (Thanks to Roie Avin for providing a promotional copy; listen to the set’s bonus albums Adama and Akusticha/Progfest 1997 at the links.)

— Rick Krueger