Buried Treasure: New York Magazine's 60 Great Albums You Probably Haven't Heard


The Flatlanders' 1972 debut LP 
New York Magazine (not to be confused with The New Yorker) recently published an article for people who are tired of searching everywhere for new art and entertainment in order to remain relevant. Working under the theory that the more birthdays people accumulate the harder it is for them to discover fresh stuff NY Mag decided to help these poor souls by publishing a list of 60 albums you probably haven't heard in their issue of November 18, 2013. They began the article by asking, "Exhausted by trying to keep up with new culture? Why not give up altogether?" Then they selected ten albums from each decade beginning with the 1950s through the 2000s for your consideration.

The only album of the sixty that I own is The Flatlanders' 1972 debut, More A Legend Than A Band featuring a lineup that included Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Joe Ely, and Butch Hancock. All three later went on to have semi-successful solo careers in country and Americana rock. The album is old fashioned country. It's far from the slick, semi-rock stuff coming out of Nashwood (Hollywood and Nashville) in the 21st Century. The album is so traditional, stripped down, and natural that it even features a musical saw on many tracks. (I'll let you decide if that's a good thing).

From 2008 there is Benji Hughes, a rock singer and composer whose only album release to date is A Love Extreme (named after John Coltrane's famous jazz work), a massive, twenty-five song, double CD offering us everything from hip-hop rhythms to straight ahead pop and ballads. The set is almost too eclectic for its own good. I saw Hughes' opening gig for Rilo Kiley's Jenny Lewis several years ago and while he wasn't a show stopper his performance was quite good. I should have bought the album that night but for some reason I passed it by.

There are a few other names on the list that are familiar to more than just a handful of people, most notably Mel Torme, Marshall Crenshaw, and Joe Tex. You can also hear stuff by Freedy Johnston, Lefty Frizzell, Iris Dement, The Latin Playboys (a Los Lobos spinoff), and an early rockabilly star, Sanford Clark. Take a look at the list and see how many of these lost album suggestions you know.

The magazine also listed thirty great movies you probably haven't seen as well as their choices of ten great full length concerts on You Tube that you probably haven't heard.

Comments

  1. Todd Mason5:12 PM, November 28, 2013

    I have or have had copies of the King Sunny Ade and the Rahsaan Roland Kirk, but while I've heard a chunk of the others' work, I've never sat down and listened through any of the other albums.

    ReplyDelete

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