Much of my calendar year, every year, is spent sifting through record store bargain bins, estate sales, etc. and digging into the acquisitions. I win some and lose some, but I never write about it on AuxOut even though it accounts for a huge portion of my listening and discovery. In honor of the season of presents, I am celebrating some of the gifts bestowed upon me by the record gods during 2023.
Hot take alert: I've always thought the Stones were a legendary singles band with zero classic albums (feel the same about Depeche Mode.) I, however, stand corrected with Between the Buttons. This is a killer record. Filled to the brim with great tunes and relentlessly eclectic too. Jagger's questionable and generally lame lyrics aside, "Yesterday's Papers" drives hard on a rollicking harpsichord(!) lick. Earworm fist pumpers like "Connection", "My Obsession" and "Let's Spend the Night Together". Ornate ballads like "Ruby Tuesday" and "She Smiled Sweetly" (well familiar to any Royal Tenenbaums fan). A sticky as bubblegum, organ bopper "Complicated". Then, of course, "Cool, Calm & Collected" sounds like it was recorded in a saloon across the street from an ashram. "Who's Been Sleeping Here" nods toward to their rustic blues future but it's better than a lot of the stuff they made when they got deep in it. I've already mentioned 2/3rds of the track list, so I'll wrap it up, but I could go on. The Stones really brought it in all ways on this one. I am very happy to be proven wrong. "Connection!"
A playlist of tunes from each of the records I wrote about, I'll add a new song each day:
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