Five Faves: Substack Discoveries
I'm regularly being introduced to amazing "new-to-me" music by my fellow Substack writers. Here are five of my favorites.
Five Faves is an ongoing listicle series presenting a collection of five of my favorites from a specific category—songs, albums, videos, books, movies, quotes—just about anything is fair game. This isn’t intended to be a definitive “best of” list but more of an in-the-moment list of things that have moved me or brought me joy.
Since first diving into the Substack pool back in June 2023 my musical discovery universe has expanded significantly. I'm currently active with about fifty music-related Substack subscriptions through which I'm continually exposed to a to a wide range of playlists, essays, and music-related recommendations, reminiscences, and recollections. While I've always been interested in sourcing and listening to new music—for as far back as I can remember—one of the great joys of the MusicStack community has been the wealth of "new-to-me" musical discoveries.
Starting in 2023 I began tracking my favorite new-to-me albums and cataloging them in a collection of annual "Substack Discoveries" playlists on Spotify. I've now compiled a universe approaching sixty such albums that run the gamut from artists I'd never even heard of to artist or albums with which I'd been familiar but had never listened to. Today I'm sharing five of my favorites with you.
For each album I provide details on the Substack author and publication, an excerpt from the post (as well as an embedded link to the full post), and an embedded YouTube video of my favorite song from the album.
As always, thanks for being here. Hopefully you'll find an album or two here that you love as much as I now do.
Happy listening!!
The Chameleons - Script of the Bridge
As chronicled by Steve Bradley on Musical Chairs
Here’s what Steve had to say about the album:
“The Chameleons' debut album Script of the Bridge blended post-industrial fury with new age dreaming in an hour of reverb-drenched alchemy with more layers than Mount Vesuvius. From the apocalyptic blast of opener Don't Fall to closing ballad View from a Hill, here are twelve anthems for our times. It's almost insulting to pick out highlights as the entire record is virtually flawless, but as centrepieces go, the 24-carat double header of Monkeyland and Second Skin is as powerful as anything committed to vinyl that decade.”
You can read the full post here:
And here’s the YouTube video for Monkeyland, my favorite track from the album:
Head East - Flat As A Pancake
As chronicled by Brad Kyle on Front Row & Backstage
In discussing the band’s single “Never Been Any Reason” from the debut Flat as a Pancake, Brad had this to say:
“Just based on the single alone, Head East seemed to easily slot into the lane occupied (or soon to be) by dynamic American classic-rock bands like Boston . . . (fellow A&M labelmates) Styx, REO Speedwagon, and Kansas.
And, like all these bands, Head East hit the road countless times, usually opening for some of these same bands, and focusing on relentlessly traversing America’s mid-section.
The album got to #126 on Billboard’s Pop Album Chart, and reached RIAA gold status (500,000 units) in 1978, with the single (bringing Head East to AM stations) topping out at #68 on the Billboard Hot 100. It’s still a well-known song on classic rock stations around the country, and on several appropriately rockin’ Sirius/XM satellite channels.”
You can read the full post here:
My favorite song from the album (always the hopeless romantic, me) is “Ticket Back To Georgia”:
Please feel free to share the Joy with anyone else you know that loves music! Because, after all, sharing is caring, right?
Daryl Hall & John Oates - Abandoned Luncheonette
As chronicled by Kevin Alexander on On Repeat Records
In reviewing the album on its 50th anniversary in 2023, Kevin had this to say:
“Still, it’s light years away from H2O or Big Bam Boom, and if those are all you know, the kinder, gentler sound of Abandoned Luncheonette will throw you for a loop. The sound is much closer to folk rock or easy-listening acts of the day than the more uptempo rock tracks that dominated the charts in the 80s.”
You can read the full post here:
While I wouldn’t necessarily call it the standout track, “Had I Known You Better Then” is a song that always holds my attention:
Los Shakers - Los Shakers
As chronicled by Dan Epstein on Jagged Time Lapse
On Dan’s 58th birthday last May he introduced us to his newest cat Hugo, who was named after the lead singer of Los Shakers (a band referred to in the Midnight Records catalog as the “Uruguayan Beatles”). In discussing the genesis of the band, here’s what Dan had to say:
“Like so many young musicians of the era, Montevideo-born brothers Hugo and Osvaldo Fattoruso had their minds blown by a screening of A Hard Day’s Night. With Hugo on vocals, lead guitar and piano, Osvaldo on vocals and rhythm guitar, and a rhythm section of Roberto “Pelin” Capobianco on bass and Carlos “Caio” Vila on drums, they set out to emulate their new mop-topped heroes.”
You can read the full post here:
While there’s not a bad track to be found on the album, one of my favorites is “La Larga Noche” (The Longest Night):
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Ray Price - Night Life
As chronicled by Robert Gilbert on Listening Sessions
I normally don’t rank items in my Five Fave series, but I'll make an exception in this instance. Ray Price’s “The Night Life” is by far the single best new-to-me album I’ve discovered in the last few years. It’s been on regular rotation ever since I read Robert’s essay back in June 2023 and was one of my most played albums last year.
In discussing the title track (my favorite song on the album), Robert writes:
‘Night Life,’ written by Nelson, Paul Buskirk, Walter Breeland and Willie Buskirk, is a jazz song wrapped in the trappings of country. Steel guitarist Buddy Emmons, a member of Price’s backing band as well as of Nashville’s elite group of session players: the A Team, conjures lines that cut out the high end—the usual timbre of the steel guitar—and are soaked in both blues and jazz (around the time Night Life was recorded, Emmons recorded a jazz album with saxophonist Jerome Richardson, pianist Bobby Scott, bassist Art Davis and drummer Charli Persip). Price approaches his vocal like a jazz singer. He first sings the lyrics straight and than after a solo by Emmons, broadens his approach, opening his voice to draw out certain words, eliciting a cry in his phrasing. Of the night life itself, it is not its atmosphere or the action or its dissipated rhythm that is foremost, it is the inhabitants that take centre stage: the aimless, the haunted, the broken. It’s a life that just is, a sentence being served not with resignation but with acceptance. As the memorable refrain of the song goes, “the night life ain’t no life but it’s my life.”
You can read the full post here:
The entire album is fantastic and if you like what you hear below in the title track then you’re in for a real treat if you decide to spin the whole album:
As always, I’d love to hear what you thought about these picks. When you’re finished reading, listening and watching, please hop into the comments.
Which one of these songs/albums was your favorite?
Do you have any standout new-to-you music, discovered here on Substack, that you’d recommend?
First, thank you for the shout! You've got me in incredible company here! "Abandoned Luncheonette" always seems to get lost in the shuffle, so I try and shine a light on it whenever I can.
Of the list here, Head East's Flat As a Pancake" might be my fave-- if only because I picked it up at a street fair, and the guy across the crates from me was almost evangelical in his praise for the record.
Head East live! I grew up in Champaign, Il and there was a bar/live venue called The Red Lion Inn Cramped, low ceiling, sticky floors, drugs and a real good place to get in a fight. It wasn't on the U of I campus but very close. As a teenager and into my early 20's, I saw an amazing array of up-and-coming local bands. Head East was one of them. REO was another. National touring groups also, including Cheap Trick, Iron Butterfly and even Dan Fogelberg.