What’s (Re)New? — Duster, Julee Cruise, Tom Waits
Mid-October. Having peeled through stacks of albums a few weekends ago, and finally cutting the shrink on a few more, I acquired a few reissued items to discuss. On the turntable now, we have:
Duster
Stratosphere
Numero Group
Reissued: 9/29/23
Numero Group continues to drain my wallet every payday with these editions of albums I was too in the dark to pick up and become acquainted with when they’d been initially released. Stratosphere was originally issued by Up Records in 1998, and celebrates its 25th anniversary with Numero’s edition.
I picked up this copy from Record Revival at the Quakertown Farmer’s Market (Q-Mart). The front cover has the band name and album title foil stamped into the white block above the sleeve art, fine text with silver. The album comes with a poster with the lyrics printed on the back. The variant is called “Constellations Splatter”: yellow and green splatter on 180g clear vinyl. This is a numbered edition.
A slowcore essential, its pace focused and patient, the lo-fi mist that gently hangs above every chord stroke and cymbal rub to be heard in Stratosphere occasionally merges with shoegaze-level discordance but remains consistent throughout the album’s runtime. Duster exhibit full immersion into occasional and extended bouts of feedback-laced tangents and the familiar indie-centric proclivity toward loud-quiet-loud song arrangements, but I love how they do it. At times, those bursts of energy are unexpected and almost qualify as a jump scare. I recommend headphones for this one, especially for the B-side.
The track “Echo, Bravo” is apparently only available digitally.
Julee Cruise
Floating Into The Night
Sacred Bones Records
Reissued: 8/11/23
Floating Into The Night is the debut release from ethereal, art pop singer Julee Cruise (12/1/56-6/9/22), reissued by Sacred Bones Records.
A frequent collaborator with composer Angelo Badalamenti (3/22/37-12/11/22) and film auteur David Lynch, both of whom have writing and production credits on this LP, Cruise’s distinctive and angelic vocal would eventually and perfectly suit the unconventional tone and dark disposition of Lynch’s cult television series Twin Peaks. The album preceded the show by a year, but an instrumental version of “Falling” became the show’s theme music and other tracks from Floating Into The Night such as “Rockin’ Back Inside My Heart” and “The World Spins” appeared on the show as live performances by Cruise.
While it certainly compliments and accompanies the excellent and memorable scores composed by Badalamenti for the television series and the 1992 film, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, Floating Into The Night stands on its own as a remarkable jazz pop debut. Certainly niche and not quite apropos of what was happening musically in the late 80s, (1989 is a year I associate with hair metal’s last gasp and Hammer pants), it sounds as lush and lovely as ever.
I found a used copy of this album on cassette earlier this year. Since my tape deck decided to bite the dust, I’m happy a vinyl edition was reissued.
Tom Waits
Rain Dogs
Island / UMe
Reissued: 9/8/2023
Bone Machine
Island / UMe
Reissued: 10/6/23
When considering the work of Tom Waits and his highly influential and rather eccentric output, the period that seems to garner the most praise and adoration is his mid-80s Island Records era. Beginning his creative partnership with his wife Kathleen Brennan, the Waits/Brennan dynamo gifted us the gruff-n-grumble’d madness and carnival-tinged delights contained in the excellent Rain Dogs and the dust-encumbered and corrosive clank-boom-steam of Bone Machine. This era boasts the most esoteric and challenging material from Waits, whose prior work reeked of slurred lounge and Nighthawk ashtray jams.
The poet still lives, but the journey is different.
Rain Dogs was purchased from Record Revival. My lovely wife was able to grab a copy of Bone Machine for me from Main Street Music. Thanks to this reissue cycle, Bone Machine makes its debut on vinyl.
Sincerely,
Letters From A Tapehead
