Re-make/Re-model?

No, I think this year it’s more a case of re-master/re-issue..  yep, I jumped on the bandwagon and rode it for all it was worth.

So I’m splitting my Best Of The Year review in two: the new music list will be out early in 2010, but here’s the vintage stuff I was happy to discover (and re-discover) in 2009.

I’ve already talked about The Jayhawks’ Music From The North Country anthology – unfortunately for my bank balance, there were many more re-issues of an equally good standard. Ah, well..

REM’s Reckoning -  25 years old this year, a serious contender for my top ten albums that influenced my musical taste (yep, I realise I have to complete that series of articles.. two to go), great to hear it again in pristine remastered glory.
The Feelies – Crazy Rhythms – skittery, geeky new wave from New Jersey that sounds just as otherworldly now as it did in 1980.
Radiohead’s mighty Kid A –  better than it was in 2000. One of the albums of the decade, though I wouldn’t have said that when I bought it originally. The ultimate grower.
Nirvana – Live At Reading – all the Nirvana you need. Definitive.
Disc 4 of the Big Star box set Keep An Eye On The Sky – the band play to a disinterested audience, classic songs fly out over the heads of the crowd and connect with us, a quarter of a century later.
Muddy Waters – Authorised Bootleg – an essential live document of the legendary bluesman to put alongside his best.

And some bands felt the need to spruce up their whole catalogue - some guys from Liverpool and einige Jungs aus Düsseldorf were particularly good at that.

But maybe the best of them all was a compilation called Can You Dig It? – Music & Politics in Black Action Films 1968-75 – creative funky soul scoring some of the most remarkable movies. Just read the names on the cover: Isaac Hayes, Bobby Womack, Quincy Jones, Roy Ayers, Curtis Mayfield, and many more.  Damn!

Have a great Christmas and I’ll be back early in the New Year with my new music picks from 2009. Here’s Curtis..