When we finished Nightclub Daydreaming, we weren't totally certain when we would be able to tour in support of it with COVID being what it was then. Luckily, we were able to do two great tours this year, and I rediscovered Joni Mitchell’s Hejira. It's a bit of a nerdy bass player pick, because Jaco Pastorius plays a major part in the record’s sounds and the moods that are created, but really from front-to-back, this record was the best travel companion. The sense that she's sharing journal entries about experiences and feelings that happened to her on the road, or on tour, felt like talking with a wise friend. She nails the excitement of welcoming the world's adventures along with the bizarre, lonely isolation that trips can take on. So, not a new record by any means, a big one for my year.
Honorable Mention:
Mortuous’s Upon Desolation came out this year, and I saw them in Baltimore. They sounded brutal, and I loved their death/thrash mixed with their doom sensibilities. Their breakdowns are like stirring the thickest bowl of cookie dough while heading banging to Morbid Angel’s Domination. Perfect music, melodic in all the right spots. They were also a travel companion along with Joni.
Ed Schrader’s Music Beat’s Nightclub Daydreaming is out now.
(Photo Credit: left, Micah E. Wood)
