The start of an occasional feature in which I’ll draw your attention to some albums that have been purchased in 2023 and which I reckon are worth highlighting.
First up is one that came out on Double Six Records, a subsidiary of Domino Records, back in March.
Brothers and Sisters is the fifth solo album which Steve Mason has released under his own name. He, of course, first came to prominence with The Beta Band as long ago as 1996, and has also recorded as King Biscuit Time and Black Affair. I’d be telling a lie if I said I have followed his career all the way through, or that I’ve a copy of everything he’s ever released. The truth of the matter is I enjoyed some but not all of the Beta Band’s output, loved a couple of the King Biscuit Time singles/EPs, had no inclination at all that he had recorded as Black Affair and have dipped in and out of the solo material, particularly enjoying Meet The Humans, which was released in 2016.
I came across the new album while browsing in Mono, the record store which is part-owned by Stephen Pastel, and who, on most days, can be found behind the counter. Brothers and Sisters was up on the board as one of the new albums being recommended by the staff in the shop, but thankfully it wasn’t being played as I browsed – after watching that infamous but funny scene in the film High Fidelity (which, coincidentally, featured the Beta Band), I’ve never bought any album while it was playing in a shop in which I was browsing….I might have returned the next day, but that’s acceptable!!
I took a punt on it, partly as I was suckered in by the sticker saying it was a double album on gold vinyl, and it wasn’t stupidly expensive. It was one of the best decisions I’ve made all year.
For once, the blurb from the PR folk at the record label provides a succinct and accurate summary:-
Steve Mason’s most open, honest and vibrant solo record to date, it marries the personal and the political but does so in an emotive and uplifting manner. Written against a backdrop of fear and uncertainty, and at a time when those in charge lurched from one disaster to the next mismanagement with increasing regularity, Brothers & Sisters is in fact an incredibly joyous, even spiritual, listen.
Yup….it really is an album of its time and for its time. I’ve read that it is a response to all that has happened with, and since, the Brexit vote, but I was most struck by its constant reminder of multiculturalism being at the heart of so much great music. It certainly has a great deal of anger and angst underpinning the lyrics, but at almost all times the music delivers a rhythm and groove that will have you, at the very least, shuffling your feet, with many moments that will lead you to dance like a maniac and shout along at the top of your voice.
As with everything I know of Steve Mason’s output, this one doesn’t rely on any single genre or sound to fill the grooves. A number of guest musicians are empowered to stamp their authority on the record, with one of the real standout tracks featuring Pakistani singer Javed Bashir:-
Elsewhere, there is, as you might expect, a dependency throughout on keyboards, be that synths or in one instance, on the melancholic Pieces Of Me, there is an old-fashioned almost bar-room sounding piano, which comes courtesy of the late Martin Duffy, in what may well have been the last recording he was part of before his sad death back in December 2022.
mp3: Steve Mason – Pieces Of Me
The presence throughout of a four-strong gospel/soul choir provides much of the spiritual element referred to in the PR blurb, and it all comes together very fittingly on the album closer, the title track, in which many influences certainly come to the fore:-
mp3: Steve Mason – Brothers and Sisters
This occasional series isn’t going to be a rundown in the old-fashioned or traditional way of counting down things or saying outright what my favourite album of 2023 has been….it’s been a year when I can’t pick one above any other as there’s been so much to enjoy and appreciate. But I think Brothers and Sisters has been the one I’ve listened to more than any other. It’s still hanging around the confines of the turntable, as it has done since last March, and it’ll be a while before it makes it way to its alphabetical place on the shelves of vinyl in a separate room.
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 
Way back in 1984, so way before the High Fidelity movie, I one morning walked in to the Pet Sounds record store in Gothenburg. It was the day of the week for new arrivals and as there was no class at Uni this morning I was there just after opening the doors. Entering the shop there is something playing I’m not familiar with – but it sounds good. Looking through the new arrivals, and the next track on the album starts, I realise I just need to have that record so I say/ask: I’ll take a copy of that record you’re playing, what is it? The answer was; I just unpacked it, it’s a new Scottish group called Lloyd Cole & the Commotions.
I’m actually very happy I didn’t have to wait 24 hours to go and buy it but could go straight home to my turntable!…
How does it compare to Boys Outside? I really enjoyed that but couldn’t connect with the subsequent album and having really listened to anything since?
Middle Aged Man
Enjoyed this, he’s always good. This one didn’t stick around with me for long, there was a lot of stuff to listen to when it came out. I should go to it. I was a bit disappointed that he was so negative about the previous album in interviews which I really liked. Always makes me wonder if I should bother forking out for the next one when artists slag off the previous one. Unless I agree and the previous one was shit.
No shame in buying what’s playing off you like it! Though that’s only happened maybe one and a half times with my shopping. The first was hearing Erasure’s “Wild” after ignoring their first three albums and brace of singles. Truth be told, “Drama!” had not done much for me but the rest was working like a charm. By the time play reached “You Surround Me” I grabbed a CD and bought it with the rest of what I bought. The half measure was once when after checking out at Grimey’s in Nashville on my first visit there, the store started playing La Düsseldorf’s “Individuellos.” And had I not already checked out and was waiting for my friend to finish checking out so we could leave for elsewhere, I would have bought it on the spot too. As it was I asked what was playing and got my own copy on returning home at a local shop.
I’ve only got Steve’s last album which I really liked for a while then went off. Not quite sure why. Did give the new one a play in March but it didn’t grab me but it’s maybe time to give it another shot.