With little space in print for non-local record reviews, I’m bringing the old “listening log” mini-review format back as a regular Sing All Kinds feature. Not sure if it will be weekly or bi-weekly or something more random than that, but it will be recurring. Up first: My two favorite albums of 2009 so far.
The Baseball Project, Vol. 1: Frozen Ropes and Dying Quails — The Baseball Project (Yep Roc): The Baseball Project is alt-rock journeymen Steve Wynn (Dream Syndicate) and Scott McCaughey (Young Fresh Fellows) — neither of whom have meant much to me in their previous pop lives — spinning a baker’s dozen of terrific songs about what is still America’s greatest game. With jangly bar rock as apt a song-for-song’s-sake vehicle as solo-acoustic, and with the likes of Jackie Robinson, Satchel Paige, and forgotten hurler Harvey Haddix as worthy of the troubadour treatment as Pretty Boy Floyd and John Henry, you might call this the best non-Dylan folk record of the decade. And while it’s true that you might not respond to it as quickly (if at all) if you’ve never heard of Bert Campaneris or Oscar Gamble, this lifelong baseball devotee wouldn’t have responded to it as quickly (if at all) if it weren’t so smart, funny, and unsentimental. Highlights include an imaginary Ted Williams analysis of all the great players of his era who weren’t as good as he was, an opening cultural litany-as-mortality lament, and a spirited defense/remembrance of the aforementioned Haddix, who pitched 12 perfect innings against the Milwaukee Braves on May 26, 1959, only to lose the game in the 13th. (“Ted Fucking Williams,” “Satchel Paige Said,” “Past Time,” “Harvey Haddix”)
Grade: A
