Gift guide: 20 new albums, box sets for the music lover on your holiday list

In a year that has been so profoundly strange and challenging, do we have any hope of expecting a shred of normalcy when it comes to the craziest shopping day of the year?

Well, yes and no. We can’t change the overall temperament of Black Friday, but we can offer some sound advice on gift giving. To help ease the inevitable shopping stress, here is our annual Holiday Music Guide – a list of 20 critic’s pick selections of newly released recordings.

Some are brand new for the season. Others are just-issued vinyl and/CD editions of music released only in digital form earlier in this lockdown year. There are also pricier box sets covering past careers whose works are calling on us again, only with a truckload of tasty extras.

The big twist here is a few of these picks won’t surface until closer to Christmas. Usually, the release of new albums is completed by Thanksgiving. But nothing else has followed a familiar path. Why should a little thing like recorded music be any different?

Now, on to the shopping list.

Randall Bramblett: “Pine Needle Fire”

A veteran Georgia songsmith, Bramblett offers another slice of Southern inclined pop/soul where the music is as keen and cunning as the wordplay. Think Steely Dan with a Thomas Wolfe chaser.

Keith Jarrett: “Budapest Concert”

Possibly Jarrett’s finest solo piano concert recording in 30 years. The improvisations reveal tremendous dynamics while the closing cover of “Answer Me, My Love” is stunningly beautiful.

Grateful Dead: “Workingman’s Dead”/”American Beauty”

Originally released only four months apart in 1970, these two Dead classics have been handsomely reissued as three-disc sets with over four hours of bonus concert music from 1971.

Chris Stapleton: “Starting Over”

Kentucky country king Stapleton returns with a typically no-frills set of acoustic affirmations, dark electric incantations and tasty covers of Guy Clark and John Fogerty favorites.

Tom Petty: “Wildflowers and all the Rest”

Petty’s brilliant 1994, Rick Rubin-produced masterwork resurfaces in multiple formats (two-to-five CD and three-to-seven vinyl sets) augmented by loads of live and demo recordings.

Bruce Springsteen: “Letter to You”

At 71, The Boss reconvenes his fabled E Street Band for a briskly paced, time-tripping scrapbook that shifts from newly composed reflections on mortality to resurrected tunes left vacated since the early 1970s.

Jimi Hendrix Experience: “Live in Maui”

Pulled from concerts given less than two months before his death, “Maui” finds Hendrix’s final trio ripping through songs old and new, including a killer “Villanova Junction.”

Nels Cline Singers: “Share the Wealth”

Known as a fearless improviser as well as the industrious guitarist for Wilco, Cline takes his all-instrumental Singers band for a richly diverse fusion joyride.

Joni Mitchell: “Archives, Vol. 1”

This five-CD set traces the career launch of folk empress Mitchell through a wealth of demos and live recordings cut between 1963 and 1967.

AC/DC: “Power Up”

The lineup has changed given the 2017 death of rhythm guitarist Malcolm Young. But the rest of AC/DC sounds as loud, proud and youthful as ever on its 17th studio album.

John Prine: “Crooked Piece of Time”

As prime of a Prine collection as one could hope for: the late songwriter’s first seven albums, released between 1971 and 1980, assembled in a box set.

Elvis Costello: “Hey Clockface”

Costello’s 31st album is a globetrotting mash-up of one-man band sessions, jazz combo interludes and collaborations with longtime keyboard mate Steve Nieve.

Rolling Stones: “Goats Head Soup”

Reissue of the Stones’ often overlooked 1973 album comes in multiple formats. The two CD edition, which includes a full disc of unreleased tunes (including the exquisite “Scarlet”) and alternate takes, is the one to go for.

John Lennon: “Gimme Some Truth”

Released on John Lennon’s 80th birthday (Oct. 9) but now serving as a memorial marking the 40th anniversary of his murder (Dec. 8), “Gimme Some Truth” is a sublime sampler and summation of the Beatle’s solo career.

Ella Fitzgerald: “Ella – The Lost Berlin Tapes”

Recorded two years after her seminal “Mack the Knife – Ella in Berlin,” this 1962 concert set is just now surfacing with the extraordinary Ms. Ella backed by an efficient and immensely complimentary trio.

Margo Price: “Perfectly Imperfect at the Ryman”

Finally, a CD version of a live set available only online since May. A true country rout aided by Jack White, Emmylou Harris and Kentucky’s own Sturgill Simpson. (Release date: Dec. 4).

Sturgill Simpson: “Cuttin’ Grass”

Here is the CD realization of Simpson’s bluegrass revisions of a repertoire than runs from his days with the Central Kentucky troupe Sunday Valley through 2016’s “A Sailor’s Guide to Earth.” (Release date: Dec. 11).

Kamasi Washington: “Becoming”

The famed new generation jazz saxophonist serves a concise but diverse score for the Netflix documentary version of Michelle Obama’s popular memoir. Available now digitally. (CD Release date: Dec. 11)

Paul McCartney: “McCartney III”

This is actually McCartney’s 18th album away from The Beatles, but the third where recorded everything on his own. His first one-man-band project since “McCartney II” in 1980 was cut this year during lockdown conditions. (Release date: Dec. 18)

Drive-By Truckers: “The New OK”

Released digitally earlier this fall, the Truckers end the year with the CD/vinyl edition of an album again fueled by the restless and unsettling temperament of the times. (Released Dec. 18)

This story was originally published November 24, 2020 at 6:00 AM.