I rarely miss a blog week, but I did that in the first week of 2025. In my defence, I was rather sick and hadn’t listened to any new music until then. I listened to some good albums in the letter L as I continued my journey through our vinyl slabs. So, without further ado, let’s see what we listened to in the first two weeks of 2025, up to Sunday, January 12.

The good folks at Big Stir (https://bigstirrecords.com/home) came through first to the post with the album Back To California by the band 20/20. But before getting there, we must travel the road from January 1 to today, January 13. These will be mini-readers to add some context to the sounds.

Joyce Landorf  For People Who Don’t Hear The Music Anymore

She has a good voice, which could be used better than it is on this album; it is a great album name, though.

Leapy Lee Little Arrows

Earworm warning. Thinking about this song without hearing it is enough to generate an earworm. Little Arrows is a catchy, radio-friendly song that causes the remainder of the album to be overlooked, and that is a shame because Leapy Lee has a good voice.

Byron Lee and The Dragonaires  Dancing Is Forever

Byron Lee is recognized in Jamaica for his contribution to the music of Jamaica, the Caribbean, and eventually abroad. Lee has a deep catalogue: https://www.discogs.com/artist/29820-Byron-Lee-And-The-Dragonaires

Alvin Lee & Mylon LeFevre On The Road To Freedom

On The Road To Freedom is an interesting mash-up of two artists who play in different worlds. Alvin Lee is best known for contributing to the band Ten Years After. Mylon LeFevre is a Christian musician.

John Lennon John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band

John Lennon Imagine

John Lennon Shaved Fish

I don’t have words to express my feelings while playing John Lennon’s music.

Lettermen All-Time Greatest Hits

Lettermen All-Time Greatest Hits

Good harmony and folksy music.

Gary Lewis And The Playboys This Diamond Ring

I had a first print of this once upon a time. I also encountered a lovely lady who liked this album and deserved better than me.

Gordon Lightfoot Don Quixote

Gordon Lightfoot Here On Earth

Gordon Lightfoot Sit Down Young Stranger

I like Gordon Lightfoot’s music. He has a unique vocal style that is his alone, and he does Canada proud.

Pink Floyd Piper At The Gates Of Dawn

I played this twice.

Spacemen 3  Performance

I need to plug this into the amp and crank it.

The Limeliters  Our Men in San Francisco

The Limeliters  Time To Gather Seeds

Nice harmony in folk music.

Little Feat Waiting For Columbas Disc 1

Little Feat Waiting For Columbas Disc 2

I listened to Little Feat in my first incarnation, then lost contact with them during my lost years, and then found them again just now. I still like them.

Todd Rundgren  Something Anything

There is something about Todd Rundgren that has a magical, magnetic pull on me.

That brings us to today, January 13, as I write this, and Back to California by the band 20/20 is on the virtual turntable. I put this album on repeat, and I have racked up a dozen trips as I kept Coming back to California. There are some albums that I have heard once, and that is enough. There are some albums that I have listened to once, and that was one too many times. There are some albums that I can listen to more than once, and I still find them enjoyable. Some albums will become anual listeners given enough time to find that groove from the turntable to my brain. And some of those albums will become deserted island albums.

Coming Back to California by 20/20 isn’t a Deserted Island album yet, but it has passed the first test, the “repeat listener and still like it” category. The next step needs several months to see if I still like it. We’ll see how it fares in the year-end summary. Meanwhile, let’s listen to the album again and focus on the details.

The lead track is the title track, Coming Back To California. There are multiple reasons as to why we would be going back. The lyrics are open to speculation, giving us, the listeners, a chance to think about why we would be going back. I was a long-haired hippy when a friend and I dropped everything, jumped in my car and pointed it in the direction of California. I put some figurative flowers in my hair in 1975 and travelled up and down the west coast. We didn’t have Trump back then, but I would like to know what he would have thought of a Mexico-to-Canada border trip with some long-haired hippy freaks (Signs by Five Man Electrical Band.)

It’s gut-wrenching time when we get to track two. “Why Do I Hurt Myself?” I have an addictive personality; I easily get hooked on things, and then I ask, “Why Do I Hurt Myself?” I could go through this song line by line, nodding my head in demonstration of agreeing and keeping tempo because half the fun is in the music, and the other half is the lyrics. Great song, with credit to:

STEVE ALLEN: VOCALS, GUITAR, KEYBOARD

RON FLYNT: VOCALS, BASS, KEYBOARD, BARITONE GUITAR 

RAY FLYNT: DRUMS, PERCUSSION

p.s. I love the harmonica coda

p.s.s. There is some lovely bass work, not just in this song. Play the album from start to finish, and listen for just the bass.

Dang it all, I am only on the third track, and this is changing from a glance at what I listened to in the last two weeks to a short book of music observations.

Throwing all caution aside, we dive in deeper, and the Springtime Love Song gives us some excellent guitar work. As a former guitar player, I know excellent pickin’ when I hear it, and I hear it in the Springtime Love Song.

This album takes a harsh grinding of the gears and shifts into some rocky terrain. “Lucky Heart” cries out for Donald and hopes that he has a heart. The headlines shout the news that Los Angeles is on fire and Laurel Canyon is in there. I hope everyone gets out safely, and I hope that their lives can heal and have hope for the future.

Wow, these lyrics hit home. Jumping ahead to the closing track, Farewell.

“Farewell farewell my good friend 

Farewell farewell my good friend

I hope that I told you that I love you

I hope that I told you that I care”

I hope I have told you that I love this album.

I hope I told you that Coming Back to California is an album you should add to your collection.

I hope to go back to California.

I hope that you like this album as much as I do.