both halves of a couple release good or great albums in the same year

Who has done this? And when?

Attempting to clarify, I'm looking for examples of both halves of a romantic couple releasing quality albums in the same year. And not formally together ... so, like, not Kim and Thurston and a Sonic Youth album. We're talking solo-ish (or side project, I guess) releases from two people who are dating/married/whatever. (One half playing on the other's solo-billed release is OK, I think.)

Obviously, there's some wiggle room around a lot of those words ... for example, "album" ... maybe it's not an album from one, but an EP or a mixtape or some other kind of multi-song thing. BUT getting down to just a single/song on one side of the couple seems like cheating. Y'know?

Akiko Yano & Ryuichi Sakamoto in 1980 and 1981

YO/POB + JL/POB

I don't like either album but Courtney Barnett and her spouse did this last year iirc?

Not the same calendar year, but within 12 months: Jason Isbell and Amanda Shires

Almost but not quite: Frischmann and Albarn, ymmv.

christine fellows, nevertheless / the weakerthans, reunion tour, both 2007

(also, whoa, christine fellows is releasing an album in November?)

Was thinking ben chasny and elisa ambroglio must have done this, but could not find a match per year yet

I don't really like the Syreeta album but I know a lot of ppl will rep for it so

Stevie Wonder "Innervisions" and Syreeta Wright "Stevie Wonder Presents: Syreeta Wright" (1974)

Jessi Colter "I'm Jessi Colter" & Waylon Jennings "Dreaming My Dreams" (1975)

RTX "Transmaniacon" and Howling Hex "Return of the Third Tower" (2004)

Is the couple's status as a couple required to be contemporaneous with the release of the albums in question? Because if not I might recommend a Miles + Betty pairing.

If Shakey's last post is any indicator, the answer to my question is 'no'.

Astrud Gilberto "The Astrud Gilberto Album" and Joao Gilberto "Herbie Mann & João Gilberto with Antônio Carlos Jobim" (1965)

man if only they weren’t one year away from each other, i could say lulu and homeland

surely Joni Mitchell and one of her paramours line up, I'm just not sure of the chronology there

Yeah, I keep thinking of instances that are like just a year off from one another (eg My Life in the Bush of Ghosts in '81 and Pal Judy in '82).

christine fellows, nevertheless / the weakerthans, reunion tour, both 2007

― aloha darkness my old friend (katherine), Thursday, September 13, 2018 11:55 AM (thirty-three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

(also, whoa, christine fellows is releasing an album in November?)

― aloha darkness my old friend (katherine), Thursday, September 13, 2018 11:57 AM (thirty-two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

great pick + extremely valuable information thank you

Goddamn it, was gonna throw in a joke suggestion for Joanna Newsom/Lonely Island, but once again the release years are staggered. It's like they're doing this on purpose.

I’m sure Richard and Linda Thompson did this but can’t remember the details.

Badu + Outkast's releases don't line up either >:(

How about Blur and Elastica?

1997
cornelius, fantasma
takako minekawa, cloudy cloud calculator

i think they were a couple by then, although they divorced in 2012

was thinking tim gane and saidier would qualify but dunno

an obvious one: yoko ono and john lennon with their plastic ono bands in 1970, and fly + imagine in 1971.

(they came close in 1973 but john shit the bed with mind games imo)

Badu + Outkast's releases don't line up either >:(

― Οὖτις, Thursday, September 13, 2018 2:44 PM (twenty-eight minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Neither do Badu and Jay Electronica...oh wait

Post and Maxinquaye? I don't know exactly when that relationship was.

I thought Ray Brown and Ella Fitzgerald may have qualified but it doesn't look like he released much when they were married.

Here's a bunch

George Jones "George Jones with Love" and Tammy Wynette "We Sure Can Love Each Other" (1971)
George Jones "We Can Make It" (1972) and Tammy Wynette "Bedtime Story" (1972)
George Jones "A Picture of Me (Without You)" and Tammy Wynette "My Man" (1972)
George Jones "The Grand Tour" and Tammy Wynette "Woman to Woman" (1974)
George Jones "Memories of Us" and Tammy Wynette "I Still Believe in Fairy Tales" (1975)

Live Through This / Unplugged

Y'all are amazing. Good work.

Is the couple's status as a couple required to be contemporaneous with the release of the albums in question? Because if not I might recommend a Miles + Betty pairing.

Contemporaneous couple status / album releases is what I was thinking, yes.

xp posthumous albums don't count do they?

Nobody else will count these, but in '71 James Taylor put out Mud Slide Slim and Carly Simon released her first two albums. They were married in late '72, so I don't know if they were a couple yet. Call them good albums...or close to good.

I know it's after work and I know I'm tired, but there's really no excuse for me to be floored by the revelation of George Clinton and Tammy Wynette's relationship for several seconds before realizing that I'd misread George Jones's name.

Standing on the Verge of Your Man

Great thread

I think the timing works out: Smog - The Doctor Came at Dawn and Cynthia Dall - s/t.

Joan Baez 5 and Another Side of Bob Dylan

I'm sure Beyonce and Jay-Z must have done this at least once.

Frankie Cosmos, "Next Thing" and Porches, "Pool" - 2016

Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme every year between 1957 and 1970

I think the timing works out: Smog - The Doctor Came at Dawn and Cynthia Dall - s/t.

― I Don't Have Any Ears, I Am Positive (Old Lunch), Thursday, September 13, 2018 8:49 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I think the timing of this (1996) might have actually been when he was dating Cat Power, who released "What Would the Community Think" that same year. so either way.

Aimee Mann - Bachelor No. 2 and Michael Penn - MP4 (2000)

Tom Carter: Shots At Infinity 1 & 2
Christina Carter: Texas Working Blues

(2008)

Diana Rogerson (as Chrystal Belle Scrod) and Steven Stapleton (as Nurse With Wound) in both 1985 and 1986

does anyone know if eye and yoshimi were ever an item? that's probably an embarrassing question.

any queer couples that did this or came close?

'so, like, not Kim and Thurston and a Sonic Youth album'

How about Free Kitten "Nice Ass" and Thurston Moore "Psychic Hearts" in '95.

In 1996 Shadow Ring released "Wax-Work Echoes" (Graham Lambkin) and Harry Pussy put out "What Was Music?". Not sure if they were a couple at that point but it's possible given that they recorded an album together that year under the name Transmission.

1997 - Kathleen Hanna released "Julie Ruin" and Ad-Rock released "BS-2000".

2013 - Letha Rodman Melchior released "Handbook for Mortals" and Dan Melchior released "K-85".

Victoria Williams Loose and Mark Olson/the Jayhawks Tomorrow the Green Grass (with "Miss Williams' Guitar") in 1994-95, 4 months apart.

Eleanor Friedberger/Fiery Furnaces I'm Going Away and Alex Kapranos/Franz Ferdinand Tonight in 2009.

1984 - The Kinks (Ray Davies) release Word Of Mouth, and The Pretenders (Chrissie Hynde) release Learning To Crawl. Neither a classic, but both very good.

Oh, also:

1984 - The Pretenders (Chrissie Hynde) release Learning To Crawl, and The Simple Minds (Jim Kerr) release Sparkle In The Rain.

It was complicated!

Elvis Costello The King of America (Feb. 86) and Cate O'Riordan/the Pogues Rum, Sodomy and the Lash (Aug. 85, produced by Costello).

Murder Ballads and Dance Hall At Louse Point?

xp posthumous albums don't count do they?

― flappy bird

Both were recorded in 1993…

Obvious one: Hole's Live Through This and Nirvana's MTV Unplugged in New York in '94.

posthumous albums don't count do they?

Why wouldn't they? I don't interpret the original post as ruling them out.

Sorry...same two albums that inspired the question! (I did a quick "Hole/Nirvana/Love/Cobain" search, but none of those were in the post.)

Goddamn it, was gonna throw in a joke suggestion for Joanna Newsom/Lonely Island, but once again the release years are staggered. It's like they're doing this on purpose.

― I Don't Have Any Ears, I Am Positive (Old Lunch), Thursday, September 13, 2018 9:36 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Joanna Newsom's 'Ys' was released in November 2006, her beau at the time Bill Callahan released 'Woke on a Whaleheart' in April 2007.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/b3/TwoTheHardWay.jpeg/220px-TwoTheHardWay.jpeg

This is a strange artifact of early celebrity pop culture.

I love the look on Greg Allmans face of "how the hell did I end up here".

any queer couples that did this or came close?

― macropuente (map),

(June 2014) The Soft Pink Truth ‎– Why Do The Heathen Rage?
(April 2015) M.C. Schmidt ‎– Batu Malablab

Good one sleeve
!

Bon Iver, Bon Iver (2011)
Kathleen Edwards, Voyageur (released 2012, but recorded 2011)

Sylvie Vartan and Johnny Hallyday were doing this regularly from 1966 to 1980. Not that I've heard all of those Johnny Hallyday albums, but they were all massive chartwise.

these sneak in right before Courtney married Kurt:

1991:
Smashing Pumpkins - Gish
Hole - Pretty on the Inside

Not sure if this one qualifies: Paul Simon and Edie Brickell had releases in the same year.
All Paul Simon albums are great, but I don't know anything about Edie Brickell so I have no idea if those are any good.

these sneak in right before Courtney married Kurt:

1991:
Smashing Pumpkins - Gish
Hole - Pretty on the Inside

wait what Courtney and Billy were together then?! (This is Hole's only good album imo btw)

1997 - Kathleen Hanna released "Julie Ruin" and Ad-Rock released "BS-2000".

would anybody really argue that either of these records are "good or great"

I would argue that the Julie Ruin album is good-to-great!

BS-2000, I got nothin'

the first BS-2000 album (pitchshift and sampler) is 10000x better than the second (ditties and casio)

1991:
Smashing Pumpkins - Gish
Hole - Pretty on the Inside

wait what Courtney and Billy were together then?! (This is Hole's only good album imo btw)

― Οὖτις, Friday, September 14, 2018 1:56 PM

Yeah this one just barely makes it: Gish came out in May 1991 and POTI came out on September 17, 1991, a week before Nevermind. Kurt and Courtney got together in late October 1991.

billy and courtney were dating at least as late as the “rhinoceros” video which was after gish came out iirc

deferring to flappy bird on this

fwiw Courtney called Billy on 10/12/91 asking if he wanted her to fly out and see him sometime. he said yes not thinking she had already landed at O'Hare. so Courtney showed up like half an hour later, Billy's other girlfriend was there, and they both threw Courtney out. She walked five blocks to the Metro where Nirvana were playing, and her and Kurt were together after that, and they got married in February 1992.

I'm sure Beyonce and Jay-Z must have done this at least once.

― o. nate, Thursday, September 13, 2018 8:52 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the thread specified good albums (on jay's part obv)