Album reviews: corncob, The Chats, Frank & His Sisters, and more
corncob RANDY (Foil) From the holy-shit desk: Heather Mease found her way from Philadelphia to Charlottesville via UVA’s Ph.D. program in composition, and as corncob, has just released the riveting tour-de-force RANDY. Mease’s vocal performances—it seems inadequate to just call them vocals–bracingly meld coquettish seduction, dark comedy, fragility, and menace over synth/drum-machine/found-sound backing tracks that […]
Album reviews: MC Yallah X Debmaster, Various Artists
MC Yallah X Debmaster Kubali (Hakuna Kulala) The most frenetic moment of Kubali comes right at the top, like an intimidating bouncer. Once you get past the brief jabbery pattern of vocables, percussion, synthesizers, and unidentified sonic objects, Kubali just swaggers and bumps. Uganda’s MC Yallah spits in Kiswahili and Luganda, reveling in the stinkface […]
Album reviews: Green-House, Myke Towers, Ben Krakauer, and Doja Cat
Green-House Six Songs for Invisible Gardens (Leaving) Beginning an album with pooling water sounds is a risky venture. But at the start of the instrumental Invisible Gardens, Green-House combines those liquidy murmurs with some malletophone, and for nearly 30 minutes, casts a spell that’s all the more remarkable for the attendant new age clichés (yes […]
Album reviews: Reissue roundup part 2
Here’s another set of worthwhile reissues I missed along the way in 2019. (Not included: The Beatles’ brilliant valedictory Abbey Road and Aretha Franklin’s sublimely beautiful and awesomely powerful Amazing Grace.) Akofa Akoussah Akofa Akoussah (Mr. Bongo) Togolese singer Akofa Akoussah is known to aficionados of vintage African pop, but her lone album has been […]
Album reviews: Reissue roundup part 1
Throughout the year, I reviewed some reissues (notably Gene Clark’s magisterial No Other and Prince’s colossal 1999). Here’s a few I missed along the way—more to come next time. James Brown Live at Home With His Bad Self (UMG) James Brown returned to play his hometown of Augusta, GA, in 1969, planning to release the […]
Album reviews: Best-and-rest of 2019
Not sure why, but in 2019 I spent a lot of time with a relatively few new albums, so apologies to the stuff I didn’t listen to enough. Here’s an idiosyncratic best-of, the albums I listened to all year (in more or less chronological order), with a “rest-of”—albums I liked almost as much, or loved […]
Album reviews: Leonard Cohen, Prince, Ghostigital, and Los Lobos
Leonard Cohen Thanks for the Dance (Sony) Recorded during the same sessions as You Want It Darker, which was released three weeks before Cohen’s death in 2016, Thanks For the Dance continues Cohen’s meditations on decay and mortality, though the first half is also deliciously carnal—the Lorca homage “Night of Santiago” smolders even as Cohen’s […]
Album reviews: Miranda Lambert, Andy Aylward, Gene Clark, and Homeboy Sandman
Miranda Lambert Wildcard (Sony) Glowing with sanitized professionalism, performed hot messiness, and branded shout outs from Patron to Tide sticks, Wildcard is textbook pop country. And after “divorce album” The Weight of These Wings, it’s party time, as Jay Joyce’s production insists–Wildcard is engineered for loudness, and even the acoustic passages are compressed to 11. […]
Album reviews: Velveteen Rabbit, Shana Falana, Wished Bone, Yukihiro Takahashi, and Grace Potter
Velveteen Rabbit Velveteen Rabbit (Hozac) Rising from the ashes of NYC power poppers The Jeanies, Velveteen Rabbit do up the ’70s glory days of glitter rock in a stripped-down way. They don’t try to match the theatrical majesty of Bowie and Roxy Music—especially vocally—but still they deliver plenty of exhilarating boogie via deliciously sleazy guitar […]
Album reviews: Allah-Las, Julien Chang, Various artists, Gong Gong Gong, and Tomeka Reid Quartet
Allah-Las Las (Mexican Summer) On their fourth LP, L.A.’s Allah-Las don’t seem in any hurry to alter their psychedelic slacker twang. In fact, they don’t seem in any particular hurry at all; the baker’s dozen of songs lopes along with nary a hitch, everything a pleasant if slightly dulled blend of Beck and White Fence. […]
Album reviews: Lynda Dawn, Lindstrøm, Babe Rainbow, Drew Holcomb & the Neighbors, and Brittany Howard
Lynda Dawn At First Light (Akashik) The first sounds on Lynda Dawn’s debut EP—a fat keyboard bass line and synthetic handclaps and claves —come straight from the ’80s glory days of electrosoul. And as it turns out, so do all the other sounds, including the U.K. singer’s sultry, gospel-tinged vocals. On At First Light Dawn […]
Album reviews: Lana Del Rey, C. Keys & Kazi, Sheer Mag, Ghost Funk Orchestra, and Chali 2na & Krafty Kuts
Lana Del Rey Norman Fucking Rockwell! (Universal) Lana Del Rey takes a turn at pillow- soft rock on NFR, the product of a partnership with Jack Antonoff—late of the annoyingly-named fun., and an erstwhile Taylor Swift and Lorde collaborator. The songs here are slow and subdued, dominated by patient piano—they’re well suited for Del Rey […]
Album reviews: Heron & Crane, Vivian Girls, G Flip, Ikebe Shakedown, and Sleater-Kinney
Heron & Crane Firesides (Hibernator Gigs) Denizens of Charlottesville’s indie scene know Dave Gibson from power-pop exponents Borrowed Beams of Light and Weird Mob, plus synth soundscapers Personal Bandana. Here, Gibson and Columbus, Ohio, buddy Travis Kokas split the difference, with sweet results. The mostly instrumental Firesides is a fetching mélange of melody and texture, […]
Album Reviews: Flying Lotus, Gunter Herbig, The Young Sinclairs, Daughter of Swords, and Sugar Ray
Flying Lotus Flamagra (Warp) One of the most compelling post-Dilla beatmakers, Flying Lotus has collaborated with Kendrick Lamar and Kamasi Washington, among others, as his amorphous funk has spread throughout left-field R&B, hip-hop, and jazz. On Flamagra, FlyLo is abetted by fellow travelers like Thundercat and Robert Glasper, along with why-not guests such as David […]
Album reviews: Resavoir, Black Pumas, Lil Nas X, Kylie Minogue, Elephant9, and Various artists
Resavoir Resavoir (International Anthem) It goes down smooth and it’s jazz, but it isn’t smooth jazz. Members of Chicago collective Resavoir have played with Chance the Rapper, Noname, and Mavis Staples, and the band maps a similar wholesomeness onto these nine pithy originals that don’t just walk the classic/fresh tightrope, but live directly on it. […]
Reissue Roundup: ZZ Top, James & Bobby Purify, Various Artists
Various artists Lullabies for Catatonics (Grapefruit) The U.K. rock scene’s initial response to LSD tended more towards pastoral reverie than paranoid fever dream (not having a Vietnam War helped). But psychic unraveling quickly followed, as chronicled on Lullabies for Catatonics, a transporting crate-dig from excellent reissue label Grapefruit. Covering 1967-1974, this triple-disc set is lovingly […]
Album reviews: Craig Leon, Naytronix, Matt Martians, Kate Bollinger, and Crumb
Craig Leon Anthology of Interplanetary Folk Music Vol. 2: The Canon (RVNG Intl.) Craig Leon produced the classic debuts of the Ramones and Blondie before covering some classical stuff himself (key title: Bach to Moog). On his ’80s new age albums Nommos and Visiting, Leon imagined the vernacular music of extraterrestrials, presenting it as slow, […]
Album reviews: Boogarins, Bill MacKay, Carmen Villain, and Faye Webster
Boogarins Sombrou Dúvida (LAB 344) Brazilian band Boogarins is back with more heady psychedelia, adding a little bap to the mix this time. If the Google translations are on point, Dinho Almeida is repeatedly counseling us to eschew tradition, explore life, embrace fear, etc. Ironically, his vocals never leave their sleepwalk-serenade comfort zone, while shred-capable […]
Album reviews: Lizzo, Carl Anderson, King Gizzard& the Lizard Wizard, and Cate Le Bon
Lizzo Cuz I Love You (Atlantic) When Lizzo sends the title character of “Jerome” packing even though he “looks good on paper,” it summed up my feeling of listening to the sassy, up-with-me R&B of Cuz I Love You, as Lizzo’s righteous body positivity saturates the album and becomes didactic to the extent that the […]
Album Reviews: Budos Band, Anderson .Paak, Shana Cleveland, Chris Forsyth, Wilma Vritra, and Shafiq Husayn
Budos Band V (Daptone) Pseudos Band? As part of the Daptone stable, Budos Band excels at dialing in various flavors—the collective has helped supply spot-on retro soul tracks for Sharon Jones and Lee Fields, and their own instrumentals have shown up on commercials, video games, and soundtracks for Tequila 1800, MLB: The Show, and “Entourage.” […]
Album reviews: Marvin Gaye, Ex Hex, and Billie Eilish
Marvin Gaye You’re the Man (Universal) The follow-up that never was is finally here—and honestly probably sounds better now than it would have in 1972. You’re the Man could hardly have matched the gorgeously sighing melodies, elegant textures, and memorable aphorisms of What’s Going On, and when it tries, it suffers in comparison. Leadoff track […]
Album reviews: Mary Lattimore & Mac McCaughan, Solange, Stella Donnelly, Flamin’ Groovies, and Various Artists
Mary Lattimore & Mac McCaughan New Rain Duets (Three Lobed) Essentially a 40-minute jam divided into four segments, New Rain Duets brings more exquisite atmosphere from Mary Lattimore, and, in a somewhat surprising role, Mac McCaughan. Best known for cofounding Merge Records and fronting Superchunk, McCaughan supplies not guitar but guitar-like synthesizer textures and samples, […]
ARTS Pick: Restroy
Monsters of jazz: Led by former Charlottesville resident and current Chicagoan Christopher Dammann on upright bass, Restroy is a jazz sextet that combines electronic and acoustic resources to create a “traditional experimental” sound that’s endlessly rewarding. Also from the fertile Chicago jazz scene, James Davis supplies most of the melodic material on trumpet, and erstwhile […]
Album reviews: Faux Ferocious, The Cowboys, Good Dog Nigel, and Yola
Faux Ferocious Pretty Groovy (Burger) When this Tennessee quartet played a C’ville house party back in 2012, they absolutely tore it up—apologies if you were there and I yowled in your face about the spirit of rock and roll. Faux Ferocious kicks out punky jams and bluesy boogie grooves and is supernaturally tight, like a […]
Album Reviews: Cass McCombs, Kinloch Nelson, Galactic, Lucky Daye, and Jessica Pratt
Cass McCombs Tip of the Sphere (ANTI-) The opener of Tip of the Sphere is an interesting mongrel—half Irish folk mantra, half space rock, and ending with three minutes of Jerry-Garcia-circa-1972 wah guitar. All of which sort of sets the tone for Cass McCombs’ latest. There’s easy loping folk on “Absentee” and tabla and David […]
Album reviews: DAWN, Steve Gunn, Mono, Sneaks, Tim Presley’s White Fence, and TOY
DAWN New Breed (Young Action) Danity Kane veteran Dawn Richard has forged a reputation as an R&B iconoclast, collaborating with Dirty Projectors and working on Adult Swim. Here she puts forth her NOLA roots with wizened old- people’s voices at the start of several songs—though New Breed doesn’t sound particularly rooted in New Orleans, or […]
Album reviews: Tallies, Ultramarine, You Tell Me, Gnash, Kero Kero Bonito, Bunny Lee/Prince Jammy/The Aggrovators, and Park Hye Jin
Tallies S/T (Kanine) Tallies kicks off with a frosty amalgam of ‘80s and ‘90s atmospheric alt rock—the Bunnymen and The Cran- berries come to mind—and when “Mother” follows up somewhere halfway between The Smiths and The Go-Go’s, it becomes clear that the past is where Tallies live. Sarah Cogan’s vocals get a little yelpy, and […]