Editors' Choice for August 2024
Hoagiemouth Records
Following two exploratory covers albums, Lee returns to his original work with a rustically cozy yet still musically daring 11th LP.
Blue Note
The pianist and his trio play an engaging evening of standards captured at the Village Vanguard in N.Y.C.
Slumberland
The sophomore album from this one-man jangle pop machine matches energetic melodic songwriting with more robust production.
Sacred Bones
The singer/songwriter and director reinvent his surreally sensuous pop with mesmerizing songs that seem to stop time in its tracks.
Western Vinyl Records
Returning to electric guitar while continuing his pedal steel explorations, the artist delivers some of his most dynamic, masterful work.
Drag City
The 1976 debut LP from the folksinger and master of the hammered dulcimer and psaltery.
Stony Plain
The guitar giant completes an album 20 years in the making as his final Stony Plain outing.
Cooking Vinyl
Using her road band in the studio, the singer/songwriter digs into writing roots hooks across genres, with an excellent production sensibility.
Cherry Red
Comprehensive collection that gathers the full studio output and two Peel Sessions from this funky, chaotic band of 1980s Scottish post-punk.
XL / XL Recordings
An evolution in the band's sound that sands off some of the rough edges, revealing new and interesting textures underneath.
Robinsongs
This five-disc package from the U.K.'s Robinsongs offers tracks from the pianist's Epic, Elektra, and Warner Bros. solo albums and in the Clarke/Duke Project.
Run for Cover Records
While still anchored to slowcore tradition, the Boston group's fifth album is their noisiest, most high-contrast yet.
Decca
Performances of major concertos with the charisma and command of performers from classical music's golden ages.
Domino
A patiently evolving suite that gradually works its way towards spiritual transcendence.
Château de Versailles
Intense, highly ornamented production of Monteverdi's first opera captures the excitement that must have accompanied the work at its premiere.
Orchid Classics
An embarrassment of riches in this album of French sacred choral music.
Mr. Bongo
The vibrant self-titled debut from the genre-bending Cuban band showcasing their Afro-Cuban funk, Latin pop, and psych-rock sound.
Mom + Pop Music
Utilizing a blend of analog and electronic instruments, including cloudy strings and astral horns, the group craft a 3-D stereogram of psychedelic dance-pop.
Blue Note
Joined by an ensemble including co-producer Chris Bruce, the genre-blurring musician delivers an impassioned tribute to the titular writer/activist on his centennial.
Concord
The Brazilian icon looks back on his career on this warm collaboration with the Grammy-winning singer and bassist.
PentaTone Classics
A unique rapid traversal of many triple-meter dances of Schubert, all slightly different.
PentaTone Classics
A wonderful Debussy program, precise and restrained yet lively.
Omnivore
This handsome three-disc set offers a beautifully mastered version of 1975's Honky Tonk Man with 34 unissued live tracks from the same era.
Susannasonata
The singer/songwriter reinvents her music with shifting, sophisticated songs that bring the heart's shadowy realms into the light.
Hyperion
Impressively bleak Schubert from a veteran but always fresh ensemble.
Father/Daughter Records
Sounding exactly as warm, sweet, and moving as they did decades earlier, the duo add maturity and grace to their minimal indie pop sound.
Believe Recordings / Naïve
The Armenian composer and keyboardist offers a kaleidoscopic masterwork that cuts across and joins classical, pop, metal, and prog.
Fat Possum Records
L.A.'s finest punk band sound both raucous and thoughtful as they look to the past on their farewell album.