Staff Picks for April 2013
April 30, 2013
Just as chillwave was starting to make a splash in 2010, this duo's debut was released. 7AM was so swirly and nostalgic sounding that it fit in with the hippest new genre, but with all the other styles incorporated (house, R&B, shoegaze), it was an impossible to categorize and entirely special release.
April 29, 2013
With her doe eyes, hoop earrings, leopard print tights and a voice like Marilyn Monroe fronting C+C Music Factory, Stacey Q was cheeky fun. However, Nights Like This is steeped in the house and techno others would exploit with less savoir faire than Miss Q only a few years later.
April 28, 2013
Mr. Chin is one of the reasons I love Yellowman, this album, and reggae music. The issue of convenience stores selling mostly garbage food is something that affects everyone, but R&B, pop, country, and EDM have yet to address the issue, and I doubt they could take it on with such flair.
April 27, 2013
More Than Words often plays as Brian McKnight's tribute to the glory days of SoCal blue-eyed soul, as it's filled with allusions to Steely Dan and Michael McDonald, which is reason enough to give it a listen, but he takes plenty of other odd detours on this weird, captivating soul that defies all easy categories.
April 26, 2013
A true solo album that Spence recorded by himself in two weeks, this is a deeply personal, and deeply trippy, set of songs. From "All Come to Meet Her"'s caresses, to "Books of Moses"' apocalyptic folk, Oar follows its own sprawling psychedelic logic.
April 25, 2013
Sure, Simon had the tunes but Artie had the voice. His 1975 album is a lushly produced hidden treasure with some choice covers ("Disney Girls," "I Only Have Eyes For You"), a reunion with Paul ("My Little Town") and Garfunkel turning everything to soft rock gold with his amazing vocals.
April 24, 2013
Various Artists
JSP’s Midnight at the Barrelhouse contains 125 remastered sides, nearly six hours spread out over five CD's, of vintage West Coast R & B including several from Johnny Otis, Little Esther, Mel Lewis and the Robins.
April 23, 2013
The instrumental lineup of this Norwegian quintet, including Motorpsycho drummer Kenneth Kapstad and award-winning violinist Ola Kvernberg, mirrors the Mahavishnu Orchestra, but the band’s often pummeling attack marks it as a different breed of fusion animal.
![Flash Gordon [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]](https://fastly-s3.allmusic.com/release/mr0001055433/front/400/dnR0IetZrGR3Z3zcVNC7aB_TZlp6n_cq-Emr2zx15tU=.jpg)
April 22, 2013
The only thing better than watching a rocket cycle-straddling Sam Jones (admit it, he was the best thing about Ted) lead an army of Hawkmen to rescue Dale and Dr. Zarkov from Ming's palace in 1980's sci-fi pulp-fest Flash Gordon, was listening to Brian May fire off volley after volley of squealing "guitarmonies" alongside them .
April 20, 2013
Inarguably the heaviest, detuned monster in this band’s catalogue, this album stands as a monolithic masterpiece of unholy dirge and in doom metal’s hall of infamy.
April 19, 2013
Full of slow and mid-tempo waltzes and shuffles, and framed by pedal steel guitars and twin fiddles, Honky Tonk is full of a beautiful, thoughtful, and almost Zen-like approach to life.
April 18, 2013
With an enveloping mix of suffocating black metal and expansive doom, Inter Arma deliver an album of atmospheric post-metal that tries to pull the listener in every direction. As crushing as it is captivating, it's nice to see a band step up to fill on the vacuum left behind after the dissolution of Isis.
April 17, 2013
Up there with GZA's Liquid Swords and Raekwon's Only Built for Cuban Linx, Ghostface Killah's debut is one of best of the Wu-Tang Clan's first round of solo albums. Along with his exciting, unhinged stream-of-consciousness style, the guest appearances are solid, and RZA's production is classic.
April 16, 2013
Accompanied by vibraphonist David Friedman, bassist Buster Williams and drummer Joe Chambers, Chet Baker delves into this ruminative 1982 Enja release. With one standard in the set, and showcasing a plaintive version of Horace Silver’s song, this is one of Baker’s more adventurous and atmospheric late career albums.
April 15, 2013
Their Generic album is the commonly accepted masterpiece, but when it comes to avant punkers Flipper, I'll take this comp. Reason one is the manic anthem "Ha Ha Ha", reason two is the title track, but more than anything, there's "Brainwash", where snotty and high art meet.
April 14, 2013
Like Miranda Lambert before her, Kacey Musgraves came up via the televised competition Nashville Star -- and they share a similar aesthetic, blending the present with the past. But Musgraves has her own style, one that's sweeter and not as defiant, even if she can certainly sound tough on this debut. You've certainly heard about this album elsewhere, but there's good reason for it -- it's one of the best albums of 2013.
April 13, 2013
On his 1969 solo album, Red Krayola's frontman puts folk, blues, garage rock and old-fashioned pop through his experimental prism, resulting in songs that are oddly friendly despite their twists and turns.
April 12, 2013
What could be more punk than the singer of Young Marble Giants and her friends taking a crack at sophisticated lounge pop in 1982? They showed you didn't need to be proper studio hacks to make slickly commercial sounds, and their version had a lot more life and fun in the grooves.
April 11, 2013
Never taking themselves, or their audience, too seriously was the only rule of Ashton, MD band No Trend. Not interested in playing cookie cutter punk rock, they utilized horns, cello, pedal steel guitar, and saxophones with lyrics that alternated between black humor and incomprehensibility.
April 10, 2013
With appearances by Eno, Wyatt, Wetton, Jobson, and Manzanera’s instrumental fusion band Quiet Sun, the Roxy Music guitarist’s first solo outing is nearly a who’s who of the mid-‘70s British art rock scene. And it hangs together as a cohesive album, not a random collection of star turns.
April 9, 2013
While The Next Day is undeniably great, Bowie began re-exploring some of his Berlin-era roots with great success on 2002's chilly Heathen, which found him reuniting with producer Tony Visconti and even guitarist Carlos Alomar. Gritty, melancholy and distinctly Bowie-esque, Heathen (and 2003's Reality), in the wake of The Next Day's success, deserve a second look.
April 8, 2013
This often bootlegged collection of demos for Neil's American Stars & Bars album never saw official release, but housed studio version of live favorites like "Pocahontas" and "Powderfinger" along with a host of other standout tracks recorded in a spare, contemplative style.
April 7, 2013
While still maintaining their focus on Americana melodies and themes, on this excellent set the band gets more exploratory and gritty, moving out toward psych and space. The end result is as haunting as it is lovely.
April 6, 2013
This is the way reissues should work in a perfect world -- not just presenting old material, but also arranging it in a striking new manner that leads us back to a great artist we thought we already knew.
April 5, 2013
Eric Kowalski's production project came along a little too early to be classified as chillwave, but not too many acts from the '90s or the 2010s do laid-back and dreamy electronic pop better than him.
April 4, 2013
Sallie Ford is a rare talent, with a voice that can belt, soothe, caress, and flat-out spit sass, attitude, and raw street emotion, and, for now at least, she's got the right band and seems headed in the right direction, not that Untamed Beast is a transitional album. It's a full-tilt arrival.
April 3, 2013
This volume presents all of the most from the 1962-63 sessions by Chico Hamilton's quartet/quintet with saxophonist Charles Lloyd, guitarist Gabor Szabo and bassist Albert Stinson. Overlooked at the time, its meld of lyric melody, Eastern modalism and swinging postbop sounds remarkably contemporary 50 years later.
April 2, 2013
Out of all the albums in Iron Maiden’s catalog, this is the most progressive, the most conceptual, and the craziest. Yes, the trilogy is essential (The Number of the Beast, Peace of Mind, and Powerslave), but this is the next step.
