Staff Picks for December 2019
December 31, 2019
A miner from Virginia who played banjo and sang in his spare time, Dock Boggs released six 78s in the late 1920s before the Depression upended the market for hillbilly music. Nearly a century later, Boggs' music sounds like a foreboding message from another time and place, filled with rage, regret, and bad vibes of all sorts. This is Appalachian folk music at its darkest and most engrossing.
December 30, 2019
It's a neat trick that Air began their career with a trip to the moon via Moon Safari and returned to it with this expanded version of their score to Georges Méliès' 1912 sci-fi classic. While the duo doesn't attempt to make this music sound like it was recorded on wax cylinder, many of the cues have a stateliness that suggest a much earlier era as they nod to the traditions of sci-fi scores.
December 29, 2019
Following an album of sleepy covers and her 1998 breakthrough Moon Pix, Chan Marshall amplifed the more idiosyncratic elements of her songwriting on this dynamic and emotionally charged album. More charged in its subtleties than her noisy early material and more nakedly sad than her already crushing back catalog, You Are Free finds Marshall at her creative peak.
December 28, 2019
On her third album for Maverick, the idiosyncratic singer/songwriter added catchy pop elements to her tried-and-true formula of quirky lyrics delivered with angsty attitude. Hope and failure take turns on this carousel, but unlike Jagged Little Pill, Morissette matured and dialed back the rage, offering a more adult take on relationship highs and lows. Highlights include "Hands Clean," "Flinch," "Precious Illusions," and the gorgeous "Utopia."
December 27, 2019
The band’s first album to appear after becoming TV stars on Where The Action Is, which resulted, subsequently, in their transition to AM radio staples and teenage magazine heartthrobs-- especially singer Mark Lindsay. Produced by Terry Melcher who steered a stylistic between the Rolling Stones and the Animals.with a tough R&B edge on the covers "Night Train," "Doggone," and, by way of England, "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" and "I'm Crying." It reached the Top Ten album and achieve gold status.
December 26, 2019
Surprise release from the ever-mysterious electro-pop masters completely bypassed their long-fabled "Dear Tommy" album, but offered up more of the band's dark and seething sound, with haunted takes on Jesus and Mary Chain and Simon and Garfunkel covers as well as more Europop leaning originals.
December 25, 2019
Featuring the talents of bassist Jonathan Bremer and keyboardist/tape delay artist Morten McCoy, Utopia showcases the duo's expansive, often hypnotic jazz-, dub-, and classical-influenced sound. Aesthetically, their intimate sound falls somewhere in between Keith Jarrett, Paul Winter, and Mike Oldfield without ever borrowing too heavily from any one source. Together, they create a soft tonal palette that relaxes you as much as it draws you deeper into its harmonic colorscape. They also add strings on several cuts here, which further lends a rich, vinyl-era texture to their sound.
December 24, 2019
A sixteen disc box set that serves as the secret history of Newbridge, New Jersey, The Best of the Best Show skims the cream from thirteen years worth of telephone conversations between comedy writer/radio host Tom Scharpling and a dizzying variety of lunatics voiced by drummer/comic Jon Wurster. This ranks with the funniest, smartest, and most original comedy of its time, and it remarkably never wears out its welcome.
December 23, 2019
An unabashedly cheery set of songs built on well-groomed beats, neon melodies and pastel synth tones, Happiness is also one of Kid 606's most consistent albums.
December 22, 2019
The duo's only album is a shining example of what makes indie pop so great: beautiful melodies sweetly sung and tenderly played with bubbling organs, chiming guitars, and majestic horns filling up the arrangements with warmth. It's about as twee as a broken heart and lasts even longer.
December 21, 2019
On the heels of their ambitious Everyday Life, issued in November, it's worthwhile to revisit this 2008 opus, which found them abandoning their self-imposed (though highly successful) early formula in a major way. Beyond the ubiquitous title track, a bevy of treasures lie nestled within the Brian Eno-helmed set, including the urgent "Cemeteries of London," the pure joys of the poppy "Strawberry Swing," and the glorious spiritual uplift of "Death and All His Friends."
![Out of Sight [Music from the Motion Picture]](https://fastly-s3.allmusic.com/release/mr0000152940/front/400/Ekp4PNKHYKlNazPjWB5Fcz6KsMttLlyBmmVTZ6_CLs0=.jpg)
December 20, 2019
Released during the height of Tarantino Soundtrack Madness™ this soundtrack to Soderbergh's 1998 heist movie employs David Holmes as both composer and curator, mixing Holmes' jazzy funk-inspired instrumentals with inspired tracks from multiple genres. The flow whipsaws from cooled-out organ to a brassy Dean Martin track which gets cut off before the ending only to glide into another atmospheric instrumental. Amazingly, this mish-mash of samples and songs holds together as a whole engrossing listen.
December 19, 2019
Genghis Tron's 2009 collaboration with Converge, the towering track "Wretched World," has gradually become one of the most-played Converge tracks on Spotify. Neophytes will find that the band is now dormant, but left behind the dense and chaotic Board Up the House, which warrants careful exploration, and displays why a band as creative and visceral as Converge was interested in working with them in the first place.
December 18, 2019
Signer's first album for Carpark was like a warmer variation on the Chain Reaction school of ambient dub techno, drifting slightly into Morr Music-style indie electronic. Subdued and shadowy but also highly accessible, this one is a sleepy-but-awake hidden gem.
December 17, 2019
Any album that opens with "Any Way You Want It" already has a leg up over most of the competition around it, but it gets better, blooming into an amazingly diverse yet consistently powerful record made up entirely of group originals. These mostly take us into the band's own, uniquely energetic renditions of Merseybeat-style harmonies ("To Me," "I'm Left With You," the soaring "Everybody Knows (I Still Love You)"), along with some first-rate rock & roll in the form of "Say You Want Me," "Don't You Know," and "It's Not True."
December 16, 2019
Released in 1987, it would be hard to find a more eccentric debut than that of Ithaca, New York's the Horse Flies. A noirish mix of old-time fiddle and banjo music with frenetic percussion, synths, heaps of delay, and a curious mix of Lovecraftian darkness and weary alt-folk warmth, Human Fly was named for the Cramps song which the band eerily deconstructs as its opening salvo. That a band this unique subsequently earned a contract with MCA Records remains a wonderful mystery.
December 15, 2019
This Belgian post-punk act's best efforts are smart examples of nervous, melancholic electronic/rock fusions. Plenty of comparison points can easily be drawn thanks to the keening vocals and bass/drum-heavy arrangements -- Wire just before their first breakup, 17 Seconds-era Cure, the earliest work of the Passions, Modern English, and Cocteau Twins, and Siouxsie and the Banshees.
December 14, 2019
In the blink of an eye, this album turned fifteen years old. The No Doubt vocalist's solo debut made a splash upon release, cementing her second life as a pop icon for the 21st century with gleefully weird singles and a crew of superstar producers contributing to the melee. No moment is wasted here and, beyond the well-known singles, the Japan-obsessed jaunt "Harajuku Girls" and the sugar-sweet new wave "The Real Thing" are worth attention.
December 13, 2019
Despite the fact that this is technically 21st century music, the authenticity of Bradford Lee Folk's high lonesome voice feels like it is being broadcast from 100 years earlier. Their interpretations of songs by Hank Williams, Mac Martin and Doug & Rusty Kershaw sit comfortably alongside the band's originals, alternating between mournful ballads and fiddle-driven stompers.
December 12, 2019
The first solo album by the guitarist in 18 years is a fantastic concept album full of 15 that celebrates the disappeared Mexican-American Los Angeles neighborhood bulldozed in backroom deal and resulted in Dodgers Stadium. He portrays the flavor, times, culture, chaos, and corruption of post-war LA, and its many characters and myths, that slip in and out of a steamy, dreamy, mix of corridos, Latin swing, guarachas, polkas, jump boogie, and R&B tunes.
December 11, 2019
After a relatively short stint with the Waterboys, songwriter Karl Wallinger's solo outlet found it's most multi-color and Beatlesesque moods on 1990 sophomore album Goodbye Jumbo. In addition to bittersweet maximal '60s pop on wistful singles like "Way Down Now" and "Put The Message In The Box," the album also touched on woozy saloon waltzes and and orchestral pop miniatures.
December 10, 2019
One of new wave's great lost albums, True Love Stories shows there's much more to Jilted John's music than his cult classic eponymous single. While "Jilted John" is a singular slice of sneering, self-deprecating genius, the rest of the album is still startlingly original in how it recycles pre-Beatles pop conventions with a punky defiance and a distinctly bent British humor.
December 9, 2019
A notorious critical and commercial disappointment upon its release in 1984, the Dream Syndicate's second album, Medicine Show, has stood the test of time better than many would have expected. A radical creative detour from their instant classic The Days of Wine and Roses, these songs found Steve Wynn maturing as a songwriter and creating a dark, brooding ambiance that would blaze a trail for his future work.
December 8, 2019
A loosely constructed song cycle concerning post-World War II Los Angeles, Mr. Hollywood, Jr. 1947 sees Michael Penn forgo the traditional narrative and stick to what he does best; writing biting and beautiful songs about relationships that are failing, have failed, or are suspiciously working. He lets the year's historical events wrap his characters in the kind of sepia-tone strokes of nostalgic Hollywood gossamer that would make both Frank Capra and Tom Waits proud.
December 7, 2019
An effusively performed minor classic of Brazilian jazz fusion, percussionist Airto Moreira's 1988 album Samba de Flora found him diving into an organic mix of originals and covers alongside equally gifted collaborators including his wife vocalist Flora Purim, Argentine pianist Jorge Dalto, bassist Alphonso Johnson, percussionist Don Alias, Cuban conga player Cachete, and others. The album was originally released on the cult independent Montuno Records label, based out of the Record Mart record store located in the Times Square subway station.
December 6, 2019
This classic solo debut aptly captures the feeling of a loner retreating from the noisy tension of life with others and finding solace in musical solitude. It was, in fact, recorded alone on a four-track in a basement, and there's a restless unhappiness in his fragmented stories of alienated urbanites. After that description, a reference to the definitive folk loner, Nick Drake, is inevitable -- Smith's whispery vocals, haunting melodies, and able fingerpicking deserve the comparison.
December 5, 2019
One of early rock's great talents, Eddie Cochran managed quite a bit of work before his untimely death in 1960 at the age of 21. From his start with the Cochran Brothers to major solo hits like "Summertime Blues" and "C'mon Everybody," he epitomized 1950s rock and roll teen rebellion while flashing serious multi-instrumental chops as heard on this excellent 1998 compilation from Razor & Tie.
December 4, 2019
This one-off album featuring members of Spoon, New Bomb Turks, and Wolf Parade is far too natural-sounding to be the work of a supergroup. While A Thing Called Divine Fits might be a shade less eclectic than Britt Daniel, Dan Boeckner, and Sam Brown's other projects, it's hard to find fault when the results are this consistently catchy.
December 3, 2019
The only thing worth listening to on this album is "October 27", a piano-driven drum'n'bass fantasia which is kinda spiffy. Otherwise, this is exactly the type of dated '90s electronica which was handily wiped out by the Y2K bug. See also: Headrillaz, Arkarna, Hardknox, and any other big beat also-ran who managed to hit CMJ's RPM chart circa 1997.
December 2, 2019
Decades before inspired crackpots with home recording setups became fashionable, truck driver turned tunesmith Jimmy Drake was cutting oddball novelty songs in his garage. Remarkably, one of them, the joyously tasteless "Transfusion," became a Top Ten hit in 1956 when it was released under the name Nervous Norvus. Stone Age Woo collects 33 songs from Drake's archives, and his one-of-a-kind inspired eccentricity remains charming and quite funny more than 60 years on.
December 1, 2019
A classic Impulse! recording of the period by an overlooked master, this is the image-in-the-mirror companion to Archie Shepp's Four for Trane recorded the year before. What is immediately striking is how similar in tone, color, and texture Brown and Shepp were when it came to composition.