Staff Picks for January 2013
January 30, 2013
Stunning in its simplicity, NMH's sophomore album scales back the instrumentation and lets Jeff Mangum's heartfelt lyrics take center stage. With so much joy, sadness, and everything in between, this one makes for some essential '90s listening.
January 29, 2013
Every so often I get obsessed with a lesser Paul McCartney album and this month it's Press To Play, his synth-slickened 1986 LP. There are some forgettable cuts here but the reason I keep returning is "Press," a giddy, glorious pop single sequenced within an inch of its life and happily redolent of the '80s.
January 28, 2013
Collecting most of trumpeter Chet Baker's work with vibraphonist Wolfgang Lackerschmid, Why Shouldn't You Cry is an ambient, ruminative and gorgeous collection of original songs. Easily some of Baker's most experimental and adventurous recordings, the album is a perfect blend of Baker's melodiscm and Lackerschmid's impressionistic aural landscapes.
January 27, 2013
One 1991's classic alt/indie albums -- along with Nirvana's Nevermind and My Bloody Valentine's Loveless -- Teenage Fanclub's Bandwagonesque is the most tuneful of the bunch. The irresistible melodies and harmonies evoke the Beatles and Big Star, but the feedback-laden outbursts and vulnerability are all TFC.
January 26, 2013
Although the Chairmen's 1974 edition started with a hard-charging piece of aggressively smooth soul, most of the rest of the album is pure concept record, including a wondrous suite of Mellotron and flute-led psychedelia starting with "Morning Glory."
January 25, 2013
This 1985 debut from (then) Orange County punks Social Distortion offers up a blistering snapshot of the blue collar rockers before they traded in their Dead Kennedys records, dog collars and mascara for Johnny Cash, bowler hats and suspenders.
January 24, 2013
Jazz and Balkan flavors were combined with blues harp, funk, Afro-beat, and an appealing breeziness on this Naples, Italy-based band’s 2009 debut, Hubris. Slivovitz’s 2011 follow-up, Bani Ahead, whips those breezes into a full-on storm, with calmer moments emerging at just the right places.
January 23, 2013
It had been a decade since Big Maybelle's commercial peak, and her life, which included heroin addiction and diabetes, hadn't been easy when Jack Taylor brought her into the studio for his Harlem-based Rojac Records in 1966, delivering her into a creative autumnal period at the end of her career.
January 22, 2013
Listening to Kirk and his band alternately rip and groove through songs like "My Girl" and "What's Goin On" may give jazz purists a case of hives, but if you like your soul music played sideways, this is perfect. His version of "Make It With You" is perfect, by the way.
January 21, 2013
Featured on albums by then-husband Doug, Azar Lawrence, and Norman Connors, Carn was established when she made her solo debut on Philadelphia International. This 1976 set is among that year's finest releases. Heavy on lush ballads, it opens and closes with stellar disco soul.
January 20, 2013
Memorable melodies, clean harmonics, and fine playing, makes Carmel perhaps the most definitive of the pianist's/composer's solo recordings.
January 19, 2013
Recorded in 1994 for the U.K. label JSP, this reissue gives blues fans another chance to check out U.P. Wilson's guitar prowess on a combination of his own compositions including "Tell Me," usually associated with Stevie Ray Vaughan, and a few cover tunes.
January 18, 2013
A little crunchy, a little reverby, and a lot dreamy, Melody's Echo Chamber makes a splash with a gorgeous debut album. Oh, and Tame Impala's Kevin Parker is on it, so it has that going for it, too. Just listen to it and drift away, you won't regret it.
January 17, 2013
Various Artists
Allen Toussaint's birthday arrived this past week, providing another excuse to listen to the work of this New Orleans legend. He has plenty of great albums under his own name but this 2012 collection spotlights some of his best songs as recorded by other artists, showcasing his range as a composer.
January 16, 2013
Performing live with inadequate rehearsal time and a streamlined lineup was apparently just what these Italian avant-proggers needed; their fourth album is their edgiest and most animated outing yet. An absolute stunner, and one of the best avant-prog albums of 2012 or any other year.
January 15, 2013
Any one of a score of great compilations showcase the best of the hard-swinging French star Claude François, but as long as it has a good balance of covers (mostly Motown) and original hits, it'll be worth a listen.
January 14, 2013
Two years after releasing a country album, the singer returned with this moody art-rock masterpiece, concluded by one of the most acidic and vulgar scorned-lover kiss-offs recorded. A two-disc edition of the album is scheduled for this year (January 28 in the U.K.; February 5 in the U.S.).
January 13, 2013
On his first solo album, the former Magazine and Bad Seed bassist almost singlehandedly creates a gritty, sinister, "soundtrack without a film" from rock, beat jazz, electronics and wordless vocals (courtesy Diamanda Galas). A recording that influenced scads of "imaginary soundtrack" producers , it's among (if not the) very best.
January 11, 2013
Recorded during the singer's tenure with Capitol Records in the late '50s and early '60s, these 16 tracks appealed to both pop and country audiences and introduced such up and coming songwriters of the era as Don Gibson, Kris Kristofferson and Willie Nelson.
January 10, 2013
Propelled into infamy by the willfully idiotic "Love Missile F1-11", 1986's Flaunt It was new wave's answer to Malcolm McLaren's Sex Pistols. It also provided Ferris Bueller with the perfect soundtrack with which to break the fourth wall while getting dressed before his big day off.
January 9, 2013
Various Artists
This set collects some two-dozen Otis Blackwell songs done by artists ranging from Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley to Mahalia Jackson, Solomon Burke, Little Willie John, Gene Pitney, and more, and the wonderful R&B crackle of these versions simply underscores Blackwell's songwriting genius.
January 8, 2013
If you're looking for a long, dark, and cold soundtrack for December's long, dark, and cold nights this three-album collection should do the trick. Wide and chilly ambient music is the thing, so dress warm and bliss out.
January 7, 2013
Thievery Corporation dig through the Verve vaults and give a master class on how to make a laid-back, groovy jazz mix. Rarities and classics, Brazilians and cool cats, funky grooves and summertime lullabies, they get together swimmingly in the swankiest nightclub one could dare imagine.
January 6, 2013
Ben Chasney pulls out some of his finest guitar moves on an album of wide angle, sprawling, full electric rock band exploration. His wild guitar solos take place inside of tunes of seeming earthmoving force walking the seams between blues-rock jams and tripped-out psychedelia.
January 5, 2013
Icky Mettle and Vee Vee are usually seen as the definitive albums by one of the '90s most influential bands, but for my money it doesn't get any better than this EP's crushing opener, "Audiowhore."
January 4, 2013
What do you get when you cross the funky jazz grooves of The Brand New Heavies with some of the Golden Age's finest rappers? A cult classic. Guru, The Pharcyde, Masta Ace, Black Sheep, and several others take turns dropping killer rhymes over a live-sounding session that captures all the fun of a block party freestyle on wax.
January 3, 2013
Erik Jekabson's Anti-Mass is showcases the adept trumpeter's innovative mix of classical and jazz that he composed for his chamber ensemble the String-tet.
January 2, 2013
Malcolm Cecil, Robert Margouleff, and their Original New Timbral Orchestra broke ground in electronic music with their 1971 album; still relevant, it could be a Ghost Box release. A year later, the duo established an association with Stevie Wonder and, subsequently, several other forward-looking R&B and pop artists. ~ Andy Kellman
January 1, 2013
The band's debut album reaffirmed their misfit status in the Britpop-obsessed mid-'90s, but Tiger's chunky riffs and oddball lyrics are so left-field that they've barely aged a day.