Staff Picks for January 2014
January 31, 2014
In 1994, Teengenerate rejected these recordings, cut for what was supposed to be their first album, because they didn't sound raw and scuzzy enough. Twenty years later, the band had a change of heart, and with good reason; Get More Action captures the Japanese garage punk heroes in blazing form, tearing through their tunes with maximum sneering ferocity. If the production is cleaner than usual for this band, this music still sounds dirty in all the best ways.
January 30, 2014
In 1975, with British folk legend Martin Carthy now married into the band, the Watersons released what is considered by many to be their landmark album. The addition of Carthy's voice into the strange, unyielding vocal blend of England's premier a cappella folk family heralded a new creative era for the group.
January 29, 2014
The Pernice Brothers quietly made some of the best and most literate pop albums of the 2000s, and Goodbye, Killer was one of their best, an arch, breezy set full of sharp melodies, pithy lyrics, and atypically muscular vocals from bandleader Joe Pernice. A tossed off pocket masterpiece that does its work and walks away in a mere 32 minutes.
January 28, 2014
Nobody did '70s big band bombastojazzfunk like Maynard Ferguson. A longtime jazz trumpet star with chops to spare, Ferguson embraced everything that came with "me" decade schlock from leisure suits to electric fusion. His classic 1975 reworking of Herbie Hancock's "Chameleon" is funky, glitzy, over-the-top fun.
January 27, 2014
I've had a sudden swing toward British pop, spending a fair amount of time playing the Jam's "Going Underground" to myself on guitar. The rest of Snap! is, of course, of an equally high grade but it's still amazing to revisit this singles compilation and realize how much the trio accomplished in such little time. One of the great Greatest Hits albums.
January 26, 2014
Long before Skrillex and such started pummeling woofers with their dubstep drops, Scorn were rumbling trunks with what we used to call “ambient dub”, but this is no sonic wallpaper. It’s just too big and demanding, so settle in for a hypnotic experience that still retains some sonic element of old school Jamaican dub.
January 25, 2014
At the tail end of 2013 Beyoncé released one of the best albums of her career, and because she's just that cool, she didn't even bother telling anyone it was going to happen. Instead, the self-titled album – her most personal and mature album to date – simply sprang forth, fully formed and glorious, from the usual nothingness of the holiday release schedule. The only surprise was that anyone was able to keep the album a secret in the first place.
January 24, 2014
One of the essential releases from the vibrant late '70s/early '80s Jamaica, Queens scene, this features the number three R&B hit "Peanut Butter" but should be just as known for the irresistibly sweet title track and "Morning Sunrise." This was wizard drummer White's group, but keyboardist and singer Don Blackman -- one of Pharrell Williams' inspirations -- was showcased throughout.
January 23, 2014
Linda Thompson’s first album in six years is a strong, bittersweet dose of folky wisdom, and if her voice is less supple here than it was on her two earlier comeback sets (Fashionably Late and Versatile Heart, also excellent), her performances here are magnificent: brave, defiant, dour, and darkly witty, declarations of tough choices in hard times that sound ancient and up-to-date at the same time. Linda also partners with her former hubby Richard Thompson on “Love’s For Babies and Fools” and proves he wasn’t the only world-class songwriter in that relationship.
January 22, 2014
A prime example of the late Zbigniew Karkowski’s work, One and Many is noise at its best, shifting and crawling across the speakers and entrancing open-minded listeners with its otherworldly landscape. Spoiler alert: there is a jarring burst of sound towards the end that could rip through speakers or shock anyone in earshot.
January 21, 2014
Those who wanted a Rotary Connection album with greater emphasis on Minnie Riperton got it with the supernatural singer's debut solo album -- a chamber-soul masterpiece. This features some Charles Stepney's most imaginative work as a producer and arranger, several songs co-written by Riperton's husband Richard Rudolph, and phenomenal backing from Ramsey Lewis, Maurice White, and Phil Upchurch.
January 20, 2014
Various Artists
Shelby Singleton, the former head of Mercury Records and Smash Records, and firmly established as a record industry maverick, started Plantation Records in 1968, with the idea of making it a dedicated country label, but given Singleton's idiosyncratic nature, it ended up featuring plenty of pure novelty releases, too. This two-disc set tells the Plantation Records story, which amounts to a sort of goofy alternative universe to the one that was operating in Nashville at the time.
January 19, 2014
The music of pianist (and harmonium player) Melford is bluesy, earthy, lyrical, and spiritual, and she has found inspiration among artists from the Americas to Northern India, leading or collaborating in a wide variety of ensemble configurations. After nearly a quarter century of recordings, this 2013 outing is -- astonishingly -- her first solo piano album. Inspired by the late painter Don Reich, the album is pure Melford at her most beautifully expressive. It was worth the wait.
January 18, 2014
In a year that saw prolific garage revivalist Ty Segall release three albums, Twins found the Bay Area songwriter splitting the difference between the thunderous grime of Slaughterhouse and the more folk leaning Hair, which found him collaborating with White Fences. Finding unity between these two sounds is no small task, but it's one that Segall proves he's more than capable of undertaking.
January 17, 2014
Fronted by Detroit feral child and founding Gories member Danny Kroha, the debut from this trio is a non-stop parade of house-party ready garage rock tempered with undercurrents of almost sci-fi caliber paranoia and dread. An instant classic of primal, unhinged rock and roll magic.
January 16, 2014
This live date from Detroit's late great jazz club was never released during the guitarist's lifetime given how his star had waned. Too bad, because this is Green at his most intimate, raw and unhinged. Playing for a small urban audience, he and an all star band tear up a series of soul, jazz and funk tunes. He plays with a daring and desperation--he has nothing to prove to anyone but himself--- seldom displayed on his studio records. This is sweaty, raw, hard jamming and deep.
January 15, 2014
John Cipollina’s sharp-toned, quavery guitar with Quicksilver Messenger Service was a hallmark of late-‘60s San Francisco psychedelia, and the group’s 1968 eponymous debut is a fine place to hear him. Some listeners might give the nod to live follow-up Happy Trails, but on the debut his unmistakable style is displayed with concision even in the instrumentals – and there are some fine SF psychedelic pop songs, too. Meanwhile, Dino Valenti sat in jail, waiting to take the helm. The QMS sound would never be the same.
January 14, 2014
Recorded in 1956 when everything was perfect, Charlie and Ira Louvin's Tragic Songs of Life is a masterful collection of feel-bad ballads, deceptively bouncy odes to non-joy, and stoic, farewell (all ye dead loved ones) anthems that will make you yearn for the sad old days.
January 13, 2014
It's very strange that Hal Ketchum never became a country superstar. He possesses the looks, charm, voice and the song of a real artist. Ketchum is, as revealed here, first and foremost a songwriter of depth, passion and grit – a triple threat Nashville has fled from since the 1980s with few exceptions. This set of mostly originals and some choice covers is by turns poignant, honest, romantic, and humorous, is a fine place to discover a true artist.
January 12, 2014
With their third album, Australian proto-indie heroes the Go-Betweens added bassist Robert Vickers, expanding to a quartet and turning in an increasingly sophisticated set of melancholic jangle pop centered around lyrics often more bitter and poetically dour than a cursory listen would reveal.
January 11, 2014
The loudest album of 1968 is still capable of rattling your windows and re-arranging your mind, especially in its gloriously expanded and remastered deluxe edition. The stereo edition of White Light/White Heat sounds better than ever, the rare mono mix is even denser and more challenging, and the bonus live disc of the Velvets on stage in 1967 shows how much fun they could be while decisively rocking out. A superb reissue of the Velvet Underground’s most uncompromised work.
January 10, 2014
The Mighty Diamonds' most essential sides are here, including the genre classics "Right Time," "Have Mercy," "I Need a Roof," and "Pass the Kouchie," and track after track glides by full of sharp, crisp rhythms and those trademark velvet-smooth and laid-back harmonies, even as the songs serve witness to poverty and desperation with defiant ghetto pride, determination, and the sly certainty of redemption.
January 9, 2014
Clinic's fourth album takes a folky bent that makes it singular in their catalog, especially compared to the sleeker direction the band took on later efforts like Bubblegum and Free Reign. These rickety, creaky sounds could even be called steam-post-punk.
January 8, 2014
Loads of American shoegazers took the lead of their UK brethren; unlike those lank haired slackers, they managed to keep the sound alive for years and years. One of the better bands to take the pedal-driven, dream-headed sound and make it their own, more or less, were these kids from New Jersey. Their "career" didn't last too long, but they burned very brightly and left behind a couple of excellent albums and this lovely collection of singles and comp tracks.
January 7, 2014
Pot Head Pixies might’ve found little of interest in this second post-Daevid Allen “Gong” album, with the band now led by drummer Pierre Moerlen and fulfilling its Virgin Records contract before moving to Arista under the moniker Pierre Moerlen’s Gong. But if your interests run toward 1970s fusion more than loony space rock, it doesn’t get any better than this. A fine showcase for guitarist Alan Holdsworth’s inimitable fluid phrasing, drummer Moerlen’s crisp propulsion, and more tuned percussion than you can shake a mallet at.
January 6, 2014
With increasingly sophisticated and satirical songs incorporating endlessly eclectic music styles ranging from college pop to lounge jazz, They Might Be Giants' second album matured past the quirk of their debut and foreshadowed the early masterpiece that would be third disc Flood.
January 5, 2014
TP's departure from Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes resulted in one of the best solo debuts of 1977. With sharp songwriting from Gamble & Huff, as well as McFadden & Whitehead with Victor Carstarphen, the singer -- possessor of one of the richest, most powerful voices in R&B history -- reached the Top 20 of the Billboard 200.
January 4, 2014
On their second album, Fauns manage the difficult trick of updating shoegaze's formidable past without trying too hard to modernize it. Instead, Lights plays like a stylized confection celebrating dream pop's most lasting glories: wispy vocals; gorgeously distorted guitars; and ecstatic crescendos.
January 3, 2014
Recorded at 69 BPM, Gayngs delivered 2010's smoothest record with Relayted. Made by a Minneapolis collective of over 25 musicians, including Bon Iver's Justin Vernon and Doomtree's P.O.S., the album is a fitting homage to the soft rock of the '70s that skirts the line between tongue-in-cheek parody and earnest tribute to the likes of 10cc and Godley & Creme.
January 2, 2014
Bobby "Blue" Bland could simply sing, his voice a combination of Ray Charles and James Brown, always passionate, intense, dynamic, and full of the deepest soul anyone could imagine. This wonderful, generous and essential set (29 tracks on a single disc) includes all the tracks from 1961's Two Steps from the Blues album along with the best A and B sides of singles Bland released between 1955 and 1961. Rather than arrange things chronologically, Dave Henderson, who compiled things here, has sequenced the songs to really let the brilliance and genius of Bland to shine through.
![The Shawshank Redemption [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]](https://fastly-s3.allmusic.com/release/mr0000151260/front/400/yGvG3EPYEql-eGrXE9zNqA4Q1ghY8VaPylnm7PwcKNY=.jpg)
January 1, 2014
Peppered with a handful of period hits from the likes of Hank Williams and the Ink Spots, the soundtrack for the 1994 prison drama that was responsible for creating a world in which Morgan Freeman narrates everything, found composer Thomas Newman offering up his most tasteful, haunting, and evocative score to date.