Staff Picks for January 2018
January 31, 2018
Crowbar will never get any credit for subtlety or diversity, yet they are one of heavy music's most obscure and delightful gems. Purity has its value, and New Orleans' all-time sludgiest exports have plenty of it on display within each of their recordings, and this eponymous second full-length from the group is no exception.
January 30, 2018
Singer/dancer/choreographer Paula Abdul hit the big time with the third single, "Straight Up," off this album, which sparked a string of hits that carried through to her follow-up. "Cold Hearted" is insistent and catchy, "Forever Your Girl" is sweet and accessible, and "Opposites Attract" gives Abdul a chance to spar with the Wild Pair.
January 29, 2018
In 1992, Warner Bros. figured that lightning could strike twice at a time when oodles of (mostly horribly bad) funk-metal acts were following in Faith No More and the Red Hot Chili Peppers' footsteps. They sent the former into the studio, where they went in, recorded, and released a bizarro masterpiece. Mike Patton's work in Mr. Bungle proved just how strange and inspired he could get given the opportunity, the musicians collectively still know their stuff, and the result is twisted entertainment at its finest.
January 28, 2018
Although Freddie McGregor began recording for Studio One in the '60s, first as a member of the Clarendonians and subsequently as a solo artist throughout the next decade, producer Coxsone Dodd didn't get around to giving the singer a full-length until 1980. McGregor's fabulous sense of melody, rich vocals, and emotive performances both enhanced the lushness of the original melodies and were enhanced by them, the perfect combination.
January 27, 2018
Already well established in the reggaetón underground, with roughly a decade of street-level experience under his belt, Daddy Yankee broke into the Latin mainstream big time with Barrio Fino. The first reggaetón album to reach number one on the Billboard Top Latin Albums chart, Barrio Fino covers all the bases over the course of 21 tracks, from all-star collaborations to English-language crossover to empowering political rap.
January 26, 2018
This installment in the great cellist's long series of crossover albums diverges from the others in its collaborative aspect: Morricone had as much to do with this album as did Ma and his creative team. Morricone and Ma met at the 2001 Academy Awards, where they hatched the idea for this album.
January 25, 2018
Ethnic Expressions is one of two recordings drum master Roy Brooks cut for the tiny Afrocentric New York imprint Im-Hotep. Recording at Small's Paradise in Harlem on the tenth anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy, this large collective of musicians created a positive, musically sophisticated, emotionally powerful performance that epitomized 1970s jazz as it incorporated the free, progressive, and spiritual jazz elements of the 1960s in a setting that also included soul and blues expression.
January 24, 2018
This remarkably obscure group from Wellington, New Zealand met as teens in the late '80s and worked on the band throughout the early '90s, producing a scattered discography over the next few years. Meshing the whispery, inward-looking pop of other New Zealand indie outfits of their day, like the Chills or the Bats with far more caustic, noisy freakouts, the band arrived at a unique sound that could be either delicate or demonic by turns.
January 23, 2018
In 1999, Stephen Vitiello was given a residency on the 91st floor of the World Trade Center. Gazing at the lights of New York City, he decided he wanted to translate sights into sound. To do so, he used a photocell to record the luminosity of various points around him and through the windows, while a computer assigned sound parameters to the collected data. This process could have generated arid music if applied to the letter, but Vitiello treated the "Light Readings" as sound sources, and sculpted them into beautiful sound art pieces.
January 22, 2018
Santos' songwriting (he wrote or co-wrote everything here), the production, and the inspired performances offer a portrait of modern pop bachata at its very best. Santos proved himself an up-and-comer on Vol. 1, but on Vol. 2 he not only delivers on the promise, but emerges as a fully formed innovator. His collaborations underscore his reputation as a pop star, but that's just a natural byproduct of his talent and artistry.
January 21, 2018
Like any disc produced by James Brown and featuring the mighty JB's as a backing group, It's My Thing is a stone-cold funky record. Marva Whitney sang in the James Brown Revue from 1967 to 1969, and in 1969 she released this record. A tough, aggressive female singer. Marva sounds like she could take any comers and leave them shaking in their go-go boots.
![The Blue Sky Boys [1976]](https://fastly-s3.allmusic.com/release/mr0000055575/front/400/MsOvECPGNmI05UImW19k8ipQg_7iAU1wjqLgK_xGXts=.jpg)
January 20, 2018
The Blue Sky Boys -- brothers Earl and Bill Bolick -- sprang out of the same era of brother duets that produced the Monroe Brothers, the Delmore Brothers, and the Louvin Brothers, but their sound was entirely their own. The 14 guitar-mandolin duets here are mostly mournful songs of unrequited love, murder, and loss, all sung in close, aching harmonies.
January 19, 2018
Taking the digital sheen from Telefon Tel Aviv, the hard-edged industrial beats from NIN, and the futuristic-throwback soundscapes of M83, the Black Queen sound like Depeche Mode spinning Pretty Hate Machine from the seediest back alley of the Blade Runner universe, like on standout jam "Secret Scream," which throbs with a carnal, digital hip-hop beat.
January 18, 2018
Progressive rock bands stumbled into the '80s, some with the crutch of commercial concessions under one arm, which makes the Moody Blues' elegant entrance via Long Distance Voyager all the more impressive. While they may steal a page or two from the Electric Light Orchestra's recent playbook, the Moodies are careful to play their game: dreamy, intelligent songs at once sophisticated and simple.
January 17, 2018
Magic Sam, a blazingly gifted blues guitarist, was booked to play a coffee house in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in June 1968, and a fan brought along a tape machine and recorded the show. Thankfully for us all, that fan held on to the tape, and it was released in 2013 as Live at the Avant Garde. The surprisingly good sounding recording captures the Chicago blues master in laid back but committed form, and decades later, his string bends are still a thing of beauty.
January 16, 2018
Colleen's A Flame My Love, A Frequency was one of the year's best albums, just as Captain of None was in 2015. Her Thrill Jockey debut is breezy yet powerful, percolating with a mysterious insistence reflected in each of its portraits of splendid isolation and independence. Equally wild and thoughtful, this is some of Colleen's boldest, most eclectic music.
January 15, 2018
One of the few non-compilation full-lengths released by legendary breakbeat hardcore/jungle label Suburban Base, D'Cruze's only proper album is a classic slice of mid-'90s jazzy, intelligent drum'n'bass. The downtempo tracks aren't the highlights, but the producer's knack for lush textures and choppy, rolling beats make the jungle tracks some of the best of their era. Originally issued in 1995, it was released in America a year later with new artwork, a new title (Cruzin'), and a revamped tracklist.
January 14, 2018
Still one of Low's finest albums, Things We Lost in the Fire warmed and expanded the band's melodies and arrangements just a little, but the impact was huge. Gentle epics like "Sunflower," "Like a Forest" and "In Metal" allowed the emotions bubbling under the surface of Low's earlier work to come to the fore with a newfound urgency and pointed the way forward for the band.
January 13, 2018
The death of Tommy Keene in November 2017 robbed us of a true unsung hero of American music. Playing superb, intelligent pop tunes with the muscle and guitar firepower of a true rock & roller, Keene was a cult hero whose work deserved a wider hearing by the mass audience. This two-disc collection is a superb introduction to his catalog, with liberal samplings from his major label and indie releases and more great hooks than most folks can dream up in a lifetime.
January 12, 2018
Avant-garde rockers tend to take themselves way too seriously, but fortunately, multi-instrumentalist Ralph Carney never had that problem. The Ohio-bred Carney (who died in 2017) spent a career coaxing the most joyously odd sounds out of a variety of reed and percussion instruments, and his first proper solo album was a giggly mix of strange rhythms and stranger noises.
January 11, 2018
Starting with a William S. Burroughs sample which provides the album's title, Storm the Studio is an explosive tour de force of noisy industrial dub hip-hop, and one of the harshest, angriest dance albums ever made. The album was recorded relatively quickly after the master tapes for MBM's intended debut album were destroyed in a fire, and the group sound absolutely livid. Nearly three decades later, the group are still innovating, with a new album titled Impossible Star about to drop.
January 10, 2018
One of five albums Baker recorded with the same hard-driving quintet (tenor-saxophonist George Coleman, pianist Kirk Lightsey, bassist Herman Wright and drummer Roy Brooks) for Prestige within a short period of time, these sessions let one know he could break through his "cool" image by playing heated bop when he wanted to.
January 9, 2018
Part alt-country, part noisy indie rock, and always the sound of a gifted and singular songwriter baring her soul, the debut album from the Geraldine Fibbers, 1995's Lost Somewhere Between the Earth and My Home, was the ideal vehicle for the wild talents of leader Carla Bozulich. Emotionally powerful but never melodramatic, Bozulich's forceful vocals are the perfect match for the band's inspired rumble of blues-shot country rock. Reissued on vinyl in 2017, and well worth rediscovering.
January 8, 2018
The significance of this debut was not lost on the many bands that followed in the wake of Sandy's success. A landmark recording that opened the floodgates for others seeking to bring Western swing back to prominence, Jumping from 6 to 6 marked the birth a new era in country & western music.
January 7, 2018
With a little Blondie, a touch of Chrissie Hynde, and a dash of the Ramones, this LA-based outfit fronted by Holly Beth Vincent recorded just one album before splitting in 1981. A punk and new wave blast, this is an underrated gem. Check out "I Wanna Go Home," "Just Young," and "Tell That Girl To Shut Up" before enjoying everything else.
January 6, 2018
In their early days, the Wailers collaborated frequently with wild genius and producer Lee "Scratch" Perry, working together on well over 100 tracks in a relatively small two-year period. In that time, Perry encouraged Peter Tosh to explore recording his own solo compositions. This set compiles songs from this highly fruitful and experimental late-'60s/early-'70s period and complements them with other Perry-produced reggae cuts from the same with deejays U-Roy and Big Youth..
January 5, 2018
Smart selections make this the best and handiest introduction to a group crucial to the development of industrial, post-punk, and dance music, from the confrontational screamer "Nag Nag Nag" to the more accessible and no less brilliant electro cut-up "Sensoria."
January 4, 2018
Not just for fans of his former band Aztec Camera but for those who appreciate classic, tuneful songwriting, a warm voice, pretty chords, and emotional candor, this fourth solo album from Frame delivers in all categories. Those who have been around, though, will catch the musical reference to 1983's "Oblivious" in album highlight "Postcard."
January 3, 2018
The U.K. folk singer/songwriter's excellent fourth LP rambles with a poetic grace and no shortage of standouts. Made during a breakout period of his acting career, Flynn has somehow managed to deliver some of his strongest songs to date.
January 2, 2018
The press materials describe Zomby's debut full-length as "the rave album that was never made in the early '90s," which seems a fairly apt way of getting the idea across -- though in fact, this batch of tracks would have sounded distinctly strange at any rave of the period.
January 1, 2018
Welcome Here Again is an album that glistens and shows just what an inventive duo Hayes and Cahill are, as well as highlight the inescapable fact that Hayes has become the leading fiddler of his generation, one who thinks about the music as much as he feels it. And Welcome Here Again might well be the finest Irish folk album in a long, long time.