Staff Picks for January 2021

Take a little Oingo Boingo, throw in a cupful of Devo, add a couple of spoonfuls of B-52's, and sift in some bizarre guest appearances from Hollywood actors (Bud Cort, Judge Reinhold), and the result should be something similar to Martini Ranch. Holy Cow was the sole album release from the duo of Andy Todd and the late actor Bill Paxton.
- William Cooper

An African-American rock band from Detroit, Black Merda played a taut, deep-focus fusion of hard rock, blues, soul, psychedelia, folk, and funk that was very much a product of the late 1960s while also feeling ahead of its time. Full of bitter political commentary and razor-sharp guitars, Black Merda powerfully anticipated Sly and the Family Stone's There's a Riot Goin' On and Funkadelic's Maggot Brain.
- Mark Deming

Recorded at Oakland's The Sound Room, After the Rain finds saxophonist Teodross Avery ruminating on John Coltrane's artistry in a single concert setting, backed by his quartet with pianist Adam Shulman, bassist Jeff Chambers, and drummer Darrell Green. As demonstrated by his propulsive take on "Afro Blue," Avery plays with an aggressive soulfulness that balances engaging harmonic choices, with a push-it-to-the-limits "burn out" approach. Both aspects are displayed nicely throughout the album, and bring to mind Coltrane's late-'60s period when free jazz concepts, social unrest, and the ongoing civil rights movement were pushing his creativity to new heights.
- Matt Collar

John Cale kept his more extreme impulses in check on his first three solo albums, but with 1974's Fear, he gave his most paranoid lyrical themes and more angular musical ideas free reign. The wired intensity of "Gun" and the title cut, the buzzy attack of "Barracuda," and the guitar-addled "Momamma Scuba" live up to the madness of his best Velvet Underground work, and even the calmer moments burn with eccentric commitment.
- Mark Deming

Maiden's innate ability to consistently cater to its fans' stubborn tastes, while maintaining a level of integrity that other veteran bands displace with unintentional Spinal Tap zeal, is a testament to their talent and experience. While the keyboard-heavy sound of their previous release, the excellent Brave New World, creeps into some of the more indulgent tracks, Dance of Death is a triumphant return to form for these heavy metal legends.
- James Monger

Recorded simultaneously with Nick Lowe's Labour of Lust, Repeat When Necessary continues the winning streak of Get It and Tracks on Wax 4 simply by sticking to the formula. Though Rockpile's sound is a little cleaner here than before, nothing's changed but the songs, which are uniformly excellent.
- Stephen Thomas Erlewine

The Bangles' first album, 1984's All Over the Place, predated their biggest hits, but their spirited blend of British Invasion-styled rock and West Coast pop was never as satisfying as it was here. It favors the talents of all four members with admirable balance, and "Hero Takes a Fall," "Going Down to Liverpool," and "Dover Beach" are smart, energetic pop brimming with energy and jangly hooks.
- Mark Deming

The 1967 debut from New York vocal group The Free Design yielded their only charting hit, but also ushered in a sound that was a little too ahead of its time to succeed commercially. Ornate chamber pop arrangements and complex vocal harmonies lifted both upbeat originals and covers of top 40 songs from the Beatles and Simon & Garfunkel to new heights, but the group wouldn't be fully appreciated until they were rediscovered by a new wave of listeners in the decades that followed.
- Fred Thomas

The Celtic powerhouse hit their stride on 1993's Irish Times, a diverse set showcasing not only their instrumental mastery of classic jigs and reels, but stretching out artistically, particularly on a pair of strong original songs by guitarist Gerry O'Beirne. Also notable is their fantastic rendering of Penguin Cafe Orchestra's "Music For a Found Harmonium."
- Timothy Monger

Dominique Purdy's second Stones Throw LP is a fascinating autobiography, vividly describing his upbringing in the Koreatown district of Los Angeles. The self-produced album is a dense, psychedelic epic loaded with surprise left turns, playful nostalgia, and supporting roles by an extensive cast of guests, with an ambitious scope and surreal sense of humor recalling masters like Prince Paul, Madlib, and the Pharcyde. The cover art plainly spells out the album's plot: Purdy was in two car accidents as a child, causing him to have frequent nosebleeds, and these early traumas shapes his perspective on life, as well as his spiritual awareness.
- Paul Simpson

The churning, swampy masses of atonal funk that comprised Miles Davis's 1972 album On The Corner initially appalled jazz purists and were largely overlooked by fans of rock and soul. Listening to the material that producer Teo Macero fashioned into the final album confirms just how adventurous and genre-spanning this music was; no one else was making music quite like this in 1972, and it's still challenging, deeply rewarding listening.
- Mark Deming

The venerable composer's 28th feature-length score for director Steven Spielberg is a whimsical one that serves a story about a giant who, at odds with his society, refuses to eat children. Leaping, flittering melodic phrases and orchestration that favors woodwinds, strings, and harp reflect a stronger French Romantic influence than is typical of Williams. Offering over an hour of original music that rarely sounds rote, it plays well separate from the film.
- Marcy Donelson

After three throbbing releases of sensual electronic jams, Goldfrapp dropped this gem of pastoral bliss. From the opening "Clowns" to the grand closer "Monster Love," it's the sound of your entire being basking in a field of long grass in the waning sun of an autumn afternoon. Gorgeous, uplifting, and the quietest output until 2014's Tales of Us, it'll soothe, relax, and comfort (especially "Cologne Cerrone Houdini").
- Neil Z. Yeung

Arguably their heaviest and most fantastical album, Queen II is an unjustly overlooked gem of the band's early catalog. Tighter than their debut and rippling with hard-driving metal thump, lush harmonies, and complex art-rock, standouts like "Ogre Battle" and "The March of the Black Queen" remain thrilling nearly a half decade later.
- Timothy Monger

Widening their vision of synth-pop to include the darker strains of R&B as well as a few vocals indebted to Roxy Music, 1981's Technodelic proved a high-quality album that showed Yellow Magic Orchestra had the talent and inspiration to grow beyond Kraftwerk-derived electronic pop heavy on the novelty but a bit light on bending genres.
- John Bush

Of the bands that came out of the UK Mod Revival of the late '70s/early '80s, the Chords have aged the best. Sounding more than a bit like the Jam, the Chords could easily match them for fire and passion, and Chris Pope's songs were less concerned with style than the turmoil of the larger world. Rechordings (1978-1981) collects nearly everything they recorded, and shows why they deserve to be remembered.
- Mark Deming

Taking a step further down the road they embarked upon with Avec Laudenum, Austin's most spaced-out duo have expanded the pure space and black hole vistas they previously offered to embrace small melodic fragments that seemingly endlessly repeat through minimally varying textures. The effect can either be soothing, hypnotic, or unsettling. Tired Sounds is for those who are looking for something unspeakably beautiful and determinedly unmentionable in its vast and luxuriant erasure from any musical category.
- Thom Jurek

The Complete Columbia Albums Collection combines all five of jazz trumpeter Woody Shaw's albums on Columbia, including 1977's Rosewood, 1978's Stepping Stones: Live at the Village Vanguard, 1978's Woody III, 1980's For Sure!, and 1981's United. Also featured is a sixth disc of never before released bonus tracks from the live Stepping Stones sessions. These albums represent the height of Shaw's creative output of the late '70s and early '80s, during a time in which he combined modal jazz, post-bop, fusion, and avant-garde improvisation into his own uniquely propulsive, melodic, and harmonically advanced style.
- Matt Collar

Containing no fewer than 14 songs that reached the Billboard Hot 100, this 20-track collection is sequenced with care in chronological order by recording date rather than release date. The approach offers a good sense of the duo's development from the harmony-filled soft rock sound of their first three Paul McCartney-penned songs to more elaborate productions such as "True Love Ways" (on which Gordon Waller takes the lead) and the novelty songs "Lady Godiva" and "Knight in Rusty Armour" that gave them their last big hits.
- William Ruhlmann

One of the most innovative comic talents of his time, Ernie Kovacs's true medium was television, but he could be hilarious without visuals when he put his mind to it. Originally released in 1976, this album collects bits from his '50s TV broadcasts that are gloriously surreal and generate blissful laughter decades after Kovacs left this planet. Percy Dovetonsils, we hardly knew ye.
- Mark Deming

The second album from the kosmische supergroup of Neu's Michael Rother and both members of Cluster took a turn towards more pristine pop than the washy cosmic drifting of their debut. The trio introduced Eno-esque vocals to some songs and Guru Guru drummer Mani Neumeier adds organic rhythms to several tracks. The song structures are more exacting than much of the trio's output in other formations, but it's an indispensable chapter of the krautrock saga all the same.
- Fred Thomas

After gaining notoriety on Specialty Records and a variety of small Texas and Louisiana labels, Clifton Chenier brought his blues-fueled brand of Black Cajun music to Arhoolie. This early masterpiece contains Chenier's meld of traditional, two-step, waltzes and swamp blues, to provide an excellent showcase of his band’s live repertoire. That said, his zydeco-blues originals, including "Hard to Love Someone," "Who Can Your Good Man Be" and "I Am Coming Home," are set standouts as a showcase for his impassioned singing and virtuoso accordion playing.
- Thom Jurek

S.O.S. -- baritone/soprano saxophonist John Surman, alto saxophonist Mike Osborne, and soprano/tenor saxophonist Alan Skidmore – issued only one eponymously-titled album for Ogun in 1975, although its members were all major contributors to various 60s and '70s British jazz projects. The 1975 album revealed Surman's multi-layered keyboards and synthesizer and Skidmore's drums to be effective complements to the threesome's saxes. Cuneiform’s two disc retrospective adds live and demo material to showcase a band easily straddling the line between free jazz explorations and prog’s knottier electric innovations.
- Dave Lynch

Following her 2005 breakthrough, the Scottish singer/songwriter expanded on the more dramatic and mature moments from her debut, delivering a richer experience on her sophomore set. With her formidable guitar and deceptively immersive storytelling, Tunstall both invigorates ("Hold On," "If Only") and comforts ("White Bird," "Someday Soon," and "Paper Aeroplane") just as easily as Coldplay or Katie Melua. "Beauty of Uncertainty" is a stunning highlight. The 30-song Ultimate Edition arrives in January.
- Neil Z. Yeung

Operation: Doomsday and Madvillainy might be more iconic, but MF Doom's only album as King Geedorah will always be my favorite thing he's ever produced. One of his most cinematic records, he plays director and casts several lesser-known but highly skilled emcees to do most of the rhyming, while the beats are filled with samples from vintage sci-fi and monster movies. The highlights are downright dramatic and emotional, from the weepy strings of "Krazy World" and "I Wonder" to the tempo-shifting mayhem of the unbelievable "No Snakes Alive."
- Paul Simpson

The full-length debut from the soulful Alabama singer/songwriter has the faded patina of a pull-tab beer can or a museum-bound ship's manifest. It's unapologetically rooted in the past, but James is just idiosyncratic enough to avoid pastiche, as he skillfully amalgamates Southern blues, country, folk, pop, and jazz into something that evokes Jason Isbell by way of Lee Hazlewood or Tim Buckley.
- James Monger

Released without prior fanfare during the waning days of a long, violent summer, Long Violent History is an understated protest album from Tyler Childers, one that attempts to place the political protests of 2020 within a broader context. It's the rare protest album that doesn't need words to shout, and it's all the more powerful because of it.
- Stephen Thomas Erlewine

They started as a martial industrial band but the Sheffield, England duo In the Nursery evolved into something much more heady and elegant. Their 1990 effort L'Esprit is a lush example of their soundtrack-like work, perfect for rainy days that require something stately and somewhat Goth.
- David Jeffries

Though unintended, this is a four-movement solo guitar suite cut in a French studio; it reveals the iconoclastic musician at his most vulnerable. No matter how lean his earlier recordings were, they always bore the signature trace of his physicality. His playing here is sheer, translucent, almost spectral. His phrases are so full of longing, they shift mid syntax to explore new emotional depths.
- Thom Jurek

Pedals fulfills the immense promise of the group's previous recordings, largely dispensing of the derivative synth-pop detours which hampered the preceding Plano to concentrate instead on the lush, darkly romantic, orchestral arrangements distinguishing the band's finest work.
- Jason Ankeny

Pairing Gonzalez' slick bebop tales of late '50s Manhattan life as a hipster (in the true sense of the word) with some cool backing from a top notch combo featuring Roy Haynes and the groundbreaking, and sadly unknown, arranger Melba Liston , this album is a fun slice of nostalgia for a time that was probably only imaginary even as it was happening.
- Tim Sendra