Staff Picks for July 2020
July 31, 2020
Regionally admired but criminally ignored, this 40-minute love letter to The Replacements blisters with the same crackling energy that Westerberg and company perfected over the previous decade. Similarly boozy tales of heartache and bad choices are delivered with a dangerous edge, never knowing if they are going to land the trick.
July 30, 2020
The aesthetic and cultural merits of Eddie Gale's Ghetto Music cannot be overstated. That it is one of the most obscure recordings in Blue Note's catalog -- paid for out of label co-founder Francis Wolff's own pocket -- should tell us something. This is an apocryphal album, one that seamlessly blends the new jazz of the '60s with gospel, soul, and the blues.
July 29, 2020
Rather than a stereotypically gothy glorification of suffering, the songs on Pain is Beauty explore how destruction and struggle encourage growth and change. The electronic touches are the most obvious change, but even here Wolfe spans a range, from the subtle enhancements on "Feral Love" to more radical territory like the exquisite "Sick," which sounds like it begins in the heart of darkness with baroque, Wendy Carlos-esque synths and slowly makes its way toward the light.
July 28, 2020
As Dizzy Reece's first album for Blue Note, Blues in Trinity goes a long way to establish the trumpeter's signature sound. Reece doesn't take chances stylistically; he prefers to stay within the confines of hard bop. Nevertheless, he has a bold, forceful sound that simply burns with passion. Even on slower numbers, there's a fire to his playing that keeps Blues in Trinity from being predictable.
July 27, 2020
White Denim frontman James Petralli embraces a poppier vibe for this underrated foray into swirling psych rock. The instrumentation hums, chimes, and echoes while Petralli's sense of melody and knack for a pop hook guides the tunes, preventing the songs from becoming mired or lost.
July 26, 2020
Hindsight being 20/20, when Trisha Yearwood's eponymous debut was issued in 1991, it was obvious a star had been born. From the choice of players, to the snappy crisp production, to the songs written by the cream of the crop of Nashville's new generation, her very classy debut stands the test of time.
July 25, 2020
In 1969, Poppy Records held a showcase at Carnegie Hall. The diverse bill included a comedian, a psych rock band, and a young Texas singer/songwriter named Townes Van Zandt. For years, the tape of this show was lost as the little Poppy label was snapped up by larger companies. Well worth the rediscovery, this concert reveals the 25-year-old Van Zandt singing with a gentle voice -- before it got battered by his hard living. His youthful vocals serve to enhance the poetic lyricism in bittersweet love songs like "Like a Summer's Thursday" and "Second Lover's Song."
July 24, 2020
Body Count made great strides in the second half of the 2010s to get back in front of modern metal fans, and none too soon, as their righteous rage against racism and police brutality continues to be sadly relevant. With producer Will Putney bringing the band's sound into the 21st century, Bloodlust showed that Ice-T, Ernie C, and the rest of the gang could still bring the thunder, particularly on the pummeling "All Love Is Lost," featuring Max Cavalera.
July 23, 2020
This album is almost more infamous for its coke-fueled grandiosity (song length, volume, number of tracked guitars on any given song, etc) than for its listenability, but as a testament to the Gallagher brothers' unbridled belief in themselves it is an incredible document. The album begs to be listened to as loudly as the listener can stand it, and while each of the songs seem impossibly long, you kind of hope they go on forever. The fact that the lyric "I met my maker / I made him cry" is part of the introduction to the album gives a good indication of what to expect for the next hour and ten minutes.
July 22, 2020
Featuring the requiste number of weirdo freakouts and pedal to the metal riff-fests, Independent Worm Saloon checks all of the Butthole Surfers' boxes. Songs like the raging "Who Was In My Room Last Night?" and "Goofy's Concern" delivered the intensity sought after by the new crowds who showed up after "Jesus Built My Hotrod," but longtime fans still had plenty of strangeness to dig into on the album's back half.
July 21, 2020
Oddly nestled into the Beach Boys' catalog, this album definitely feels like a side project or a half-experiment, but the overall final product is studded with gems. The leadoff track "You Need a Mess of Help to Stand Alone" stomps with a gruff vocal and truly oddball instrumentation, while the gently swaying revival of "Hold on Dear Brother" sounds like it could have been recorded with The Band in Big Pink.
July 20, 2020
Though not as relentlessly funky as his classic Blue Note debut Two Headed Freap, On the Avenue remains the most accomplished record of Ronnie Foster's career, proving commercial aspirations and accoutrements can indeed co-exist alongside traditional jazz sensibilities. Produced by George Benson and featuring the great Phil Upchurch on guitar and Marvin Chapell on drums, On the Avenue favors more mellow, nuanced grooves over the blistering funk of previous Foster outings.
July 19, 2020
Expansive and funky, Charles Earland's 1973 album Leaving This Planet is still a minor revelation. Influenced by the growing fusion movement, the album found the Hammond B-3 specialist embracing a vibrant mix of synthesizer and electric piano sounds as he pushed his grooves to ever more stratospheric realms. A rewarding deep funk dive, the album is nicely represented by singer Rudy Copeland's impassioned performance on the globally-conscious, proto-Acid Jazz title-track.
July 18, 2020
Looking like a cross between the Black Panthers and the Zapatistas, Da Lench Mob fully embrace an urban revolutionary rhetoric consistent with their image. An unrepentantly political, often brilliant, always invigorating, sometimes infuriating scowl of an album -- executive produced by Ice Cube -- this is also so urgent that it feels as if you've just been punched in the gut.
July 17, 2020
Pine sticks to his guns -- frenetic melodies, engaging song structures, and a keen ability to keep his jazz cool and never lite. Those talents shine further when given the icing of exquisite samples, particularly when the rapid-fire cuts and sharp sense of humor show a respect for turntablism. And lest Pine's jazz fans be dismayed, tracks like "Invisible" seamlessly slip back into Pine's masterful (more traditional) jazz persona.
July 16, 2020
Continuing to move away from the gnarly grindcore of their 2003 debut, You Won't Get What You Want sees Providence, Rhode Island's Daughters unleashing an unholy torrent of no-wave, post-punk, and experimental noise rock that's as spellbinding as it is uncompromising.
July 15, 2020
Recorded at San Francisco’s War Memorial Opera House, this varied and unpredictable performance is a portrait of a multi-dimensional artist. With sweaty versions of such dancefloor favorites as "You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)," "Dance (Disco Heat)," and "Body Strong," he also shows how expressive a balladeer he could be on "Sharing Something Perfect Between Ourselves" and interpretations of Billie Holiday's "Lover Man" and Patti LaBelle's "You Are My Friend."
July 14, 2020
In late 1971, Sly Stone had sunk deep into drug abuse and his highly-charged idealism had come crashing down. The unlikely result was an album that was both a masterpiece and a denial of everything he had previously created. There's A Riot Goin' On trades the bright, broad sound of his previous hits for a claustrophobic, strangled tone where the empty spaces cry just as loudly as the music. Features "Family Affair," one of the most emotionally conflicted hit singles of its era.
July 13, 2020
The Spoils of War were a little-known avant-garde psychedelic group based in Illinois who barely released anything during their short run, but two sprawling collections of their material were issued by Shadoks Music around the turn of the millennium. This record is a carnival of twisted whimsy filled with surreal lyrics, fractured rhythms, and slice-and-dice tape manipulations. If you ever wished The United States of America made a second album, seek this out immediately.
July 12, 2020
Two decades after splitting up, the late Chester Bennington's first band decided to go ahead with their plans to reunite before his untimely passing. Re-recording with a team of friends from Helmet, Korn, Bush, P.O.D., and Breaking Benjamin, the post-grunge outfit revived old tracks while keeping Bennington's original vocals intact. A gift for grieving fans, it's a cathartic tearjerker of an album that offers a peek into the inimitable singer's early days.
July 11, 2020
Steeped in the lurching, groove-laden thrash attack of the band's late-'90s/early-2000s heyday, Ritual evokes the savagery of Max Cavalera's tenure with Sepultura, eschewing some of the more overt world music predilections that have come to define Soulfly over the years with something leaner and more pugilistic.
July 10, 2020
Fourth album from the original slacker pop band was a relative refinement from the ragged guitar pop that made up their earliest work. While on the whole the songs were a little slower and less snarky than the band's most celebrated work, they're no less energetic or melodic. Instead of hitting listeners over the head with hooks, these were among the most patient and understated tunes of Pavement's catalog.
July 9, 2020
Led by dual lead vocalists Oliver Hill and Eliza Bagg, this short-lived group released two albums of richly harmonic, cinematic art rock before going their separate ways, with Hill focusing on his psych-rock band Dustrider and Bagg offering up the solo project Lisel. This 2016 debut combined high drama, whimsy, and sadness in a way that's indebted to Sgt. Pepper but just as likely to recall film directors like Michel Gondry or David Lynch.
July 8, 2020
D'Arby let his ample talents run amok on his ambitious, sprawling, and sometimes baffling second album. Although flawed and challenging, it succeeds more often than not, reminding listeners what a curious musical powerhouse he is.
July 7, 2020
There's more to George Clinton's much-sampled body of work than a treasure trove of booty-shaking grooves. Funkadelic's 1971 triumph Maggot Brain is among the darkest and most compelling albums in his catalog. The long, agonizing cry of Eddie Hazel's guitar on the title cut is a superb distillation of early-'70s malaise, and if "Can You Get To That" and "Super Stupid" boast more groove, they speak eloquently of the tensions of a troubled time.
July 6, 2020
The sixth studio album by Japanese dub/dream pop group Fishmans consists of a single, dreamlike 35-minute composition which plays more like a symphony than a pop song, filled with cyclical melodies and loads of unusual sounds. Quite simply, there really isn't anything else that compares to this lush, enchanting piece of music. Over the years, Long Season has earned a reputation as a lost classic, and this is one case where the hype is totally justified.
July 5, 2020
After an uneven third album, this Swedish dance-rock crew returned with an electronic-kissed stunner that polished their raucous punk spirit with bright synths and booming beats heard on highlights like the pounding "Dance with the Devil," the pulsing "Better Off Dead," and the urgent title track. Energetic and addictive, they wouldn't match these heights for almost a decade, when they released 2020's return to form Things We Do For Love.
July 4, 2020
Daryl Hall's surprisingly progressive solo debut found him teamed up with an unlikely ally in King Crimson mastermind, Robert Fripp. That RCA didn't understand Sacred Songs' vision and delayed its release for three years is a testimony to its creative zeal over commercial appeal.
July 3, 2020
The singer's seventh album is a reminder that somewhere during her career, she softly transformed from an early publicized face of contemporary folk into a quiet stalwart of social commentary and atmosphere. More so than earlier records, it embraces some of her penchant for darkness, meanwhile maintaining a calm, mid-tempo gait that allows her messages to sink in like mellow fatigue on a late-summer Sunday evening.
July 2, 2020
Lacking a bit of the immediacy of their instant-classic debut, the Bad Brains' second album, 1983's Rock For Light, more than compensated with a tougher and clearer production (from Ric Ocasek) that documented the precision and ferocity of this great band in their prime. Did you need jazz-level chops to play hardcore punk? No, but the Bad Brains showed what could happen when that level of skill was applied to the faster-louder-shorted aesthetic.
July 1, 2020
This messy free jazz improvisation originally recorded as the live score to a film finds Albert Ayler's familiar players Gary Peacock and Sunny Murray joined by Don Cherry, Roswell Rudd and John Tchicai for a nonstop blast of energy and unstructured emotional processing through sound.