Staff Picks for July 2023
July 31, 2023
Even though their sole appearance on the film's (excellent) soundtrack comes via Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice's interpolated "Barbie World," these purveyors of cheesy '90s Eurodance are in the midst of a minor resurgence thanks to Barbie-mania. Their breakthrough debut features that classic one-hit-wonder, as well as the raucous dancefloor jams "Doctor Jones" and "Lollipop (Candyman)." For fans of Ace of Base, Vengaboys, and Spice Girls.
July 30, 2023
A superb collection of Travis picking from the master himself. At times soothing and wistful, and at other times blisteringly fast and fiery, the guitar work on this series of instrumentals is a showcase of technique, restraint, and just plain showing off. Every track is terrific but the whip-cracking "Bugle Call Rag" and "Walkin' the Strings" stand out as highlights.
July 29, 2023
As Barbie fever grips the world, here's a dose of Kenergy from Ryan Gosling himself. This 2009 treasure features the talents of the former Musketeer, his co-conspirator Zach Shields, and the adorable Silverlake Conservatory of Music Children's Choir. Hearing kids singing songs like "My Body's A Zombie For You" and "Flowers Grow Out of My Grave" is a blast, but hearing Gosling's croon on highlights such as "Lose Your Soul" is an even nicer surprise.
July 28, 2023
Working effectively as a sequel to Welch's debut Revival, Hell Among the Yearlings continued her heartfelt rootbound songwriting. Backed on archtop guitar and harmony vocal by her partner David Rawlings, Welch croons her way through songs styled in a depression-era folk motif, lamenting through songs like "My Morphine" and "Miner's Refrain," only really rolling up the rugs for the rockabilly raveup "Honey Now." This album celebrates its 25th anniversary today.
July 27, 2023
Black Dog Productions' full-length debut is a sprawling deviation from techno-as-throwaway-dancefloor-fare, weaving surprisingly engaging melodic and harmonic passages around complex rhythmic patterns and diverse, somewhat ambient atmospherics. Although all of the material was previously released in 12" or EP form, it holds up surprisingly well as a unified, coherent whole. With B12's Electro-Soma and Autechre's Incunabula, one of the first and finest blasts in the European "intelligent techno" movement.
July 26, 2023
While this album wasn't ZZ Top's First Album (that would be the one titled "ZZ Top's First Album"), it was the one that gave them their first Top Ten hit with the muscular boogie-rocker "La Grange." Peppered with what would become fan favorites ("Jesus Just Left Chicago" and "Beer Drinkers and Hell Raisers" among them), Tres Hombres celebrates its 50th birthday today.
July 25, 2023
A contrasting companion album of sorts to the Zombies leader's exquisite solo debut, One Year, the follow-up tips the balance toward more traditional rock instrumentation over that's album's frequent chamber arrangements (the group Argent backs him on most tracks here). The quality of the songs and vocal performances are the through lines. The album produced two U.K. hits: "How Could We Dare to Be Wrong" and "I Don't Believe in Miracles."
July 24, 2023
Gorguts' third album is simply one of the most challenging, difficult albums ever released within the metal genre. In terms of its towering complexity and unprecedented strangeness, Obscura has a lot more in common with Captain Beefheart's avant-rock monstrosity Trout Mask Replica than it does the latest Cannibal Corpse release. Obscura's appeal may not ultimately reach far beyond an underground niche audience, but those with the patience and curiosity to tackle this record will be rewarded with a work of great depth and vision.
July 23, 2023
After the first pass at recording 1977's Stick To Me had to be scrapped due to a batch of bad tape, producer Nick Lowe was brought in to knock it out in just a week before Graham Parker & the Rumour headed out on tour. The unexpected benefit was it captured the hard-edged live sound of a great band at the peak of their strength, and it's an underrated gem in Parker's catalog.
July 22, 2023
Released by Blue Note in late 2000, the jazz trio's seventh album is a complex blend of Latin jazz, haunting soundscapes, hip-hop grooves, and John Medeski's trademark organ funk.
July 21, 2023
This album is as notable for Andy's performances as for Lloyd Barnes' sensational production and his studio band's phenomenal musicianship. "Spying Glass" was the stunner of the set. Its haunting melody sweeps out of the organ, while the propulsive rhythm courses across the grooves and Andy's vibrato-laced vocals buffet about overhead. The backing has a definite bounce, but Barnes' production plays up the song's haunted quality, which perfectly dovetails with Andy's claustrophobic lyrics. Years later, Massive Attack would version the song, with Andy himself providing the vocals, on their Protection album.
July 20, 2023
Released 25 years ago today, Mark Linkous' fever dream comedown Good Morning Spider has only grown in appreciation over the decades. Elements of alternative country, Britpop, jazz, and sound collage loop and echo darkly throughout the album, with spiderweb threads of light flickering below the surface.
July 19, 2023
Critically loathed during their time and forever misunderstood, Cardiacs have nevertheless endured as cult favorites and a key influence on legions of boundary-pushing alternative artists. Their first studio album is a delirious mashup of prog, post-punk, bursts of circus music and ska (among many other genres), and cryptic, wildly ecstatic lyrics.
July 18, 2023
If you're going to start your own record label, you better start with a really good album, and Wilco did just that with 2011's The Whole Love. The first release from Jeff Tweedy's dBPM imprint, The Whole Love blends the adventure of their post-Yankee Hotel Foxtrot work with some superb pop songwriting and the confident chops of a band working together brilliantly, and the result is one of the very best albums in their catalog.
![Somewhere in Time [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]](https://fastly-s3.allmusic.com/release/mr0000282469/front/400/CUx5AFHe3x2fwd8sC8QD6w4Q1ghY8VaPylnm7PwcKNY=.jpg)
July 17, 2023
Rife with a gauzy mid-summer sensuality, John Barry's score to 1980's Somewhere in Time is as indelible as the astral projection time travel romance itself. Anchored by pianist Chet Swiatkowski's lyrical reading of Rachmaniov's "Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini," not to mention the softly rendered flute and orchestra main theme, the album (much as the characters Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour play in the movie) veritably swoons, lapping at your heart like the waves against the Mackinac Island shoreline where the film was shot.
July 16, 2023
A new phase in Sonny Rollins' career began in 1957. He started what was at the time an almost blasphemous trend of recording for a number of different labels. His performances were also at a peak during 1957 as Down Beat magazine proclaimed him the Critics' Poll winner under the category of "New Star" of the tenor saxophone. This newfound freedom can be heard throughout the innovations on The Sound of Sonny. Not only are Rollins' fluid solos reaching newly obtained zeniths of melodic brilliance, but he has also begun experimenting with alterations in the personnel from tune to tune.
July 15, 2023
The wild shirtless lyrics of Mark Farner! The bong-rattling bass of Mel Schacher! The competent drumwork of Don Brewer! This Todd Rundgren-produced slab of vinyl came out 50 years ago today and unleashed the title track which remains classic rock radio staple five decades later.
July 14, 2023
Returning after a five-year studio hiatus, the esteemed sorcerer of pop surrealism delivers a more than worthy successor to his acclaimed 2017 self-titled effort. Chime-like telecasters abound, as do clever couplets concerning cheese, flora, fauna, and jam.
July 13, 2023
50th years ago today, Queen's debut album blasted through 1973 speakers with the anthemic opener "Keep Yourself Alive." Taking elements of prog structures, Zeppelin-esque guitar heroics and Freddie Mercury's now-legendary theatrical swagger, Queen established their sound from day one, although this album is among their most scattered and experimental, meandering through different modes until landing the ship with the epic outro "Seven Seas of Rhye."
July 12, 2023
Various Artists
Niney the Observer crafted an indelible hit with 1970's "Blood & Fire," a deep reggae groove enlivened with his impassioned vocals and a great chorus. Niney (aka Winston Holness) was also an estimable producer who worked with some of Jamaica's most vital artists of the 1970s (including Big Youth, U Roy, Gregory Isaacs, and the Heptones), and this great collection collects some of his finest moments in front of the microphone and behind the board.
July 11, 2023
Various Artists
One of dozens of top-tier pre-war blues compilations from Yazoo, this collection centralizes in Alabama, paying special attention to hyper obscure artists Clifford Gibson and Edward Thompson. Raw sound quality and beautifully roughed up performances are all part of this era's sound, and the regional particularities in the form of thick drawling vocals and backwoods lamentations tie the various artists together nicely.
July 10, 2023
Compiled from the Capitol archives, The Best of the Dinning Sisters wraps up the ten-year career of the most popular vocal act in Chicago during the '40s. Reminiscent of the other "sisters" groups (the Andrews Sisters, the Boswell Sisters), the Dinning Sisters had warm, bright harmonies that were just as smooth as their contemporaries.
July 9, 2023
As a crash course intro to Bjork's former band, this 1998 best-of is an ideal place to both start and finish, providing just enough of their quirky post-punk/alt-rock gems to sate curiosity and properly represent their three studio albums (released from 1988 to 1992). The dreamy "Birthday," jangly "Motor Crash," raucous "Vitamin," and global smash "Hit" are all here, nestled amongst some of the catchiest and weirdest output from the soon-to-be avant-pop icon.
July 8, 2023
Compiled by his son from a posthumously-discovered cache of demo tapes, this delightful album emphasizes the sharp emotional potency in Zevon's songwriting through stripped down early renderings of many of his classic tunes.
July 7, 2023
The Last Hard Men is a band comprised of Sebastian Bach, Kelley Deal, Jimmy Chamberlin, and Jimmy Flemion. Recorded in 1996-97 when none of the participants had anything better to do. This record is an odd mix-up of styles which sat around in major-label development hell for years. For a group originally formed for a one-off recording of "School's Out," you get an interesting mixture of sensibilities and an entire album's worth of material. You have some acoustic pop/rock tunes, some tracks resembling Breeders outtakes, and smattering of other things: alt-rock, samba, heavy metal, odd interviews with the various members conducted over what sounds like a walkie-talkie.
July 6, 2023
DJ Premier's first album-length production outside of Gang Starr was his best by far. Where Premier's productions hadn't shone underneath the cracking, over-earnest vocals of Guru, with a superior stylist like Jeru these tracks became brilliant musical investigations with odd hooks (often detuned bells, keys, or vibes), perfectly scratched upchoruses, and the grittiest, funkiest Brooklynese beats pounding away in the background. Of course, the star of the show was Jeru, a cocksure young rapper who brought the dozens from the streets to a metaphysical battleground where he did battle with all manner of foe.
July 5, 2023
Even if recorded on short notice upon word of an available time slot at a studio where a friend worked, the boygenius member's solo debut disclosed her skill as a songwriter with a knack for self-effacing lyrics and engaging melodies to complement her voice. Highlighted by the indie-cred breakthrough "I Don't Wanna Be Funny Anymore," it was snatched up by Matador and laid the groundwork for Billboard 200 appearances both as a soloist and with her later trio.
July 4, 2023
Some bands feel a need to reinvent themselves every once in a while, and for Sea Power, all it took was to lop the "British" off the first part of their name. Though the reason behind the change was a desire to separate themselves from a rising tide of toxic nationalism in Great Britain, the result seems to have also put a spring in their step.
July 3, 2023
Though part of the Digital Hardcore circle of artists generally associated with Atari Teenage Riot's over-the-top punk-n-bass, de Babalon's debut long player was a more textured and thoughtful effort, exploring a wide gradient of intense electronic sounds. Though there are plenty of blasted Amen breaks and angry jungle tracks, much of the album tends towards slow moving dark ambient akin to Aphex Twin's moments of sinister loveliness.
July 2, 2023
Sandy Denny's post-Fairport Convention project mined similar folk-rock territory while further establishing her as one of England's greatest singer/songwriters.
July 1, 2023
Released 50 years ago today, Steely Dan's sophomore album proved that the unique, brainy jazz-rock of their debut was no fluke. "Bodhisattva," "Show Biz Kids" and "My Old School" have endured to be classic rock radio staples, sitting alongside eccentricities like the truly jazzy "Your Gold Tooth" and the sun-kissed country-flavored "Pearl of the Quarter."