Staff Picks for June 2019
June 30, 2019
Madonna is renowned for her sense of reinvention, but there's also pleasures to be taken when she sends a dispatch from her comfort zone. Her tenth album found her gleefully headed back to the discos of her early days, and delivering straightforward pop tunes enriched with ABBA samples and sheer exuberance.
June 29, 2019
On their underrated fifth album, the Leeds lads brushed off the dust from their experimental "make-your-own-album" effort to deliver a set that returned them to the raucous, singalong anthems that made them popular in the first place. From the soaring "Coming Home" to the maniacal "Misery Company," Education is pure urgency and earnesty. It's also their last true rocker before 2016's shiny pop makeover.
June 28, 2019
"I'd Be Better Off (In a Pine Box)" is a towering expression of self-pity that most singers could spend a career trying to top. If Stone never bested his performance on his debut, the country singer came close with ballads like "In a Different Light" and "My Hat's off to Him," becoming a genuine heartthrob in the process.
June 27, 2019
Duke Ellington originally wrote the 50-minute Black, Brown and Beige in 1943 for a Carnegie Hall concert, where critics dismissed it as overreaching for a jazz composer. Over the next 15 years, he periodically resurrected it for performances of excerpts or, as in the case of his 1958 Columbia album, transmuting it into what was essentially a new work.
June 26, 2019
A tight, aggressive collection of hardcore-tinged punk tunes, Satiate captures Avail at their prime. Thanks to a bare-bones production and subtle -- though not indulgent -- shifts from the standard four-chord punk anthems, tracks such as "March" and "Pinned Up" sound nearly as good as they do during the group's infamous live shows.
June 25, 2019
On the album's fifteen year anniversary, it's hard to believe that it came out so long ago. Still their best, this debut is packed with hits and there's nary a dud here. Aside from the singles, the rest of the songs still bleed with urgency and burst with color, a thrill that they haven't been able to recapture after all these years. Worth a revisit just to remember they're more than "Mr. Brightside."
June 24, 2019
Disincarnate's only album was ostensibly the much anticipated solo showcase for journeyman guitarist James Murphy, whose personal legend had been built, almost entirely, upon a series of brief but highly praised cameos with influential bands Obituary, Death, and Cancer. As much as his capabilities as a principal songwriter and bandleader, Dreams became a living document of instrumental overindulgence gone ape, having been released near the zenith of the Floridian death metal scene's technical-cerebral maturity.
June 23, 2019
For curiosity-seekers, this oddity finds the Village People reckoning with the death of disco and the departure of their frontman. In response, they embraced a New Romantic image, a new wave sound, and delivered barely-disguised entendres on "Big Mac" and became truly childish with "Food Fight."
June 22, 2019
No, white teenagers did not invent rock and roll. The Treniers were a brother act (led by twins Claude and Cliff Trenier) who were close to 30 when they began making rockin' mayhem in the recording studio with their fusion of jump blues and uptempo R&B. This collection of their Okeh Records sides (recorded between 1951 and 1955) enthusiastically encourages drinking, sex, dancing, and other risque behavior, and what more could you ask for?
June 21, 2019
Produced by Lee Perry sometime during the mid-'70s, this is a prime set of soulful reggae-pop sung by a librarian with a soothing, slightly haunting voice. The title track (a Millie Jackson cover) was her biggest hit, hitting the top five in the U.K., but the whole album is equally stunning, and essential for all fans of rocksteady and lovers rock.
June 20, 2019
Five years on and the electronic duo's purported "final" album holds up as a career highlight featuring some of their best material. In addition to the standout "Skulls" and a beefed-up version of "Monument" with Robyn, this farewell also includes a handful of Jamie Irrepressible features and a pair of standouts courtesy of Susanne Sundfor ("Save Me," "Running To The Sea"). You can currently find them in the process of releasing their Lost Tapes rarities.
![The End of the World [1963]](https://fastly-s3.allmusic.com/release/mr0002342156/front/400/b17wCr2y1xEiBm3SLcFdix_TZlp6n_cq-Emr2zx15tU=.jpg)
June 19, 2019
Whether heavy-hearted country-pop is still in style or back in style, this 1963 release, named for the iconic number two hit, has tear-stained pillows to spare. With production by Chet Atkins and Anita Kerr, songs by the likes of Kander & Ebb and Goffin & King, Davis' trademark double-tracked harmonies, and sentiments like "(I Want to Go) Where Nobody Knows Me," it offers catharsis far beyond its title track.
June 18, 2019
Something of a comedown album from the epic statement of Exile On Main Street, Goats Head Soup continues the murky, hazy energy of its predecessor. Recorded partially in Jamaica, songs either drift with a lazy melancholy or simmer with humid hedonistic energy. The album is short on hits (save heartbroken ballad "Angie") but has a thick vibe that carries both the sadness and the sleaze.
June 17, 2019
The first Sonic Youth album to appear after their mentees Nirvana made alternative rock a potentially profitable endeavor, 1992's Dirty found SY dialing back a bit on the relative polish of Daydream Nation and Goo and using grunge as their license to dig deeper into their love of expressive noise. But along with the gritty "Drunken Butterfly" and "Purr," they found room for the curious beauty of "Theresa's Sound World" and the political broadside of "Youth Against Fascism."
June 16, 2019
Released in 1984, following the apparent dissolution of Pink Floyd, this is an accessible, well-honed rock album. Backed by a crack band featuring drummer Jeff Porcaro, bassist Pino Paladino, and keyboardist Anne Dudley, the songs show a refined pop sensibility--especially in the hit "Blue Light," while Until We Sleep" is rippling with synthesizers and cavernous drums. In addition, Pete Townshend wrote the lovely "Love on the Air," and the propulsive "All Lovers Are Deranged."
June 15, 2019
During the fertile period that followed his involvement with Neu! and Harmonia, krautrock pioneer Michael Rother recorded a string of highly-regarded solo albums, the fourth of which, 1982's enchanting Fernwärme, alternated between meditative and darkly introspective.
June 14, 2019
While the altoist's future fascination with Ornette Coleman's free-form innovations can be sensed in some solos here, the majority of this set is classic hard bop. Like contemporaries Hank Mobley, Sonny Clark, and Lee Morgan, JM doesn't simply churn out pat jam-session fare but offers provocative charts and solos in a series of mid-to fast-tempo swingers and blues.
June 13, 2019
The Buzzcocks and the Undertones could probably fight a duel over who truly invented punk pop, but while the Buzzcocks inarguably got there first, the Undertones added a palpable joy and youthful freshness to their take on the fast/loud/short aesthetic that redefined the whole idea. The Undertones' 1979 debut album was at once a taste of something new and a reminder of the heady pleasures of teenage life that helped define early rock & roll.
June 12, 2019
The New Yorkers' 2004 debut is a gleaming composite of epic, unabashedly pretty '70s songwriting and fancy-pants disco hedonism, reflecting the decadent dance-pop afterglow of all that George Michael wrought. Flirty, satiny sexuality tingles in every lyrical inch of the album, as the group save their subtlety for the songcraft.
June 11, 2019
With a decade between releases, one may have missed this triumphant comeback from the German metal crew. Their best vision since Mutter and as satisfying as Reise, Reise, this taut set is filler-free and features two of the band's most epic tracks: the fraught anthem/criticism "Deutschland" and the sprawling synth-washed "Weit Weg." As always, the lyrics hold deeper meaning beneath the controversy surface and find Rammstein at the top of their artistic game.
June 10, 2019
This Arizona-based shoegaze (or "beautiful noise", as they would prefer) group basically sounded like a cross between Slowdive and Cranes, and they were absolutely wonderful. They never got around to producing a proper album, so this compilation will have to do. If you've worn out every record by the dozen or so shoegaze bands that everyone always talks about and want to hear something in the same vein that's just as good, seek this one out.
June 9, 2019
Featuring a mix of tear jerking ballads and smile inducing uptempo tracks, this 1965 album is Owens' Bakersfield honky tonk sound at the height of its freight-train rumbling powers.
June 8, 2019
Robyn Hitchcock is one of the few rockers who can sound as satisfying backed just with his acoustic guitar as he can with a full band. Filmmaker Jonathan Demme captured Hitchcock in his element in the movie Storefront Hitchcock, and the accompanying album is a superb document of his charming and sensuous tunes, engaging vocals, and hilariously surreal between song patter. And the opener "1974" is one of the finest songs in his catalog.
June 7, 2019
This career spanning collection rounds up the best tracks from the East Coast indie pop group. Their nimble blend of power pop hooks, C86 shamble, soft rock sweetness and sunny jangle pop combined with the vocalists' innocence and the music's bounce make this some of the best guitar pop of the late '90s.
June 6, 2019
An accomplished French guitarist and oud player known for combining a variety of Gypsy, Mediterranean, and European, and Asian cultures into his music, Thierry "Titi" Robin hit an early career highlight on his fourth album, Gitans, a colorful and richly-imagined set rife with interesting collaborations.
June 5, 2019
Seven years is a long time between records, so it shouldn't come as a surprise that Apple Venus is a significant step forward from Nonsuch. Split between orchestral and acoustic pop, Apple Venus is alternately lush and melancholy, sometimes within one song
June 4, 2019
It shouldn't be too much of a surprise that Dego and Marc Mac have pulled out a set of soul-funk-jazz obscurities that date primarily from the '70s. Something like this has been a long time coming, given their R Solution radio program and the debt their Creating Patterns owes to the same stylistic collisions of that particular era. The bulk of the songs are of the spacious, melodic variety, with ARPs and clavinets, and all other manner of keyboard-based instruments, swarming and burbling in and out.
June 3, 2019
The six tracks here delve deeply into the woozy style of glitch-dub that Vladislav Delay made an art of with his series of Chain Reaction releases. Yet unlike those productions, these have a steady rhythmic backbone rooted deeply in good old-fashioned house music, albeit heavily sedated house. The way Delay seams these long-winded tracks together with hazy interludes of dubby ambience makes Vocal City all the more remarkable and above all listenable.
June 2, 2019
After four strong albums built on angular guitar leads and sharp rock-minded songwriting, Reward turned inward. The Welsh songwriter/producer/singer explored alien funk basslines, expanded arrangements and themes of distant isolation for her best material yet, evoking the same playful-if-deranged spirit as Bowie's Berlin trilogy.
June 1, 2019
The one and only release from the German underground folk denizen, Colour Green, recorded in early 1970s in the the budding actress, seamstress, writer, mother, and singer/songwriter's attic, had been hidden from the world for decades before the tapes landed in the hands of Dinosaur Jr.'s J. Mascis.