Staff Picks for June 2021
June 30, 2021
Produced by the Dirty Projectors' Dave Longstreth, Bombino's 2016 release was recorded in a converted barn in Woodstock, New York, and delivers the full range of Bombino's gifts as composer, singer, and guitarist. The only Longstreth signature is the bright, canny mix, while Bombino's double-tracked guitar is framed by a crack rhythm section. It embraces and intertwines the history of various traditions, from West African folk to blues and rock to reggae -- and expands the reach of them all.
June 29, 2021
To Thomas Dolby's credit, the rest of The Golden Age of Wireless isn't simply "She Blinded Me With Science" over and over again, making the album an intriguing and often very entertaining curio from the glory days of synth pop. The overall result is still first and foremost Dolby's, with echoes of David Bowie's and Bryan Ferry's elegantly wasted late-'70s personas setting the stage. If anything, it's the friendlier, peppier flip side of fellow Bowie obsessive Gary Numan's work, where the melancholy is gentle instead of harrowing.
June 28, 2021
Like many bands from the early days of West Coast punk, San Francisco's Avengers never got the chance to cut an album during their 1977-79 lifetime, but they recorded enough material to fill an album, and this posthumous collection reveals why they were so highly regarded among their peers. This is smart, passionate, fearless music, and in Penelope Houston they had a superb frontwoman powered by a bottomless reserve of pure belief.
June 27, 2021
CFCF's brilliant 2019 release Liquid Colours channels the brief moment around the turn of the millennium when electronic dance music, particularly drum'n'bass, regularly soundtracked commercials and movie trailers. This is the type of lush, atmospheric jungle you're more likely to hear at a spa in Hollywood than on a London pirate radio station. Mike Silver points to a bygone future which never really arrived and makes it seem like it's still on the horizon.
June 26, 2021
Hindsight does a lot of good for this album. Ushering in a lackluster decade for the superstar, this underappreciated 12th set got lost in the techno-dubstep mire of the early 2010s pop landscape. However, compared to what followed, listening in 2021 offers a nostalgic hit both for that period's sound and a time when Madonna was still having fun. It's not perfect, but it's a high-energy jolt of danceable energy and catchy earworms.
June 25, 2021
Beginning with an epic version of his classic 1960 composition "Naima," Coltrane and his group perform with a sustained intensity and creative focus that would soon become a major element of Coltrane lore after his passing. Yet, here they are: the sheets of arpeggiated sound gushing from his saxophone in a burnished oaken moan, the frenetic squelch of Sanders and Coltrane's dual opening to "Leo," and the subsequent mid-track "vocalizations" -- long debated in almost mythological terms by fans who saw Coltrane live -- captured here in all their unnerving, otherworldly glory.
June 24, 2021
With singer/songwriter Jeff Taylor returning with music under his own name in 2021, it's fine time to (re)discover this album, released under his band moniker. It features top-notch sidemen, some of whose stars have risen since its release, including drummer Mark Giuliana (David Bowie's Blackstar) and bassist Cole Whittle (DNCE). Elizabeth Ziman joins him on the heartbreaking duet "Howl You," a standout on a mercurial set that includes outraged blues-rock ("Bastard"), Les Claypool-esque funk-rock ("Repeat We Are"), clap-along pop ("It Swell"), and cynical electro-rock ('Heart Hard"). All the song titles make perfect sense within the syntax of the lyrics.
![The Bob's Burgers Music Album [Original Television Soundtrack]](https://fastly-s3.allmusic.com/release/mr0004620862/front/400/sirilKkZ2gpjTUSuTtqCph_TZlp6n_cq-Emr2zx15tU=.jpg)
June 23, 2021
Does anyone really want to face the possibility that they'll wake up at three in the morning with a desperate need to hear "I've Got a Yum-Yum," "Bad Stuff Happens in the Bathroom," or "Lifting Up the Skirt of the Night" and have to deal with the whims of your cable provider or streaming service to satisfy that itch? Of course not. That's why every household needs this album!
June 22, 2021
Maia effectively introduced American R&B, funk, and soul into Brazilian music during the Tropicalia era, and came up with something completely new in the process. His themes of universal brotherhood, spiritual transcendence, free love, and collective partying fit the psych era in a decidedly more groove-based musicology. Nobody Can Live Forever: The Existential Soul of Tim Maia, more than lives up to its title; it is the definitive compilation from his greatest years.
June 21, 2021
The fourth version of the Chico Hamilton Quintet only recorded two albums (including one of movie melodies) and was the least known of his early groups. However, this generally excellent album is significant for introducing Charles Lloyd (who here plays flute and alto instead of tenor). The other three musicians (cellist Nate Gershman, guitarist Harry Polk, and bassist Bobby Haynes) would all remain quite obscure, and this would be the last album in Hamilton's famous string of cello groups before the drummer changed directions.
June 20, 2021
Packaging pain, desperation, and angst into a not-so-secret weapon barely five feet tall, Flyleaf blasted onto the scene in 2006, carried almost single-handedly by inimitable singer Lacey Sturm. Their debut remains their best, a perfect storm of distress and rage centered on Sturm's stunning vocal range and raw lyrics. Ideal for fans of Korn and Evanescence, check out "I'm So Sick," "Full Alive," and "I'm Sorry."
June 19, 2021
A batch of unassumingly breezy songs that reflect midtempo Memphis soul, lovers rock, bossa nova, early-'70s singer/songwriter, and sunshine pop influences.
June 18, 2021
This set does a great service to collectors by assembling 27 tracks from 1959-1966. While these are primarily wonderful blues/R&B crossover sides, there's plenty of variety. Though the style hopping is sometimes unsetting, it makes for a better listen overall. There are relatively straight blues among the earlier sides, and melds of blues and R&B with pop –occasionally with strings -- on covers of standards. Other tunes verge on out-and-out soul.
June 17, 2021
If producer Richard Perry could make Tiny Tim into a pop star, doing the same for Harry Nilsson would be a breeze, and 1971's Nilsson Schmilsson was where he did just that. Perry gave Nilsson's songs the right amount of polish, beefed up the arrangements (he'd never rocked as convincingly as on "Down" and "Jump Into the Fire"), and made them sound radio-ready without ridding them of their charm or eccentric accents. A masterpiece.
June 16, 2021
One of the more divisive entries in the Can discography, 1975's Landed is a weird and fascinating chapter in the krautrock legends' discography. While it featured the band's most high tech recording to date, the material was confusing and disjointed enough to sound almost like a different band. The telekinetic funk and raw experimentalism of earlier albums was stretched, moving more into some bizarre take on pop songs. Still, the album closes with a lengthy and unsettling sound collage, and the more structured moments are still Can through and through, just from a stranger angle than some fans would ever be ready for.
June 15, 2021
John Martyn's first album of new material after his right leg was amputated features highlights like the free-and-easy love song "One for the Road" and the wistful "Back to Marseilles." Paul Weller appears on "Under My Wing,” and Mavis Staples on Leadbelly's "Goodnight Irene." Martyn’s voice is central, slipping and slurring like a tenor horn, while fashioning beautiful lines. That's nowhere more apparent than on key tracks "Ghosts" and "My Creator."
June 14, 2021
Demos from 1996 -- a year before his tragic passing -- made by Soundtracks and fellow musical depressive Kevin Junior are suitably intimate and melancholy with bright melodies that bely the underlying sadness. Once you've digested the three studio albums released during his short solo career, give this a spin and marvel at the bottomless depth of Epic's songs and the fragile beauty of his haunting voice
June 13, 2021
With its knowing Mort Sahl-era album title and cover photo, this 2004 set is a deliberate return to the glory days of the standup comedy LP, those records that were hipster totems in the hi-fi days and a constant presence in Goodwill bins since. Mirman's observational humor is mostly born out of his everyday life, but he's also a gifted verbal satirist in the Carlin tradition, best shown in the sidesplitting "Shapes for Sale" or a brief bit on challenging people who parrot made-up statistics.
June 12, 2021
Travel back in time to 1953 at the iconic Hermosa Beach, California nightclub The Lighthouse where rising trumpet star Chet Baker joins the owner and bassist Howard Rumsey, saxophonist Bud Shank, drummer Shelly Manne, and the rest of the house band (including surprise guests like drummer Max Roach) for an evening of loose, swinging tunes. This is ground zero for the cool, West Coast jazz vibe, though saxophonist Bob Cooper's pulpy Latin-burner "Witch Doctor" threatens to melt the ice you can hear clinking in the crowd's tiki drinks as they dig the scene.
June 11, 2021
Various Artists
Shortly after Wax Trax! was bought by TVT and started issuing several Warp releases stateside, the pioneering industrial label put out this triple-CD box set anthologizing their independent years. A few big names from the label's catalog are missing (particularly Front 242, due to licensing issues), and not every selection is each artist's best or most definitive track, but it's still a valuable document tracing the history of the genre. Highlights include classics from synth pop-era Ministry (and numerous side projects), KMFDM, Meat Beat Manifesto, and dozens more.
June 10, 2021
Culled as it was from a jumble of strong singles and Smile-era sessions, the Beach Boys' 1969 set ended up being one of their finer post-Pet Sounds records with highlights aplenty. While the more sophisticated Smile tracks are absolutely gorgeous, nostalgic fare like "Do It Again" and "I Can Hear Music" are prime Beach Boys cuts.
June 9, 2021
On first listen, it's not unreasonable to think that writer/producer Dan Penn's 1973 solo debut is a bit schlocky. It's difficult to suss out the deft touch that Penn brought to soul classics like "I'm Your Puppet" and "The Dark End of the Street." To give up too soon, though, would be to neglect what is an ambitious, impassioned attempt to encompass the entire Southern musical tradition into a single statement.
June 8, 2021
While John Lydon enjoys telling pundits that he invented punk rock as the Sex Pistols' mouthpiece, he doesn't mention so often that once the Sex Pistols imploded, he quickly turned his back on the stuff. And he wasn't wrong to do so: Public Image Ltd.'s second album, 1979's Metal Box, was a daring, singular blend of Krautrock, dub, and Lydon's own bottomless rancor, and it's arguably the greatest album he ever made.
June 7, 2021
Michael Penn's rock-solid fourth LP is a delight of nuanced hooks, great songwriting, and punchy power pop. A craftsman of the highest degree, his mix of Beatles-inspired melodies and smart, thoughtful lyrics is delivered with a perfect amount of subtlety and tightly layered production.
June 6, 2021
Outkast reached a new dimension in 1998 on third album Aquemini. Expanding from the futuristic funk and laid back, dusty hip hop of their first two albums, each of Aquemini's 16 tracks explored different ground and found new vibrancy at every turn. Outkast's music after this would be defined by how the duo turned any unlikely impulse they had into a hit, and their transition from exceptional Southern rap group to musically boundless creative force began here.
June 5, 2021
Band of Bees' second album is a rollicking, breathtaking romp through the '60s, calling to mind classic band after classic band but also conjuring up a modern and original sound of their own. There are moments where they sound like the Small Faces quoting the Beatles obliquely from Rubber Soul, and elsewhere it suddenly sounds as though the ghost of George Harrison has stepped into the studio to throw in some licks from a White Album jam.
June 4, 2021
With the Peter Buck-assisted The King Is Dead, the Decemberists began making songs with more focus on the song and less focus on their thesaurus or old scrimshaw carvings. While their previous releases were ingenious novellas of maritime woe, this album lets the sun come out and bake the heartland landscape in a refreshing and honest way.
June 3, 2021
This album saw Fairport Convention transitioning from a sound informed by American folk rock to the more traditionally British folk approach they would embrace on subsequent albums. A combination of spirited covers of unreleased Dylan tunes and magnetic originals made Unhalfbricking one of the group's more emphatic and freewheeling sets.
June 2, 2021
"I used to tear my shirt, but now you've torn my heart/I knew you were a Hulkamaniac right from the very start." HELL YEAH BROTHER!!!
June 1, 2021
Julie London sounds quite at home on this selection of performances with a small jazz combo from 1959. Remarkably, the sessions were in fact recorded in her own living room, which proved to be the ideal surroundings for these warm and romantic standards.