Staff Picks for March 2015
March 31, 2015
Anchored by some killer covers—including a glitchy reworking of the B-52's "Give Me Back My Man" that sounds like a fembot having a breakdown over a breakup and a version of "Euro Trash Girl" that sounds like it's sung by one—the trio's debut introduced its witty blend of style and substance. Equal parts fashion victim pop and performance art, Will Save Us All! hints at the ways Chicks on Speed ultimately transcended the electroclash label they were given at first.
March 30, 2015
Considered by most to be his best album, Jeru the Damaja's debut is an essential East Coast LP, right up there with Nas' Illmatic and Mobb Deep's The Infamous. Not only that, it's also a chance to hear producer DJ Premier at his mid-90s best, so check "D. Original" or "Come Clean" for some hard-hitting proof.
March 29, 2015
The Re-Load to Mezmerize's Load, System of a Down's fifth—and currently final—album was easy to overlook in 2005. Its predecessor was just six months old, its hit was still on the radio, and another 40 minutes of music so soon felt almost extraneous. But now it stands alone as a tremendously solid album, fueled by Daron Malakian's charmingly frenzied, first take-sounding guitar and his vocal harmonies with Serj Tankian. "Attack" is as aggressive as the band ever got, "Tentative" lands its huge chorus with force and "Dreaming" shows off how the band's two wildly different voices could sound incredible when put together.
March 28, 2015
In anticipation of Roisin Murphy's first album in eight years—the Paris is Burning-inspired Hairless Toys, due in May—it's worth revisiting her last full-length. Overpowered balances the freewheeling pop and dance sounds she explored with Moloko and on her solo debut Ruby Blue with a slightly more accessible approach, thanks to collaborations with producers from Groove Armada and Bugz in the Attic. As the album bounces from disco, house and '80s pop—inspirations that still sound relevant in 2015—it just heightens expectations for the surely ahead-of-their time sounds she'll deliver this time around.
March 27, 2015
Prince's fourth album found the purple one in a mode of rigid new wavey funk, but where Dirty Mind was hyper-sexual, Controversy is where the artist starts to let his inner weirdness show a little more. The pitched-down recitation of the lord's prayer during the title track, an absurd take on political songcraft in "Ronnie Talk To Russia" and the digital rockabilly nonsense of "Jack U Off" make for the first of many really strange Prince records.
March 26, 2015
Toiling in the shadow of George Jones at both Starday and UA, the Pappy Dailey-produced Sonny Burns nevertheless was a warm, strong honky tonk singer and this Bear Family collection of his '60s sides is quite appealing—especially the unheard MGM recordings, highlighted by "I Sat Down On A Bear Trap."
March 25, 2015
The Specials were the group with the most resonance, and Madness had the versatility and vision to outlast their peers, but the English Beat's debut album was the best LP to emerge from the UK ska revival of the early '80s. The taut energy of the performances cut a sinewy groove, the songs were upbeat but cut deep when dealing with the personal or the political, and Bob Sargeant's production was clean without seeming glossy. Tough, smart dance music at its best.
March 24, 2015
Since the breakthrough of 2014's international-charting Lost in the Dream, many are now familiar with Adam Granduciel's The War on Drugs, but fewer may know Nightlands, the experimental-pop solo project of Drugs' bass player, Dave Hartley. Processed, mechanical vocals layered over guitars and mostly acoustic instruments create shimmering, danceable, wistful dream pop on this otherworldly release.
March 23, 2015
I'm still baffled by the success of "West End Girls," which feels like one of the weakest songs on Please when compared to the sarcastic exuberance of "Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)," the impassioned, achingly realistic "Love Comes Quickly" and side B opener "Tonight is Forever." Even the synth stabs of "Suburbia" and the slinky "Two Divided By Zero" feel far superior to the rapidly-spat verses and shoehorned-in chorus of its biggest hit.
March 22, 2015
Benoît Pioulard's latest album Sonnet arrives nearly a decade after his captivating debut Précis. True to its name, the album distills everything Pioulard expanded on later—effortlessly blended electronic and acoustic sounds, fresh-faced melodies and a reverence for nature—into songs with a uniquely hazy, organic beauty.
March 21, 2015
Featuring the sweet love song "Beautiful Lady", plus his poignant and political debut hit "Serious Times", Gyptian's debut album differs greatly from his later work, which was more blingy, electro-pumped, and club worthy. Here, he sounds like roots reggae's next big star with the cautionary tale "School Girl", the comforting "Ma Ma", and the ode to freedom called "Take My Money" adding to the album's long list of highlights.
March 20, 2015
The 1995 debut album from instrumental spellcasters with ties to Giant Sand, Calexico, and Naked Prey, Shadow of Your Smile is a dusty, blood-caked tumbleweed rolling through the myriad ghost towns of the American southwest. An evocative amalgam of Dick Dale, Nick Cave, and Ennio Morricone, it's the perfect background music for a cool evening spent burying a body in the desert.
![The Light in the Piazza [Original Broadway Cast Recording]](https://fastly-s3.allmusic.com/release/mr0001381535/front/400/aBwC2si5mGg2bfFLQUeRGgSijaXJlYnq0St31qpAJWo=.jpg)
March 19, 2015
Take a break from Rodgers and Hammerstein, rock musicals, and satire songs to visit a nontraditional musical-theater world: the sweeping, often-modulating, romantic orchestral tunes of Adam Guettel (grandson of Richard Rodgers). This original Broadway cast recording features Broadway superstar Kelli O'Hara in the role that furnished her first Tony nomination, from the production that won Guettel Tony Awards in 2005 for Best Original Score and Best Orchestrations.
March 18, 2015
Various Artists
Compilations of this kind preceded and followed, but if there's one that does for obscure German post-punk what Nuggets did for garage rock, this is it, highlighted by the nervy, intensely rhythmic contributions of Grauzone, No More, Pyrolator, and DAF.
March 17, 2015
The musical prowess and apocalyptic vision of King Crimson's 1969 debut album caused an immediate sensation, but multi-instrumentalist Ian McDonald and drummer Michael Giles jumped Fripp's ship soon thereafter, dissatisfied with the band's direction and rigors of touring, and re-emerged with this duo album in 1971. As breezy as the Crimso debut was doom-filled, it might be lightweight to a fault (particularly lyrically), but the musicianship is phenomenal, the production immaculate, and Giles' crisp, nuanced drumming remains peerless to this day.
March 16, 2015
Various Artists
The mid-'70s reggae featured on this Trojan set may not be as "punky" as the Clash or the Ruts, but the music influenced both, along with many other punk and British ska bands forming around that time. That means revolution rock, sufferers songs, and prison anthems fill the stellar tracklist, while artists such as Gregory Isaacs get represented by protest songs like "Mr. Cop" instead of the usual Lovers Rock.
March 15, 2015
At the height of their powers, the Pixies could do no wrong. This brief 1989 EP which features three Doolittle-era outtakes tacked onto the "Monkey Gone To Heaven" single shows that even Black Francis's scraps were more interesting than many band's standouts. The poppy "Manta Ray" and the herky-jerky "Weird At My School" are essential addendums to their best album.
March 14, 2015
Though not widely celebrated as such, Ms. Raitt's second album is arguably her masterpiece and is one of the finest records to come from Southern California during the early '70s. Enlisting Michael Cuscuna as producer and a venerable cast of studio musicians, Raitt weaves through meld of New Orleans second line, folk ballads, driving blues and mellow pop. The sound on the record—tracked live in studio with minimal overdubs—is almost as inspiring as the performances.
March 13, 2015
A masterpiece of minimal punk, Double Nickels on the Dime upended anything that came before it in do-it-yourself and indie punk circles. The 44-song master statement was punk in ethos and spirit far more than in musical style, with this intimidatingly brilliant trio churning out sentiments political, personal and abstract over tightly wound skeletons of funk, pseudo-Latin and economy metal. Very little that came before or after this record was cut from quite the same cloth.
March 12, 2015
Keep your Desolation Boulevard: when I want to listen to Sweet, I choose to listen to The Sweet, particularly in the form of this expanded version of their debut album. Here, the group was more purely bubblegum than they were when they turned up the guitars, a move that's pleasing enough on the album proper but it's the singles added as bonus tracks where they truly shine--and not just "Alexander Graham Bell," "Poppa Joe," "Little Willy" and "Wig-Wam Bam," but the early, rarely-reissued stuff collected on the second disc.
March 11, 2015
With a studio-produced sound, flowing hair like Crystal Gale, and soft-focus image borrowed from '80s Brooke Shields Calvin Klein ads, Sylvia produced a debut album in 1982 so smooth, it almost seems sealed with a sticky sweet lip-gloss kiss. While the country princess's voice isn't the most impressive (she just sort of talks on key most of the time), it doesn't diminish the infectious Wham-meets-Juice Newton vibe of cuts like the AM-radio friendly "Nobody."
March 10, 2015
Many fans cried "sellout" when Manowar signed with Atco in 1987. The band's campaign to eradicate "false metal" was at odds with the big budget studio makeover they received on Fighting the World, but there is still plenty to like about their fifth album. The more pop-oriented metal of "Carry On" sits well with the rapid fire attack of "Black Wind, Fire, and Steel" and the Orson Welles-assisted "Defender" is a testament to the glory of "true metal."
March 9, 2015
This was the guitarist's first album as a leader, released the same year he appeared on Jack DeJohnette's Sorcery and recorded with other side musician Jan Hammer on an overlooked Horacee Arnold date. It leads with a busy Hammer fusion composition but closes with Abercrombie's gorgeous, placid title track—a highlight for all of the involved, and for label ECM as well.
March 8, 2015
For a few months in 1996, BR5-49 were being heralded as Nashville's next big thing, and for a pleasantly surprising reason—they played classic country music in the vintage style, with great chops, spot-on harmonies, and a respect for tradition that made room for an infectious sense of fun. Turns out Nashville wasn't sure how to market hillbilly music, but the group's debut album is still a superb honky tonk record, full of classic covers and originals that more than pass muster.
March 7, 2015
As the title implies, this 1980 European date finds the late trumpeter extraordinaire embarking on a swinging, joyful session with Danish reedman, Thilo. Playing with a harmon-mute, as well as a plunger on several tracks, Terry's rhythmic inventiveness and deft, stylistic clarity are perfectly showcased in the straight-forward, small group setting.
March 6, 2015
This set collects the first two albums Jug cut within a month of being released from prison after serving a seven year sentence for a narcotics conviction. Two bands, one acoustic, one electric deliver an amazing twofer of all killer soul jazz. Some of his sidemen include Junior Mance, Sonny Phillips, Candido, Billy Butler, Pretty Purdie and Houston Person. Upon return, Jug was not only back, but stronger than ever.
March 5, 2015
The Satanist stands as a career-defining statement from Behemoth, no small feat 10 albums in. The more bleak, atmospheric touches of their recent records have finally melded with the more white-knuckle approach of their earlier material into a giant, enveloping sound. A breakneck track like "Ora Pro Nobis Lucifer" sits alongside the slowly-developing, explosive "Amen," all capped off by massive closer "O Father O Satan O Sun!," which could be read as the band's ultimate statement of purpose.
March 4, 2015
The 1981 "debut solo album" by the Pink Floyd drummer was probably a head-scratcher for listeners expecting something spacier and proggier—it's really a Carla Bley album released under Mason's name (although he does drum throughout). And Bley fans likely preferred the adventurous jazz of her ECM nonet album Social Studies issued the same year. Nevertheless, this is a must-hear for fans of Robert Wyatt, who sings throughout and is perfectly suited to these witty, satirical tunes, including "I'm a Mineralist," a dead-on send-up of Philip Glass.
March 3, 2015
Hailing from Corpus Christi, the teenage Texas garage rockers are one of the best cult bands of the '60s. They harnassed the adventurous squall of the Yardbirds and the sharp songwriting of the Kinks, then went further. This Ace comp relies on the original single mixes—first time they've been on CD—and adds some new discoveries that are dynamite.
March 2, 2015
The second studio long player from the shadowy female psych-folk/indie rock Liverpool trio, Into the Diamond Sun's entrancing triple-lead vocals, hypnotic percussion, and swirling guitar lines evokes an urban Wicker Man falling into the Thames, while molly-blasted club kids dance around its burning straw meat like a murder of glowstick-adorned crows.
March 1, 2015
Deservedly greeted with an avalanche of positive, even ecstatic, reviews, this debut by Natalie Prass is that rarest thing: a record that proudly wears its classicist influences—here, it's Laurel Canyon folk-rock and soul straight out of Dusty In Memphis—but feels idiosyncratic, personal and deeply felt.