Staff Picks for May 2020
May 31, 2020
Underrated singer/songwriter Rosie Thomas has a pure and intimate voice, both in her vocalizations and in her perspective. The songs are lightly accompanied by piano and acoustic instrumentation, and touch on personal, small stories of love and loss, highlighted by the bolstering, half-convinced bravado of "Wedding Day."
May 30, 2020
Funky, spiritual and strange, Don Cherry's 1976 album Hear & Now was a mishmash of styles and ideologies that gelled into the musical equivalent of wafting incense smoke. Not a whole lot in the way of virtuosic trumpet performances, but overflowing with sunny grooves and airy, meditative tunes.
May 29, 2020
While the hard edges and challenging angles of 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 and Red Sails in the Sunset made Midnight Oil bona fide superstars in Australia, they were little more than a rumor in most of the rest of the world. Diesel and Dust is that rarity, a bid for the larger audience that's also an artistic success and a triumph for leftist politics.
May 28, 2020
In May 2019, Amos lost her mother, whose presence was a strong influence on her 2020 memoir Resistance and on this earthy 2005 set (especially the haunting title track). Balancing simpler, soulful pleasures with subtle intensity that explored life cycles and family, the LP is a wealth of underrated, Hammond organ-backed cuts like the sweeping "Marys of the Sea," the calming "Parasol," the gospel-tinged "Witness," and the devastating "Toast," dedicated to her late brother.
May 27, 2020
Building upon the psychedelic swirl of their earlier albums, the breakthrough record for Screaming Trees got a little buzz from the lead single being featured on the Singles soundtrack, but the whole album is worthy of attention. Combining the gruff stomp of their Pacific Northwest brethren with a Beatlesque pop sensibility, the hulking beauty of "For Celebrations Past" and "Dollar Bill" should have been as big as...oh, nevermind.
![Whistle Down the Wind [Original Cast Recording]](https://fastly-s3.allmusic.com/release/mr0000773996/front/400/b-m-dkofnYxx83ONbwoFtByhM-OFI8zG4l-qVpXXB1I=.jpg)
May 26, 2020
Whistle Down the Wind marks the first time since Andrew Lloyd Webber's partnership with Tim Rice dissolved that a lyricist had been given equal billing on a musical with one of his scores, and perhaps not coincidentally, it was his best score in a long time. Jim Steinman, most widely known for his writing and production work with Meat Loaf, put his stamp on this music, and it's easy, listening to such songs as "Tire Tracks and Broken Hearts," "A Kiss Is a Terrible Thing to Waste," and "Off Ramp Exit to Paradise," to imagine Meat Loaf or another big-voiced Steinman client singing them.
May 25, 2020
Compared to her former husband and musical partner Richard Thompson, Linda Thompson rarely records and tours even less often, but when she does put out a record, it's invariably something worth hearing. 2007's Versatile Heart was a minor masterpiece that fused several strains of pop and folk into a gentle but spirited album lifted by her superb vocals and an outstanding set of songs, six of which came from her own pen.
May 24, 2020
A folk opera whose subject is the history of Kentucky delivered as an experiential, non-linear journey in the voices of Kentucky's women from the 18th to 20th centuries who were left out of "official" histories penned by white men. Grimes brings them forth with lush orchestration, sung and spoken narration, and arresting imagery.
May 23, 2020
Whatever Andy Jackson's particular qualifications were as a producer at the time, he knew not to ruin a good thing (i.e. the band’s core sound). The end result was the the Nephilim’s best all-around album. It consists of four lengthy, nearly suite-like pieces that showcase their near-peerless abilities to create involved, textured, driving, loud and truly theatrical rock tunes. It was still goth as all hell, but like the best bands in any genre, the Nephilim transcended these artificial limitations to create their own sound.
May 22, 2020
Delicate and vulnerable, this sophomore set found Amos expanding her emotional reach with the confrontational "God" and "The Waitress," toying with new instrumentation on "Bells For Her," and playing with space on the grand epic "Yes, Anastasia." Along with guests Trent Reznor ("Past the Mission") and Merry Clayton ("Cornflake Girl"), she continued to mature, entering her finest artistic stretch, where genre restrictions were dashed and her confidence was soon at its peak.
![Once on This Island: The Musical [New Broadway Cast Recording]](https://fastly-s3.allmusic.com/release/mr0004835583/front/400/GtQan-EGzfrC81siD58P-D6KsMttLlyBmmVTZ6_CLs0=.jpg)
May 21, 2020
Lea Salonga (Disney's Jasmine and Mulan) and Alex Newell (Glee) were among the cast of the first Broadway revival of this 1990 musical by the songwriting team behind Ragtime. Set against a supernatural story involving disaster, love, betrayal, and fate on an island in the Antilles, it featured new orchestrations by AnnMarie Milazzo and original orchestrator Michael Starobin, who added instruments like trash bins and found objects to the palette and reimagined the pit orchestra as part of the vocal arrangements.
May 20, 2020
A rare recording that shoegazers, metalheads, and psychedelic drifters can all love equally, the band’s debut is a symphony of overloaded guitars, soaring melodies and questing jams.
May 19, 2020
Damon Albarn, Flea, and Tony Allen keep their take on Afro-beat fresh with the help of collaborators like Erykah Badu, Fatou Diawara, and M.anifest. With an appealingly loose, live feel, most of the songs are charming, bite-size snippets and sketches, and because its tracks are so short, the album's undeniably jammy feel never becomes indulgent.
May 18, 2020
This proper 2008 debut long-player from murky drone-trio captured them in the prime of their early, still unformed days. Dueling synths and Fripp-like spools of guitar spend all three of these lengthy tracks bubbling up around each other and receding, occasionally gelling in moments of dazzled, starstruck brilliance. At this point Emeralds managed to not quite be ambient music, noise or improvisation while containing elements of all three.
May 17, 2020
His first solo release after the breakup of the Polar Bears, Jules Shear's debut was a tightly-crafted guitar pop gem with showy, but complimentary production from Todd Rundgren.
May 16, 2020
At a time when punk rock had supposedly killed off psychedelia, the Soft Boys gave it new life by stripping away the aimless wandering and adding a bent but effective pop drive. The melodic energy amplified the joyous eccentricity of Robyn Hitchcock's songs and gave the guitars of Hitchcock and Kimberley Rew plenty to talk about. R.I.P. bassist Matthew Seligman.
May 15, 2020
A continuous 44-minute composition encompassing a vast array of styles and emotions within its five movements, Feedbacker is one of the uncategorizable Japanese group's finest moments. It's disorienting, rapturous, euphoric, and soul-replenishing all at once.
May 14, 2020
The title is intended in an ironic way, as illustrated not only by the cover -- a grim parody of late-'40s/early-'50s advertising imagery depicting white versus black social reality -- but also by the haunting "Billy Jack" and the beautifully wrought "When Seasons Change." While the album doesn't really have as clearly delineated a body of songs as Mayfield's earlier topical releases, it's in the same league with his other work of the period.
May 13, 2020
The breakthrough album by the enigmatic Icelandic group remains a bewildering experience two decades after it first made waves internationally. Utilizing lots of crafty audio tricks (including a backwards intro and a palindromic string passage), the band created an icy, ethereal audio world which perfectly matches the angelic alien fetus on the album's cover. A recently issued deluxe edition includes an entire live concert as well as numerous demos and alternate versions, tracing the evolution of the album's utterly unique sound.
May 12, 2020
Recorded at a time when tensions between band and bandleader were running high, 1986's Blood & Chocolate was the last album Elvis Costello would record with the Attractions before an eight-year breakup. They made that rancor work for them; this was the darkest and most primal music Costello had made since 1978's This Year's Model, and though the songwriting was artful, the hard edged attack made this one of their most memorable albums.
May 11, 2020
Drummer/band leader/vocalist Hamilton Bohannon's modus operandi was shuffling, syncopated grooves. "Summertime Groove" exemplifies the Bohannon sound, as does the funky, potent "Let's Start the Dance," featuring Carolyn Crawford on vocals. Apart from the wistful winner "I Wonder Why," this is pure uncut boogie music.
May 10, 2020
An ambitious concept album balancing fiery jazz-rock, expansive space orchestrations, and British progressive-soul—not to mention cosmic Japanese percussion accents— Stomu Yamashta's Go could only come from the 1970's. A visionary bandleader, Yamashta somehow managed to bring together the blazing guitar pyrotechnics of Al Di Meola, the eerie moon synths of Klaus Schulz, and an astral story-arc delivered with echoey schmaltz by Steve Winwood. And somehow, it all makes hypnotic sense.
May 9, 2020
In addition to being the second Buggles records, Adventures in Modern Recording feels like a sprightlier, more lighthearted companion to Yes' Trevor Horn-led Drama LP, which he was recording simultaneously.
May 8, 2020
Arriving well into the wake of the pop-culture tsunami that was "Disco Duck," 1979's Mickey Mouse Disco was clearly Disney's attempt to unseat Rick Dees' single with legit Disney IP. A minor obsession for many bell-bottomed listeners in the twelve-and-under demographic, it featured shiny Saturday Night Fever-esque album art and Studio 54-ready versions of "Zip-a-dee-doo-dah," "It's a Small World," and "Chim Chim Cher-ee." But the stand-out track and true challenger to the "Disco Duck" throne was Donald Duck's own Village People-inspired "Macho Duck."
May 7, 2020
Boasting four Top Ten singles including their only U.S. number one, "Need You Tonight," the band's sixth album crystallized their influences -- Stones-y rock & roll, pop, funk, contemporary dance-pop -- into a cool, stylish dance-rock. More to the point, every song is catchy and memorable, branded with indelible hooks.
May 6, 2020
The great jazz vocalist performs 13 of Horace Silver's songs on this well-conceived release. On most selections she is accompanied by a fine French quintet, though organist Jimmy Smith and Silver each get two guest spots. The vocalist is in excellent form; she uplifts Silver's lyrics, and swings up a storm
May 5, 2020
The curious evolution of clean-cut folk rocker Craig Smith into the troubled psychedelic wanderer Maitreya Kali is a dark but fascinating tale recounted in Mike Stax's book Swim Through The Darkness. Stax's research led to a legit reissue of Kali's rare private press albums of the '70s, whose moments of unnerving eccentricity never quite overwhelm the spare beauty of the solo acoustic pieces here, or the smart pop-psych of his sessions with the Penny Arkade.
May 4, 2020
The appropriately titled third album from Detroit dream rockers shed some of the darkness and fuzz of their first two albums while holding tight to their Velvet Underground-obsessed songwriting. A more varied approach to production and songwriting made for a more exciting full album listen, with experiments in country dabbling and drum-machine driven alien pop breaking the band out of their established mold.
May 3, 2020
An exciting collection of outtakes and stray tracks from the haunted garage rockers' early years, recorded at the same time as their 2008 debut album and inexplicably not released until years later.
May 2, 2020
These synth-drenched, '80s-indebted, electro-punk upstarts arrived in a big way with this debut before quickly fading out of the limelight. If Gwen Stefani or Siouxsie Sioux fronted Marilyn Manson or Orgy c. 1998 and became a new wave cover band, this would be the result. Infectious, energetic, and ephemeral, Shakedown! is dark and intentionally creepy, yet addictive and sticky sweet. Check out "Gorgeous" and "Nemesis."
May 1, 2020
Dreamy hula-hula numbers sit comfortably alongside classic Johnny Mercer standards and Jon Rauhouse's own "Can o' Corn" tunes. Great vocals by Neko Case, Sally Timms and Kelly Hogan balance out the instrumentals where Rauhouse's pedal steel strings take the lead and whisk us away to warm nights and cool cocktails.