Staff Picks for November 2021
November 30, 2021
One of the founders of Berlin's legendary Janus collective and a pioneer of the loosely defined experimental club scene, Lotic's full-length debut is an immensely compelling work which confronts gender norms and racial biases, in addition to addressing fear, vulnerability, and inner strength. Her lyrics add a bracing level of poignancy to the adventurous sonic constructions, with songs like "Hunted" and "Bulletproof" expressing feelings of being targeted due to her skin color and gender non-conformity.
November 29, 2021
A collaboration between the American composer and Faroese singer/songwriter, this at times profound album was inspired by the early days of social networking and the phenomenon of people uploading mundane, sometimes revealing home videos. Originally conceived as a shorter set for multimedia live performance, it grew to 14 songs that they recorded with the Holland Baroque ensemble. Included are subjects like "Coffee Expert," "Cat Rescue," and "Don't I Know You from Somewhere?"
November 28, 2021
For anyone looking to explore many sounds, artists, and moods all at once, Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez by the Gorilaz is the place to start. Though there are so many features on this album that it would be easy for it to all sound like a jumble, Damon Albarn's distinct voice offers a polite guiding hand that gives enough consistency for the contrasting sounds to not be so jarring.
November 27, 2021
Nothing short of epic in scope, sound, and histrionics, Iron Maiden's 1985 live album Live After Death easily ranks as one of the best live albums in heavy metal history. Taken from shows in L.A. and London, the lengthy set captures the band at their peak and running through a best-of setlist of their most loved material up until that point.
November 26, 2021
A quarter-century after its release, the lone album from the avant-lounge collective Sukia remains a glorious oddity. Funnier and weirder than most trip-hop acts and far less traditional than most lounge revivalists, the group carves out its own invitingly bizarre niche on Contacto Espacial con el Tercer Sexo, combining cheesy and sleazy samples and vintage instrumentation with help from the Dust Brothers at their most outlandish.
November 25, 2021
This album delivers on the album's title and on what we have come to expect from Rihanna: unapologetic music you can easily dance to. Though Unapologetic offers more emotional openness with tracks like "Stay," there are still plenty of poppy dance songs. All around, this album is a fun time.
November 24, 2021
Of the original Seattle grunge pioneers, TAD seemed least likely to succeed, not due to quality but because the proudly dirty pummel of their music was just too brutal for the masses. Their major label debut, 1993's Inhaler, did nothing to disprove that, but with J Mascis as producer, they had a studio partner who respected their heaviness, and he increased their level of craft without blunting their sledgehammer impact.
November 23, 2021
If any listeners are in want of a dramatic, deliciously poppy album as the soundtrack to their life, look no further than Electra Heart. MARINA masterfully engages a variety of themes about love, self-image, sex, and loneliness all while keeping the same tone of infectious confidence.
November 22, 2021
This set features veteran pianist Walter Bishop, Jr. in top form in a trio with bassist Peter Washington and drummer Kenny Washington. The repertoire (mostly standards, including "Crazy She Calls Me" and Kenny Dorham's "Una Mas," plus one Bishop original, "Waltz Zweetie") is superior, the communication between the players is strong, and the hard bop renditions are inventive within the tradition.
November 21, 2021
After the commercial failure of Medicine Show and the departure of guitarist Karl Precoda, most fans assumed the Dream Syndicate were a spent force, but 1986's Out of the Grey revealed they'd found a remarkable second wind. Lead guitarist Paul B. Cutler gave the band a new, impressive level of ferocity, and Steve Wynn's film noir songwriting was as strong as ever on "Now I Ride Alone" and "50 In a 25 Zone."
![At Folsom Prison [1968]](https://fastly-s3.allmusic.com/release/mr0000772864/front/400/GNSEKDYsbE1_AigJr_oyqFWnbEN5fCjifro6xhIBuB4=.jpg)
November 20, 2021
Considered some of Johnny Cash's best work, At Folsom Prison is a collection of stories centered around his audience: inmates. He imagines the stories of these men from their perspectives and other songs that might also appeal to them. No one can question if Cash knows his audience
November 19, 2021
In 1970 Barney Wilen assembled filmmakers, technicians, and musicians to travel to Africa for the purpose of recording the music of pygmy tribes. Two years later in Paris, he created this dark, eccentric effort fusing avant jazz with African rhythms, ambient sounds, and melodies rooted in American blues traditions. Cut with French and African players, this is music with few precedents indulging seemingly extraterrestrial dissonance and earthbound, street funk.
November 18, 2021
Cut in January of 1971 during four nights at The Bitter End in New York, the resulting double LP transcended any expectations in both its programming and execution -- Mayfield performed numbers off of the Curtis album ("[Don't Worry] If There's a Hell Below We're All Going to Go"), as well as exciting and urgent new versions of songs originally performed by the Impressions ("We're a Winner," "People Get Ready," "Gypsy Woman"), plus a very moving R&B version of "We've Only Just Begun."
November 17, 2021
Few albums display the same amount of artistic range and raw exploration of Kanye West's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Though, as the title implies, it is a long journey to traverse the album in its entirety, it isn't an experience to miss out on if you have time.
November 16, 2021
Similar to his first for Warp, Kirk uses an incredibly wide variety of sources for this album of gorgeous ambient ethno-funk, including electro, bleep, techno and Eastern melodies. In fact, on one track, "Monochrome Dream," Kirk combines jazz, dub, spacey ambient, and Latin rhythms, all at the same time (!). "Lost Souls on Funk" and "So Digital" are excellent as well, slightly more downtempo than the latest Cabaret Voltaire material and deftly produced like few others could do. Despite the disparity of genres, The Number of Magic holds together perfectly.
November 15, 2021
A cult classic, Cibo Matto's debut album announced Miho Hatori and Yuka Honda as innovators with a healthy disregard for the boundaries between punk, pop, trip-hop, and rap. Whether they're casting a spell of dreamy sensuality ("Sugar Water") or tearing it up (the brashly surreal "Birthday Cake"), Cibo Matto's freshness comes through at every turn, even twenty-five years later.
November 14, 2021
A complete departure from Noah and the Whale's previous album focused on heartbreak, Last Night on Earth is a celebration of living life to the fullest. Perfect for a lowkey but enjoyable night, and when listened to in order, the energy of the songs gradually declines.
November 13, 2021
If you could bottle ebullience, it would sound like Bust 'Em Green. At 12 tunes in 25 minutes, the band's debut full-length is made up of incessantly catchy driving surf-punk-go-go-pop cherry bombs splashed with a bit of slashing mod-art flavor and full of bouncy ba-ba-ba's.
November 12, 2021
Takako Minekawa and Dustin Wong's first collaboration strikes a transporting balance between her wispy vocals and evocative imagery and his experimental roots. Though the duo takes a minimal approach that focuses on voice and guitar with occasional playful percussion and synths, there's a mystical undercurrent to Toropical Circle that adds mystery to its seeming simplicity.
November 11, 2021
Save Rock and Roll is not only a throwback pick to the mainstream pop-punk many held dearly in the early 2010s, but it was the comeback album for the band. It's easy to understand why there were so many this off this album. This is recommended for those looking to find a soundtrack that fits a party where people will be jumping a lot and/or wearing dark color schemes.
November 10, 2021
On their first album in seven years, Buffalo Daughter sound as funky, innovative, and colorful as ever. Their genre-mashing prowess might be even more nimble on We Are the Times than it was back in the day, with wild collisions of punk, funk, electronic, and jazz that place them closer to Battles or Nisennenmondai than the Shibuya-kei scene with which they were originally associated.
November 9, 2021
Robert Pollard and his cohorts recently treated fans to a new, deluxe vinyl reissue of Guided by Voices's 2001 effort Isolation Drills, and it's an album that merits a second look. One of GbV's rare experiments in high fidelity production, they never sounded more credible as a rock band as they did here; the hard, joyous punch of the guitars brings out the best in tunes like "Glad Girls" and "Chasing Heather Crazy."
November 8, 2021
Blurryface is this famous duo's sophomore album, and through the course of its fourteen songs takes listeners through dizzying turns of emotions. This album is perfect for those feeling introspective, angsty, and in need of listening to someone as conflicted about life as they are.
November 7, 2021
Rollicking, heartfelt, and surprisingly noisy indie pop debut from ex-members of the Lucksmiths that relies on a tough two guitar attack and a batch of top notch melancholy pop tunes.
November 6, 2021
Of the Greenwich Village folkies of the 1960s, Dave Van Ronk (whose roots were in jazz and blues) seemed the least likely to go electric, but he gave it a try for one LP. A curious melange of folk rock, jug band sounds, and premature psychedelia, Dave Van Ronk & The Hundon Dusters embraced his playful side, and if his gruff voice didn't always suit the material, the musicians are game and the two Joni Mitchell covers are lovely.
November 5, 2021
Rosalías debut flamenco album packs a punch with her unrestrained vocals and raw instrumentals (primarily the guitar, with a violing guest appearance at the end of the first track). Los Angelés is not recommended to be played often because of its intense sadness, but few albums will match the emotional expression it can provide listeners.
November 4, 2021
After a marijuana bust scuttled their original burst of success, Doug Sahm revived the Sir Douglas Quintet in California in 1968, cutting the first of five albums for Mercury Records and their affiliates. All of them are collected on this superb box set, along with numerous rarities and outtakes. Blending roots rock, garage punk, blues, country, norteño, and plentiful other flavors, this is a deep, rich dive into the catalog of a glorious American original.
November 3, 2021
Working cheaply on clapped-out gear, the band take all the dusty tropes of heavy metal, acid rock, biker rock, and doomy psych rock, knock them around mercilessly, then breath life back into them until they shine like new.
November 2, 2021
Ray LaMontagne bares his soul by utilizing every song on the album to dissect different aspects of a conflicting love and its effects on his self-reflections. This is the sound of a painfully self-aware love story that anyone could enjoy.
November 1, 2021
"Brass in Pocket" and "Stop Your Sobbing" became the new wave/classic rock staples from this album, but the raw gutsy push of "Up the Neck" and the leadoff track "Precious" deserve as much attention. Chrissy Hynde's tough purr is offset by James Honeyman-Scott's angular riffs and song structures perfectly on the band's debut.