Staff Picks for October 2013
October 31, 2013
The Paley Brothers ran with the crowd at CBGB's, they appeared on the soundtrack to the Ramones' Rock N Roll High School but they were not punks. They were pure pop through and through, playing joyous songs of summer heavily indebted to the Beach Boys and other '60s teen idols. The Paleys were grounded in classic rock & pop but they had a wit that made them natural companions of new wave rockers and the blend--heard in all its glory on the long-overdue The Complete Recordings--still sounds joyous decades later.
October 30, 2013
Brassy as a Bennigan's bar, Lady Saw has long been dancehall's R. Kelly or Mae West, coming on strong with the in-your-face sexuality and that snide, neva-gonna-get-it attitude. There's plenty of that here, but this high grade album ends with a true stunner, the poignant and respectful ballad "Dedicated to Mama".
October 29, 2013
Five years after their oddly aggressive and lopsided third album, the Strokes returned in 2011 with Angles, a collection of tunes that would have sounded at home on either an unknown 80's synth pop album or one of their own early albums. Though somewhat disjointed and self-referential, even a slight return to earlier glories was worth the wait as well as the album's filler tracks.
October 28, 2013
Years before she made Top Ten R&B hits, Rushen was a piano prodigy who debut with this impressive and enjoyable set for Prestige. Only 20 years old the year it was released, she arranged and wrote everything, supported by the likes of Ndugu Chancler, Joe Henderson, and George Bohanon.
October 27, 2013
Richard Branson co-founded the Virgin Records label 40 years ago, and Henry Cow was the most outré band of the imprint’s pre-Sex Pistols years. The band-label relationship became fraught and ultimately dissolved, but not before the release of three “sock cover” albums, including this 1974 sophomore outing, an avant-prog landmark that added the late visionary bassoonist Lindsay Cooper to the lineup.
October 26, 2013
Working with former Smashing Pumpkins guitarist James Iha and Fountains of Wayne's Adam Schlesinger, soft-rocker duo America got a boost of Gen-X, fanboy energy on a collection of new songs that recalled the best of their sun dappled '70s albums.
October 25, 2013
If the Left Banke somehow travelled forward through time, moved to Philly and started writing opaque songs about city life and existential dread, it might sound something like Brown Recluse's debut album. Warning - contains lots of tambourine, vintage organs and at least one classic indie pop jam: "Impressions of a City Morning."
October 24, 2013
Slim Smith's high, plaintive vocals and his haunting, almost fragile delivery made him one of Jamaica's finest singers in the late 1960s and early '70s, both during his tenure with the Uniques and the Techniques and his subsequent solo career. This fine, carefully chosen set spans that career, a career that ended with Smith's mysterious, tragic death following a recording session in 1973.
October 23, 2013
Neil Diamond's last attempt at mainstream rock credibility (producer Robbie Robertson’s name was listed on the front cover in bold letters) was simultaneously a grand send off to the Brill Building era, and his most ambitious, consistent, album-length offering.
October 22, 2013
Somebody somewhere suggested this summer that Robert Palmer would've done an amazing job with "Blurred Lines" and, listening to the batch of two-and-three-fers Edsel has just put out, it's hard to disagree. Palmer wasn't merely a peerless blue-eyed soul singer, though. He also had a serious sense of adventure and Clues, his 1980 foray into new wave, captures this side better than any of his other LPs. "Looking For Clues" is a quirky new wave wonder, "Johnny And Mary" crystallizes the chilly ennui of synth-pop and "Sulky Girl" is so ferocious that, on most days, sounds like the best classic rock song ever cut. And that's just the first three songs!
October 21, 2013
Guitarist Lee Ritenour's first all-acoustic record, 1979's Rio, is a slick, if still organic mix of instrumental jazz, funk and Bossa Nova. Adding to the album's depth are appearances from Ernie Watts on flute and Dave Grusin on keyboards. Think of it as the hippest doctor's office music ever recorded.
October 20, 2013
This is the North Mississippi Allstars' masterpiece, each track a fascinating blend of old and new, a seamless, chugging look at Mississippi country-folk-boogie, with Luther Dickinson's jagged, commanding guitar riffs and haunting slide runs sewing everything together, while Cody Dickenson's powerful, thundering drums march everything across the landscape.
October 19, 2013
If you like your '60s singer/songwriters dark, reflective, and gritty, the only LP from F.J. McMahon is worth several spins -- he definitely earned his comparisons to heavyweights Tim Hardin and Fred Neil.
October 18, 2013
Fans of Cartoon Network's animated series Regular Show should be familiar with the character Party Pete, the man who can get your party started and only charges $50 an hour. That cartoon Pleasureman is based on the real life, Euro-dance artist Gunther who unleashed the mighty, and mighty ridiculous, club hit "Ding Dong Song" in 2006. Pop a Radicola or a Pina Colada, check out the inspiration for Pete, and dig that Euro-dance queen Samantha Fox makes a guest appearance on this fun, campy album.
October 17, 2013
Like the game it comes from, Jim Guthrie's original score for Sword and Sworcery is filled with spacey and mysterious moments tied together by sense of wistful nostalgia. This beautifully odd score not only serves its source material, it's able to stand up on its own, providing listeners with an engaging and engrossing journey through a series of psychedelic electronic vignettes.
October 16, 2013
This two-disc mid-‘70s archival set reveals that British jazzers Surman, Osborne, and Skidmore were not only pioneering saxophonists (predating the WSQ and Rova in this grouping), but could also skillfully and seamlessly blend in synth, keyboards, and drums – even when performing live.
October 15, 2013
Fleetwood Mac's thirteenth long player may lack the emotional gravitas of Rumors or the giddy, cocaine-fueled pop lunacy of Tusk, but it does house some of the group's best songs, especially lesser known Buckingham gems like "Book of Love," "Empire State," and "Eyes of the World."
October 14, 2013
If the sound of flutes in jazz brings to mind Ron Burgundy's flamethrowing freakout jam session in Anchorman, you may want to listen in on Matt Eakle's understated debut. Eakle spent nine years with the rootsy David Grisman Quintet,and his warm, folky take on jazz makes the perfect soundtrack for a sunny fall day.
October 13, 2013
Thanks to the '90s revival, vulnerable-yet-tough (or is that tough-yet-vulnerable?) female vocalists are all the indie rock rage once again. However, few can match Carol van Dijk on Bettie Serveert's debut album: She ranges from luminous to rough-and-tumble, sounding completely natural every step of the way.
October 11, 2013
Bands make spooky records and go for an "autumnal" feel pretty often, but very few albums capture the dangerously eerie spirit of the darkest fall months like Sonic Youth in this phase of their evolution. Allmusic's less than stellar review under-rates the disc, whose songs sound more conjured than crafted. Even the somewhat awkward turns and experiments embody a child's half-excited, half-horrified view of Halloween.
October 10, 2013
One person's exercise in stark, simplistic repetition is another's indispensible cold-months companion -- aka 808s & Ark Larks.
October 9, 2013
Few people know that in 2000, that Gil Scott-Heron's collaborator--and the arranger for the Midnight Band--released his first solo album. It’s a true gem that melds knotty contemporary jazz, funky, grooved-out R&B, and shimmering nocturnal bluesy soul seamless elegant, tapestry. What’s more, Jackson is joined here by the great Roy Ayers on vibes.
October 8, 2013
Spending time with Ace's ace collection Lipstick Powder & Paint: The New York Dolls Heard Them Here First sent me back to my favorite Dolls album, In Too Much Too Soon, their divinely sleazy and cataclysmic second LP. As much as I love the Todd Rundgren debut--it's got the songs and the danger--to me, this Shadow Morton-produced record always seemed to live up the myth that was handed down over the years: a big, bawdy, funny, raucous ruckus that was rebellion via an endless party.
October 7, 2013
Various Artists
This archival recording showcases 15 stompin', shoutin', sanctifyin' gospel numbers from the 1920s. Not just for church-goin' folks, Amazing Gospel will appeal to anyone who had a religious experience listening to The Anthology of American Folk Music or any of Lightnin' Hopkins' recordings. Testify!
October 6, 2013
With 1982's A View From the Ground, '70s soft-rockers America moved even further toward keyboard-driven adult-contemporary pop. The album helped recontextualize their melodic sound and featured several superb covers in Ian Thomas' "Right Before Your Eyes," and Russ Ballard's "You Can Do Magic."
October 5, 2013
There isn't a single weak cut here, but the closer, "Bonnie Blue," with James Cotton croaking out a moving vocal accompanied only by his harp and the resonator guitar playing of Colin Linden, is particularly poignant. Cotton may be cruising in on 80 years of age, but he's just released one of the best albums of his career.
October 4, 2013
Various Artists
If our last AllMusic Loves left you dizzy from all the great Blue Note titles out there, check out this four-volume series of classic cuts -- most on the funky side, from breaks maestros like Donald Byrd, Lou Donaldson, Grant Green, and Jimmy McGriff.
October 3, 2013
With cold season coming up, it's time to stock up on delicious cold remedies and the dance songs that go with them. Forget about the purple stuff because DJ Webstar offers a much more wholesome remedy with his party-rap hit "Chicken Noodle Soup", a 2006 cut which came with "a soda on the side" plus a Harlem-based dance craze that blew up on YouTube. The rest of the effort is inspired, fun, and old school-flavored with the great "Like This" borrowing from Grandmaster Flash's "White Lines".
October 2, 2013
Though MGMT have worked with Dave Fridmann in the past, the band's daring third album finds them in a better place artistically to work with the sonic auteur. Making use of the spaciousness Fridmann is so adept at capturing, MGMT's eponymous offering shows a band that has grown increasingly confident in their experiments with glammy, spaced out pop.
October 1, 2013
Recording at Oz Fritz’s California studio, this Flemish threesome proves to be one of the finest creative jazz piano trios anywhere, even while accompanying an audio snippet from a Tarkovsky film, dodging Space Invaders laser cannon, and having their session rudely interrupted by cellphone calls.