Staff Picks for September 2020
September 30, 2020
Saint Vitus' second album with singer Scott "Wino" Weinrich confirmed he was the ideal vocalist for the band. The gritty resignation and throaty, fevered force of his voice meshes perfectly with Dave Chandler's howl-in-a-void guitar work, and his lyrics lend the songs an unblinking street-level attitude that gives the tunes a wildly potent force, even on the token fantasy piece "Dragon Time."
September 29, 2020
Influenced by a lineage of sexually charged rappers, but bringing an updated flow all her own, Megan Thee Stallion delivered her first fully formed tracks with 2018's brief but powerful Tina Snow mixtape. Overflowing with confidence, booming production, and hypersexualized lyrics, each of the ten tracks here hits hard and finds Megan Thee Stallion calmly adjusting her crown after tearing through rhymes as hungry as they are vulgar.
September 28, 2020
Get Nervous was the most melodic album Pat Benatar had done since In the Heat of the Night, which isn't to say it's a return to new wave-ish leanings; in fact, songs like "Anxiety (Get Nervous)," "The Victim," and "Silent Partners" are intense, forceful jewels that rock aggressively. But at the same time, the album's pop elements and strong emphasis on melody leave no doubt that the last thing on Benatar's mind was recording another Crimes of Passion.
September 27, 2020
With the Ramones' original drummer producing, the group returns to simple, scathing punk rock. The group takes the big guitar riffs of Subterranean Jungle and makes them shorter and heavier. The results read like a reaction to hardcore punk, but the Ramones are more melodic than any hardcore band, as well as smarter than most. It's a sterling set of lethal punk, the best the Ramones had made since the end of the '70s.
September 26, 2020
Released in 1976, Coltrane's second outing for Warner Bros. was a departure from jazz almost entirely. A set of Hindu devotional songs and chants, the album is remarkable for its utter joy, transcendent beauty, open space, and warmth.
September 25, 2020
Before he crossed over into funk and fusion, vibraphonist Roy Ayers recorded this expansive, harmonically textured 1967 album, Virgo Vibes. Showcasing a formidably adventurous band with trumpeter Charles Tolliver, saxophonist Joe Henderson, bassist Reggie Workman, and drummer Bruno Carr, it also featured pianist Herbie Hancock (slyly dipping in under the pseudonym Ronnie Clark). Along with Tolliver's hard-driving "The Ringer," Ayers dives into a handful of his own compositions, including the spectral, slow-burning, title-track blues.
September 24, 2020
This set of fairly deep-dive '60s and '70s covers spans John Denver, Chubby Checker, and Kraftwerk but maintains a druggy, bittersweet reverie in tune with its creators. Recorded on a four-track cassette recorder for fun while hanging out at Swift's home in 2010, highlights include an ominous take on Sherman Edwards' "Outside My Window," originally recorded by the Fleetwoods, and Jurado's earnest take on the Checker organ hymn "If the Sun Stops Shinin’."
September 23, 2020
The CD reissue of King Missile's third album includes the entirety of their debut, which doesn't really make sense because each record was made by an entirely different lineup, and both sound quite different. Fluting on the Hump had more of a warped beatnik folk vibe, while Mystical Shit was closer to the slam poetry avant-rock they'd become famous for in the early '90s. Still, this is well worth owning simply because it contains "Jesus Was Way Cool," "Cheesecake Truck," "Sensitive Artist," and "Take Stuff from Work" in one place.
September 22, 2020
The lackadaisical trajectory of Tom Verlaine's solo career has puzzled fans for decades. However, his second post-Television LP, 1981's Dreamtime, was one effort where he sounded fully engaged, writing and soloing with the strength and fury he could summon at his best, and with a production that was hard enough to give this the punch he needed and clear enough to put him and his accompanists in tight focus. Easily his best solo release.
September 21, 2020
This early set demonstrates the full range of the slide guitarist’s talents, on his chosen instrument as well as banjo, harmonica and the Indian veena in a program that weds into American blues and Indian traditional music offered with an improviser’s command. Check his inventive readings of “Death Don’t Have No Mercy,” Jimi Hendrix’s "Foxy Lady,” and B.B. King’s “The Thrill Is Gone.”
September 20, 2020
Mixing the dusky romanticism of Dexter Gordon and the progressive tonal ideology of John Coltrane, Booker Ervin is often filed under "A" for amalgam alongside other overlooked tenor masters such as Tina Brooks and Hank Mobley. Structurally Sound is perhaps not Ervin's most provocative album, but a solid and tasty endeavor featuring the suspended chord sounds popularized by McCoy Tyner during the late '60s.
September 19, 2020
Reviled upon release -- and likely still! -- by diehards, the band's eyeliner-and-nipple-ring '90s rebirth confirmed every purists' darkest fears: the black album was simply the first step away from the '80s thrash days and into the dreaded alternative hard rock realm. Regardless, this LP introduced the quartet to a new generation of fans and deserves credit for extending the group's legacy into arguably their peak mainstream era. Revisit the singles and album standout "Bleeding Me."
September 18, 2020
Though his work with the Beatles is widely known, with the exception of his orchestral scores for Yellow Submarine and Live and Let Die, little of Martin's own music had been recorded or released prior to this 2017 set by the Berlin Music Ensemble, under the direction of Craig Leon. Among the selections are unused sketches for the 1986 film The Mission (ultimately scored by Ennio Morricone), his Bach-inspired Prelude for Strings, and an overture based on incidental music for Dylan Thomas' play Under Milk Wood.
September 17, 2020
Released near the end of Guided by Voices' original 1985-2004 run, this compilation is no longer the career-spanning marvel it once was, since GbV have released sixteen albums (many quite good) since it came out. But it's still the finest introduction available to Robert Pollard's concise prog-pop songcraft and the abundant charms of his various accompanists. These 32 songs may only scratch the surface of the catalog, but not a single one disappoints.
September 16, 2020
Ridiculously bright and hooky, the band's 2015 album is stadium-sized alt/rock that has all the warmth of a perfect summer day and all the sugary snap of bubblegum that stays fresh 2x longer than the leading brands. The band has made tougher records, weirder records, and more adventurous ones too; they've not made one more enjoyable.
September 15, 2020
A largely unknown artist, Tia Blake was an unassuming folk singer who stumbled into a recording contract in the early '70s. This rare document of her work sits perfectly alongside the looming stillness of Sibylle Baier and the melancholic ramble of Karen Dalton or Jackson C. Frank.
September 14, 2020
The supposed result of a survey regarding the American population's musical likes and dislikes, The People's Choice Music is one of the avant-garde world's greatest pranks, particularly for the 22-minute post-modern opus "The Most Unwanted Song." An operatic cowgirl rapping about Wittgenstein! Kids screaming about where to do your holiday shopping over a drum machine-driven polka beat! Lots of bagpipes, tubas, accordions, and sporadic noise bursts! Adding to the absurdity, someone reissued this masterpiece on 8-track tape this year.
September 13, 2020
Cut for the Shelter label in 1973, before Rogers gained some exposure on RCA and Columbia, the eponymous album features plenty of the gospel-inflected soul the singer/producer/arranger would become known for. In fact, the bulk here is squarely bent on the kind of community-driven positivism found in the black church. And the music certainly reflects the lofty sentiments, as strings, choral singing, and urbane soul grooves ensure a truly inspired mix.
September 12, 2020
When Lesley Gore recorded California Nights in 1967, it had only been two years since her last big hit, "Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows," but it felt like even longer due to the shifting trends of the late '60s. Assisted by producers Bob Crewe and Quincy Jones (who is responsible for three cuts, all arranged by Jack Nitzche), Gore dove right into the fashionable sounds of Los Angeles in 1967. It was hardly hippie and not quite psychedelic, but those trippy sounds were certainly in the air and can be heard via fuzz guitars, mind-bending echoes, and whirling strings, all tempered by a good dose of go-go beats and middle of the road pop.
September 11, 2020
Two years after the groundbreaking Shahen Shah, Nusrat returned to Peter Gabriel's Real World studio to record this set of four powerhouse pieces. Here, on the qawwali star's most electrifying international release, it's clear even to the naïve listener that he's stretching the boundaries of that tradition, embracing his own present even as he honors his ancestors' past.
September 10, 2020
Some gospel albums are intended to offer reassurance that we can all find salvation in the Lord's loving embrace. The Louvin Brothers were not having that in 1959's Satan Is Real; these songs declare Satan has power to equal that of God, and that a grim fate awaits those who fail to repent. The superb close harmonies and heartfelt performances of Charlie & Ira Louvin make this compelling listening, but anyone looking for ironic amusement will get a lot more than they bargained for.
September 9, 2020
The first full-length effort from the Los Angeles-based group administers a healthy dose of '90s nostalgia via a confectionery blend of lo-fi post-punk, grunge, and Pavement-y indie rock. Both lumbering and incisive, Goon excels at crafting sinewy melodies that favor left turns, but never abandon their melodic intent.
September 8, 2020
Session vocalist Karyn White scored a hit in 1986 by lending her vocals to the Jeff Lorber track "Facts of Love." Not long after, her self-titled solo debut propelled her to pop stardom, and was one of the first albums to solidify Babyface and L.A. Reid as top-notch songwriters. The album was lush, state-of-the-art pop-R&B at its finest, and scored no less than three pop Top Ten hits.
September 7, 2020
Sonic Youth's seventh album and second for a major label arrived at the crest of the early '90s grunge wave. While some moments find the band awkwardly trying to contort their detuned guitar sprawl to fit the post-Nirvana alt rock trend that was in full swing, Dirty's best songs are those that expand on the eerie, autumnal presence that was at the band's core from the beginning. Major label budgets afforded them more time in better studios to flesh out the turbulent, haunted cornfield vibes that connect Dirty's moments of heavy atmosphere with its big, dumb rock songs.
September 6, 2020
Jazz purists howled with indignation at the issue of this head-on, full-fledged foray into R&B. Branded a traitor to his hard bop credentials--especially after this became the biggest-selling album in Blue Note history, the Larry Mizell-produced outing that showcased a transitional moment for fusion as it stepped out from Miles Davis’s shadow to embrace danceable funk, disco and soul as natural extensions of and siblings of the jazz idiom.
September 5, 2020
Although some of its Y2K production elements feel a bit dated, Sade's fifth outing contains plenty of strong songwriting and a warm heartfelt tone that dovetails nicely with its increased emphasis on guitar-driven folk, soul, and reggae influences.
September 4, 2020
Everyone knows "Magic" but the band wasn't strictly a one-hit wonder. Their debut album is filled with rollicking late period Beatles pop, sparkling soft rock ballads, a snappy tunes touched lightly by prog influences. Not essential by any means, but worth delving into next time you hear "Magic" and wonder if the band did anything else good.
September 3, 2020
Like its sibling record released just a year prior, this sequel set provides Load fans with more of the same straight-up, muscular hard rock to make the purists tremble with rage. In some respects a better album than its predecessor, this set takes some weird stylistic risks (the Marianne Faithfull-backed "The Memory Remains," the hurdy-gurdy backed "Low Man's Lyric") while delivering tried-and-true crowd-pleasers ("Fuel") and some more traditional heavy metal blasts ("Devil's Dance," "Better Than You").
September 2, 2020
Mudhoney was most convincing when the 7" recording format limited their more indulgent tendencies. In general (especially early on), their albums were always peppered with great songs, but rarely sustained momentum all the way through. The sorely needed, two-disc best-of March to Fuzz attempts to have it both ways: the first disc is a generous, 22-track overview of their recordings from 1988-1998, while the second compiles 30 rarities for the devotees.
September 1, 2020
Incorporating their signature sound into their name (dance + jazz = Dazz), the Cleveland combo made their debut on Motown with this hot slice of funky R&B and sweet slow jams that would make them the toast of discos and roller rinks coast to coast.