Staff Picks for September 2024
September 30, 2024
Though the bulk of this session features the marvelous trumpet/tenor tandem of Donald Byrd and Hank Mobley, it is drummer Art Blakey whose demonstrative presence is heard in full force. This album of contrasts, depth, and spirit showcases Clark's dual concepts brilliantly, and is only a half step below his best.
September 29, 2024
The Velvet Teen manage to keep that nice pop sensibility that made them
great in the first place while still continuing to develop their sound
and their musical vision, something that often stumps other bands. Cum
Laude is fun and emotional without being trite, challenging and
intelligent without being difficult, progressive without being abstract.
September 28, 2024
Having enjoyed Dillinger's bombastic, grindy punk debut mini-album, Calculating Infinity, released 25 years ago today, seems ten times more explosive and brilliant, as it spews forth anger and venomous misery in a way that is comparable only to spontaneous combustion.
September 27, 2024
Where Songs for Singles was a chance for them to work out the kinks and find their feet again, Harmonicraft finds Torche taking off at full speed with an album packed full of driving riffs and soaring melody that's going to have an easy time convincing fans that the band hasn't lost a step after losing a member.
September 26, 2024
Like Eric Dolphy before him, Jackie McLean sought to create a kind of vanguard "chamber jazz" that still had the blues feel and -- occasionally -- the groove of hard bop, though with rounded, moodier edges. Destination Out! was the album on which he found it.
September 25, 2024
Nightmares...and Other Tales From the Vinyl Jungle, released 50 years ago today, spawned the biggest Atlantic hit for the J. Geils Band, the wonderfully obsessive, questioning dilemma titled "Must of Got Lost." Here the Geils Band are at the peak of their powers in the days prior to Freeze Frame and lustful songs like "Centerfold."
September 24, 2024
The Mavericks fully hit their stride with their third album, 1994's What a Crying Shame, in which the band's blend of rootsy country and vintage pop sounds finally found the balance they'd been searching for.
September 23, 2024
From the early days of electronic experimentation in the pop field, Klaus Schulze's second solo album still today it stands as one of the most powerful examples of ambient pulse music ever conceived.
September 22, 2024
A veritable greatest-hits album, The Wildest! is the gem of Louis Prima's catalogue. None of his other efforts transcend its raunchy mix of demented gibberish, blaring sax, and explosive swing, which rocked as hard as anything released at the time.
September 21, 2024
Whenever Reznor crafts delicate, alternately haunting and pretty soundscapes or interesting sonic juxtapositions, The Fragile, released 25 years ago today, is compelling. Since they provide a change of pace, the bursts of industrial noise assist the flow of the album, which never feels indulgent, even though it runs over 100 minutes.
September 20, 2024
Much of this album, released on George Harrison's Dark Horse Records label 50 years ago today, actually sounds like very good Badfinger outtakes. Splinter deserved to be remembered, but so far their recognition has only come from the hardcore underground network of Beatles enthusiasts.
September 19, 2024
Aside from a handful of singles and split releases, The Over-The-Phone Lie Detector Test Live With Jesus Christ is the only full-length LP from Detroit’s This Robot Kills. The album serves as a snapshot of a band that felt either 20 years too late or 10 years too early, depending on who you asked. Released at the tail end of the band’s existence, TRK’s abrasive post-punk and damaged electronics excited some and alienated others within Michigan’s DIY community.
September 18, 2024
Jazz-infused vocals, haunting instrumentals, and deeply wistful lyrics dominate Laufey's sophomore album Bewitched. Cycling between love and loss, longing and change, this album oozes with a delightfully bossa-nova personality, offering intimate glimpses into the artist’s personal experiences. In honor of "A Very Laufey Day" in September, consider stepping into your own little cloud and sinking into the gentle sway of "From the Start".
September 17, 2024
The single most influential album of Western songs in post-World War II American music, Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs (released 75 years ago this month) touched a whole range of unexpected bases in its own time and has endured extraordinarily well across the ensuing decades.
September 16, 2024
On this album, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this month, the harsh moments are part of a greater and far more diverse musical universe, they are shards in the prism of the deep and burning soul that these six compositions offer so freely. Of the many recordings Rivers has done, this was the very first to showcase the full range of his many gifts. It is an underrated masterpiece and among the most rewarding and adventurous listening experiences in the history of jazz.
September 15, 2024
A surprisingly upbeat and poppy album from these twee Glaswegian songsmiths, largely attributable to producer Trevor Horn who helmed classic releases from ABC and Frankie Goes to Hollywood. Where their previous records were intimate masterpieces of warm cardigans and aloof misery, Dear Catastrophe Waitress celebrates with sunny flutes, shining string sections, and odes to Mike Piazza.
September 14, 2024
Childbirth staked their claim as the world's funniest feminist punk band with 2015's Women's Rights, and like the best jokes, their songs generate the most laughs when they reflect unpleasant (or at least annoying) truths. Neanderthal tech bros, the horrors of dating apps, the indignity of having parents, aggressive fertility, and the profound decadence of self-care are all grist for their lyrical mill, and their no-frills, garage-y rock seriously amplifies the fun.
September 13, 2024
On his third album, released 50 years ago today, Jackson Browne returned to the themes of his debut record (love, loss, identity, apocalypse) and, amazingly, delved even deeper into them. If Browne had seemed to question everything in his first records, here he even questioned himself. It was a lot to put into a pop music album, but Browne stretched the limits of what could be found in what he called "the beauty in songs," just as Bob Dylan had a decade before.
September 12, 2024
Tom Harrell's career bloomed in the '90s as the one time Horace Silver trumpeter gained wider appreciation for his extended melodic lines and soft, painterly harmonies. Yet, he was also a gifted composer and arranger, skills he showcased on Art of Rhythm, framing his warm tone with a kaleidoscopic blend of Brazilian, Afro-Cuban and Flamenco sounds.
September 11, 2024
Selecting a great Dwight Yoakam album is as simple as picking any Dwight Yoakam album. His drawling yowl drips with emotion whether on a love song or a lament, highlighted particularly by the anthemic "movin' on" song "Things Change" with its chiming Bakersfield guitars and sing-song choruses.
September 10, 2024
Randy Newman's songwriting often walks a narrow line between intelligent satire and willful cruelty, and that line was never finer than on the album Good Old Boys, released 50 years ago today. Newman had long displayed a fascination with the American South, and Good Old Boys was a song cycle where he gave free rein to his most imaginative (and venomous) thoughts on the subject.
September 9, 2024
This Return to Forever set, celebrating its 50th anniversary this month, finds guitarist Al DiMeola debuting with the pacesetting fusion quartet, an influential unit that also featured keyboardist Chick Corea, electric bassist Stanley Clarke and drummer Lenny White.
September 8, 2024
Modern Life Is Rubbish established Blur as the heir to the archly British pop of the Kinks, the Small Faces, and the Jam, but its follow-up, Parklife, revealed the depth of that transformation. Relying more heavily on Ray Davies' seriocomic social commentary, as well as new wave, Parklife runs through the entire history of post-British Invasion Britpop in the course of 16 songs, touching on psychedelia, synth pop, disco, punk, and music hall along the way.
September 7, 2024
As the sprawling magnitude of its cheeky title suggests, 69 Love Songs, released 25 years ago today, is Stephin Merritt's most ambitious as well as most fully realized work to date, a three-disc epic of classically chiseled pop songs that explore both the promise and pitfalls of modern romance through the jaundiced eye of an irredeemable misanthrope.
September 6, 2024
Released 50 years ago today, the follow-up to the breakthrough Headhunters album was virtually as good as its wildly successful predecessor: an earthy, funky, yet often harmonically and rhythmically sophisticated tour de force. This supertight jazz-funk quintet album still sounds invigorating a half-century later.
September 5, 2024
With the post-punk revival showing no signs of slowing down, it's high time to revisit Erase Errata's live-wire take on the style. Dominated by Jenny Hoyston's sharply sneered vocals and Sara Jaffe's careening guitar, the band's 2001 debut album is as volatile and exciting a statement of purpose as you're likely to hear -- and still bristles with a righteous fury and sense of humor 2020s post-punkers would do well to emulate.
September 4, 2024
When they hit the major labels, Urge Overkill followed through on their promise with the blistering Saturation. It's stadium rock by clever post-punkers who are smart enough to not let their carefully crafted image interfere with the music. Every one of the 12 songs is a killer, from the outlandish menace of "Stalker" to the moving ballad "Back on Me," as well as the tongue-in-cheek "Woman 2 Woman" and the radio hit "Sister Havana."
September 3, 2024
If the Byrds weren't the best American rock group of the 1960s, they were at least in the Top Five, and if you want to chart their progress from folkies dipping their toes into rock & roll to seasoned survivors of pre-Americana country rock, There Is A Season is an excellent beginner's guide. All the hits, rare demos and outtakes, fine live material, and even a DVD of vintage television appearances – this has it all.
September 2, 2024
The music here is not Ellington re-arranged or re-conceived, or an attempt to bring back the big band era. Why Westbrook titled his record is anybody's guess. This music is ingenious. The composer wrote five thematic musical conversations for a large band in the process of creating a new harmonic language.
September 1, 2024
Fluxion's ambitious double-CD, compiling two Chain Reaction-issued EPs along with previously unreleased material, pushes the limits of dub techno, introducing sounds and rhythms that aren't common within the style. If you've absorbed the Basic Channel discography and Porter Ricks' Biokinetics, this is your next step.