#^d 2014-01-12
#^h Music Week
Music: Current count 24347 [24286] rated (+61), 503 [505] unrated (-2).
It's been cold outside, and I've done very little but cram new lists
into the
EOY Aggregate File and listen
to marginal list picks -- some well-regarded (and often awful), some
quite rare (and occasionally wonderful). And this time they've really
piled up: the 61 in the count above includes a couple corrections for
bookkeeping omissions, but there are still 58 records listed below --
eight per day on average, with all the A- records getting at least
two spins (although few of the ***-HMs got a shot to improve their
lot -- the best prospects are Karen Jonas, Tom Trio, Matt Woods, and
Wild Rockers 3). I will admit I saved a few minutes by hitting
the reject on Ariel Pink -- graded it leniently as a hedge against
missing something, although I hope you don't bother to call me on it.
I did make it all the way through Scott Walker but playing them
back-to-back was a big mistake. For the record, both are tours de
force, conceptually brilliant and catchy in perverse ways -- I can
see why some people love them, or at least find them amusing, but
they perturb the universe in ways I find appalling. Not a lot of
jazz in the list below, although I'm most of the way through the
Polish Fortune (or ForTune or For Tune) albums -- surprisingly
diverse for a label I had pegged as strictly avant.
The Kinks was a diversion. Their albums are gradually coming out
in bonus editions, and I had written up the first three a while back.
I was looking for a new 2-CD compilation on Legacy, but found a 5-CD
box and a 1-CD best-of instead, and didn't really feel like bothering
with either, but I found five more 1966-71 albums -- four I could
swear I once had on LP but only Muswell Hillbillies had been
recorded in the database (B+). For some reason, Arthur (or the
Decline and Fall of the English Empire) (1969) isn't available
(and it looks like only about half of it is on the 5-CD box). I lost
interest in the group shortly after Kink Kronikles (1972),
with only Everybody's in Showbiz (1972: B) and Low Budget
(1979: B+) in the database.
The EOY lists are still a work in progress, but one that should
come to an end soon -- I'll add in Pazz & Jop when it appears
later this week, Christgau's Dean's List whenever that appears, and
maybe I'll drop in my own list (just to give Lily Allen a boost).
Usually at this point the top ranks are stabilizing, even spreading
out a bit, but a funny thing happened when I sorted the list a few
days ago: War on Drugs (the early leader) edged back ahead of FKA
Twigs for the top spot (the current margin is 272-268, with Run the
Jewels a close third with 260, St. Vincent a solid fourth with 246).
The other thing that's happened is that after Caribou, the 6-9 slots
have tightened up and are pretty much dead even at 170-169-167-167
for Sun Kil Moon, Swans, Flying Lotus, and Aphex Twin. Beck is well
back with 148 for 10th, and the next dozen or so albums have been
pretty stable even though the deltas are pretty tight: 145 (Sharon
Van Etten), 142 (Angel Olsen), 139 (Spoon), 130 (Future Islands),
125 (Todd Terje), 123 (Damon Albarn), 120 (Mac DeMarco), 116 (Perfume
Genius), 109 (Taylor Swift), 103 (Lana Del Rey), 102 (Ty Segall),
97 (Jack White), 93 (Freddie Gibbs/Madlib). The only order change
there was Del Rey passing Segall. Below that the list is a bit more
dynamic, with a three-way tie at 88 between Parquet Courts, Real
Estate, and Sturgill Simpson. Further down at 68, D'Angelo is still
rising, most recently passing Scott Walker and Ariel Pink (two of
the year's most horrible albums, by the way).
I haven't been scoring lists, but one I was struck by was David
O'Brien's at
Atlanta Constitution Journal:
his top-50 includes 13 of my A-list albums (D'Angelo, Spoon, Leonard
Cohen, Big KRIT, Mary Gauthier, Dave & Phil Alvin, Ought, The
Delines, Statik Selektah, Parquet Courts, Thurston Moore, Angaleena
Presley, and Cloud Nothings -- make that 14 with Tami Neilson), plus
3 more in the HMs (Rodney Crowell, Miranda Lambert, Billy Joe Shaver).
I also count 7 3-star B+ and 8 more 2-star -- that's where the median
lies. He likes some records I don't (Swans, Sharon Van Etten, Beck,
Jack White, YG), has a minor interest in metal (Mastodon and YOB in
the HMs), doesn't show any jazz or electronica (not even Caribou), or
any of the more narrowly Christgauvian cult items (absence of Wussy
almost certainly means he hasn't heard them).
One more announcement: I've added Francis Davis' annual list of
jazz (and some other) musicians who passed away in 2014 to the
Jazz Critics Poll
website:
Always Say
Goodbye.
Expect a Rhapsody Streamnotes later this week. I've started to
play some 2015 jazz, but mostly I'm still trying to mop up late
finds from 2014.
New records rated this week:
- Alt-J: This Is All Yours (2014, Canvasback/Atlantic): British neo-prog group, makes beguiling chamber pop, pretty, pleasant, the future of elevator music [r]: B
- Grazyna Auguscik Orchestar: Inspired by Lutoslawski (2013 [2014], Fortune): vocalist backed mostly by strings, not something I go for, but not so bad [cd]: B+(*)
- Courtney Barnett: The Double EP: A Sea of Split Peas (2012-13 [2014], Mom + Pop Music): Australian singer-songwriter, not much of an accent [r]: B+(*)
- Gorka Benitez: Gasteiz (2012 [2014], Fresh Sound New Talent): tenor sax trio, sweetened by replacing the bass with Ben Monder's guitar, in turn brings out the flute [r]: B+(**)
- Beverly: Careers (2014, Kanine): lo-fi pop duo, singer-guitarist Drew citron helped out by drummer-singer Frankie Rose (Dum Dum Girls, etc.) [r]: B+(*)
- Jonatha Brooke: My Mothers Has 4 Noses (2014, Bad Dog): songs from a one-woman play, as a daughter faces her mother descending into dementia [r]: A-
- Bushwick Gospel Singers: Songs of Worship Vol. 2 (2014, The Church of Universal Knowing): Peter Stampfel insists he's just a fan, but they sound/play/weird like him [r]: B+(***)
- Billy Childs: Map to the Treasure: Reimagining Laura Nyro (2014, Masterworks): pianist + strings + 10 singers + more retread 10 songs, 2 not so bad [r]: B-
- Theo Croker: AfroPhysicist (2014, Okeh): deliriously scattershot, with Dee Dee Bridgewater singing three, but the trumpet does stand out [r]: B+(*)
- First Aid Kit: Stay Gold (2014, Columbia): Swedish sisters ease up on their folkie act, settle for generic pop, prisoners of their harmonies [r]: B
- Lee Gamble: Koch (2014, Pan, 2CD): [r]: B+(*)
- Steve Gunn: Way Out Weather (2014, Paradise of Bachelors): could be way too smart for the folkie singer-songwriter he presents himself as, but hard to tell [r]: B+(*)
- The Heliocentrics & Melvin Van Peebles: The Last Transmission (2014, Now-Again): spoken word should be more riveting; still sets the spacey beats [r]: B+(***)
- Arve Henriksen: The Nature of Connections (2014, Rune Grammofon): Norwegian trumpet player leads string-laden sextet, chamber jazz quick frozen [r]: B
- Honeyblood: Honeyblood (2014, Fat Cat): two Glasgow girls, rough enough for noise-pop, but the lyrics I caught were mostly cliches, not even camp [r]: B
- The Hotelier: Home, Like Noplace Is There (2014, Tiny Engines): punkish group with higher ambitions but hard to decipher, maybe not worthwhile [r]: B+(*)
- Jachna Tarwid Karch: Sundial (2013-14 [2014], Fortune): flugelhorn-piano-drums trio, slow even for chamber jazz, hoping the harmonies flower [cd]: B+(*)
- Karen Jonas: Oklahoma Lottery (2014, self-released): Virginia singer-songwriter, has poise and a knack for spinning country stories [r]: B+(***)
- Kenosha Kid: Inside Voices (2014 [2015], self-released): Pynchon-reading guitarist from Athens GA leads a sextet, three horns, some kind of postbop [cd]: B
- Khun Narin: Electric Phin Band (2014, Innovative Leisure): Thai group, lead instrument is a 3-stringed lute called a phin, plus bass and three drummers [r]: B+(**)
- Leszek Kulakowski Ensemble: Looking Ahead (2014, Fortune): third-stream pianist, not that classical and jazz mean anything different anymore [cd]: B+(**)
- The Lawrence Arms: Metropole (2014, Epitaph): Chicago post-punk group, perhaps mellowed with age but can still talk the talk, er, rant [r]: B+(**)
- Little Big Town: Pain Killer (2014, Capitol Nashville): wouldn't you expect Nashville's Mamas & Papas to have family values? what about personalities? [r]: C+
- Jan Lundgren: All By Myself (2014, Fresh Sound): bebop-oriented Swedish pianist rehearses fourteen standards, played solo, straight, lovely [r]: B+(**)
- Magnolia Acoustic Quartet: Cinderella (2012 [2014], Fortune): Polish group, pianist Kuba Sokolowski de facto leader, plus sax, bass, drums [cd]: B+(**)
- Microwaves: Regurgitant Phenomena (2014, New Atlantis): Pittsburgh noise/post-punk group, songs short, vocals buried so deep they hardly matter [r]: B
- Myrczek & Tomaszewski: Love Revisited (2013 [2014], Fortune): Wojciech M., a Sinatra-ish crooner, backed by pianist Pawel T., do standards and scat [cd]: B+(*)
- Tami Neilson: Red Dirt Angel (2008, self-released): New Zealand's country princess faces Nashville demons and slips in "Missin' the Groom" joke [bc]: B+(**)
- Tami Neilson: Dynamite! (2014, self-released): short but diverse: honky tonk, rockabilly, folkie duet, paean to Texas, title cut beyond category [bc]: A-
- Charlie Parr: Hollandale (2014, Chaperone): folk guitarist in the Fahey-Kottke tradition throws in a little Son House for resonance [r]: B+(*)
- Perfect Pussy: Say Yes to Love (2014, Captured Tracks): maybe if they hadn't formed to play a band in a movie they'd try to be more, you know, musical [r]: B-
- Ariel Pink: Pom Pom (2014, 4AD): lo-fi eclecticism yields fantastic range of upbeat kitsch, not without humor but I'm less sure of humanity [r]: C-
- PRhyme [Royce da 5'9"/DJ Premier]: PRhyme (2014, PRhyme/Universal): classic turntablism, but the bitch rants, money grubbing, and don't-give-a-f take their toll [r]: B+(**)
- Protomartyr: Under Color of Official Right (2014, Hardly Art): Detroit post-punk, hooks similar to the Fall's, but lacks the accent/class analysis [r]: B+(**)
- Royal Blood: Royal Blood (2014, Warner Brothers): leave it to the aristocracy to make such utterly basic, chord-crunching rock & roll [r]: B
- Ruby: Waiting for Light (2014, Fireweed): UK singer-songwriter Lesley Rankine carries on, eclectic, means sometimes it works, unpredictably [bc]: B+(**)
- Linda Sharrock: No Is No: Don't Fuck Around With Your Women (2014, Improvising Beings, 2CD): 45 years after debut, band supplies old avant, she adds attitude [cd]: B+(***)
- Emilio Solla y La Inestable de Brooklyn: Second Half (2013 [2014], self-released): Argentinian tango meets Brooklyn horns and Meg Okura's violin [cd]: B+(**)
- St. Paul & the Broken Bones: Half the City (2014, Single Lock): more than Sam Phillips was shopping for in the '50s, but that value has depreciated [r]: B+(*)
- Sylvan Esso: Sylvan Esso (2014, Partisan): singer Amelia Heath, electronics wiz Nick Sanborn, America's answer to trip-hop, meaning no sense of impending doom [r]: B+(*)
- Throttle Elevator Music: Area J (2013 [2014], Wide Hive): fusion brought indoors, call it "garage jazz," a rockish platform for Kamasi Washington's sax [r]: B+(**)
- Tom Trio: Radical Moves (2013 [2014], Fortune): Tomasz Dabrowski's avant trumpet trio -- Nils Bo Davidsen on bass, Anders Mogensen on drums [cd]: B+(***)
- Trzy Dni Pozniej: Pokoj Jej Cieniom (2014, Fortune): vocal trio, three Polish women, backed by electronics and viola, serious but not cloying [cd]: B+(**)
- Viet Cong: Cassette (2014, Mexican Summer): [r]: B
- Scott Walker + Sunn O))): Soused (2014, 4AD): insufferably operatic singer emotes over the ambient drone of horror movies; is this a joke? [r]: C
- Don Williams: Reflections (2014, Sugar Hill): back on Sugar Hill, the perfect retirement home for a guy who never made a hit look like work [r]: B+(*)
- Hank Williams III: Ramblin' Man (1999-2010 [2014], Curb, EP): third post-contract album Cub put together, 7 cuts, shit they'd hate if they didn't own it [r]: B+(*)
- Matt Woods: With Love From Brushy Mountain (2014, Lonely Ones): Knoxville country singer, goes out of his way to make his career difficult [r]: B+(***)
- Waclaw Zimpel To Tu Orchestra: Nature Moves (2014, Fortune): works minimalist themes into something sublime, then adds free jazz energy [cd]: A-
Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries rated this week:
- Arkansas at 78 RPM: Corn Dodgers & Hoss Hair Pullers (1928-37 [2014], Dust-to-Digital): enticing pickings from unknowns, the scratch groove feels like my roots [r]: A-
- Keb Darge & Little Edith's Legendary Wild Rockers (1958-64 [2011], BBE): 2011 comp started annual series, rockabilly hot but a little weirder [r]: B+(**)
- Keb Darge & Little Edith's Legendary Wild Rockers 3 (1956-66 [2013], BBE): third volume of crackling obscurities edges slightly into stoned surf [r]: B+(***)
- Native North America, Vol. 1: Aboriginal Folk, Rock, and Country 1966-1985 (1966-85 [2014], Light in the Attic, 2CD): 2cd survey of Native American musicians, not that different [r]: B+(*)
- Sun Ra and His Blue Universe Arkestra: Universe in Blue (1971-72 [2013], El Saturn): two good cuts (one a black power anthem), three were they get lost [r]: C+
Old records rated this week:
- The Kinks: Face to Face (1966 [2004], Sanctuary): [r]: B+(**)
- The Kinks: Something Else by the Kinks (1967 [2004], Sanctuary): [r]: B+(**)
- The Kinks: The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society (1968 [1998], Sanctuary): [r]: B+(***)
- The Kinks: Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One (1970 [2004], Sanctuary): [r]: B
Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:
- Gene Argel: Luminescent (Origin): January 20
- Joey Calderazzo: Going Home (Sunnyside): March 31
- Chamber 3: Grassroots (OA2): January 20
- George Colligan & Theoretical Planets: Risky Notion (Origin): January 20
- Hypercolor (Tzadik): advance, January 20
- Renaud Penant Trio: Want to Be Happy (ITI Music)
- Denia Ridley & the Marc Devine Trio: Afterglow (ITI Music): January 20
- Marc Seales: American Songs Volume 3: Place & Time (Origin): January 20
- Gebhard Ullmann Basement Research: Hat and Shoes (Between the Lines): February 10
- Joanna Wallfisch with Dan Tepfer: The Origin of Adjustable Things (Sunnyside): March 3