#^d 2015-05-18 #^h Music Week

Music: Current count 24971 [24940] rated (+31), 407 [402] unrated (+5).

Still closing in on 25,000 records rated -- odds about 50-50 that can be announced next week, although it still seems like a tall order. My "new records" count was way down last week, so the only way I cleared 30 was with "old records" -- more on that below.

Rhapsody Streamnotes appeared last week, so some of the following list was scooped there -- although at this point that seems like a long time ago. Dmitry Baevsky appeared there. The Fred Hersch set was well-regarded from last year, but I wasn't serviced on it and couldn't find it on Rhapsody. Turns out that a friendly publicist did handle the record and a download link showed up in a back catalog mailing. Maybe they figured I shouldn't be bothered with a mainstream piano trio, and that's probably a fair rule. However, it's a damn good one, and not the first A- Hersch has scored (OK, it's the second, along with dozens of eminently fine B+ records). Chris Monsen had it on his A-list last year.

Zooid (Henry Threadgill) will be a serious top-ten list contender. I was tempted to give it a full A, but felt that grade needs more time, and as a double I didn't feel like giving it that much time now -- I think I played one disc twice and the other three times. The group has historically done better in critics polls than on my lists, so go so far as to rank it the current favorite for EOY polls. (Main competition so far is the Lovano-Douglas Sound Prints album, and maybe the Jack DeJohnette title I haven't heard, Made in Chicago.) My list is still topped by Chris Lightcap's Bigmouth: Epicenter, fewer critics have heard it.)

Cracker's Berkeley to Bakersfield was a Christgau pick last week, and I gave it three plays before deciding it fell just short (though had they split it up I would have given the Bakersfield disc an A-). Turns out it was a late 2014 release, getting 1 point in last year's EOY Aggregate. The Willi Williams rasta-reggae disc was also a 2014 release, and didn't make the EOY Aggregate at all. I saw a review in Downbeat and gave it a chance.

Spin published a list last week with their picks for the 300 best albums of 1985-2014. I copied their list down here and added my grades, mostly to get a sense of how much I've missed over the years (initially, 81 records, for 27%). A fair number of those are albums I've been credibly warned against, but still I thought I'd make an effort to fill in the cracks. Working my way down, the Smiths' The Queen Is Dead was number 5 on the list, so I started there, followed by Nas (Illmatic was number 23) and Weezer (their first eponymous album was number 31). I skipped Metallica (Master of Puppets at 34, but not on Rhapsody), and I'm working on U2's Achtung Baby (number 37) as I write this. Coming up: Elliott Smith, Neutral Milk Hotel, Flaming Lips, Björk, Aphex Twin, The Cure, Smashing Pumpkins, Slayer, Bikini Kill (number 80). Given that I've already rated 25 B, 13 B-, and 3 C+ records from the list, I don't expect much, but I also have slightly more than a third (103) at A- or above, now including Illmatic.

I suppose the thing that most disappointed me about the list was the seemingly inevitable first place finish for Nirvana's Nevermind -- a record (and for that matter a group) I find utterly ordinary, totally uninteresting. (I'm on record, after all, saying that I turned to jazz in the mid-1990s in reaction to my disinterest in grunge and gangsta.

Of course, the bigger issue is what's missing, which is quite a lot. Here's a first draft list of 44 omissions (not including jazz or best-ofs or compilations of older music), only one per artist (with some "also" notes). Everything here is A or higher, and I could probably double the list without dipping into A- records.

  1. The Beautiful South: Welcome to the Beautiful South (1990, Go! Discs) -- also 0898 Beautiful South (1992)
  2. Pet Shop Boys: Very (1993, Capitol) -- also Introspective (1988) and Behaviour (1990)
  3. Lily Allen: It's Not Me, It's You (2009, Capitol)
  4. Cornershop: When I Was Born for the Seventh Time (1997, Warner Brothers) -- also Handcream for a New Generation (2002)
  5. Buck 65: Talkin' Honky Blues (2003, Warner Music Canada) -- also Square (2002)
  6. Iris Dement: My Life (1994, Warner Brothers) -- also The Way I Should (1996)
  7. Laurie Anderson: Strange Angels (1989, Warner Brothers)
  8. The Roches: A Dove (1992, MCA)
  9. Jimmie Dale Gilmore: Spinning Around the Sun (1993, Elektra) -- also Jimmie Dale Gilmore (1989)
  10. Lucinda Williams: Car Wheels on a Gravel Road (1998, Polygram) -- list includes Lucinda Williams (1988) -- also Sweet Old World (1992)
  11. Sonic Youth: Dirty (1992, DGC) -- list includes Daydream Nation (1988), Goo (1990), and Sister (1987)
  12. Hurricane Zouk (1988, Earthworks)
  13. Leonard Cohen: Live in London (2008, Columbia) -- also I'm Your Man (1988) and The Future (1992)
  14. Willie Nelson/Hank Snow: Brand on My Heart (1985, Columbia)
  15. Manu Chao: Proxima Estacion: Esperanza (2001, Virgin) -- also Clandestino (1998)
  16. They Might Be Giants: They Might Be Giants (1986, Restless)
  17. The Music in My Head (1998, Sterns)
  18. Camper Van Beethoven: Camper Van Beethoven (1986, IRS)
  19. Maria Muldaur: Richland Woman Blues (2001, Stony Plain)
  20. Los Lobos: Colossal Head (1996, Warner Brothers)
  21. Neneh Cherry: Raw Like Sushi (1989, Virgin)
  22. John Prine: In Spite of Ourselves (1999, Oh Boy) -- also Lost Dogs and Mixed Blessings (1995)
  23. Mzwakhe Mbuli: Resistance Is Defence (1992, Earthworks)
  24. M People: Elegant Slumming (1994, Epic)
  25. Blackalicious: Nia (2000, Quannum Projects)
  26. Guitar Paradise of East Africa (1991, Earthworks)
  27. Bob Dylan: Love and Theft (2001, Columbia)
  28. Neil Young: Freedom (1989, Reprise)
  29. Todd Snider: The Devil You Know (2006, New Door) -- also East Nashville Skyline (2004) and Agnostic Hymns and Stoner Fables (2012)
  30. Amy Rigby: Diary of a Mod Housewife (1996, Koch)
  31. Mavis Staples: We'll Never Turn Back (2007, Anti-)
  32. Youssou N'Dour: Nothing's in Vain (2002, Nonesuch) -- also Rokku Mi Rokka (2007)
  33. Carlene Carter: I Fell in Love (1990, Reprise)
  34. Lyrics Born: Later That Day . . . (2003, Quannum Projects)
  35. The Cucumbers: The Cucumbers (1987, Profile)
  36. Pere Ubu: The Tenement Year (1988, Capitol)
  37. Beats International: Let Them Eat Bingo (1990, Elektra)
  38. Stevie Wonder: Characters (1987, Motown)
  39. The Feelies: Time for a Witness (1991, A&M)
  40. Lost in the Stars: The Music of Kurt Weill (1985, A&M)
  41. Gogol Bordello: Super Taranta! (2007, Side One Dummy)
  42. Pulnoc: City of Hysteria (1991, Arista)
  43. NERD: In Search of . . . (2002, Virgin)
  44. The Streets: Original Pirate Material (2002, Vice/Atlantic)

I went long on the Smiths, partly because I had Michael Tatum's Downloader's Diary Guide. He's more of a fan than I am, and also paid much more attention and writes at much greater depth. I miss his writing since Odyshape closed shop. Bright Eyes placed one record on Spin's list, but I just got to it before the list appeared. I had two of their CDs that I bought used a decade ago and found on the unrated shelf, so I thought I'd do some housekeeping, and wound up checking out the earlier albums for context. The unrated albums are organized better now, and I'll try to do a better job closing them out. (Unlike Bright Eyes, most are freebies I never had any interest in -- lot of soundtracks and gospel albums -- so we'll see.)

New records rated this week:

Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries rated this week:

Old records rated this week:

Grade changes:

Unpacking: Found in the mail last week: