Author: Nick Rubin

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Album reviews: Allah-Las, Julien Chang, Various artists, Gong Gong Gong, and Tomeka Reid Quartet

Tomeka Reid Quartet's Old New is a stunner on every level. Image: Jasmine Kwong.

Allah-Las

Las (Mexican Summer)

On their fourth LP, L.A.’s Allah-Las don’t seem in any hurry to alter their psychedelic slacker twang. In fact, they don’t seem in any particular hurry at all; the baker’s dozen of songs lopes along with nary a hitch, everything a pleasant if slightly dulled blend of Beck and White Fence. It’s not that it doesn’t sound great—guitars chime and jangle, Miles Michaud gently intones oblique lyrics, nobody gets hurt. But there’s an underlying ennui, as Las seems tailor-made for sunny afternoons when you close your laptop but then can’t quite figure out what you want to do. Allah-Las play D.C.’s Black Cat on November 16. [7.1]

https://allah-las.bandcamp.com/album/lahs

Julien Chang

Jules (Transgressive)

With his homemade debut, Baltimore native Julien Chang stakes a claim to prodigy status. Chang played virtually every note on Jules and the album is a modest tour de force, from the gorgeously shape-shifting baroque guitar passage that opens “Deep Green” to the bedroom prog of “Moving Parts.” Meantime, Chang’s vocals embody what the kids call “indie” these days, floating above the tracks with performative melancholy and bashfulness. For all its promise, Jules still feels more like an exercise than an album—but Chang sounds like he could deliver a keeper, and at 20, he should get plenty of chances. [7.6]

https://smarturl.it/jchang_jules

Various artists

If Music Presents You Need This: A Journey Into Deep Jazz Vol. 3 (BBE Music)

Formerly of the production team The Amalgamation of Soundz and an OG rave DJ, Jean-Claude compiles the You Need This series out of his London record shop, If Music. As you’d expect, he’s an astute crate digger, so “deep jazz” probably just refers to deep cuts—but there’s a stylistic consistency here, and it’s possible Jean-Claude is labeling a subgenre. If so, an alternate tag could be “tropical hard bop”—Coltraneisms mixed with spy jazz, served in a coconut. There’s some engaging stuff by trombonist Tyrone Jefferson and should-be-legendary drummer Beaver Harris (Thelonious Monk, Albert Ayler, etc), and the rest almost lives up to the hype of the title. [6.6]

https://bbemusic.bandcamp.com/album/if-music-presents-you-need-this-a-journey-into-deep-jazz-vol-3

Gong Gong Gong

Phantom Rhythm (Wharf Cat)

Though duo Gong Gong Gong calls Beijing home, this isn’t “Chinese punk”—bassist Joshua Frank grew up in Montreal, while guitarist/singer Tom Ng hails from Hong Kong and sings in Cantonese, rather than the mainland’s dominant Mandarin. Moreover, within Gong Gong Gong’s minimal scuzz are hints of the Sahara and New York, including unmistakable Talking Heads and Liquid Liquid quotes. If this makes Phantom Rhythm sound like a global rock slide show, it ain’t—the grooves lock and lumber, with nary a harmonic change in sight, much less a middle eight, and the 10 tracks also clock in at virtually the same tempo. There’s enough spunk to sustain the monotony for a while, but just. [6.8]

https://gonggonggong.bandcamp.com/album/phantom-rhythm

Tomeka Reid Quartet

Old New (Cuneiform)

It’s always a good sign when you’ve got a MacArthur fellow playing guitar in your band. On Old New, cellist Tomeka Reid leads a quartet including “genius” grantee Mary Halvorson through nine tracks of fierce yet playful avant jazz, and it’s a stunner on every level. As the quartet stretches and twists Reid’s profuse melodic ideas, its
interplay makes composition sound like improvisation and vice versa. Reid and Halvorson are joined by bassist Jason Roebke and drummer Tomas Fujiwara, and the hornless quartet’s timbral palette is warm and woodsy even when Halvorson lays down blistering chordal leads. And while Reid’s compositional and technical gifts
transcend jazz, they exemplify the tradition wondrously. [9.5]

https://cuneiformrecords.bandcamp.com/album/old-new

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Album reviews: Lynda Dawn, Lindstrøm, Babe Rainbow, Drew Holcomb & the Neighbors, and Brittany Howard

Brittany Howard's solo record, "Jaime," is our critic's favorite this week. Publicity photo

Lynda Dawn

At First Light (Akashik)

The first sounds on Lynda Dawn’s debut EP—a fat keyboard bass line and synthetic handclaps and claves —come straight from the ’80s glory days of electrosoul. And as it turns out, so do all the other sounds, including the U.K. singer’s sultry, gospel-tinged vocals. On At First Light Dawn plays it straight for 20 minutes of unrepentant quiet storm smoothness, and if nothing jumps out as a radio single or a world-beating hook, there’s also nary an unpleasurable moment. (Well, the breakdown in “Theme for Cha-Cha” suggests Return to Forever interpreting the “Price is Right” theme song—but that actually kinda sounds good too, right?) [8.3]

 

Lindstrøm

On a Clear Day I Can See You Forever (Smalltown Supersound)

Meantime, Lindstrøm points back to early-’70s electronic experimentation with the inspired On a Clear Day, as the prolific Norwegian producer ditches laptops for vintage synths on four extended instrumental tracks that are less dancefloor and more chill-out room. “Really Deep Snow” could be an outtake from Tangerine Dream’s hallucinogenic masterpiece Phaedra, and even if Lindstrøm’s compositions and improvisations don’t dissolve your ego, they’ll still feed your head. [7.7]

 

Babe Rainbow

Today (30th Century)

The hirsute surfer boys from Australia kick out more breezy jams on their third diverse, companionable album in three years. Today features the fetching acoustic guitar ditty “Butter” and the Donovan-does-tropicália “Morning Song,” and gets juicy with the shaggy Fela Kuti homage “Electrocuted” and “The Wedge,” which rides billowing easy-jazz piano chords into a chopped and screwed spoken section that’s like some impossibly friendly Butthole Surfers track. The nature boys do stumble, notably on the elegiac but torpid closer “For Your Eyes Only” (not a cover), but overall, Today goes lightly and sweetly. [7.6]

 

Drew Holcomb & the Neighbors

Dragons (Thirty Tigers)

Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors are on a mission: help some white people forget their problems. Dragons leads off with “Family,” and if there’s fleeting wryness (“Going on vacation / on the credit card”), there’s a lot of Family Circus imagery too—laughing in the rain, kicking off shoes to dance—all chanted over an overproduced mutant square dance/Irish jig. It’s facile, it’s corny, and yikes, it’s a high point. “End of the World” matches horrible pop schmaltz to its fatuous message: It’s the end of the world, so smoke, drink, party. There’s yet more benighted pap—Holcomb puts rich and poor in the same boat to let them know “You Want What You Can’t Have,” and offers “you got this!” bromides on the title track, which, by the way, is literally “The Gambler” slowed down with different lyrics. Know when to run, y’all. [4.9]

 

Brittany Howard

Jaime (ATO)

Alabama Shakes presented so coherently as a band that it almost obscured lead singer Brittany Howard’s singular talent (as did Howard’s throwaway spin-off group Thunderbitch, for different reasons). But with Jaime, Howard doesn’t just throw down the gauntlet, she slaps your face silly with it, and basically puts her own face on a mural next to D’Angelo, Erykah Badu, Prince, and even Nina Simone. And her band admirably keeps up—but hey, her band is Robert Glasper on keys, Shakes bassist Zac Cockrell, and jazz luminary Nate Smith (a VCU grad!) on drums. If there’s a head-scratching element of Jaime, it’s Howard’s predilection for concussive production, which would obliterate weaker tunes and voices. But Howard’s voice is a shelter in the storm, and on delicate numbers like “Stay High” and “Short and Sweet,” she’s a revelation. [8.7]

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Album reviews: Lana Del Rey, C. Keys & Kazi, Sheer Mag, Ghost Funk Orchestra, and Chali 2na & Krafty Kuts

Chali 2na and Krafty Kuts are a perfect match on Adventures of a Reluctant Superhero. Publicity image.

Lana Del Rey

Norman Fucking Rockwell! (Universal)

Lana Del Rey takes a turn at pillow-
soft rock on NFR, the product of a partnership with Jack Antonoff—late of the annoyingly-named fun., and an erstwhile Taylor Swift and Lorde collaborator. The songs here are slow and subdued, dominated by patient piano—they’re well suited for Del Rey to intimately coo her wistful tales of romantic woe. A parallel longing underpins Del Rey’s continued obsession with the spirits of ’70s Los Angeles as she name-checks Crosby, Stills & Nash and the Eagles; musically limns “After the Gold Rush” and “Blue”; and impishly titles one song “Cinnamon Girl.” The musical payoff ain’t quite there for me, but I gotta say it’s pretty darn L.A. the way Del Rey unites the deep and shallow, wrapping vignettes of emotional, even existential, weight in glossy paper and bows. [7.5]

C. Keys & Kazi

Keys 2 Kazi (Below System)

Rapper C. Keys and producer Kazi come from California’s relative wilds of Sacramento and Oxnard. They collab-
orated as far back as 2004, but this is their first album together. The main attraction here is Kazi, whose whimsical collage and mood control recall Madlib (he and Lib actually recorded an album together in 1996). C. Keys brings a vigorous, lucid flow to breakup plaints and street-level analytics, but he doesn’t stray from a stern, almost bitter tone, so the guests are welcome, notably Chicago’s Cornbread on the self-affirming “Clarity.” [7.1]

https://belowsystem.bandcamp.com/album/keys-2-kazi

Sheer Mag

A Distant Call (Wilsuns Recording Company)

You like Judas Priest, Thin Lizzy, AC/DC? Great! Into incessant cater-wauling? Even better! Sheer Mag comes out of Philadelphia and rocks the hell out ’70s-style, with sweet riffs, sick solos—even good tunes. But Tina Halladay’s vocals are firmly stuck on screech, and it makes my whole body seize up. When she dials back a bit on “Cold Sword” and the closer “Keep on Runnin,” I’d blast Sheer Mag from my Camaro. If I had a Camaro. Sheer Mag visit D.C.’s Black Cat on October 5. [5.5]

https://sheermag.bandcamp.com/

Ghost Funk Orchestra

A Song For Paul (Colemine)

Ghost Funk Orchestra started as the solo project of guitarist Seth Applebaum, a main mover behind King Pizza, a Brooklyn record label/recurring party. For Paul, GFO has expanded into a dexterous 10-piece that whips up a killer brew of psychedelic funk, Latin rock, and cosmic jazz—even the clarinet solo on “Broken Boogaloo” is dank. With no songs cracking the four-minute mark the album cruises along, and the blunted production fits like a glove. A Song For Paul is like a classy but loose throwdown. You should hang. [8.9]

https://ghostfunkorchestra.bandcamp.com/album/a-song-for-paul-2

Chali 2na & Krafty Kuts

Adventures of a Reluctant Superhero (Manphibian)

For someone who always liked Jurassic 5 and Ozomatli more in concept than in reality, Adventures of a Reluctant Superhero is a revelation. Chali 2na has found a perfect match in British DJ Krafty Kuts, who scratches like a boss and bumps a classic backpack aesthetic (a cameo by Solesides legends Lyrics Born and Gift of Gab seals the connection). But in throwing back, Kuts avoids J5’s self-conscious mannerisms, and meantime 2na sounds joyful and inspired—his distinctive baritone is as booming and genial as ever, and his precise flow and intricate, wily rhymes kept a silly grin plastered on my mug for 40 solid minutes. [9.1]

https://chali2nakraftykuts.bandcamp.com/album/adventures-of-a-reluctant-superhero

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Album reviews: Heron & Crane, Vivian Girls, G Flip, Ikebe Shakedown, and Sleater-Kinney

Sleater-Kinney's "The Center Won't Hold" is a bit of a letdown. Publicity image.

Heron & Crane

Firesides (Hibernator Gigs)

Denizens of Charlottesville’s indie scene know Dave Gibson from power-pop exponents Borrowed Beams of Light and Weird Mob, plus synth soundscapers Personal Bandana. Here, Gibson and Columbus, Ohio, buddy Travis Kokas split the difference, with sweet results. The mostly instrumental Firesides is a fetching mélange of melody and texture, nature and geometry, as delicate guitar figures intertwine with murmuring keyboards while drum tracks rustle underneath (becoming the motorik backbone of the Byrds-meet-Delia Derbyshire “Stars Over Nara”). Firesides
is hypnotic yet sociable, and well worth hanging with. [8.8]

https://heronandcranemusic.bandcamp.com

Vivian Girls

Memory (Polyvinyl)

Following their 2008 debut, the Vivian Girls’ aesthetic—surfy post-punk with girl group cuteness and gothic brooding—seemed to crop up everywhere, and while the band’s spinoffs (La Sera, Best Coast, Babies) carried the ball in different directions, the Vivian Girls’ DNA was always detectable. On Memory they revisit their classic style with a squall of sound that’s aggressive and protective at the same time, obscuring intimate lyrics behind feedback. And although “Waiting in the Car” closes the album in a poppier mode, the Girls’ moodier side prevails on Memory. It isn’t an apotheosis of all that put the Vivian Girls on the map, but it’s nice to have ‘em back. [7.0]

https://viviangirlsnyc.bandcamp.com/album/memory

G Flip

About Us (Future Classic)

With her giant glasses, baggy tees, and stringy hair, Melbourne’s G Flip does Taylor Swift’s nerd character better by a mile. But it’s still a character—Flip’s a pop diva who specializes in The Big Ballad, especially of the “I’m soooo screwed up but will inevitably triumph” species. Flip’s got a potent voice, mixing Lorde and Camila Cabello, and she can turn a phrase. But the songs are Hallmark-card lame, all bombast and wide gestures, and not even the sprightly, funky beat on single “About You” can hide the plodding and plotting on top. [6.1]

Ikebe Shakedown

Kings Left Behind (Colemine)

Members of New York septet Ikebe Shakedown have played with Sharon Jones & the
Dap-Kings, so you kinda know what to expect, and you get it right from the top. “Not Another Drop” opens with solid funk from the trap kit and congas
before a pair of guitars enter,
one ringing out tremoloed chords, and one chunking away, while a snaky bass line insinuates itself. And then, the horns…they enter, playing an unremarkable melody in unison, and over the course of the album they never stop; they just rest, fitfully. However each song starts, you know the horns are crouching, waiting to unleash their staccato barks to squelch whatever psychedelic guitar solo or evocative harpsichord might be fighting for daylight. The only relief comes on the brief closer “Not Another Drop (Reprise),” featuring a tasty slide guitar that makes you wonder what else you missed. [5.9]

https://ikebeshakedown-clmn.bandcamp.com/album/kings-left-behind

Sleater-Kinney

The Center Won’t Hold (Mom + Pop)

The third Sleater-Kinney album since their post-Woods hiatus (and apparently their final outing with drummer Janet Weiss), The Center Won’t Hold begins with some lumbering, retro-industrial percussion, and the classic S-K punk throttle that emerges feels like it’s fighting out of tar pits. Sadly, this is a portent. There are hooks on The Center Won’t Hold, but in pumping up the band’s razor-sharp grooves, producer St. Vincent dulls them. The lower-key “Restless” is an exception, and the band’s always-bracing vocals come close to saving the day elsewhere. But the only joy I find is the breezy, danceable “LOVE,”—a little rock ‘n’ roll fun, and a tantalizing taste of where this album could have gone. [6.1]

https://sleaterkinney.bandcamp.com/album/the-center-wont-hold

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Album Reviews: Flying Lotus, Gunter Herbig, The Young Sinclairs, Daughter of Swords, and Sugar Ray

Sugar Ray's Little Yachty is best served with a fruity cocktail. Publicity image.

Flying Lotus

Flamagra (Warp)

One of the most compelling post-Dilla beatmakers, Flying Lotus has collaborated with Kendrick Lamar and Kamasi Washington, among others, as his amorphous funk has spread throughout left-field R&B, hip-hop, and jazz. On Flamagra, FlyLo is abetted by fellow travelers like Thundercat and Robert Glasper, along with why-not guests such as David Lynch and Little Dragon. The result is a Billboard No. 1 dance album that’s devoid of floor-ready bangers (“More,” featuring fellow Angeleno Anderson .Paak, comes closest). FlyLo’s indifference to song structures could read like laziness if everything weren’t so meticulously crafted, and after some tense passages, the second half of Flamagra mellows to a smolder on the gorgeous, wordless Mac Miller tribute “Find Your Own Way Home” and the slow jam “Land of Honey,” featuring Solange. [7.1]

https://warp.net/releases/129297-flying-lotus-flamagra

Gunter Herbig

Ex Oriente: Music by G.I. Gurdjieff (BIS)

Gunter Herbig is a German guitarist by way of Portugal, born in Brazil—and he’s not the wild card here. That’d be Armenian-Greek mystic philosopher guru George Gurdjieff, who wrote these pieces in the 1920s with one of his follower/pupils, composer Thomas de Hartmann. Gurdjieff drew inspiration from various folk, religious, and ritual music traditions, much of it from the near east—Keith Jarrett has recorded some solo piano versions, and here Herbig offers solo electric guitar interpretations. The music is spare, dusky, and lightly haunting, if that’s a thing. Too heavy for an upscale candle shop, but perfect for a combo candle shop/tattoo parlor. [7.5]

The Young Sinclairs

Out of the Box (Requiem Pour un Twister)

Half of my joy over last year’s excellent Stimulator Jones debut was discovering that smooth R&B lover man Jones was actually Roanoke’s Sam Lunsford, whose Young Sinclairs had been crafting spot-on ’60s jangle pastiches for years. Out of the Box leaves The Byrds’ nest but stays consciously faux—“Stay All Night” is a sped-up “From a Buick 6”; “Get Along” is a sunnier “In the Midnight Hour.” In less talented hands, this would all be dreadful, but Lunsford is a savant with moves, and Out of the Box seems ready-made for hazy, lazy summer days. [6.8]

https://requiempouruntwister.bandcamp.com/album/out-of-the-box

Daughter of Swords

Dawnbreaker (Nonesuch)

Alexandra Sauser-Monnig has burnished her neo-Appalachian bona fides in Mountain Man, and her bandmates from that wondrous trio show up on a few songs on Dawnbreaker (as do Americana heroes Phil Cook and Ryan Gustafson). The album title even echoes a line from “Bright Morning Stars,” a hymn featured on Mountain Man’s Magic Ship—but Dawnbreaker is Sauser-Monnig’s show; an insular pensiveness prevails, without the whimsy that helped Mountain Man avoid the austerity=authenticity trap. Which isn’t to say Sauser-Monnig falls victim to it—or plays victim, either —everything is rendered beautifully and there’s an abiding optimism that shines through, especially on the radiant “Gem.” [7.6]

https://daughterofswords.bandcamp.com/album/dawnbreaker-2

Sugar Ray

Little Yachty (BMG)

I cut this band a lot of slack back in the day—Mark McGrath seemed likable enough, and he crushed “Rock and Roll Jeopardy!” And…I kinda loved “Someday” and “Fly.” So, since the album cover and song titles here clearly rendered “yachty” as a marina-based adjective, I hoped for some disposable confections. Oh well. McGrath quickly becomes tiresome as the popular jock who knows he can sing pretty with zero social risk, as the tunes jump from bland reggae to bland reggaeton to bland pop country to a tragic cover of Rupert Holmes’ “Escape (The Piña Colada Song).” Nothing is memorable enough to outlast a fruity cocktail, and disposability becomes Little Yachty’s saving grace. (5.2)

 

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Album reviews: Resavoir, Black Pumas, Lil Nas X, Kylie Minogue, Elephant9, and Various artists

Elephant9 issues a double album jazz monster with Psychedelic Backfire I & II. Publicity image.

Resavoir

Resavoir (International Anthem)

It goes down smooth and it’s jazz, but it isn’t smooth jazz. Members of Chicago collective Resavoir have played with Chance the Rapper, Noname, and Mavis Staples, and the band maps a similar wholesomeness onto these nine pithy originals that don’t just walk the classic/fresh tightrope, but live directly on it. The ensemble meshes beautifully, and trumpeter/bandleader Will Miller’s songs seem to emanate from some chirpy city park on a sunny afternoon, year unknown. [8.3]

https://intlanthem.bandcamp.com/album/resavoir

Black Pumas

Black Pumas (ATO)

Something more explicitly retro comes from Austin’s Black Pumas—they’re on locally connected ATO Records, though they sure sound like a Daptone band with their classic soul songs and crisp, minimal production (by guitarist Adrian Quesada, who’s played with artists from Grupo Fantasma to Prince). The tried-and-true instrumental textures are animated by powerhouse vocalist Eric Burton, who croons and belts with range and authority. The Pumas’ live show gets glowing reviews, and we’ll have a chance to see what’s up on September 11 at the Southern. [7.6]

https://blackpumas.bandcamp.com/

Various artists

1977: The Year Punk Broke (Cherry Red)

Can there be any need for another punk compilation? Cherry Red makes a great argument with 1977, focusing chronologically and geographically on a 3-disc, 87-song motherlode that tracks the UK/Ireland explosion month-for-month. All but the hoariest punkers will hear much of this for the first time; a few perennials are buried amidst the likes of The Stukas and Some Chicken. 1977 transmits the feeling of witnessing the magnificent cascade of refusal that spattered the year of “The Queen’s Jubilee” and Rumours. [8.7]

https://www.facebook.com/CherryRedRecords/videos/723381098116952/

Lil Nas X

7 (Sony)

Boasting the music-biz story of the year plus arguably the song of the year, Lil Nas X lowers the stakes for his debut by making it a quickie, at just 18 minutes and seven tunes (eight if you count the Billy Ray Cyrus-abetted remix of “Old Town Road”). As a vocalist, Lil Nas X is an unassuming sweetheart, but the songs here are as lightweight as his smash single without the offhand charm. Still, the Nirvana crib “Bring U Down” shows that X has open ears, and the wonky drum track on “C7osure” suggests his taste for the artlessly idiosyncratic—good signs. [6.6]

Kylie Minogue

Step Back In Time: The Definitive Collection (BMG)

Despite countless global hits, Kylie Minogue has suffered comparisons with Madonna, pegged as an imitator and a pop puppet opposite Madonna’s industry empress. This abridges the story—Minogue ditched writing/producing svengalis Stock Aitken Waterman early on, increasingly asserting herself lyrically and in the studio. And, musically, Minogue has kicked Madonna’s ass for at least twenty years. Step Back In Time jumps around chronologically, putting Minogue’s later, better stuff on disc 1 and filling disc 2 with her earlier, fluffier stuff. Not that any of it’s heavy, of course—but as dance-pop candy goes, it doesn’t get any sweeter. [8.7]

https://kylie.lnk.to/backintimeID

Elephant9

Psychedelic Backfire I & II (Rune Grammofon)

Two albums of live, molten jazz-rock from Norwegian trio Elephant9. Swing and soul are nowhere to be found as drummer Torstein Loftus whips up demonic grooves while bassist Nikolai Haengsle races alongside and organist Stale Storlokken emits skronky, overdriven solos from his own quasar. Dungen guitarist Reine Fiske brings some delicacy to II, notably on a cover of “You Are the Sunshine of My Life” (!), but it’s still a monster. To call Elephant9 Medeski-meets-Mahavishnu hints at the band’s chops but severely undersells its obliterating power. Horrible noise lives! [8.8/9.0]

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Reissue Roundup: ZZ Top, James & Bobby Purify, Various Artists

Dennis Stoner is included on the anthology, Sad About the Times, a collection full of affable, earnest easy riders. Publicity image.

Various artists

Lullabies for Catatonics (Grapefruit)

The U.K. rock scene’s initial response to LSD tended more towards pastoral reverie than paranoid fever dream (not having a Vietnam War helped). But psychic unraveling quickly followed, as chronicled on Lullabies for Catatonics, a transporting crate-dig from excellent reissue label Grapefruit. Covering 1967-1974, this triple-disc set is lovingly crammed with the heavy, the majestic, and the near-parodic (“Death May Be Your Santa Claus”). It’s definitely no Freedom Rock cash-in, as nuggets from pre-fame Yes and Soft Machine nestle alongside unreleased delights from the likes of Mighty Baby and Sweet Slag. Seekers of off-road art rock will have a blast traversing these teeming trails. A real head-ucation.****

https://www.cherryred.co.uk/product/lullabies-for-catatonics-a-journey-through-the-british-avant-pop-art-rock-scene-1967-74-various-artists-3cd-clamshell-boxset/

ZZ Top

Goin’ 50 (Rhino)

If it weren’t for MTV, this retrospective might be called Goin’ 14. When Eliminator hit in 1983, ZZ Top was seen as a surprise beneficiary of music videos, but the closer truth is that the band’s success was a realization of MTV’s original AOR-on-TV goals—after all, their beards and road cruiser supplied as much cheap visual thrill as Limahl’s sprouted hairdo. Eliminator became a monster, sustaining ZZ Top through increasingly listless albums (yes, they really did name one Recycler). Unfortunately, this triple-disc set is fairly proportional chronologically, meaning that down the stretch ZZ Top sounds like a good ZZ Top cover band with weaker songs. It also means the first disc covers the pre-Eliminator years, when the singular force of Billy Gibbons’ razor-sharp licks over the lean, muscular Mike Beard-Dusty Hill rhythm section was laying down some of the tightest blues rock ever committed to tape—pure, clean grease. ***

https://www.amazon.com/Goin-50-Deluxe-ZZ-Top/dp/B07RHW1PFG/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=goin+50+zz+top&qid=1561663684&s=dmusic&sr=1-2

James &
Bobby Purify

I’m Your Puppet: The Complete Bell Recordings 1966-1969 (Soul)

New York’s Bell Records was the home of a lot of great pop soul in the ’60s, releasing records by the Delfonics, the O’Jays, Al Green—and cousins James and Bobby Purify, whose debut single, recorded at FAME Studios, was an irresistibly sunny take on being whipped. Although they hit the top 40 again, “I’m Your Puppet” was the Purifys’ lone smash, which is why this compilation of their Bell recordings is so welcome. The Purifys showed impressive versatility when covering hits of the day—Bobby could do a good Wilson Pickett, James a decent Sam Cooke, and together they sounded like a mellower Sam & Dave. But the less familiar material is even more revelatory, and it’s a crying shame oldies stations don’t play more of the Purifys alongside their enduring chestnuts. ****

https://www.amazon.com/Im-Your-Puppet-Recordings-1966-1969/dp/B07QRN3Y9K

Various artists

Sad About the Times (Anthology)

As the U.S. counterculture sputtered back in the States, a softer pop main- stream emerged for maturing boomers while the hard stuff got harder, capturing disaffected youths. Somewhere in between lies most of the stuff on the endearing Sad About the Times. It’s cohesive musically, sticking to dusty West Coast country-rock with accents of psychedelia and folk, and the mood is also consistent—affable, earnest easy riders abound. And the quality of the tracks is downright stunning, especially considering that the artists here are uniformly obscure (forgive me, rabid fans of Boz Metzdorf). The best-known is probably Dennis Stoner, whose Procol-Harum-meets-the-Dead “Maybe Someday/Maybe Never” finishes the album on a stately, elegiac note. ****1/2

https://anthologyrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/sad-about-the-times

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Album reviews: Craig Leon, Naytronix, Matt Martians, Kate Bollinger, and Crumb

"Restful on the surface but restive underneath," Crumb has a new full-length album. Publicity image.

Craig Leon

Anthology of Interplanetary Folk Music Vol. 2: The Canon (RVNG Intl.)

Craig Leon produced the classic debuts of the Ramones and Blondie before covering some classical stuff himself (key title: Bach to Moog). On his ’80s new age albums Nommos and Visiting, Leon imagined the vernacular music of extraterrestrials, presenting it as slow, synthetic, and sweeping. (Well, who knows?) He revives the concept on the mostly instrumental Anthology, picking up right where he left off. A couple of tracks driven by minimal percussion patterns suggest a new age version of Can’s “ethnological forgery” series; the rest of the album, dominated by droning washes of keyboards, has a quiet tension, like it’s watching the skies for distant lightning. ***1/2

https://craigleon.bandcamp.com/album/anthology-of-interplanetary-folk-music-vol-1-nommos-visiting

Naytronix

Air (BatCave)

Naytronix is Nate Brenner, bassist and co-producer for Tune-Yards. Brenner also helped Merrill Garbus score Sorry to Bother You, and Air might also benefit from a movie to pick up the slack, as Brenner’s splattering, Ratatat-derived dance rock doesn’t quite gel. Not that there isn’t potential in the rubbery bass lines or in Brenner’s vocals, which he never oversells as he flickers through various affects: a benumbed Lil Peep; a Bowie fan mirror-singing; Arthur Russell with less soul. But there’s nothing in the way of rhythmic or melodic hooks, and Brenner’s banal bummer lyrics could have been transcribed from a bathroom wall. **1/2

https://naytronix.bandcamp.com/album/air

Matt Martians

The Last Party (3qtr)

An overlooked member of Odd Fu-
ture and The Internet, Matt Martians explains his new album as a kiss-off aimed both at his ex and at music bizzers clinically scrutinizing his artistic moves. But The Last Party is way more provisional than triumphant, as Martians mumbles sticky-note-sized analyses and affirmations: “I laid down all my pride / You were not thankful”; “I’ve got new boots on my feet, baby.” Still, the muted, jazz-tinged tracks have an effortless, muzzy charm, as does Martians him-
self; I gotta pull for the guy. ***1/2

Kate Bollinger

I Don’t Wanna Lose
(Kate Bollinger)

Meantime, in happy local developments there’s Charlottesville native and UVA student Kate Bollinger’s
I Don’t Wanna Lose, an assured EP of laid-back bedroom indie tinged with tropicália. It’s a charmer, as Bollinger’s relaxed, nimble voice weaves artful lines through jazzy guitar chords thickened with tremolo (courtesy of fellow ‘Hoo John Trainum). Bollinger brings a slightly wounded but wizened Rickie Lee Jones vibe to standouts “Untitled” and “Candy,” as she navigates the shifting terrain where friendship and romance meet, retreat, and repeat. Feels like we’ll be bragging on the homegrown Bollinger real soon, and for a while. On June 22, Bollinger plays the Southern with Gold Connections and Goodnight Daniel. ****

https://katebollinger.bandcamp.com/

Crumb

Jinx (Rough Trade)

Straight outta Medford, Crumb formed at Tufts before relocating to NYC in 2016 and releasing two EPs with the help of Richmond’s Citrus City Records (hurrah!). Both generated online buzz, and Crumb jumped to the legendary indie Rough Trade for their debut full-length. But the sound on Jinx is just a hair more pumped up than the EPs, and Crumb is still Crumb, doubling down on dark, beaty psychedelic pop and Lila Ramani’s sad-ghost vocals—fans of Broadcast might get misty. Restful on the surface but restive underneath and downright groovy at times (“Nina”), Jinx plays like a weird but cool dream. ****

https://crumbtheband.bandcamp.com/

Categories
Arts

Album reviews: Boogarins, Bill MacKay, Carmen Villain, and Faye Webster

There’s layers of satire in play on Faye Webster's Atlanta Millionaires Club. Publicity image.

Boogarins

Sombrou Dúvida
(LAB 344)

Brazilian band Boogarins is back with more heady psychedelia, adding a little bap to the mix this time. If the Google translations are on point, Dinho Almeida is repeatedly counseling us to eschew tradition, explore life, embrace fear, etc. Ironically, his vocals never leave their sleepwalk-serenade comfort zone, while shred-capable guitarist Benke Ferraz also plays it safe—and though the songs themselves wander, there aren’t as many hooks along the way as on 2015’s excellent Manual. Still, Sombrou has high points, like springy
leadoff track “As Chances” and “Dislexia ou Transe,” which sounds like Yes if they were from Laurel Canyon. ***

https://boogarins.bandcamp.com/

Bill MacKay

Fountain Fire (Drag City)

Coming off a dynamic collaboration with Ryley Walker, Chicago-based guitarist Bill MacKay continues to bring together the folky and the experimental on Fountain Fire. It’s a potent brew, with MacKay’s compositions gaining intensity via layered acoustic and electric guitars that radiate rather than pummel. Last year MacKay participated in a Nick Drake cover
project, and on the Brit-folky “Birds of May” MacKay’s vocals channel the tragic bard; elsewhere he sounds like a more laid-back version of Walker. But the focus is on artful guitarchitecture as MacKay constructs feedback shapes on “Arcadia,” and adds a David Gilmour-ish slide to the swirling closing track “Dragon Country.” ***1/2

https://billmackay.bandcamp.com/album/fountain-fire

Carmen Villain

Both Lines Will Be Blue (Smalltown Supersound)

Carmen Villain’s first two albums brought folk, rock, and lots of electronics into shifting soundscapes held together by Villain’s lovely if brooding vocals. This is the Oslo resident’s first instrumental album, and it sounds lovely and brooding even without the vocals. Instead, floating on top of most of the songs is Johanna Scheie Orellana, whose flute parts provide apt decoration for the atmospheric compositions. And overall, Both Lines Will Be Blue is far more atmosphere than composition, but the album plays out with a distinct character: steamy, verdant, and meditative, like what Yoda might have listened to while doing vinyasa on Dagobah. ***1/2

https://carmenvillain.bandcamp.com/

Faye Webster

Atlanta Millionaires Club (Secretly Canadian)

Precocious Atlantan Faye Webster has tools—charisma, an ear for melody, a pithy wit—and with pedal steel and Rhodes in tow, her sophomore album is an adept low-fi country-soul affair. It’s also relentlessly pitiful; on opener “Room Temperature,” Webster whines “I should get out more” about a dozen times in a row, and while the next song swings amiably, she whimpers “the right side of my neck still smells like you” over and over as it fades out. Then Webster has the nerve to begin the third track with “My mother told me one day she’s tired of my sad song.” Geez. As the pseudo-trap title and jokey cover suggest, there’s definitely layers of satire in play, and Webster’s wan vocals (awkwardly loud in the mix) have a sardonic undertone that occasionally surfaces, as on “Jonny”: “my dog is my best friend / and he doesn’t even know what my name is.” But Webster’s irony never undercuts her sorrow—on the contrary, it lets her wallow in it. The real irony might be that she sounds best when she plays it straight, as on the retro-country dirge “What Used To Be Mine,” touchingly murmuring “I miss your voice / you’re the only one with it.” That’s something a mother would understand. ***

https://fayewebster.bandcamp.com/album/atlanta-millionaires-club

Categories
Arts

Album reviews: Lizzo, Carl Anderson, King Gizzard& the Lizard Wizard, and Cate Le Bon

Cate Le Bon's new album, Reward, is heavy on the sax. Publicity image.

Lizzo

Cuz I Love You (Atlantic)

When Lizzo sends the title character of “Jerome” packing even though he “looks good on paper,” it summed up my feeling of listening to the sassy, up-with-me R&B of Cuz I Love You, as Lizzo’s righteous body positivity saturates the album and becomes didactic to the extent that the songs feel beside the point—and they usually are. Lizzo could also mix it up vocally, instead of relying on her Big Ending gear as if this is one long audition for “The Voice.” Happily, none of this negates the easy pleasures of the bubbly disco single “Juice” and the Missy Elliott collab “Tempo” (even as the latter includes more tired hating on “skinny hoes”). ***

Carl Anderson

You Can Call Me Carl
(Tone Tree Music)

On “Roses,” Madison County native Carl Anderson’s “Sick and tired of the ups and downs,” but the song’s twangy, gentle sway keeps better times in sight. And though the busted marriage dirge “She Took Everything” comes next, much of You Can Call Me Carl is either sardonic about the bad times, or resolute in counting blessings; “10 Different Reasons” and “Dream of You” are jaunty, even. Top-shelf musicians including members of War on Drugs and Mavis Staples’ band sparkle throughout, swooping in on “Head Hung Low” with a majestic, elegiac coda—horns and all. And Anderson’s smooth baritone is a treat—sturdy and conversational, emotionally resonant without ever trying too hard. Top it off with a dollop of primo, profane studio chatter and you’ve got an apt showcase for an artist who should keep the rest of Nashville paying attention. Carl Anderson plays The Southern on June 5 with Devon Gilfillian. ***1/2

King Gizzard
& the Lizard Wizard

Fishing for Fishies (ATO)

After their audacious five-album output in 2017, Aussie septet King Gizzard took 2018 off, returning with Fishing for Fishies, which purportedly started off as a blues record before it took some turns along the way. Well, there’s still an absurd amount of harmonica—an appropriately mellow whine on the leadoff title track, and a whole lotta Midnight Ramblerisms elsewhere, especially on “Boogieman Sam,” which otherwise sounds like ZZ Top crossed with T. Rex. Fishing for Fishies is light on standout tracks, but as you might expect from an album with three “boogie”-laden song titles, you can dance to most of it. Laudable messages about technology trumping sociality (“The Cruel Millennial”) and the evils of plastic (um, “Plastic Boogie”) get buried in the mix, perhaps so as not to interrupt the party, although the party ends early anyway, with the Tangerine Dream-like finish to “Acarine” leading to the lengthy, pointless closer “Cyboogie.” ***

Cate Le Bon

Reward (Mexican Summer)

If Fishing with Fishies is King Gizz’s harmonica album, Reward is Cate Le Bon’s saxophone album—saxes show up on nearly every track, less a marker of Southern soul than of pure tonal color. They’re still curiously expressive—reminiscent of the saxes on Arthur Russell’s Instrumentals. And “curiously expressive” describes Le Bon as well—her odd voice simultaneously direct and remote, her songs creating their own weirdly inviting worlds. Reward isn’t as rocking as Cyrk or Mug Museum, or as cranky as Crab Day; despite peeks of humor, it’s pervaded by a melancholy that suits Le Bon well, especially on “Daylight Matters,” a beautiful meditation on loss that’s one of her best songs ever. ****

https://catelebon.bandcamp.com/album/reward