Month: August 2015

A Mid-August Top 50–with Several More Knocking Down the Door

Seems like all I am doin’ is listing this year–many more things on my mind than writing. But I am listening, listening discerningly, listening hard, listening and dancing, listening around. One conclusion I have come to is that our citizens could coexist as intriguingly as these varied discs–maybe this list is a wish. Reader, give some of these a shot.

  1. Jack DeJohnette: Made in Chicago (ECM)
  2. Willie Nelson and Sister Bobbie: December Day (Legacy)
  3. Kendrick Lamar: to pimp a butterfly (Aftermath)
  4. Iris DeMent: The Trackless Woods (Flariella)
  5. Africa Express: Terry Riley’s “In C”—Mali (Transgressive)
  6. Kate Tempest: Everybody Down (Big Dada)
  7. 79rs Gang: Fiyo on the Bayou (Sinking City)
  8. Nots: We Are Nots (Goner)
  9. J. D. Allen: Graffiti (Savant)
  10. Low-Cut Connie: Hi Honey (Ardent)
  11. Mdou Moctar: Soundtrack to the film Akounak Tedalat Taha Tazoughai (Sahel Sounds)
  12. Irene Schweizer and Han Bennink: Welcome Back (Intakt)
  13. Sufjan Stevens: Carrie & Lowell (Asthmatic Kitty)
  14. Heems: Eat Pray Thug (Megaforce)
  15. The Paranoid Style: Rock and Roll Just Can’t Recall (self-released)
  16. Courtney Barnett: Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit (Mom & Pop)
  17. The Close Readers: The Lines are Open (Austin)
  18. Tamikrest: Taksera (Glitterbeat)
  19. Mammane Sani et son Orgue: La Musique Electronique du Niger (Sahel Sounds)
  20. Shamir: Racket (XL)
  21. Dead Moon: Live at Satyricon (Voodoo Doughnut)
  22. Alex Chilton: Ocean Club ’77 (Norton)
  23. Mbongwana Star: From Kinshasa (World Circuit)
  24. Bob Dylan: Shadows in the Night (Sony)
  25. Various Artists: Burn, Rubber City, Burn (Soul Jazz)
  26. Henry Threadgill & Zooid: In for a Penny, In for a Pound (Pi)
  27. Young Fathers: White Men are Black Men Too (Ninja Tune)
  28. Big Chief Don Pardo and Golden Comanche: Spirit Food (self-released)
  29. Coneheads: L​.​P​.​ aka “14 Year Old High School PC​–​Fascist Hype Lords Rip Off Devo for the Sake of Extorting $​$​$ from Helpless Impressionable Midwestern Internet Peoplepunks L​.​P​.​” (Erste Theke Tontraeger)
  30. Various Artists: The Red Line Comp (self-released)
  31. Pop Staples: Don’t Lose This (Anti-)
  32. Bob Marley & The Wailers: Easy Skankin’ in Boston, 1978 (Tuff Gong)
  33. Sleater-Kinney: No Cities to Love (Sub Pop)
  34. Leo Bud Welch: I Don’t Prefer No Blues (Big Legal Mess)
  35. Mountain Goats: Beat the Champ (Merge)
  36. Obnox: Know America (Ever/Never)
  37. Vince Staples: Summertime ’06 (Def Jam)
  38. Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard: Django & Jimmy (Legacy)
  39. Bassekou Kouyate and Ngoni: Ba Power (Glitterbeat)
  40. Vijay Iyer: Break Stuff (ECM)
  41. J. B. Smith: No More Good Time in the World For Me (Dust-To-Digital)
  42. Doomtree: All Hands (Doomtree)
  43. The Sonics: This is The Sonics (Revox)
  44. Kasey Musgraves: Pageant Material (Mercury)
  45. The Falcons: The World’s First Soul Group—The Complete Recordings (History of Soul)
  46. Sonny Simmons and Moksha Samnyasin: Nomadic (Svart)
  47. Reactionaries: 1979 (Water Under the Bridge)
  48. James McMurtry: Complicated Game (Complicated Game)
  49. Continental Drifters: Drifted–In The Beginning & Beyond (Omnivore)
  50. Swamp Dogg: The White Man Made Me Do It (S.D.E.G.)

Banging on the door: Kamasi Washington, Titus Andronicus, Beale Street Saturday Night reissue, and a Jason Isbell record that won’t leave me alone.