Please ramp up your Halloween anxiety with this YouTube playlist of my favorite scary records! It’s not meant to be comprehensive–these are the ones we regularly blast out into the street when we await trick-or-treaters in the driveway, a firepot in front of us and libations beside us (tonight: a single barrel Four Roses). It’s heavy on Roky, Dead Moon, The Cramps, and Screamin’ Jay, but it ranges into punk, rap, jazz, and country, too.
Also, what would the end of the month be without an OCD update of my favorite records released this year? It’s been an outstanding one: after thinning the herd in September, I’m back up to 135 records I’d give a B+ or better to if they were my students (some of ’em do grow on you over time!). My list of reissues is up to 25 from 20 for those of you who range across the years or just think music’s been over for awhile. Sad to say, some new records (particularly the new Cloud Nothings) have not made it to my inner ear yet, but I got a sneakyloo listen to the new Pistol Annies and I’m betting heavy on that.
Overeem’s “Best of 2018,” two months from New Year’s
- Tracy Thorn: Record
- CupcaKe: Ephorize
- Bettye LaVette: Things Have Changed
- JLin: Autobiography (Music from Wayne McGregor’s Autobiography)
- Chloe x Halle: The Kids are Alright
- The Internet: Hive Mind
- Parquet Courts: Wide Awake!
- Zeal & Ardor: Stranger Fruit
- Noname: Room 25
- Makaya McCraven: Universal Beings
- Sly & Robbie and Nils Petter Molvaer: Nordub
- Swamp Dogg: Love, Loss, and Auto-Tune
- Orquesta Akokan: Orquesta Akokan
- Pusha T: Daytona
- Elza Soares: Deus É Mulher
- John Prine: The Tree of Forgiveness
- Berry: Everything, Compromised
- JD Allen: Love Stone
- Janelle Monae: Dirty Computer
- Superchunk: What A Time to Be Alive
- Mary Gauthier and Songwriting with Soldiers: Rifles and Rosary Beads
- Toni Braxton: Sex & Cigarettes
- Joe McPhee: Imaginary Numbers
- Nidia: Nídia É Má, Nídia É Fudida
- Fat Tony: 10,000 Hours
- Blood Orange: Negro Swan
- Subtle Degrees: A Dance That Empties
- Daniel Carter: Seraphic Light
- Alice Bag: Blue Print
- The Necks: Body
- Michot’s Melody Makers: Blood Moon
- Hamell on Trial: The Night Guy
- Young Fathers: Cocoa Sugar
- Quelle Chris & Jean Grae: Everything’s Fine
- Robbie Fulks & Linda Gail Lewis: Wild! Wild! Wild!
- James Brandon Lewis: Radiant Imprints
- boygenius: EP
- Mitski: Be the Cowboy
- Tropical Fuck Storm: A Laughing Death in Meatspace
- Sons of Kemet: Your Queen is a Reptile
- Lisbon Freedom Unit: Praise of Our Folly
- SOPHIE: The Oil of Every Pearl’s Un-insides
- The Goon Sax: We’re Not Talking
- Lyrics Born: Quite a Life
- Pistol Annies: Interstate Gospel
- Grupo Mono Blanco: ¡Fandango! Sones Jarochos from Veracruz
- Ken Vandermark / Klaus Kugel / Mark Tokar: No-Exit Corner
- Knife Knights: 1 Time Mirage
- Angelika Niescier: The Berlin Concert
- Young Mothers: Morose
- Kelela: Take Me Apart—The Remixes
- No Age: Snares Like a Haircut
- Kids See Ghosts: Kids See Ghosts
- Sidi Toure: Toubalbero
- Robyn: Honey
- Neneh Cherry: Broken Politics
- Tyshawn Sorey: Pillars
- Wynton Marsalis & Friends: United We Swing–Best of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Galas
- La Maison Noir: The Black House
- Jonghyun: Poet / Artist
- Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever: Hope Downs
- Dave Holland: Uncharted Territories
- Halu Mergia: Lalu Balu
- Full Blast: Live in Rio
- Mekons 77: It Is Twice Blessed
- Jeffrey Lewis: Works by Tuli Kupferberg
- Bombino: Deran
- Teyana Taylor: K.T.S.E.
- Idris Ackamoor & The Pyramids: An Angel Fell
- Rapsody: Laila’s Wisdom
- Sarayah: Feel the Vibe
- Jinx Lennon: Grow a Pair
- The Thing: Again
- Tierra Whack: Whack World
- Lori McKenna: The Tree
- Chief Keef: The Kozart
- Nas: Nasir
- Speedy Ortiz: Twerp Verse
- Courtney Barnett: Tell Me How You Really Feel
- Car Seat Headrest: Twin Fantasy
- Makaya McCraven: Where We Come From (Chicago x London Mixtape)
- Evan Parker, Barry Guy, and Paul Lytton: Music for David Mossman
- Salim Washington: Dogon Revisited
- Beats Antique: Shadowbox
- Jon Hassell: Listening To Pictures (Pentimento, Vol. One)
- Charge It to The Game: House with a Pool
- JPEGMAFIA: Veteran
- The Beths: The Future Hates Me
- Various Artists: Girls Just Wanna Have Fun…and Rights!!!
- Apolo: Live in Stockholm
- Mdou Moctar & Elite Beat: Mdou Moctar meets Elite Beat In a Budget Dancehall
- Willie Nelson: Last Man Standing
- Mudhoney: Digital Garbage
- Wussy: What Heaven is Like
- Kiefer: happysad
- Meshell Ndegeocello: Ventriloquism
- Freddie Gibbs: Freddie
- Kamasi Washington: Heaven & Earth
- Don Flemons: Black Cowboy
- Cardi B: Invasion of Privacy
- Shopping: The Official Body
- Cypress Hill: Elephants on Acid
- Maria Muldaur: Don’t You Feel My Leg—The Naughty Bawdy Blues of Blu Lu Barker
- Dana Murray: Negro Manifesto
- Shame: Songs of Praise
- Henry Threadgill: Dirt..and More Dirt
- Ceramic Dog: YRU Still Here?
- Marc Ribot: Songs of Resistance 1942-2018
- The Coup: Soundtrack to the Film Sorry to Bother You
- Van Morrison & Joey DeFrancesco: You’re Driving Me Crazy
- Various Artists/Sahel Sounds: Field Recordings
- L.E.S. Douze: The Stoned 1
- Kendrick Lamar, et al: Black Panther—Music from and Inspired by the Film
- Tal National: Tantabara
- Rodrigo Amado (with Joe McPhee): History of Nothing
- Hop Along: Bark Your Head Off, Dog
- MAST: Thelonious Sphere Monk
- Tirzah: Devotion
- The Chills: Snowbound
- Eddie Daniels: Heart of Brazil
- Big Freedia: Third Ward Bounce
- Old Man Saxon: The Pursuit
- Amy Rigby: The Old Guys
- Busdriver: Electricity Is On Our Side
- Lonnie Holley: MITH
- Del McCoury Band: Del McCoury Still Plays Bluegrass
- Dr. Michael White: Tricentennial Rag
- Migos: Culture II
- Yo La Tengo: There’s a Riot Goin’ On
- The Carters: Everything is Love
- Sleep: The Sciences
- The English Beat: Here We Go Love
- Princess Nokia: A Girl Cried Red
- Santigold: I Don’t Want—The Gold Fire Sessions
- Chad Popper: A Popper People
OLD MUSIC NICELY REPACKAGED
- Various Artists: The Savory Collection 1935-1940
- Sonny Rollins: Way Out West (Deluxe Reissue)
- Neil Young: Roxy—Tonight’s the Night
- Erroll Garner: Nightconcert
- Various Artists: Voices of Mississippi—Artists and Musicians Documented by William Ferris
- Prince: A Piano and a Microphone
- Various Artists: Listen All Around: The Golden Age of Central and East African Music
- Gary Stewart: “Baby I Need Your Loving” / “Yester-Me, Yester-You, Yester-Day”
- Peter Brotzmann and Fred Lonberg-Holm: Ouroboros
- Oneness of Juju: African Rhythms
- Joe McPhee: Nation Time
- Bruce Springsteen: 1978/07/07 West Hollywood, CA
- The Revelators: In which the Revelators perform live renditions of selections from the Billy Childish songbook
- Against All Logic: 2012-2017
- Grant Green: Live at Oil Can Harry’s
- Entourage: Ceremony of Dreams—Studio Sessions & Outtakes 1972-1977
- Kuniyuki Takahashi: Early Tape Works 1986 – 1993 Volume 1
- Various Artists: Africa Scream Contest, Volume 2
- Wussy: Getting Better
- Milford Graves: Babi
- David Bowie: Santa Monica ‘72
- Various Artists: The Beginning of the End
- Mulatu Astatke & His Ethiopian Quintet: Afro-Latin Soul, Vols. 1 & 2
- Various Artists: Two Niles to Sing a Melody—The Violins & Synths of Sudan
- Feeling Kreyol: Las Pale
Living To Listen 