I feel like my life has been too hectic lately even for music. Holidays, birthdays, anniversaries, life…death: the month of November was a massive wave that washed over me and left me lying here on December’s shore. I might have written about music had any event really taken form; even my college pop music students were busy doing research, so not much entertaining (certainly from their perspective) was going in the ivory yurt. Upon reflection, at least these moments remain fairly vivid:
My wife and I listened to a ’50s/’60s blues playlist I made for her throughout our trip to my parents’ for Thanksgiving and back. Nicole: “I am just in love with the sound of this period of blues–the electricity, the voices, the power.” I cannot say I disagree. The playlist mixes icons like the above gentleman with characters from the shadows, many of them captured on great compilations like Super Rare Electric Blues 60s Era and Scratchin’: The Wild Jimmy Spruill Story.
I have been positively addicted to the music of Catalonia’s nuevo flamenco firebrand Rosalia. Her voice is powerful, the rhythms that support it–especially on her recent El Mal Querer—are intoxicating and blood-quickening, and she seems better able than any artist I’ve seriously bent an ear to this year to chase demons out. A measure of my love and respect for this record is that I just ordered the vinyl–from Spain.
A week ago today, the Columbia, Missouri, rapper featured above died under circumstances that remain shadowy, though the local sheriff’s department says that, as indicated in its ongoing investigation, he was shot while perpetrating an armed robbery. I’ve known the kid since 2010, I was his teacher for 180 days, I’ve witnessed and heard testimony to his evolution into a positive force for good in our community, and, while he may have been up to something (and very well may not have), it wasn’t robbery. Whatever it was, as a friend says, Columbia now has a hole that is going to be hard to fill. The first essay he wrote for me, in August of 2010, detailed–really, in classical style–his journey through dangerous street episodes to an understanding that he had the charisma, skills, and energy to devote to positive change in his home city. The last eight years have provided plenty of evidence that he was evolving even further, but now we’ll never know. I’m pouring out a pint glass of white-man juicy haze IPA onto the curb for you, Ahmonta Harris–I know you will appreciate the mischief. Read more about who he was here.
Also, I have either being lazy or desperate or both in rescuing and “repurposing” on this blog some old, old pieces I once wrote under the nom de plume of “The Reverend Wayne Coomers” during the first half of the ‘Oughts, for a website I invented and commandeered called The First Church of Holly Rock and Roll. I actually wrote sermons. At one point, I even had a staff (here’s a notable contributor’s section). And we were very highly-principled. Check ’em out if you’d like a chuckle before they disappear.
Which brings me to this facile undertaking: tweaked oh-so-delicately from last month, 150 albums from this calendar year I pronounce “very good” (think of their grades as 86.5% or better, and fuck your charges of grade inflation–this is pop music!) and 35 issues of old music (some of it which has appeared before, some just excavated) that are also B-plussy. I know: you’re saying to yourself, “11 female acts in your Top 20, man? Sure you’re not letting the politics of the moment bleed into your critical acumen?” Yeah, I’m sure. It’s simply the music that moves me the most, that I’ve listened to the most, and if the moment is moving me, well, that’s life. Plus, I’m honestly evolving critically anyway, and I have the good fortune not to have to be done yet.
- Tracy Thorn: Record
- Rosalia: El Mal Querer
- 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
- Zeal & Ardor: Stranger Fruit
- Noname: Room 25
- Makaya McCraven: Universal Beings
- Pistol Annies: Interstate Gospel
- Sly & Robbie and Nils Petter Molvaer: Nordub
- Orquesta Akokan: Orquesta Akokan
- Pusha T: Daytona
- Parquet Courts: Wide Awake!
- Elza Soares: Deus É Mulher
- John Prine: The Tree of Forgiveness
- Janelle Monae: Dirty Computer
- Berry: Everything, Compromised
- JD Allen: Love Stone
- Superchunk: What A Time to Be Alive
- Mary Gauthier and Songwriting with Soldiers: Rifles and Rosary Beads
- Toni Braxton: Sex & Cigarettes
- Cloud Nothings: Last Building Burning
- Joe McPhee: Imaginary Numbers
- Nidia: Nídia É Má, Nídia É Fudida
- Fat Tony: 10,000 Hours
- Blood Orange: Negro Swan
- Swamp Dogg: Love, Loss, and Auto-Tune
- 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
- Peter Brotzmann and Heather Leigh: Sparrow Nights
- Tropical Fuck Storm: A Laughing Death in Meatspace
- Sons of Kemet: Your Queen is a Reptile
- Lisbon Freedom Unit: Praise of Our Folly
- Doctor Nativo: Guatemaya
- SOPHIE: The Oil of Every Pearl’s Un-insides
- The Goon Sax: We’re Not Talking
- Lyrics Born: Quite a Life
- Grupo Mono Blanco: ¡Fandango! Sones Jarochos from Veracruz
- DJ Juan Data: Ritmos Crotos, Volume 1
- Chhoti Maa: Agua Corre
- Ken Vandermark / Klaus Kugel / Mark Tokar: No-Exit Corner
- Tallowit Timbouctou: Hali Diallo
- Knife Knights: 1 Time Mirage
- Angelika Niescier: The Berlin Concert
- Young Mothers: Morose
- Kelela: Take Me Apart—The Remixes
- Becky Warren: Undesirable
- No Age: Snares Like a Haircut
- Kids See Ghosts: Kids See Ghosts
- Sidi Toure: Toubalbero
- Robyn: Honey
- Neneh Cherry: Broken Politics
- Tyshawn Sorey: Pillars
- Chhoti Maa: Caldo de Hueso
- Wynton Marsalis & Friends: United We Swing–Best of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Galas
- La Maison Noir: The Black House
- Jonghyun: Poet / Artist
- Serengeti: Dennis 6e
- Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever: Hope Downs
- Mandy Barnett: Strange Conversation
- 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: T.S.E.
- Earl Sweatshirt: Some Rap Songs
- Idris Ackamoor & The Pyramids: An Angel Fell
- Rapsody: Laila’s Wisdom
- Chris Corsano & Bill Orcutt: Brace Up!
- 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
- Ahmoudou Madassane: Zerzura (Original Soundtrack Recording)
- 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: .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
- ALLBLACK & Kenny Beats: Two-Minute Drills
- Van Morrison & Joey DeFrancesco: You’re Driving Me Crazy
- Various Artists/Sahel Sounds: Field Recordings
- 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
- Ambrose Akinmusire: Origami Harvest
- Eddie Daniels: Heart of Brazil
- Big Freedia: Third Ward Bounce
- Heather Leigh: Throne
- Amy Rigby: The Old Guys
- Busdriver: Electricity Is On Our Side
- Lonnie Holley: MITH
- Del McCoury Band: Del McCoury Still Plays Bluegrass
- 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
OLD MUSIC NICELY REPACKAGED OR SIMPLY REISSUED
- Various Artists: The Savory Collection 1935-1940
- Dead Moon (2LPs, 1 book)
- Sonny Rollins: Way Out West (Deluxe Reissue)
- Neil Young: Roxy—Tonight’s the Night
- Danny Barker: “Tootie Ma Was Big Fine Thing” / “Corrinne Died on the Battlefield” and “Indian Red” / “Chocko Mo Feendo Hey”
- Willie Nelson: Things to Remember—The Pamper Demos
- Erroll Garner: Nightconcert
- Various Artists: Voices of Mississippi—Artists and Musicians Documented by William Ferris
- Charles Mingus: Jazz in Detroit/Strata Concert Gallery/46 Selden
- Joan Jett: Bad Reputation (Music from the Original Motion Picture)
- Prince: A Piano and a Microphone
- Various Artists: Amarcord Nino Rota
- 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
- Various Artists: Oxford American, North Carolina Music Issue, 2018
- 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
- Various Artists: Africa Scream Contest, Volume 2
- Wussy: Getting Better
- Bob Dylan: More Blood, More Tracks—The Bootleg Series, Volume 14
- 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
- Neil Young: Songs for Judy
- Joe McPhee: One Day…A Lightning Storm
- Camarao: The Imaginary Soundtrack to a Brazilian Western Movie 1964-1974
Living To Listen 