I think I’m back to thinking this is a bit of a weak year. Or maybe I’m just saying that to see 2019 hit me back. It worked last time. Some recent observations:
*I’ve been following the huzzahs and hisses directed at Ms. Knowles’ live album. Not having always been vulnerable to her wiles, I understand both sides of the argument (as well as those on middle ground). But I know what I’m hearing, and I find very little not to love: the brass/marching band support (the arrangements make it all sound so easy, but it couldn’t have been), the tougher vocals (something I’ve always wanted from her and knew she could offer), the song selection (I’ve now been converted to tunes I’d tuned out on), the showcases (especially for Freedia! she was owed!), and, honestly, the educational content. It’s a tour de force, and it stands up without visuals, as outstanding as those must have been–I’ve yet to see anything but clips.
*I’d like to thank my friend Dan Weiss for forcefully suggesting I listen to Control Top’s furious Covert Contracts. I have many compadres who ask me, “Well, what about punk rock NOW?” That album’s an answer.
*Billie Eilish may tempt some who know me to wonder if I am bending over backwards to stay hip with the kid-crowd, but I’d argue her material isn’t exactly kid stuff. If you hung around humans her age as much as I do (I have no choice: I teach them), you might hear her record differently. The booga-booga cover pose is not entirely a joke–her generation is indeed dealing with stressors the hoarier among us might well have sidestepped, and it ain’t about how tough we are and they ain’t. And I hear that twining through the songs–along with some charming and funny backtalk and a mordant sense of humor that probably helps Eilish on more than just her music. One way I know she must be doing something right is that she defeats my resistance to “little baby voices” with sheer weirdness, chutzpah, and attitude.
*I recently raided Sublime Frequencies’ Bandcamp site after reading an article on the label in The New Yorker. Several of their more recent offerings are budget-priced, so I indulged myself, expecting really just to be educated about some international music I’d never heard before. Indonesia’s Senyawa’s 2018 album Sujud, however, did that and more, extended traditions of their country’s music into the realm of the self-consciously experimental. If that doesn’t sound like a strong bet, maybe it wasn’t–but they won it. I haven’t heard a more mesmerizing, unique album this year (by the way, I’m counting Sujud as a 2019 offering since, thanks to the above article, that’s when its impact is likely to be more substantial.
*Don’t you love it when a band that’s never done anything for you does something for you? I can’t put my finger on it–I think it’s the songwriting and dynamics–but Shovel & Ropes’ By Blood has me rockin’, and rooting for it.
*It’s too easy, very absurd, and not a little lazy to call Mdou Moctar “The Hendrix of the Sahara.” However, there is a reason he has two records in my Top 70 (!) so far.
And there’s also a reason why, last time, he was compared to Prince.
*LATE-BREAKING ADD-ON: I finally broke down after playing it more times than any other record this year and claimed A Day in the Life–Impressions of Pepper as a 2019 record; it was a 2018 RSD release, but saw an issue to the rest of humanity in December. The jazzer take on The Beatles’ inescapable album might sound like a must-to-avoid (I initially streamed it with some trepidation myself), but it’s quirkily catchy and inventive–plus the jazzers in question include Mary Halvorson, Makaya McCraven, and Shabaka Hutchings, not exactly the paint-by-numbers type and the latter two in the midst of a pretty substantial moment. But don’t trust me; sample it yourself. Also, I wrinkled my nose at LPX being compared to Robyn (and could she not name herself something less mechanical?), then I played her Junk of the Heart EP and felt quite a bit of joy. In fact, a lot of joy.
2019 New Release Honor Roll
- Little Simz: Grey Area
- Various Artists: A Day in the Life–Impressions of Pepper*
- Beyoncé: Homecoming
- Royal Trux: White Stuff
- Control Top: Covert Contracts
- Senyawa: Sujud*
- Billie Eilish: WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO?
- 2 Chainz: Rap or Go to the League
- Yugen Blakrok: Anima Mysterium
- James Brandon Lewis: An Unruly Manifesto
- Kel Assouf: Black Tenere
- The Comet is Coming: Trust in the Lifeforce of the Deep Mystery
- Aesop Rock & TOBACCO: Malibu Ken
- Heroes are Gang Leaders: The Amiri Baraka Sessions
- Mdou Moctar: Ilana (The Creator)
- Dave: PSYCHODRAMA
- Quelle Chris: Guns
- Ben Lamar Gay: Confetti in the Sky Like Fireworks
- Tanya Tagaq: Toothsayer EP
- Various Artists: Weaponize Your Sound
- Lizzo: Cuz I Love You
- DKV and Joe McPhee: The Fire Each Time
- The New Orleans Dance Hall Quartet: Tricentennial Hall Dance 17. October
- Joachim Kuhn: Melodic Ornette Coleman—Piano Works XIII
- The Coathangers: The Devil You Know
- Angel-Ho: Death Becomes Her
- Usted Saami: God is Not a Terrorist
- Zeal & Ardor: Live in London
- LPX: Junk of the Heart (EP)
- Various Artists: Travailler, C’est Trop Dur–The Lyrical Legacy of Caesar Vincent
- Fennesz: Agora
- Salif Keita: Un autre blanc
- Robert Forster: Inferno
- Harriet Tubman: The Terror End of Beauty
- The Art Ensemble of Chicago: We Are On the Edge
- Ibibio Sound Machine: Doko Mien
- Solange: When I Get Home
- Joe McPhee / John Butcher: At the Hill of James Magee
- Branford Marsalis Quartet: The Secret Between the Shadow and the Soul
- Helado Negro: This is How You Smile
- Ahmed Ag Kaedy: Akaline Kidal
- Lost Bayou Ramblers: Rodents of Unusual Size (Soundtrack to the Motion Picture)
- Silkroad Assassins: State of Ruin
- Mekons: Deserted
- Que Vola: Que Vola
- Miguel: Te Lo Dije EP
- Kelsey Lu: Blood
- Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba: Miri
- Hama: Houmeissa
- Steve Earle: Guy
- Mdou Moctar: Blue Stage Session
- Beth Gibbons with the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra (conducted by Krzysztof Penderecki): Henryk Gorecki—Symphony #3 (Symphony of Sorrow Songs)
- Ill Considered: 5
- Leyla McCalla: Capitalist Blues
- Girls on Grass: Dirty Power
- Stella Donnelly: Beware of the Dogs
- Matthew Shipp Trio: Signature
- Weyes Blood: Titanic Rising
- Shovels & Rope: By Blood
- Angel Bat Dawid: The Oracle
- Better Oblivion Community Center: Better Oblivion Community Center
- Alfredo Rodriguez and Pedrito Martinez: Duologue
- Bad Bunny: X 100PRE
- The Clifford Thornton Memorial Quartet (featuring Joe McPhee): Sweet Oranges
- Our Native Daughters: Songs of Our Native Daughters
- Rosie Flores: A Simple Case of The Blues
- Wynton Marsalis: Bolden (Soundtrack to the Motion Picture)
- People Under the Stairs: Sincerely, The P
- CZARFACE & Ghostface Killah: Czarface Meets Ghostface
- Jenny Lewis: On the Line
*Technically, these are 2018 releases, but for now, I’m claiming their impact is being felt more strongly this year.
New Releases of Older Material
- Eric Dolphy: Musical Prophet
- Burnt Sugar: 20th Anniversary Mixtapes—Groiddest Schizznits, Vols. 1-3
- Various Artists: All the Young Droogs–60 Juvenile Delinquent Wrecks
- Various Artists: Rhapsody in Bronze
- Sir Shina Peters and His Internation Stars: Sewele
- Belton Richard: The Essential Cajun Music Collection, Volume 2