NOTE: I accidentally published this before it was finished—my usual brief commentary will be added very soon. Apologies, though I doubt anyone is waiting with bated breath!
SPOTLIGHT ALBUM OF THE MONTH
CS Cleaners: What’s That?
(Wharf Cat) *****
JULY’s JOYS
***** = STELLAR!
**** = STRONG
*** = VERY GOOD
No * = GOOD!
Italics = Excavation from the Past
- Akhavelli: Moorthodox Psyence (Below System) ****
- Laurie Anderson & Sexmob: Let X = X (Live) (Nonesuch) *****
- Lekan Animashaun: Low Profile (Strut) ***
- Badger Hunt: Full Moon in My Pocket (self-released) ***
- Barcelona Art Orchestra & Miguel Zenon: Expressions (Miel Music)
- Courtney Barnett: Creature of Habit (Mom + Pop) ****
- Josh Berman: Everybody Else’s Life, Too (Corbett vs. Dempsey) ***
- Bob Bert: Beach Bingo Bloodbath (Bar/None) ***
- Carsie Blanton: The Red Album, Volume II (self-released)
- Patricia Brennan & Sylvie Courvoisier: talamanti (Antlia) ****
- Marion Brown: Live in Europe 1968 and 1972 (No Business)****
- Maria Calder: Patient Zero (Black Metal Archives EP) ****
- Maria Calder: We Stay Ugly ‘Til the Pretty Decays (Black Metal Archives) ****
- doseone & Height Keech: Wood Teeth II (Handsmade EP) ***
- Emmeluth’s Amoeba: With Love (Moserobie Music Production)
- Emperor X: Unified Field (Bar/None) *****
- Satoko Fujii: Satoko Fujii’s Bunker Ulmenwall Orchestra (Libra) ****
- Gogol Bordello: We Mean It, Man (Casa Gogol) *****
- Henriette Eilertsen Trio: Moder (Motvind) ***
- Imarhan: Essam (Wedge / City Slang) ***
- Darryl Jennifer: The Weather Report (Org)
- Kelela: new avatar (Warp) ****
- Mark Lomax II & The Urban Art Ensemble: Black Odes—A Reclamation Suite (CFG Multimedia) ****
- David Maranha / Rodrigo Amado: Desolation Row (self-released) *****
- Mon Rovia: Bloodline (Nettwerk Music) ***
- Odd Okoddo & Ogoya Nengo: Palagoma (From Cool Waters)
- Adam O’Farrill: Elephant (Out of Your Head) ****
- OM: Südpol (Intakt) ***
- Los Orientales de Paramonga: 1972-1976 (Analog Africa)
- Lido Pimienta: Caribenya (Anti-)
- Ma Rainey: Mother of the Blues—The Complete Paramount Recordings 1923-1928 (Black Swan / Jazzology) *****
- RAYE: THIS MUSIC MAY CONTAIN HOPE (Human Re Sources)
- RJD2 & Supastition: According To… (Eavesdrop Music) ****
- Jill Scott: To Whom This May Concern (Blues Babe) ***
- Jimmy Scott: Doesn’t Love Mean More? (Modern Harmonic / Sundazed)
- Speaker Music: Synoptic Audio (Planet Mu)
- Vince Staples: Cry Baby (Loma Vista) *****
- Gary Stewart: One Track Mind (Delmore) ***
- Henry Threadgill and Zooid: Cut You Where You Was (Pi)
- Frank Trompeter & Richard Gilman-Opalsky: Anti-Fascist Freedom Music (Mahakala Music)
- Twisted Teens: Florida Water Blues (cpnpc) ****
- Various Artists: CONCRETE ROCK—New York DIY (Desert Island Recordings) ****
- Tierra Whack: WHACK’S MUSEUM (Interscope)
- Willow: The Thread (360)
- Miguel Zenon & Luis Perdomo: El art del Bolero, Volume 3 (Miel Music) ***
Sample Living to Listen’s “Best of 2026” Bandcamp Playlist
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Vintage Albums I Deeply Enjoyed This Month
David Bowie: Station to Station
Dennis Brown: Visions of Dennis Brown
The Cosmosamatics: Magnitudes
Dead Moon: Echoes of the Past
George Jones: Sings the Songs of Bob Wills
Marisa Monte: Mais
Bettye LaVette: I’ve Got My Own Hell to Raise
Soft Cell: Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret
James Talley: Woody Guthrie and Songs of My Oklahoma Home
Various Artists: L’Afrique Danse, Vols. 1-10
Various Artists: All the King’s Men
Various Artists: Put the Whole Armour On
O. V. Wright: The Soul of O. V. Wright
Hey! I Read, Too, and So Should You!
Chinua Achebe: Things Fall Apart
Kaveh Akbar: Martyr!
Alison Bechdel: Fun Home
Zayd Ayers Dohrn: Dangerous, Dirty, Violent, and Young—A Fugitive Family in the Revolutionary Underground
Lucy Ellmann: Sweet Deserts
Melvin Gibbs: How Black Music Took Over the World
Jean Stein: Edie—American Girl
Barry Walters: Mighty Real—A History of LGBT Music 1969-2000
James Welch: Winter in the Blood
Living To Listen 