Living to Listen’s Top Albums of 2020, Part II (I refuse to admit we’re in a different calendar year–even today, which is the dawn of 2020, Part III)

Yes, I know it’s 2022, and this list is dedicated to the top spins of 2021. But it feels to me as if 2020 started on March 15 of that actual year (The Ides, you know) and has declared the turning of the last two annums invalid. Until I feel differently, I’m gonna keep believing it, though, like Joe Tex’s man in that Viet Nam foxhole, I believe we’re gonna make it.

If you follow this blog, you know the good records mount and mount until there seems to be no sane scaling of them. For your pleasure and convenience, I’ve topped them off to a mere 50 like I’m lookin’ for coal and to hell with the slag (the still-pleasurable slag). This time, my rubric is simple: How likely, really, am I to listen to these albums several times more while I continue trying, in my futile battle against the dustbin of time to save every flower, to keep up with the mounds of fresh sounds? You can always access the previous months’ lists for those a cast a cold eye upon, though December’s getting shafted in that regard. Also, I’ve voted in a couple of year-end polls and, as usual, I make no promises (to anyone who really cares) that these results will match up with those. One never drops the same needle on the same record twice.

The archival digs I’ve trimmed to 25. I know I had that massive, well-appointed, and long-overdue Marian Anderson box at #1 last month, and now it’s not on the list at all–I guess that was a) pretentious; b) the happy historian in me; and c) overambitious.

Goodbye, Greg Tate. Why’d you have to go? I hope there is enough of your uncollected passionate criticism to fill another bucket of buttermilk with (gad)flies. It’s hard to imagine not being able to keep reading your newest insights for the rest of my life. And one thing I really appreciate looking back on your work I’ve read (most of it) is how seldom you were an asshole…if ever. Your style seemed to exclude that as a choice.

Thanks to the kindness of Tom Hull, I was invited to vote in the Jazz Critics Poll. Should you be curious, here’s my ballot (scroll down to the O’s).

In a related development, I’m considering a move to Scandinavia….

Bolded titles are new to the list, and to be fair, most of the releases I dug in December are on the list.

No-Save* November: The Best Recordings Released in 2021 (So Far), Which I’ve Drained My Wallet For Despite Using Multiple Streaming Platforms

Odd-servations:

R. A. P. Ferreira (formerly known as Milo) is having one helluva year. If as a rap aficionado you’re insistent on the freshest, most ticklish, and slammingest beats, move along. But if you dig word-slinging and surprising associations, you best get hip.
Bible and Tire Company’s Sacred Soul of South Carolina is the perfect gospel pairing with Musicmakers Foundation’s contemporary rural blues comp Hanging Tree Guitars (from 2020). Strictly speaking, if you have one and love it, you must do right and get the other. And the “soul” in the title is no exaggeration.
You may be tired of historical theory stirred into your toons. I am not. Keep pouring, luvs. If you’re like me and enjoy critical beatdowns, Mexstep, The Brkn Record, and the irrepressible Irreversible Entanglements each have the musical cocktail for you. And yes, the music is piquant to listen to if you’re not about the science. It does help, though.
South Memphis’ Lukah is one of the most stentorian MCs I’ve heard in a good long while, plus he has two strong records out this year. The new one (bolded, below) is the pick; its politics, flow, and sense of place are astounding, and his sexual philosophy seems to have advanced.
Best news is likely in the archaeological section. This may be a strange list upon which to find Marian Anderson, but, truly, as Duke opined, there’s only two kinds of music, good and bad, and the woman brilliantly blazed a trail. That’s a 15-disc box with both historic and important unreleased recordings, plus brilliant photos and notes, but, um…less than $80*? Also, Bobo Jenkins was a rocking, charming, and eccentric DIY blues guitarist whose career stretched from the ’50s into the late ’70s; if that sounds like your meat and taters, it’s on Third Man and it might have been RSD only, but…c’mon–if you want it, you can track it down. And as far as historical monuments in the rowdier aspects of the modern musical life of Brother Europe go, you can’t beat Corbett vs. Dempsey’s look at the formative days of the masterful and mischievous Instant Composers Pool and Guerilla Records’ top-notch and long-overdue reissue of The Plastic People of the Universe’s truly revolutionary original bootleg.

Next month, I’m gonna get tough with this list, shave it down, get serious about their listenability and durability, and and arrange it into categories of A, A-, B+, and B–since we all have loved grades so much our whole lives. I know you cannot wait. And, yes, I’m very serious about that Wild Up record.

BOLDED ITEMS are new to the list.

Archaeological Digs

For Those I Love, A Burgeoning List Including Lots of Long-Playing Lyricism–Best Rekkids, January 1 – November 1

October Observations:

I recently managed to talk former Vice UK music maven and FANGIRLS author Hannah Ewens into Zooming once again with my students at Stephens College to chat about her book (their required reading for my freshman comp/pop music class) and other related bits. She was smart, warm, funny, and curious about my students, as usual. A few days after her visit, in a glum mood, I happened upon her IG and noticed she was vaunting a group called For Those I Love (it’s also the name of the group’s album), which she’d just seen. Only it ain’t a group, it’s an Irishman named David Balfe, and his album captures a desperation for solace, connection, and dancefloor expiation I (and probably you) know all too well. Hadn’t heard of him, played the slab, instantly cheered up.

Ingebrigt Håker Flaten is the bassist for Norwegian jazz powerhouse The Thing. Dude just waxed an album, (Exit) Knarr, that features an instrumental texture, rhythmic variation, and conceptual focus that–to my amateur ear–tops anything his group’s ever released (and I love ’em). I liked it so much after three listens that I was willing to pay a hefty shipping cost for the vinyl. Never underestimate a Scandi jazzer–never.

Chuck Eddy has long been one of the best (and most open) music writers on the planet. He, too, offers monthly recommendations of interesting new musical offerings, and his latest featured a bit o’ metal, courtesy of lead Crystal Viper Marta Gabriel, Monster Magnet, and Joecephus and the George Jonestown Massacre . Metal is usually not my jam, especially modern metal (the worst excuse for singing I have ever heard, quite often), but the records Chuck anointed with a nice score all three a) are “cover albums” of throwback metal; b) mostly shine light on VERY obscure older songs (Joecephus’ album, a Nazareth tribute, is the exception); c) head-bang balls-out in a trad manner; and d) are a blast. I may be overrating them on this list–as is my wont when I put a list up right after I’ve heard something enjoyable–but maybe I’m not. Time will tell, but my wife Nicole loved all three, too, and I have my Marta Gabriel poster on my office wall.

I’ve probably listed 10 albums over the past five years that my students had to force on me because I made the gas face in class when they mentioned the artists involved. One of this year’s candidates is Willow Smith. The student who verbally twisted my arm is probably the best writer, thinker, and talker I’ve ever taught, and she understood my balking but reminded me that anyone can make a stunning record. I tried Willow’s lately I FEEL EVERYTHING and I must admit it is…powerful and dynamic. Thanks, Jadyn.

Thurst. I really enjoyed the first album, liked then forgot the second, and find myself amusedly intrigued by the conceptual thrust (not a typo) of the songs here. The structures and instrumental attack don’t demonstrate much variety, but the songs tickle me in a snide and sloppy way, so I’m going with it.

The excavation of transitional-period ’65 Trane playing A Love Supreme live with Pharoah Sanders and an expanded quartet had me on tenterhooks for months. I have a refined taste for racket, so reports of the classic suite being somewhat defiled bothered me not a whit; I’d also heard the fidelity was not the best, but these days I often wonder if the young writers who report this have ever heard ’60s-’70s vinyl bootlegs. Alas, though, while I value it, it’s not quite the mind-blower most others have reported. The performance wasn’t planned, and you can definitely hear that; Pharoah ain’t quite full Pharoah yet–his tenor “warbling” works much better on Live at the Village Vanguard Again; Trane’s too level in the mix, to my ear, and Elvin seems to be the one you’re really hearing most of the time (could be much worse, but it’s not a drummer date). Historically, it’s major, but as an absorbing, potentially compelling repeat-listen work, not so much.

bktherula: DEFINITELY one to watch! And, of course, hear. Sound, rhythm, words–a pretty complete package, and becoming ever more impressive.

Snotty Nose Rez Kids: not sure why these Neechie MCs aren’t being more frequently lifted among us music nerds, because they’ve hardly stepped wrong up to and including their new record. Third Nations-representing with accuracy, humor, passion, wildness (kids everywhere are nuts), reverence for the past–whaddya want? Well, maybe the beats aren’t all that varied, maybe there aren’t enough hooks, but I suspect they’re operating on the cheap, and I advise you just lean into the words and the delivery.

JPEG Mafia and Pink Siifu have made their most accessible albums. That probably sucks for many; I personally welcome it, and honestly think the move better justifies their respective reps.

BOLDED ITEMS are new to the list.

Archaeological Digs

Golden Musical Days – I’d Like to Share Them with You: Superior Slabs, January Through September 2021

Dawn of Chromatica album

Observations and Coat-Pulls:

The Ebony Hillbillies are an all-black string band from NYC that plays traditional, original, and surprising cover material (like “Sexual Healing”). Their several previous releases are all spirited and enjoyable, but their most recent release (at #12 below) is their very best. It’s technically at 2020 release, but it came out in November, I’m a fan, and I just found out about it. In terms of performance and material, they’ve never been sharper–and they always have an edge.

I am not the biggest fan of big ol’ pop releases, but Mickey Guyton’s FINALLY-released debut album (at #16)–it’s technically contemporary country, but it transcends that label–moved the hell out of my wife and me last Saturday night. “Black Like Me” won me over last year when I first heard it on Joe Levy’s “Uprising” playlist on Spotify, but the songs are consistently strong from top to bottom, I love the emotional flexibility of Guyton’s singing, and anyone who can induce me to love a song about relaxing with wine’s got something going for her (I just hear about that a lot because I run with a mostly-female teacher crowd).

Look out when old sage Pete Stampfel and (relatively) young sage Jeffrey Lewis join forces! At #13, they fit new, topical, and fairly hilarious lyrics to old tunes–but not always the usual old tunes you’d associate with Stampfel. It’s not just a novelty; the whole’s possibly better than the sum of its parts.

Swedish drummer/percussionist/composer Florian Arbenz is on a serious roll this year. If you foster an attraction for percussion-focused jazz, you owe to yourself to test-drive both of his Conversation albums; if you’re not sure what it means to foster such an attraction, take a chance it’ll happen to you and try them anyway. (Several folks make multiple appearances on this list: Arbenz, Stampfel, legendary and prolific bassist William Parker, and the late, great modern classical composer Julius Eastman.)

I am an unabashed fan of Little Simz, and I’ve been on tenterhooks waiting for her follow-up to the still-sounding-amazing Grey Area. I’ve checked out the singles as they’ve come out, as well as an early video or two. I told myself not to overreact. Once Sometimes I Might Be Introverted came out (it’s at #11), I played it twice and whispered to myself, “I’m not that impressed.” Well…I am that impressed.

There’s some cool stuff on that new Dylan bootleg load…but not enough, and there’s enough back there for it to be enough. It’s also not as meh as some would think who aren’t already familiar with the highlights (many are, and that’s part of the problem with the load).

I arrived very late at an appreciation for electronic dance music, but, thanks to JLin’s Black Origami, I did arrive. I cannot keep up with it–frankly, I depend on Pitchfork, which is depending on it a bit–to keep me superficially informed, and one may have noticed it appearing more frequently on ye olde list. I like what I like, with absolutely no rubric to press down upon it, and maybe that’s a good thing. #s 35, 54, and 104, I salute you happily and mindlessly!

This is strange, but I would enjoy Kasey Musgraves’ current and previous albums joined as a kind of double-record concept album more than I enjoy them separately. That’s the kind of gestaltist I yam.

ZYDECO LIVES at #39, and I suspect it will always, alongside Keith, Willie, and cockroaches.

Happy listening!

BOLDED ITEMS are new to the list. #s indicate archival music.

Archaeological Digs

COOL WITH THIS!: Strongest Records of 2021 So Far, By My Lights

Observations:

*The great American music scholar, musician, and composer Allen Lowe, in league with his razor-sharp jazz unit East Axis, knocked out one of his best recordings ever, Cool With That, in the fall of 2020. Ill health proceeded to fall upon him, and though he appears to have survived it, more struggles lay ahead. This is the best free jazz disc yet released in ’21–pay Lowe back and check it out.

*Speaking of jazz players, composers, and freedom, William Parker’s career output is a challenge to explore fully, but do not miss his new release, Mayan Space Station, which features the exciting guitarist Ava Mendoza. Parker’s made a wide variety of records, but never one with six-string this cutting.

*Inexplicably–well, I have been under a lot of stress for many months, and thus distracted–I dropped the ball on Bob Dylan’s there-and-gone film Shadow Kingdom: The Early Songs of Bob Dylan (early–the old fucker’s still got a hell of a sense of humor). I missed it, flat out. Also, instead of simply admiring the indefatigable energy of my longtime lamplight, I occasionally suspect him of, um, gambits; I’m not sure what exactly that means, but maybe “hustle” is a better word. My own gambit not to get my knickers in a twist over the production, however, proved stupid at least from the aural evidence. This morning I was able to access the commercially unavailable soundtrack (cheating, I list it below), and it kicks mountains of ass. Getting sidelined from constant touring’s cleared out his larynx, but more importantly, via neat new arrangements, subtly altered lyrics, and a lot of vim, he made several of his “old” tunes completely fresh–in fact, “To Be Alone With You” and “The Wicked Messenger” (at least) top the originals, and from his current mortal vantage point, “Forever Young” is forever young. BluRay, please?

*My wife Nicole and I helped crowdfund the Smithsonian’s rap project back in 2014, via Kickstarter. The nine-disc box finally arrived in stores this week; it was also our donors’ gift. Even though the tracks stop at 2014, it’s excellently selected and sequenced, it sounds incredible, the accompanying book and vintage photographs are stunning, and…well…it was about damn time. Among the minor quibbles: no DOOM.

*Alto saxophonist Tim Berne’s intense new tribute to Ornette Coleman’s work is the THIRD of the year to make the list, and they’re all so good it makes you miss Ornette even more deeply. PLEASE sample Miguel Zenon’s and Gimenez Lopez’s as well.

*I don’t know any one in person or in cyberspace who loves the British rapper Dave as much as I do. I suppose hardcore hip hop heads might malign his rhyming and flowing skills, or sniff at his beats, but he is the kind of storyteller we need right now, and from the beginning of his last record to the end of his new one I’ve never been bored. In a way, Florence Shaw of the band Dry Cleaning is his narrative sibling; she mostly talks, but it’s what she talks about, and the settings that surround the stories, that count.

*The Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri–COVID Central once already, and probably heading that way again right now. But HEY–if you’re starving for lounge rockabilly with an edge, slide on over to Sundazed Records and check out their latest excavation: the J Ann C Trio Live at Tan-Tar-A (the site of many Missouri public education retreats and worse). Fans of Wanda Jackson and The Skeletons/Morells should NOT miss it.

*I feel like I may have underrated Low Cut Connie’s “Quarantine Concert” covers comp on this list. They’re a group I admire more than I listen to, BUT…this record can open up your waterworks. Adam Weiner is indeed among the last of our eighty-eight-key rock and rollers, and he puts EVERYTHING into these performances. You can feel it in the choices, in his playing, and particularly in the singing–plus? The tough cookies he was referring to were–are, goddam it, we have to be all over again–us.

*The pandemic slowed most musicians, but some, like tenor saxophonist extraordinaire JD Allen, took the bull by the horns and just recorded alone. Allen’s record of solo performances is searing.

*If you’re reading this, you certainly know Bad Brains. Likely, you know Death (well, we all do, but I’m talking about the band). Probably, you don’t know Pure Hell (at least you don’t know the band by that name). Yep: there were at least THREE punk bands of color in the ’70s.

*I want to thank the longtime record gobbler and music sage Tom Hull for regularly linking me on his absolutely essential blog. He is a giant when it comes to keeping fanatics informed about the best of the wide range of music humans make, and he is quite a sharp political mind and cook as well. I am truly humbled he occasionally checks this spot out, and it’s perhaps out of embarrassment that I’ve started commenting more as well as thinking about and slapping down a damned list. Anyone can do that. (I DO listen to them all, though–just sayin’….LOL….)

*I totally love what Sweden’s Jobcentre Rejects label has been up to lately: digging up spunky but obscure Rust Belt metal from the early Eighties. Mistreater’s album is on the main list, and Axxe’s killer 45 is down on my teensie singles listing below. Thing is, there was no pomp in these bands; they existed solely to head-bang and lay down the bad-ass sound–the bad-ass non-technophilic sound, I should say.

BOLDED ITEMS are new to the list. #s indicate archival music.

Mdou Moctar: Afrique Victim

JuJu: Live at 131 Prince Street #

Julius Hemphill: The Boyé Multinational Crusade for Harmony

James Brandon Lewis: Jesup Wagon

East Axis: Cool With That

William Parker: Mayan Space Station

Miguel Zenon: Law Years—The Music of Ornette Coleman

Various Artists: The Smithsonian Anthology of Rap and Hip Hop #

Khaira Arby: Khaira Arby in New York #

Tim Berne: Broken Shadows

Bob Dylan: Soundtrack to the film Shadow Kingdom

Plastic People of The Universe: Apokalyptickej pták #

Fire in Little Africa: Fire in Little Africa

Neil Young and Crazy Horse: Down in the Rust Bucket #

R.A.P. Ferreira: Bob’s Son

AUM Grand Ensemble x Ensemble 0: Performs Julius Eastman’s Femenine

Screamers: Demo Hollywood 1977 #

No-No Boy: 1975

Robert Finley: Sharecropper’s Son

Gimenez Lopez: Reunion en la granja

Penelope Scott: Public Void

Paris: Safe Space Invader

Various Artists: A Stranger I May Be—Savoy Gospel 1954-1966 #

Dave: We’re All Alone in This Together

Can: Live in Stuttgart 1975 #

Hamiet Blueitt: Bearer of the Holy Flame #

Byard Lancaster: My Pure Joy #

Ashnikko: Demidevil

Dax Pierson: Nerve Bumps (A Queer Divine Satisfaction)

L’Rain: Fatigue

Chrissie Hynde: Standing in the Doorway—Chrissie Hynde Sings Bob Dylan

Charles Mingus: Mingus at Carnegie Hall #

Various Artists: Chicago / The Blues / Today, Volumes 1-3 #

Dry Cleaning: Sweet Princess (EP)

Sons of Kemet: Black to the Future

Graham Haynes vs. Submerged: Echolocation

Dawn Richard: Second Line

Jupiter and Okwess: Na Kozonga

The Goon Sax: Mirror II

The J Ann C Trio: At Tan-Tar-A #

Brockhampton: Roadrunner—New Light, New Machine

Ches Smith and We All Break: Path of Seven Colors

Hasaan Ibn Ali: Metaphysics—The Lost Atlantic Album #

Amythyst Kiah: Wary + Strange

Genesis Owusu: Smiling with No Teeth

Marianne Faithfull (with Warren Ellis): She Walks in Beauty

Low-Cut Connie: Tough Cookies

Jaubi: Nafs at Peace (featuring Latamik and Tenderlonious)

Barry Altschul’s 3Dom Factor: Long Tall Sunshine

Czarface & MF DOOM: Super What?

BaianaSystem: OXEAXEEXU

SAULT: Nine

McKinley Dixon: For My Mama and Anyone Who Look Like Her

Vincent Herring: Preaching to the Choir

Lukah: When the Black Hand Touches You

Maria Muldaur & Tuba Skinny: Let’s Get Happy Together

Angelique Kidjo: Mother Nature

ICP Orchestra & Nieuw Amsterdams Peil: 062 / De Hondemepper

Body Metta: The Work is Slow

Damon Locks / Black Monument Ensemble: NOW

Loretta Lynn: Still Woman Enough

Anthony Joseph: The Rich are Only Defeated When Running for Their Lives

Jason Moran & Milford Graves: Live at Big Ears

Alice Coltrane: Kirtan–Turiya Sings #

Mistreater: Hell’s Fire #

Blue Gene Tyranny: Degrees of Freedom Found #

JD Allen: Queen City

Various Artists: He’s Bad!—11 Bands Decimate the Beat of Bo Diddley

Various Artists: Wallahi Le Zein!

Various Artists: Indaba Is

Wau Wau Collectif: Yaral Sa Doom

Yvette Janine Jackson: Freedom

Various Artists: Alan Lomax’s American Patchwork #

Peter Stampfel: Peter Stampfel’s 20th Century in 100 Songs

Backxwash: I Lie Here with My Rings and Dresses

Pure Hell: Noise Addiction #

Various Artists: Doomed & Stoned in Scotland

Jazmine Sullivan: Heaux Tales

Burnt Sugar The Arkestra Chamber: 20th Anniversary Mixtapes / Groiddest Schizznits, Volumes 1-3#

Various Artists: Allen Ginsberg’s The Fall of America–A 50th Anniversary Musical Tribute

Les Filles de Illighadad: At Pioneer Works

Billy Nomates: Emergency Telephone (EP)

Gyedu-Blay Ambolley: 11th Street, Sekondi

Various Artists: Rare.wavs, Volume 1 #

Dry Cleaning: New Long Leg

Nermin Niazi: Disco Se Aagay #

Madlib: Sound Ancestors

Joe Strummer: Assembly #

Julien Baker: Little Oblivions

Cedric Burnside: I Be Trying

Archie Shepp and Jason Moran: Let My People Go

Roisin Murphy: Crooked Machine

girl in red: if I could make it go quiet

Lana Del Rey: Chemtrails Over the Country Club

Robert Miranda’s Home Music Ensemble: Live at The Bing #

Vijay Iyer, Linda Han Oh, and Tyshawn Sorey: Uneasy

Olivia Rodrigo: SOUR

Steve Earle: JT

Tee Grizzley: Built for Whatever

Tony Allen (and friends): There is No End

Jinx Lennon: Liferafts for Latchicos

The Hold Steady: Open Door Policy

Elizabeth King & The Gospel Souls: Living in the Last Days

Alder Ego: III

Garbage: No Gods No Masters

Shem Tube, Justo Osala, Enos Okola: Guitar Music of Western Keny a

Contour: Love Suite

Alton Gün: Yol

Various Artists: Edo Funk Explosion, Volume 1 #

Hearth: Melt

Trak Trak: Sur Sur

Floating Points & Pharoah Sanders: Promises

Sana Nagano: Smashing Humans

serpentwithfeet: DEACON

Rodrigo Amado & This is Our Language Quartet: Let the Free Be Men

SINGLES!

Dry Cleaning: “Bug Eggs”/”Tony Speaks!”

Steve Lehman:: “Cognition” (JLin remix)

Henry Threadgill: “Clear and Distinct” (Georgia Ann Muldrow remix)

Axxe: “Through the Night” / Rock Away the City”

90 Degrees of Freedom Found: My Favorite Rekkid Releases of 2021, and We’re Only Halfway There

Random observations on the recent explosion of excellent recordings I always should expect but never do and grouse about the paucity of then look dim-witted as a result of my shitty memory:

You may think I’m a little nuts by including so many box sets, but they really are that good and I have been listening to them. Is sitting around listening to box set really a pop thang? Should I even care? Somebody’s gotta do it.
The Puerto Rican saxophonist Miguel Zenon is having a great year. He’s on two records here (Law Years and Path of Seven Colors) and his duet album of boleros with Luis Perdomo is stunning but I need to listen to it one more time.
I have moved many items around, but I finally hooked right into AUM Grand Ensemble & Ensemble O’s interpretation of Julius Eastman’s Femenine. Eastman’s having a MUCH-deserved revisiting and several interpretations of this piece are out there, but none this hypnotic and beautiful.
How much mileage does SAULT get out of mystique?
I’ll have some of what Loretty’s having, please.
I’m sorry, I just don’t fucking trust Lana Del Rey and I really despise Olivia Rodrigo’s single, but the sonics and words of the former’s album (I’m just blocking out her persona) and the rest of the latter’s songs (for the most part) have broken my resistance. For now.
That Screamers excavation is the first new record I have surprised my wife Nicole with that we both instantly jumped up and down joyfully to. Myself, I’d really mostly only read about them in West Coast punk tomes, but after a 40-year-burial this item really explodes out of the vault.
Is it fair to list Record Store Day releases on these lists? I admit I just lie in wait with my bobber floating in eBay Lake, and I assume anyone else can as well.
If you’re needing a guitar-helping and moping ’cause you can locate one, I urge you to dip into the Moctar, Arby, and Young items in the Top 10. Seriously.
SUPPORT FIRE IN LITTLE AFRICA’S PROJECT. It’s worthy.

BOLDED ITEMS ARE NEW TO THE LIST.

Mdou Moctar: Afrique Victim

JuJu: Live at 131 Prince Street #

Julius Hemphill: The Boyé Multinational Crusade for Harmony

James Brandon Lewis: Jesup Wagon

Miguel Zenon: Law Years—The Music of Ornette Coleman

Khaira Arby: Khaira Arby in New York #

Fire in Little Africa: Fire in Little Africa

Neil Young and Crazy Horse: Down in the Rust Bucket #

R.A.P. Ferreira: Bob’s Son

AUM Grand Ensemble x Ensemble 0: Performs Julius Eastman’s Femenine

Screamers: Demo Hollywood 1977 #

No-No Boy: 1975

Robert Finley: Sharecropper’s Son

Gimenez Lopez: Reunion en la granja

Penelope Scott: Public Void

Paris: Safe Space Invader

Various Artists: A Stranger I May Be—Savoy Gospel 1954-1966 #

Can: Live in Stuttgart 1975 #

Hamiet Blueitt: Bearer of the Holy Flame #

Byard Lancaster: My Pure Joy #

Ashnikko: Demidevil

Dax Pierson: Nerve Bumps (A Queer Divine Satisfaction)

Chrissie Hynde: Standing in the Doorway—Chrissie Hynde Sings Bob Dylan

Charles Mingus: Mingus at Carnegie Hall #

Various Artists: Chicago / The Blues / Today, Volumes 1-3 #

Dry Cleaning: Sweet Princess (EP)

Sons of Kemet: Black to the Future

Dawn Richard: Second Line

Brockhampton: Roadrunner—New Light, New Machine

Ches Smith and We All Break: Path of Seven Colors

Hasaan Ibn Ali: Metaphysics—The Lost Atlantic Album #

Amythyst Kiah: Wary + Strange

Genesis Owusu: Smiling with No Teeth

Marianne Faithfull (with Warren Ellis): She Walks in Beauty

Jaubi: Nafs at Peace (featuring Latamik and Tenderlonious)

SAULT: Nine

Vincent Herring: Preaching to the Choir

Lukah: When the Black Hand Touches You

Angelique Kidjo: Mother Nature

ICP Orchestra & Nieuw Amsterdams Peil: 062 / De Hondemepper

Damon Locks / Black Monument Ensemble: NOW

Loretta Lynn: Still Woman Enough

Anthony Joseph: The Rich are Only Defeated When Running for Their Lives

Jason Moran & Milford Graves: Live at Big Ears

Mistreater: Hell’s Fire #

Blue Gene Tyranny: Degrees of Freedom Found #

Various Artists: He’s Bad!—11 Bands Decimate the Beat of Bo Diddley

Various Artists: Wallahi Le Zein!

Various Artists: Indaba Is

Wau Wau Collectif: Yaral Sa Doom

Yvette Janine Jackson: Freedom

Various Artists: Alan Lomax’s American Patchwork #

Peter Stampfel: Peter Stampfel’s 20th Century in 100 Songs

Backxwash: I Lie Here with My Rings and Dresses

Various Artists: Doomed & Stoned in Scotland

Jazmine Sullivan: Heaux Tales

Burnt Sugar The Arkestra Chamber: 20^th Anniversary Mixtapes / Groiddest Schizznits, Volumes 1-3#

Various Artists: Allen Ginsberg’s The Fall of America–A 50th Anniversary Musical Tribute

Billy Nomates: Emergency Telephone (EP)

Gyedu-Blay Ambolley: 11^th Street, Sekondi

Various Artists: Rare.wavs, Volume 1

Dry Cleaning: New Long Leg

Nermin Niazi: Disco Se Aagay #

Madlib: Sound Ancestors

Joe Strummer: Assembly #

Julien Baker: Little Oblivions

Cedric Burnside: I Be Trying

Archie Shepp and Jason Moran: Let My People Go

Roisin Murphy: Crooked Machine

girl in red: if I could make it go quiet

Lana Del Rey: Chemtrails Over the Country Club

Robert Miranda’s Home Music Ensemble: Live at The Bing #

Vijay Iyer, Linda Han Oh, and Tyshawn Sorey: Uneasy

Olivia Rodrigo: SOUR

Steve Earle: JT

Tee Grizzley: Built for Whatever

Tony Allen (and friends): There is No End

Jinx Lennon: Liferafts for Latchicos

The Hold Steady: Open Door Policy

Elizabeth King & The Gospel Souls: Living in the Last Days

Alder Ego: III

Garbage: No Gods No Masters

Shem Tube, Justo Osa la, Enos Ok ola: Guitar Music of Western Kenya

Contour: Love Suite

Alton Gün: Yol

Various Artists: Edo Funk Explosion, Volume 1 #

Hearth: Melt

Floating Points & Pharoah Sanders: Promises

Sana Nagano: Smashing Humans

serpentwithfeet: DEACON

AFTERNOTE (is that a word?):

Top 10 Artists I’ve Been Listening to Over the Last 72 hours / A Nod to Will Friedwald

Carmen McRae (I’m pretty much always listening to–at the very least hearing in my head–Lady McRae)

Anita O’Day (I’m pretty much always listening to–at the very least hearing in my head–Lady O’Day)

Moody Marilyn Moore

Cliff “Ukelele Ike” Edwards

Herb Jeffries

Jackie Paris

Carol Sloane

Earl Coleman–LOTS of Earl Coleman

Al Hibbler

Jeanne Lee

STREAM ‘EM IF YOU GOT ‘EM….

“It’s Growing: Most Euphonious Fruit of First Quarter, 2021”

Music Spring has apparently sprung–although I’m not yet hearing anything that will knock most people’s socks off; for that matter, the only two records I’ve been addicted to are (no surprise) #1 and (ranked “low” because I have a strong Ornette Coleman bias) #5. Also, 14 out of 50 (*) are jazz recordings, none of them that straight-ahead; however, lest you suspect me musically anhedoniacal, I would classify seven of them FUN (!). I’m catching on! Maybe I’m catching back on. In other news?

POETRY is in the house (#s 22 and 25–the former a must for all you trad Brit Lit majors, the latter pretty fucking FUN itself, but just remember what the lit-heads in your life consider fun)…

I just dove into the Doomed & Stoned series (honoring a silent pledge to my metalhead friend Vance, for whose sake I will try 4-5 metal albums a year, though this collection might be more accurately described as “stoner rock”), fished its Scottish entry out of the loch, and found it consistently satisfied my riff requirements and seldom repelled me with overly ugly singing…

I think I got a bit overexcited about the Julien Baker album simply because she was coming forth with more energy, but she remains an attractively sullen writer, to me at least, because that’s been my usual attitude du jour lately…

I am fucking hooked on Roisin Murphy. Anything you wanna serve up, even if it’s “just” a remix.

OK, kids, keep in mind that this coming Friday (May 7) is the (reputedly) last Bandcamp Friday. Many of the links below go straight to these records’ Bandcamp page. Put your money where you ears are, ’cause we know you’re streaming your ass off.

(Items which are new to the list are bolded; also, the order–always a touch whimsically arrived at–has shifted significantly from March. Items followed by an # are either reissues, fresh compilations of older material, or archival finds).

February 11 – March 7: A Thin and Motley Crew

Maybe the fact that this year’s class of nice new albums has kinda oozed out like molasses is due the frustrations, chaos, depression, struggle, and occasional collapses of 2021’s second half. I dunno. Below are the platters I’ve quite enjoyed, but in order for it to even look like a two-month list I’ve incorporated archival digs (one of which is–all seven great discs of it–at the top of the heap), which I usually separate out. I’ve finally gotten smart and added hyperlinks to additional album information as I go (rather than regretting that I hadn’t later), and I’ve switched my album cover slideshow to a cumulative one. If these stunning achievements seem a bit meager to you, hey–I’m old.

Notes:

Both those box sets are well worth the time one needs to spend: #1, unreleased examples of the stunning, versatile genius of Black Arts Group veteran composer / player / arranger Hemphill, #2, the luscious fruit of a lifetime of plumbing and glorying in the depths of American song by Stampfel.

Two classical works? Yes, two classical works. It’s not that I’m desperate; it just so happens that new interpretations of justly famous works of my favorite traditional classical composer (Messiaen) and my favorite experimental classical performer (Eastman) have showed up together.

Strut Records’ ongoing resuscitation of the Black Fire label’s catalog continues to excite, enlighten, and inspire me–plus it nicely dovetails with the moment.

January 1 – February 10: Slim Pickings

Most record-grubbin’ folks I know are still catching up to 2020’s explosion–our cohort are still learning about the previous year’s bounty right now and likely will be til the Ides of March. In the past, I’ve usually been able to muster 10 new releases by the end of January to post as a list, but this year I was only halfway there by February’s dawning. Plus, I was flat worn out–not just from all those varied and vital slabs from the worst year in modern history, but from the worst year in modern history. Maybe we’ll look back (and the music will be able to help us do listen back) and be able to say, “We needed those tragedies, large and small, to finally motivate us to clean house”; I’m not holding my breath.

However, simply from really needed to do something to get my mind off of a layer cake of frustrations, I’ve cobbled together a Top 10 for 2021. Will any of these still be in my Top 100 on December 31? I’m less confident than ever, but could our world of musicians suffer from “striver’s fatigue”? We shall see. The simple presence of Messiaen in the list is a sign of struggle (one of my very favorite classic composers, and interpreted quite thrillingly by the group responsible–but come on!).

Power Up! Look Out! This Dance’s About Over!: 155 Rekkids That Have Given Me Pleasure This Year When I Really, Really Needed It!

New developments?
1) Dezron Douglas and Brandee Younger made their record on an iPad in their apartment while sheltering in place; that fact, and the gentleness of the recording have it shooting up my chart.

2) There’s some serious experimental noise coming out of Memphis–and that’s really no surprise.

3) Aesop Rock just gets better with age.

4) Could be the best improvisors in the world–the band Cortex among them–are from Norway.

5) My former student Jessica Kittle TOLD ME Kali Uchis was an artist of exploding potential.

6) AC/DC have made a strong record. Just when you thought they were done….

7) I was struck by a countryish song called “Black Like Me” I heard on a writer’s playlist three months ago and forgot to see who the artist was. So THAT’S Mickey Guyton! Very good to know!

8) The music writer Chuck Eddy is unafraid to tread confidently out on limbs. He recently did this on behalf of a group I hadn’t heard of called Hot Country Knights. The band name and album cover made me chuckle, and I sampled it purely for that reason, without asking Chuck about them. The songs? “Chuckle” isn’t a strong enough word. Hey…if you need some laughter in your life and you sometimes pine for ’90s country, you might wanna take a flyer yourself. Check out Chuck’s blog here.

9) If you know who Madlib and Karreim Riggins are, you will have to proceed directly to their “black classical music” collab project, Jahari Massamba Unit.

10) A couple historical dudes named Mingus and Hendrix are benefiting from very impressive excavations of legendary live performances they once delivered. You can benefit as well.

Living to Listen’s 100 Favorite New Releases of 2020, January 1 to November 30

(Items new to the list are bolded.)

Kahil El’Zabar: America, The Beautiful
Run The Jewels: RTJ 4
Gil Scott-Heron and Makaya McCraven: We’re New Again–A Reimagining
SAULT: Untitled (Black Is)
79rs Gang: Expect the Unexpected
Princess Nokia: Everything is Beautiful
Fire! Orchestra: Actions
Dezron Douglas & Brandee Younger: Force Majeure
Serengeti & Kenny Segal: AJAI
Neptunian Maximalism: Éons (band name and album title of the year, based on music’s justification of same)
Marx Lomax II: The Last Concert—Ankh & The Tree of Life
Mark Lomax II: The 400 Years Suite
The Third Mind: The Third Mind
Jyoti: Mama You Can Bet!
Hamell on Trial: The Pandemic Songs
Boldy James & The Alchemist: The Price of Tea in China
Roisin Murphy: Roisin Machine
Fiona Apple: Fetch the Bolt Cutters
Anna Högberg Attack: lena
Tee Grizzley: The Smartest
Aesop Rock: Spirit World Field Guide
The Good Ones: RWANDA, you should be loved
Kahil El’Zabar: Spirit Groove (featuring David Murray)
Bob Dylan: My Rough and Rowdy Ways
Ashley McBryde: Never Will
Zeal and Ardor: Wake of a Nation (EP)
Princess Nokia: Everything Sucks
Shabaka and The Ancestors: We Are Sent Here By History
Lido Pimienta: Miss Colombia
Bettye LaVette: Blackbirds
Mike & The Moonpies: Touch of You–The Lost Songs of Gary Stewart
Cornershop: England is a Garden
Elizabeth Cook: Aftermath
Body Count: Carnivore
Open Mike Eagle: Anime Trauma Divorce
James Brandon Lewis and Chad Taylor: Live in Willisau
Cortex: Legal Tender
Various Artists: Memphis Concrete Presents Sound in Geometry Series, Volume 1—On Triangles
James Brandon Lewis: Molecular
Charles McPherson: Jazz Dance Suites
Kali Uchis: Sin Miedo (del Amor y Otros Demonios)
SAULT: Untitled (Rise)
Various Artists: New Improvised Music from Buenos Aires
The Human Hearts: Day of the Tiles (EP)
Kesha: High Road
DJ-Kicks / Various Artists: Mr. Scruff
Little Simz: Drop 6 (EP)
K. Michelle: All Monsters are Human
Drakeo the Ruler & JoogSzn:Quit Rappin
Joel Ross: Who Are You?
KeiyaA: Forever, Ya Girl
Rob Mazurek & Exploding Star Orchestra: Dimension Stardust
Bobby Rush: Rawer Than Raw
Hot Country Knights: The K is Silent
AC/DC: POWER UP
Thiago Nassif: Mente
Luke Stewart: Luke Stewart Exposure Quintet
Bette Smith: The Good, The Bad, and The Bette
Florian Arbenz & Greg Osby: Reflections of The Eternal Line
Irreversible Entanglements: Who Sent You
Carlos Nino and Miguel Atwood-Ferguson: Chicago Waves
Idris Ackamoor & The Pyramids: Shaman!
City Girls: City on Lock
Moses Sumney: grae
Apollo Brown & Che Noir: As God Intended
Al Bilali Soudan: Tombouctou
JD Allen: Toys / Die Dreaming
No Age: Goons Be Gone
Steve Earle: Ghosts of West Virginia
Ammar 808: Global Control / Invisible Invasion
Jeff Parker: Suite for Max Brown
Junglepussy: Jp4
Alicia Keys: ALICIA
Grimes: Miss Anthropocene
Dehd: Flower of Devotion
Mickey Guyton: Bridges (EP)
The Ridiculous Trio: The Ridiculous Trio Plays The Stooges
Burna Boy: Twice as Tall
Conway the Machine: From a King to a God
Mr. Wrong: Create a Place
Various Artists: Eyes Shut, Ears Open–A Burning Ambulance Compilation
Moor Jewelry: True Opera (EP)
Teodross Avery: Harlem Stories – The Music of Thelonious Monk
Asher Gamedze: Dialectic Soul
Optic Sink: Optic Sink
Laraaji: Sun Piano
Tiwa Savage: Celia
Jinx Lennon: Border Schizo Fffolk Songs for the F****d
Gard Nilssen’s Supersonic Orchestra: If You Listen Carefully, The Music is Yours
Beauty Pill: Sorry You’re Here (EP)
Steve Arrington: Down to the Lowest Terms—The Soul Sessions
Jahari Massamba Unit: Pardon My French
Swamp Dogg: Sorry You Couldn’t Make It
Julianna Barwick: Healing is a Miracle
Black Thought: Streams of Thought, Vol. 3—Cane and Abel
Speaker Music: Black Nationalist Sonic Weaponry
Lori McKenna: The Balladeer
Old 97s: Twelfth
Theo Parrish: Wuddaji
Mars Williams: An Ayler Christmas, Volume 4

Reissues and Past Recordings Freshly Excavated

Various Artists: Daora–Underground Sounds of Urban Brasil
Wussy: Ghosts
Various Artists: Turn Me Loose, White Man
Thelonious Monk: Palo Alto
Charles Mingus: @ Bremen 1964 & 1975
Jimi Hendrix: Live in Maui
Hallelujah Chicken Run Band: Take One
Pylon: Pylon Box
Various Artists: Hanging Tree Guitars
Various Artists: Saint Etienne Present Songs for the Fountain Coffee Room
Milford Graves & Don Pullen: The Complete Yale Concert
King Ubu Orchestru: Concert at Town Hall – Binaurality Live 1989
Luiz Carlos Vinhas: O Som Psicodelico De L. C. V.
Oneness of Juju: African Rhythms 1970-1982
Junior Byles: Beat Down Babylon (Deluxe Reissue)
Various Artists: Soul Love—The Black Fire Records Story 1975-1993
Sun Ra: Unity—Live at Storyville NYC October 1977
Peter Stampfel and The Bottlecaps: Demo ‘84
Various Artists: La Locura de Machuca—1975-1980
Lee Scratch Perry with Seskain Molenga and Kalo Kawongolo: Roots from the Congo (reissue)
Victor Chukwu: Akalaka / The Power
Dennis Gonzalez: Forever the Falling Stars
The Heshoo Beshoo Group: Armitage Road
Various Artists: Strum and Thrum—The American Jangle Underground 1983-1987
Hiroshi Yoshimura: Green
Milton Nascimento: Maria Maria (reissue)
Jon Hassell: Vernal Equinox (reissue)
The Awakening: Hear, Sense, and Feel
Bessie Jones: Get in Union
Tony Allen: No Accommodation for Lagos
Black Unity Trio: Al-Fatihah
Various Artists: All Aboard! The CN Express—Rock Steady and Boss Reggae Sounds 1967-1968
The Pogues: BBC Sessions 1984-85
Ranil: Stay Safe and Sound!
Various Artists: Love Saves the Day—A History of American Dance Music Culture 1970-1979
TEST: TEST and Roy Campbell, Jr.
Joe McPhee: Black is The Color
Various Artists: Look Out! The San Diego Scene 1958-1973
Various Artists: Stone Crush—Memphis Modern Soul 1977-1987
Walter Bishop Jr.: Coral Keys
Observer All Stars & King Tubby: Dubbing with the Observer (reissue)
Roky Erickson / 13^th Floor Elevators: You and Me and I (Live)
Bryan Ferry: Live at the Royal Albert Hall, 1974
Fela Kuti: Perambulator
No Trend: Too Many Humans/Teen Love (reissue)
Pharoah Sanders: Live in Paris 1975
Nina Simone: Fodder on My Wings
Yabby You & The Aggrovators: King Tubby’s Prophecies of Dub (reissue)
Various Artists: Léve Léve – Sao Tomé & Principe Sounds ‘70s-‘80s
Various Artists: Soul Jazz Records Presents Black Riot—Early Jungle, Rave, and Hardcore
Lee Scratch Perry: Play On, Mr. Music
Various Artists: Maghreb K7 Club–Synth Rai, Chaoui & Staifi (1985-1997)
Brother Theotis Taylor
Black Ark Players: Black Ark In Dub
Prince: Sign O’ The Times (Deluxe Edition)
The Replacements: Pleased to Meet Me (Deluxe Edition)

Living To Listen

Compact music commentary about artifacts new and old: I enthuse, I don't accuse, but I do refuse–to review anything lukewarm or colder!

Category: Best-Of Lists

Living to Listen’s Top Albums of 2020, Part II (I refuse to admit we’re in a different calendar year–even today, which is the dawn of 2020, Part III)

No-Save* November: The Best Recordings Released in 2021 (So Far), Which I’ve Drained My Wallet For Despite Using Multiple Streaming Platforms

For Those I Love, A Burgeoning List Including Lots of Long-Playing Lyricism–Best Rekkids, January 1 – November 1

Golden Musical Days – I’d Like to Share Them with You: Superior Slabs, January Through September 2021

COOL WITH THIS!: Strongest Records of 2021 So Far, By My Lights

90 Degrees of Freedom Found: My Favorite Rekkid Releases of 2021, and We’re Only Halfway There

“It’s Growing: Most Euphonious Fruit of First Quarter, 2021”

February 11 – March 7: A Thin and Motley Crew

January 1 – February 10: Slim Pickings

Power Up! Look Out! This Dance’s About Over!: 155 Rekkids That Have Given Me Pleasure This Year When I Really, Really Needed It!

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