I know D’Angelo’s new record is coming out Tuesday, but–I’ve waited for him long enough already.

(Above: The sleeper of the bunch….)

Top 10 Rekkids

1. Wussy: Attica! (Shake It!)
2. Allen Lowe: Mulatto Radio–Field Recordings 1-4 (allenlowe.com)
3. D’Angelo and The Vanguard: Black Messiah (RCA)
4. Chris Butler: Easy Life (Future Fossil)
5. Run The Jewels: 2 (Mass Appeal)
6. Ty Segall: Manipulator (Drag City)
7. Noura Mint Seymali: Tzenna (Glitterbeat)
8. Homeboy Sandman: Hallways (Stones Throw)
9. Ross Johnson and Monsieur Jeffrey Evans: Vanity Sessions (Spacecase)
10. Jemeel Moondoc: The Zookeeper’s House (Relative Pitch)

Top 10 Songs

1. Wussy: “Teenage Wasteland”
2. Wussy: “To the Lightning”
3. Natural Child: “Don’t the Time Pass Quickly (When You’re Making Love)”
4. Bo Dollis Jr. and the Wild Magnolias: “We Come to Rumble”
5. Angaleena Presley: “Pain Pills”
6. Young Thug and Bloody Jay: “No F—s”
7. Chris Butler: “Easy Life”
8. D’Angelo and The Vanguard: “The Door”
9. Ross Johnson and Monsieur Jeffrey Evans: “Three-Beer Queer”
10. Withered Hand: “Horseshoe”

Top 10 Reissues/New Issues of Older Music

1. Sun Ra: Marshall Allen Presents Sun Ra & His Arkestra (Strut)
2. Various Artists: Haiti Direct! (Strut)
3. John Coltrane: Offering—Live at Temple University (Resonance)
4. Jerry Lee Lewis: The Knox Phillips Sessions (Saguaro Road)
5. Bob Dylan & The Band: The Complete Basement Tapes (Columbia/Sony)
6. The Velvet Underground: The Velvet Underground—45^th Anniversary Edition (Universal/Polydor)
7. Sid Selvidge: The Cold of the Morning (Omnivore)
8. Various Artists: Dylan’s Gospel—Brothers & Sisters (Light in the Attic)
9. Bob Wills & The Texas Playboys: Riding Your Way–The Lost Transcriptions for Tiffany Music 1946-7 (Real Gone Music)
10. TIE: Charlie Burton: Rock and Roll Behavior (Sound Asleep)/Horace Tapscott: The Giant Awakens (Flying Dutchman)

Top 10 Old Records I Bought for the First Time

1. Rats: Intermittent Signals (Whizz Eagle)
2. Jessie Mae Hemphill: Feelin’ Good (Shout Factory)
3. Lazy Lester: I’m a Lover Not a Fighter (Ace/Excello)
4. Khaira Arby: Timbuktu Tarab (Clermont)
5. Yoko Ono: Plastic Ono Band (Capitol)
6. New Jazz Poets (Folkways)
7. Allen Lowe: Blues & The Empirical Truth (Music & Arts Programs)
8. Wadada Leo Smith: Ten Freedom Summers (Cuneiform)
9. Quintron and Miss Pussycat/Steve Riley & the Mamou Playboys: “Haterz”/”Chatterbox” (Rhinestone Records 45)
10. Melvin Peebles: X-Rated by an All-White Jury (A&M)

Top 5 New Books with Pop Music Connections

1. Marlon James: A Brief History of Seven Killings (Penguin)
2. Todd Snider: I Never Met a Story I Didn’t Like—Mostly True Tall Tales (Da Capo)
3. Carl Wilson: Let’s Talk About Love: Why Other People Have Such Bad Taste (Bloomsbury Academic)
4. Greil Marcus: The History of Rock and Roll in Ten Songs (Yale University Press)
5. John Waters: : John Waters Hitchhikes Across America (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux) 

Top 5 New (or newly available) (or not available—so DO something!) Music Documentaries

Werner Herzog testifies to the genius of Les Blank

1. Always for Pleasure: The Films of Les Blank (Criterion)
2. AKA Doc Pomus (dir. William Hechter and Peter Miller) (Clear Lake Historical Productions)
3. Rahsaan Roland Kirk—The Case of the Three-Sided Dream (dir. Adam Kahan) (http://www.rahsaanfilm.com/)
4. Bayou Maharajah (dir. Lily Kleber) (http://www.bayoumaharajah.com/) CLEARANCE ISSUES!
5. This Ain’t No Mouse Music! The Story of Chris Strachwitz and Arhoolie Records (dir. Maureen Gosling and Chris Simon)

Top 5 Favorite Concerts of 2014

1. Billy Joe Shaver
2. Natural Child/Pujols/Planchette/Heavy Lids
3. Chucho Valdez/Conrad Herwig’s Latin Side (w/Joe Lovano)
4. Barrence Whitfield and the Savages
5. Pine Leaf Boys