All I have to say is the size of my list of 2021 go-to albums just increased by 30%, no surprise, as the gears of normal creativity and associated production are grinding into motion. That, and the two new albums created by African artists that stormed my top five are crackling with six-string (and vocal) intensity.
Bolded items are new to the list; items followed by a # are reissues or archival digs; all items are linked to pages of interest or usefulness.
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)
Frustrated at not tending to my vast responsibility to, um, someone, I donned the headphones and powered through some new slabs. Fortunately, they were all at least good.
Mdou Moctar Meets Elite Beat in a Budget Dancehall–The star of the Saharan Purple Rain ducks out of the desert and into a club, and things get looser than they tend to on the sands…not a bad idea at all.
Dave Holland: Uncharted Territories–Two septuagenarian vets of European improvised music join two American youngsters for a two-disc creation session, and the kids’ ideas win (as does the listener, in one of the best free records of 2018).
The Young Mothers: Morose–The latest work starring a product of Texas’ House of Gonzalez (one brainstormed by a Norwegian) melds free jazz, rap, punk, metal, and maybe other stuff in a furious attempt to change that mood–be it in us or the musicians themselves.
Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever: Hope Downs–Seems like folks are struggling to describe this Australian act (they’re not a jam band to my ears), but they seem a more straightforward version of The Feelies to me, and that’s a good thing.
Nidia: Nídia É Má, Nídia É Fudida–Just as I’m wondering when JLin going to deliver another package of EDM even a Southwest Missouri boy can love, I find out a Portuguese wizard damn near matched Black Origami with this quirky jam (there may be hope for me yet).
Living To Listen 