Back To School: Living to Listen’s Favorite Records, January 1st to September 1st, 2025

To my regular readers: As I type, I have already begun my 42nd (consecutive) year as a teacher. This fall, I am teaching two on-line freshman composition classes at Stephens College (one with the school’s Conservatory and built around Sasha Geffen’s alternative pop history Glitter Up The Dark–read it yourself, folks!—and the other with its regular women’s college students, who are reading Octavia Butler’s Kindred. In addition, I will be teaching an in-person 3.5-week, M-F, three-hours-per-block freshman comp class starting in mid-October; they, too, will be reading Butler’s book. Most of you will not need to guess why I’ve chosen those books to build a composition class around; my Missouri readers will have no doubt. Anyway, I’m devoting this post to my students, so I will now proceed to, ahem, address them….

To my students: Welcome to Living to Listen, the longest list of lovely licorice pizza in Blogtown! When I was your age (zzzzz….) in 1980, I could not have made a list of 35 albums I even owned, nor barely 50 I had heard from beginning to end (I was a singles kid then). If I’d been asked to construct my favorites from those, on the list would have been Bruce Springsteen’s Darkness on the Edge of Town, Elvis Costello’s Armed Forces, The B-52s, Bob Seger’s Night Moves, The Velvet Underground’s 1969 Live, X’s Los Angeles, Black Sabbath’s We Sold Our Soul for Rock and Roll, “Rapper’s Delight,” Teddy Pendergrass’ Teddy, Neil Young’s Live Rust, Bob Dylan’s Highway 61 Revisited, The Clash’s London Calling, The Sex Pistols’ Never Mind the Bollocks, Cher’s most recent album (serious outlier)…well, I’ll stop there. Today, the year isn’t even over and the following list isn’t numbered, but odds are it will exceed 200 by New Year’s Eve 2026 and those will just be the ones I heard that I liked.

What’s the point? Good question. Often I wonder that myself. What I think I’m doing is helping my readers wade through a perpetual tsunami of new recordings—literally any sentient being can now make a record and make it available to the public—and find something that will transfix, delight, provoke, stimulate, energize, and maybe even transform them from the creatures that they are…because they did one or more of those things to me. What I am probably doing is nearer to yodeling into the Grand Canyon at 2 a.m. What I am sure I am doing at the very least is preparing myself to vote in a couple of year-end “Best of the Year” polls (though I have yet to even pull my Top 10 out of the jungle below) as well as committing to cybermemory a record (make that very plural) of what I was putting my ear to at the time. It may also appear that I am showing off and that may well be accurate, but I’d argue that I don’t spend money or time on much else than listening to music, books, movie theaters, Stephens Conservatory productions, teaching, and my very saintly bride. Oh yes, food. And occasionally drink. I have to be forced to buy new clothes, I would never drive anything if I didn’t have to, one house will do, thank you—in other words, really, music is not only an obsession for me but a lifeline. I am not religious, but sometimes I have argued with friends that every record in the house (yes, I and you should BUY music to keep food on our musicmakers’plates) is like a book of humanity’s bible to me. Seriously.

A quick scan of my 2025 favorites reveals a few things about me: 1) I listen to a lot of music; 2) I am not exactly a poptimist (I really like Olivia, Beyonce, Rihanna, Harry, and Billie, for example, but I merely seriously admire Taylor Swift and have no use for Sabrina—nor a lot of men who make poppy pop music, and I really only like one of Harry’s albums); 3) Looks like I lean hard toward improvisational jazz (especially the Scandinavian variety—they distill the best stuff!), but it frees my mind, goes great with reading, and fits an ideal I hold about living with other people; 4) I am apparently working for Nyege Nyege Tapes out of Uganda as well as the prolific Japanese jazz pianist Satoko Fujii; and—gotta stop somewhere—5) unlike many, many white men my age (63.666), I like rap music. The list does not show that I LOVE country music, but as far as today’s purveyors go, it’s mostly the women that bend my ear. I love Tyler Childers and Zach Bryan because they sing with intensity and they write outside the lines of the stereotypical “rural” coloring book.

So…sample some stuff! I would expect you haven’t heard of a lot of it, but I’ll warn you that that is not because it’s not good—it’s a wide, wide world out there! Each record listing includes a link to a way to get ahold of it or learn about it, a Spotify link (I hate that platform, but I feel I have no choice) for the whole list that follows it, and next you will see the meaning of my typology (?). I hope you find something that lifts you! Also, if something you love from 2025 isn’t on the list, that doesn’t necessarily mean I don’t like it—I might not have gotten to it yet. I also might not have simply gotten it yet. Or it could be it just don’t move me! Students, peace to you unless you have to protect others, then and always may you stay safe, please write so well you’re proud of the output, and talk to me about some of these platters!

MY LIST OF AURAL PLEASURE

January 1 – September 1, 2025

BOLD = New to the List

ASTERISKED* = Damn good!*** to Holy SHIT!*****

ITALICIZED: Excavations from the Past / Reissues

Aesop Rock: Black Hole Superette (Rhymesayers) **** 

Africa Express: …Presents…Bahidora (World Circuit Limited) ****

Amarae: Black Star (Golden Angel) ***

Zoh Amba: Sun (Smalltown Supersound) ****

Ale Hop & Titi Bakorta: Mapambazuko (Nyege Nyege Tapes) ***** 

Marshall Allen’s Ghost Horizons: Live in Philadelphia, Volume 1 (Otherly Love Records) **** 

The Ancients: The Ancients (Eremite) ***

 Ichiko Aoba: Luminescent Creatures (Psychic Hotline) 

Artemis: Arboresque (Blue Note) ****

Backxwash: Only Dust Remains (Ugly Hag) ****

Bad Bunny: DeBI TiRAR MaS FOToS (Rimas Entertainment) **** *

Julien Baker & Torres: Send a Prayer My Way (Matador) **** 

Bar-B-Q Killers: The Last Shit, Part 1 (Chunklet 45)

Gina Birch: Trouble (Third Man)

The Bitter Ends: The Bitter Ends (Trouble in River City) 

Black Milk & Fat Ray: Food from the Gods (Computer Ugly / Fat Beats) 

Blacks’ Myths Meets Pat Thomas: The Mythstory School (self-released) *** 

Yugen Blakrok: The Illusion Of Being (I.O.T. Records) *** *

Blood Orange: Essex Honey (RCA) ***

Booker T & The Plasmic Bleeds: Ode To BC/LY… And Eye Know BO…. da Prez (Mahakala Music)

 Benjamin Booker: Lower (Fire Next Time) 

Johnny Bragg: Let Me Dream On (Org Music) *** 

Brother Ali & Ant: Satisfied Soul (Mello Music) 

Buck 65: Keep Moving (self-released) ****

Peter Brotzmann: The Quartet (Otoroku) *****

Master Wilburn Burchette: Master Wilburn Burchette’s Psychic Meditation Music (Numero Group) ***

Joe Chambers, Kevin Diehl, Chad Taylor: Onilu (Eremite) ****

Tyler Childers: Snipe Hunter (RCA / Hickman Holler) ****

Christer Bothén 3: L’Invisible (thanatosis) ****

clipping: Dead Channel Sky (Sub Pop) 

Clipse: Let God Sort ‘Em Out (Roc Nation) ***

Common and Pete Rock: The Auditorium, Volume 1 (Casa Loma)

Cosmic Ear: TRACES (We Jazz) *****

 Sylvie Courvoisier & Mary Halvorson: Bone Bells (Pyroclastic) ***

Chuck D: Chuck D Presents Enemy Radio—Radio Armageddon (Soundspeak)

Christopher Dammann Sextet: Christopher Dammann Sextet (Out of Your Head)  ***

Deepstaria Enigmatica: The Eternal Now Is the Heart of a New Tomorrow (ESP-Disk)  ****

The Delines: Mr. Luck & Ms. Doom (Jealous Butcher) **** 

DJ Dadaman & Moscow Dollar: Ka Gaza (Nyege Nyege Tapes) 

DJ Haram: Beside Myself (Hyperdub)

DJ Shaun-D: From Bubbling to Dutch House (Nyege Nyege Tapes) 

Big Chief Bo Dollis Jr. & The Wild Magnolias: Chip Off The Old Block (Strong Place)

Doseone & Height Keech: Wood Teeth (Hands Made EP) ****

doseone & Steel Tipped Dove: All Portrait, No Chorus (BackwoodzStudios) ****

Earl Sweatshirt: Live Laugh Love (Tan Cressida) ***

Silke Eberhard Trio: Being-A-Ning (Intakt)

Eddy Current Suppression Ring: Shapes and Forms (Cool Death EP) ***

Marty Ehrlich Trio Exaltation: This Time (Sunnyside) ***

Electric Satie: Gymnopedia ’99 (In Sheep’s Clothing) ****

Marco Eneidi Quintet: Wheat Fields of Kleylehof (Balance Point Acoustics / Botticelli) ****

Mark Ernestus’ Ndagga Rhythm Force: Khadim (Ndagga) ***

Ex-Void: In Love Again (Tapete Records)

Fieldwork: Thereupon (Pi Records) ****

Craig Finn: Always Been (Tamaric / Thirty Tigers) *** 

FKA twigs: Eusexua (Young Recordings Limited)

 Robert Forster: Strawberries (Tapete) ****

 Satoko Fujii GEN: Altitude 1100 Meters (Libra) 

Satoko Fujii Trio: Dream a Dream (Libra) **** 

Satoko Fuji / This is It!: Message (Libra)

Karol G: Tropicoqueta (Bichota) ****

Galactic and Irma Thomas: Audience with the Queen (Tchoup-Zilla)

Girl Scout: Headache (self-released EP)

Roger Glenn: My Latin Heart (Patois) ***

Woody Guthrie: Woody at Home, Vol 1 + 2 (Shamus) ****

Keiji Haino and Natsuki Tamura: what happened there? (Libra) 

Mary Halvorson: About Ghosts (Nonesuch) *****

Hamell on Trial: Harp (for Harry) (Saustex)

Heat On: Heat On (Cuneiform)

 The Hemphill Stringtet: Plays the Music of Julius Hemphill (Out of Your Head Records)

 Patterson Hood: Exploding Trees & Airplane Screams (ATO) *** 

William Hooker: Jubilation (Org Music) ***** 

William Hooker: A Time Within: Live at the New York Jazz Museum, January 14, 1977 (The Control Group / Valley of Search) *** 

Horsegirl: Phonetics On and On (Matador) 

HHY & The Kampala Unit: Turbo Meltdown (Nyege Nyege Tapes) ****

Hunx and His Punks: Walk Out on This World (Get Better) ****

Hüsker Dü: January 30, Parts 1 & 2 (Numero EP) ***** (Numero box on the way….)

Mikko Innanen and Ingebrigt Häker Flaten: Live in Espoo (Sonic Transmissions)

Michael Gregory Jackson: Frequency Equilibrium Koan (moved-by-sound) 

Jeong – Bisio Duo (featuring Joe McPhee): Morning Bells Whistle Bright (ESP-Disk) **** 

JLZ & GG: Medio Grave (Nyege Nyege Tapes) ***

Rico Jones: Bloodlines (Giant Step Arts)

Anthony Joseph: Rowing Up the River to Get Our Names Back (Heavenly Sweetness) ****

JPEG Mafia: I Lay Down My Life for You (Director’s Cut) (self-released) ****

Kelela: In the Blue Light (Warp) ***

 KINGDOM MOLOGI: Kembo (Nyege Nyege Tapes) ****

Kronos Quartet + The Hard Rain Collective: Hard Rain (Red Hot Org EP)

Lady Gaga: Mayhem (Interscope) 

Lambrini Girls: Who Let The Dogs Out (City Slang US) *****

Steve Lehman: The Music of Anthony Braxton (Pi Recordings) ***** 

José Lencastre: Inner Voices (Burning Ambulance) ***

Jinx Lennon: The Hate Agents Leer at the Last Agents of Hope (Septic Tiger) *** 

James Brandon Lewis: Apple Cores (Anti-) 

James Brandon Lewis Quartet: Abstraction is Deliverance (Intakt) ***

Jeffrey Lewis: The Even More Freewheelin’ Jeffrey Lewis (Don Giovanni) 

Little Simz: Lotus (AWAL) ****

LOLO: LOLO (Black Sweat) 

Rocio Gimenez Lopez: La Forma Del Sueno (Blue Art) **** 

Rocio Gimenez Lopez: La Palabra Repetida (Blue Art) ***

K. Curtis Lyle, Jaap Blonk, Damon Smith, Alex Cunningham: A Radio of the Body

Jako Maron: Mahavelouz (Nyege Nyege Tapes) **** 

Mazinga: Chinese Democracy Manifest—Greatest Hits, Vol. 2 (Rubber Wolf) 

Mean Mistreater: Do or Die (self-released)  ***

The Mekons: Horror (Fire) *** 

Ava Mendoza/Gabby Fluke-Mogul/Carolina Perez: Mama Killa (Burning Ambulance) ***

M(h)aol: Something Soft (Merge) ***

Mac Miller: Baloonerism (Warner Records) 

Billy Mohler: The Eternal (Contagious) 

Moonchild Sanelly: Full Moon (self-released)

MonoNeon: You Had Your Chance…Bad Attitude! (Color Red) **** 

Christy Moore: A Terrible Beauty (Claddagh) *****

Jason Moran/Trondheim Jazz Orchestra/Ole Morten Vågan: Go To Your North (Yes Records)

Matthew Muneses and Riza Printup: Pag-Ibko, Volume 1 (Irabbagast Records) 

David Murray Quartet: The Birdsong Project Presents Birdly Serenade (Verve)

Amina Claudine Myers: Solace of the Mind (Red Hook) ****

Natural Information Society and Bitchin’ Bahas: Totality (Drag City) 

Louis Nevins: The Fumes (Cavetone Records) ***

Alick Nkhata: Radio Lusaka (Mississippi Records) ***

NOBRO: Set Your Pussy Free (Dine Alone) ***

Nourished By Time: The Passionate Ones (XL)

Isabelle Olivier: Impressions (Rewound Echoes) 

The Onions: Return to Paradise (Hitt Records) 

Bill Orcutt Guitar Quartet: Hauslive 4 (Palilalia) *** 

Organic Pulse Ensemble: Ad Hoc (Ultraaani Records) *****

Aruan Ortiz: Creole Renaissance (Intakt) ***

Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra Led by Horace Tapscott: Live at Widney High December 26th, 1971 (The Village) ***

 Ivo Perelmamn and Matthew Shipp: Armageddon Flower (TAO Forms)

 Pitch, Rhythm, and Consciousness: Sextet (Reva Records) 

Marek Pospieszalski Octet & Zoh Amba: NOW! (Project financed by a scholarship from the Minister of Culture and National Heritage “Młoda Polska” & Katowice City of Music UNESCO)

Public Enemy: Black Sky Over The Projects—Apartment 2025 (self-released) ***

Les Rallizes Denudes: Blind Baby Has Its Mother’s Eyes (Life Goes On) 

Les Rallizes Denudes: Jittoku ’76 (Temporal Drift)

R.A.P. Ferreira: Outstanding Understanding (Ruby Yacht)

Jonathan Richman: Only Frozen Sky Anyway (Blue Arrow)

 Adam Rudolph, Dave Liebman, Billy Hart: Beingness (Meta) 

Bobby Rush and Kenny Wayne Shepherd: Young Fashioned Ways (Deep Rush / RAM Records) ***

Sverre Sæbo Quintet: If, However, You Have Not Lost Your Self Control (SauaJazz)

 SAULT: 10 (Sault Global) *** 

Serengeti: mixtape 2 (serengetiraps / self-released) 

Serengeti: Palookaville (serengetiraps / self-released)  

The Sex Pistols: Live in the U.S.A. South East Music Hall, Atlanta, January 5th, 1978 (UME) 

The Sharp Pins: Radio DDR (K / Perennial Death) *** 

Matthew Shipp: The Cosmic Piano (Canteloupe Records) ****

Anthony “Big A” Sherrod: Torchbearer of the Clarksdale Sound (Music Makers Recordings EP)

Slick Rick: Victory (Mass Appeal) ***

Luke Stewart / Silt Remembrance Ensemble: The Order (Cuneiform) *** 

Ray Suhy / Lewis Porter Quartet: What Happens Next (Sunnyside) *** 

SUMAC and Moor Mother: The Film (Thrill Jockey) 

Sun Ra: Nuits de la Fondation Maeght 5 August 1970 (Strut) ***

Superchunk: Songs in the Key of Yikes (Merge) ****

John Surman: Flashpoint and Undercurrents (Cuneiform Records) ***

Atef Swaitat & Abu Ali: Palestinian Bedouin Psychedelic Dabka Archive (Majazz Project/Palestinian Sound Archive) ********

Masahiko Tagashi: Session in Paris, Volume 1—Song of the Soil (with Don Cherry and Charlie Haden) (We Want Sounds) 

Taj Mahal and Keb’ Mo’: Room on the Porch (Concord Jazz)  

Taj Mahal & Keb’ Mo’: Room on the Porch for Everyone (UMG EP)  

Cecil Taylor / Tony Oxley: Flashing Spirits (Burning Ambulance)

Ebo Taylor, Adrain Younge, and Ali Shaheed Muhammad: Jazz Is Dead 22 (Jazz is Dead) 

Three-Layer Cake: “sounds the color of grounds” (Otherly Love)

Los Thuthanaka: Los Thuthanaka (Studio Pankara) ****

Trio Glossia: Trio Glossia (Sonic Transmissions) **** 

The Tubs: Cotton Crown (self-released) ***

Kali Uchis: Sincerely (Capitol) ***

Akira Umeda & Metal Preyers: Clube de Mariposa Mórbida (Nyege Nyege Tapes)

The Untamed Youth: Git Up and Go (Hi-Tide / Nu-Tone)

Various Artists: African Jazz Invites O.K. Jazz (Planet Ilunga) *** 

Various Artists: A Tribute to the King of Zydeco (Valcourt) *****

Various Artists: Democracy Forward (Bitter Southerner) ***

Various Artists: Prisoners’ Day Compilation (Majazz Project / Palestinian Sound Archive) ***

 Various Artists: Roots Rocking Zimbabwe– The Modern Sound of Harare’ Townships 1975-1980 (Analog Africa) **** 

Various Artists: Sweet Rebels—The Golden Era of Algerian Pop-Rai (We Want Sounds) ***

Vibration Black Finger: Everybody Cryin’ Mercy (Enid)

Morgan Wade: The Party is Over (recovered) (Ladylike) ****

The War & Treaty: Plus One (Mercury Nashville) 

Wet Leg: moisturizer (Domino) ***

Alfred White: The Definitive Alfred White (Music Makers Recordings) 

Wheelhouse: House and Home (Aerophonic) 

Simon Willson: Bet (Endectomorph Records)

billy woods: GOLLIWOG (x) (Backwoodz Studios) 

Wu-Tang Clan: Black Samson, The Bastard (All Maf / 36 Chambers)

Jeong Lim Yang: Synchronicity (Fully Altered Media)

Hiroshi Yoshimura: Flora (Temporal Drift) ***

Brandee Younger: Gadabout Season (Impulse) ***

The Young Mothers: Better If You Let It (Sonic Transmissions) ****

Miguel Zenon: Vanguardia Subterranea (Miel Music) ***

Put this SPITify sucker on shuffle and free your ears-–so your arse and mind will follow!

Happy Hour in Excelsior Springs: Not Feeling Tardy Delivering My Favorite Records of 2023, January 1 – September 1

Comin’ atcha from one of Al Capone’s old haunts! Nicole’s gettin’ a CBD massage in this haunted hotel’s famous spa, we got kicked out of the pool for some reserved loud wedding strutting, and I’m sippin’ Blue Moons to the tune of my $100 worth of Bandcamp Friday investments. School’s in for me, so with three freshman comp classes and tutoring, I haven’t even been able to read–man, when that happens, I’m like Antaeus without his feet on the ground. BUT…I made it, smellin’ like chlorine and all.

Suite Sweets:

*In 2009, at 75, Bobby Rush played a show at the school I taught at, to an audience composed mostly of our black students, their parents, and even grandparents. Though it fell into my lap, I still had to do some legwork; in the end, it’s one of my Top 3 greatest experiences as an educator. AT 89, Rush just delivered his best album since Live at Ground Zero and Folkfunk (if anyone’s keeping track)–a team-up with Willie awaits, and I am not joking. Their people need to think about it.

*I was starting to think Noname was too good to wax rap records, and that’s a statement of respect. I am glad to see her back in the game, elegant, concise, and powerful.

*The year’s most gorgeous jazz album might be Miguel Zenon’s second record of boleros.

*St. Louis’ best rock and roll band (Americana, if you prefer) is Money for Guns. They just released their very best record, so if you still recognize those two genres, you might wanna sniff it out. I must admit that their co-lead singer and songwriter substitute-taught at my school over a decade ago when he was a Frustrated Bachelor, but as sharp as he was, I figured he’d be teaching at this point. He wisely keep his shoulder to the musical wheel.*

*Those of you that are free jazz fans might still be processing all those Zoh Amba records from 2022. Her new one with Orcutt on guitar might be THE ONE you need if she hasn’t hooked you yet.

*I’ve been lucky enough to see Sonic Youth live at their peak (I’m calling that the Goo tour) and in their admirable, um, dotage (2002, maybe?). The new live-in-Brooklyn document is a lovely gift to us, and does it open with some painful honesty.

*Ember. Who the funk are they? Well, they just released the most fascinatingly responsive jazz record of the year. I need to do more research, but I played it out of obligation and ended up hypnotized.

*Steve Pick, my man! Thank you for pointing me to That Mexican OT. If you miss fun and outrageous rap, and maybe like Mexican wrestling, please don’t hesitate. Unless it’s to helmet-polish for a bit.

*It might set you back some, but The Village’s six-decade overview of the great Horace Tapscott’s musical world of Watts is well worth it. He is the most underrated figure in jazz history (mostly because he chose to devote his efforts to local musical work rather than pursuit of fame), and his accomplishment has never been better documented than on the Pan Afrikan Peoples Orchestra set.

*I am standing firm on my feeling that Anohni’s My Back was a Bridge for You to Cross is the most powerful (and therefore best) record of the year. I’ve been told the vibrato is too much (tell that to the ghost of Sarah Vaughan) and that the quality tails (I think it simply shifts in kind of quality), but it still haunts me, and I know I am not alone.

BONUS TIP: If you happen to love balls-out drums (especially drums)-and-guit Devotion-like wailing…check out Spiritual Drum Kingship. Sometimes you just need your ass kicked by surging plugged-in improv.

(Bolded items are new to the list)

Anohni: My Back Was a Bridge for You to Cross (Secretly Canadian)
Gina Burch: I Play My Bass Loud (Third Man)
100 gecs: 10,000 gecs (Dog Show/Atlantic)
boygenius:the record (Interscope)
Bettye LaVette: LaVette! (Jay-Vee)
Buck 65: Super Dope (self-released?)
Jessie Ware: That! Feels Good! (Universal)
Noname: Sundial (AWAL Recordings America)
billy woods & Kenny Segal: Maps (Backwoodz Studios)
Liv.e: Girl in The Half Pearl (Real Life / AWAL)
Kelela: Raven (Warp)
Big Freedia: Central City (Queen Diva)
National Information Society: Since Time is Gravity (Eremite)
Allen Lowe and the Constant Sorrow Orchestra: In the Dark (ESP-Disk)
Ethnic Heritage Ensemble: Spirit Gatherer—A Tribute to Don Cherry (Spiritmuse)
Jason Moran: From the Dancehall to the Battlefield (Yes Records)
London Brew: London Brew (Concord)
Fire! Orchestra: Echoes (Rune Grammofon)
Wadada Leo Smith: Fire Illuminations (Kabell)
The Mark Lomax II Trio: Tapestry (CFG Multimedia)
Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah & Chief Adjuah: Bark Out Thunder Roar Out Lightning (Ropeadope)
Janelle Monae: The Age of Pleasure (Bad Boy)
Dropkick Murphys: Okemah Rising (Dummy Luck Music)
Isach Skeidsvoll: Dance to Summon (Ultraani Records)
Miguel Zenon & Luis Perdomo: El Arte del Bolero, Volume 2 (ArcArtists)
Wild Up: Julius Eastman, Volume 3—If You’re So Smart, Why Aren’t You Rich? (New Amsterdam)
Parannoul: After the Magic (Poclanos/Top Shelf)
Yaeji: With a Hammer (XL Recordings)
The Urban Art Ensemble: “Ho’opomopono” (CFG Multimedia 16-minute single)
Felo Le Tee & Mellow & Sleazy: The Ill Wise Men (New Money Gang)
Brandy Clark: Brandy Clark (Warner)
Rodrigo Campos: Pagode Novo (YB Music)
The Necks: Travel (Northern Spy)
Kali Uchis: Red Moon in Venus (Geffen)
Bobby Rush: All My Love for You (Deep Rush / Thirty Tigers)
Marina Sena: Vicio Inerente (Sony)
Young Fathers: Heavy Heavy (Ninja Tune)
Willie Nelson: I Don’t Know a Thing About Love—The Songs of Harlan Howard (Legacy)
Peso Pluma: GENESIS (Double P)
Ice Cold Bishop: Generational Curse (Ice Cold Entertainment)
Allen Lowe and The Constant Sorrow Orchestra: America—The Rough Cut (ESP-Disk)
Tyshawn Sorey:Continuing (Pi Recordings)
Nourished by Time: Erotic Probiotic 2 (Scenic Route)
Walter Daniels: “From Death to Texas” / “Seems Like a Dream” (Spacecase Records 45)
Tyler Keith & The Apostles: Hell to Pay (Black & Wyatt)
Algiers: Shook (Matador)
KAYTRAMINE: KAYTRAMIUNE, Amine, & KAYTRANADA (CLBN)
Withered Hand: How to Love (Reveal)
Lori McKenna: 1988 (CN Records / Thirty Tigers)
ensemble 0: Jojoni(Crammed Discs)
Henry Threadgill: The Other One(Pi)
Kari Faux: REAL BITCHES DON’T DIE (drunk sum wtr records)
Zoh Amba & Chris Corsano & Bill Orcutt: The Flower School (Palilalia)
Lewis Capaldi: Broken By Desire To Be Heavenly Sent (Vertigo Berline)
aja monet: when the poems do what they do (drink sum wtr)
Knoel Scott (featuring Marshall Allen): Celestial (Night Dreamer)
Ember: August in March (Imani)
Meshell Ndegeocello: The Omnichord Real Book (Blue Note)
Taj Mahal: Savoy (Cheraw S.C.)
corook: serious person (part 1) (Atlantic)
Haviah Mighty: Crying Crystals (Mighty Gang)
Rome Streetz: Wasn’t Built in a Day (Big Ghost)
Jaimie Branch: Fly or Die Fly or Die ((world war)) (International Anthem)
Kiko El Crazy: Pila’e Teteo (Rimas)
Islandman (featuring Okay Temiz and Muhlis Berberoglu: Direct-to-Disc Sessions (Night Dreamer)
Edward Simon: Femeninas (ArtistShare)
Kill Bill—The Rapper: Fullmetal Kaiju (EXO)
Money for Guns: All the Darkness That’s in Your Head (CD Baby)
Rough Image: Rough Image (WV Sorcerer Productions)
Ingrid Laubrock: The Last Quiet Place (Pyroclastic)
Rob Mazurek & Exploding Star Orchestra: LightningDreamers (International Anthem)
Kaze & Ikue Mori: Crustal Movement (Circum/Libra)
DJ Black Low: Impumelelo (Awesome Tapes from Africa)
Belle and Sebastian: Late Developers (Matador)
Satoko Fujii & Otomo Yoshihide: Perpetual Motion (Ayler Records)
feeble little horse: Girl with Fish (Saddle Creek)
Rocket 88: House of Jackpots (12XU)
Taiko Saito: Tears of a Cloud (Trouble in the East)
JPEGMAFIA x Danny Brown: Scaring the Hoes (self-released)
Water from Your Eyes: Everyone’s Crushed (Matador)
Lakecia Benjamin: Phoenix (Whirlwind)
Amaarae: Fountain Baby (Golden Angel/Interscope)
Blondshell: Blondshell (Partisan)
Satoko Fujii: Torrent (Libra Records)
Javon Jackson: “With Peter Bradley”—Soundtrack and Original Score (Solid Jackson)
YMA & Jadsa: Zelena (Matraca)
Palehound: Eye on the Bat (Polyvinyl)
J Hus: Beautiful and Brutal Yard (Black Butter)
Das Kondensat: Anderen Planeten (Why Play Jazz)
Iris DeMent: Workin’ On a World (FlariElla)
David Mirarchi: Ink Folly, Orchid Gleam(Unbroken Sounds) (coming soon….)
Baaba Maal: Being (Atelier Live/Marathon Artists)
Bob Dylan: Shadow Kingdom (Columbia)
Lana Del Rey: Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd (Polydor)
Romulo Froes & Tiago Rosas: Na Goela (YB Music)
Buselli – Wallarab Jazz Orchestra: The Gennett Suite (Patois Records)
Florian Arbenz: Conversation #9—Targeted (Hammer Recordings)
James Brandon Lewis: Eye of I (Anti-)
Sexyy Red: Hood Hottest Princess (Open Shift)
Joanna Sternberg: I’ve Got Me (Fat Possum)
Tracey Nelson: Life Don’t Miss Nobody (BMG)
Etran De L’Air: Live in Seattle (EP) (Sahel Sounds)
Everything But the Girl: Fuse (Buzzin’ Fly)
Tomas Fujiwara’s Triple Double: March On (self-released EP—coming in March)
Ice Spice: Like…? (10K Projects / Capitol Records EP)
otay:onii: Dream Hacker (WV Sorcerer Productions)
Sylvie Courvoisier & Cory Smythe: The Rite of Spring—Spectre d’un songe (Pyroclastic)
Itamar Borochov: Arba (Greenleaf)
Nakimbembe Embaire Group: Nakimbembe Embaire Group (Nyege Nyege Tapes)
Shirley Collins: Archangel Hill (Domino)
Karol G: Manana Sera Bonito (Universal Music Latino)
Hollie Cook: Happy Hour in Dub (Merge)
Andrew Cyrille: Music Delivery / Percussion (Intakt)
Kate Gentile: b i o m e i.i (Obliquity)
Yves Tumor: Praise a Lord Who Chews but Which Does Not Consume; (Or Simply, Hot Between Worlds) (Warp)
Open Mike Eagle: another triumph of ghetto engineering (AutoReverse)
Yonic South: Devo Challenge Cup (Wild Honey)
Rudy Royston: Day (Greenleaf Music)
Basher: Doubles (Sinking City)
That Mexican OT: Lonestar Luchador (Good Talk)
Staples Jr. Singers: Tell Heaven (EP) (Luaka Bop) Note: the vinyl gets you more great minutes of testifying.
Brandee Younger: Brand New Life (Impulse!)
Babe, Terror: Teghnojoyg
Heinali: Kyiv Eternal (Injazero)
Tri-County Liquidators: “Flies” / “Weep Then Whisper” / “Bitter” (self-released)
Vinny Golia Quartet: No Refunds (Unbroken Sounds)
Kresten Osgood / Bob Moses / Tisziji Munoz: Spiritual Drum Kingship (Gotta Let It Out)
The Art Ensemble of Chicago: From Paris to Paris (Rogue Art)
Clarence “Bluesman” Davis: Shake It For Me (Music Maker Foundation)
The War and The Treaty: Lover’s Game (Mercury Nashville)
Aroof Aftab, Vijay Iyer & Shahzad, Ismaily: Love in Exile (Verve)
Asher Gamedze: Turbulence and Pulse (International Anthem)
Normal Nada the Krakmaxter: Tribal Progressive Heavy Metal (Nyege Nyege Tapes)
Natural Child: Be M’Guest (Natural Child Music)
Tanya Tucker: Sweet Western Sound (Fantasy)

Excavations and Reissues

Mahlathini and the Mahotella Queens: Music Inferno—The Indestructible Beat Tour 1988-89 (Umsakazo Records)
Kashmere Stage Band: Texas Thunder Soul 1968-1974 (Now-Again)
Dorothy Ashby: With Strings Attached (New Land Records)
Walter Bishop, Jr.: Bish at the Bank—Live in Baltimore (Cellar Live)
Various Artists: Yebo! Rare Mzansi Party Beats from Apartheid’s Dying Years (BBE)
Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra: 60 Years (The Village)
Nina Simone: You’ve Got to Learn (Verve)
William S. Burroughs: Nothing Here But the Recordings (Dais Records)
Balka Sound: Balka Sound (Strut)
Sonic Youth: Live in Brooklyn (Silver Current)
John Coltrane: Evenings at The Village Gate (Impulse!)
Various Artists: Playing for The Man at The Door (Smithsonian Folkways)
Hiatus Kaiyote: Choose Your Weapon (Flying Buddha / Sony Masterworks)
Dream Dolphin: Gaia—Selected Ambient & Downtempo Works (1996 – 2003) (Music from Memory)
Eddie & Ernie: Time Waits for No One (Mississippi Records)
Various Artists: Purple Haze from East, Volume 1 (WV Sorcerer Productions)
Various Artists: Purple Haze from East, Volume 2 (WV Sorcerer Productions)
The Southern University Jazz Ensemble: Goes to Africa with Love (Now-Again)
Sonny Rollins: Live at Finlandia Hall, Helsinki 1972 (Svart)
Various Artists: The Best of Revelation Records 1959-1962 (NarroWay)
Shizuka: Heavenly Persona (Black Editions)
Jacqueline Humbert & David Rosenboom: Daytime Viewing (Unseen Worlds)
Bob Dylan: Time Out of Mind Stripped Naked (Columbia)
Various Artists: Blacklips Bar—Androgyns and Deviants / Industrial Romance for Bruised and Battered Angels 1992-1995 (Anthology Recordings)
Various Artists: Ecuatoriana (Analog Africa)
RP Boo: Legacy Volume 2 (Planet Mu)
Les Raillizes Denudes: ’77 Live (Temporal Drift)
Eddie Lockjaw Davis and Shirley Scott: Cookin’ With Jaws and The Queen (Craft)
Professor James Benson:The Gow-Dow Experience (Jazzman Records)
Little Bob and The Lollipops: Nobody But You (Mississippi Records)

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).

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!

Tag: Miguel Zenon