Tag: Sharp Pins

It Will Not End Here: My 25 Favorite Records of 2025 (if you don’t give me any more time to think about it)

Childers deserves to chill.
Thunder-nakas.
Love, Commitment, and Improv.

It’s New Year’s noonish, and I have to come to a conclusion about the records that got me through this growing mess. 2026 ain’t gonna be much better, I’m afraid—maybe in the music universe, but not on the ground, so to speak. I may have short-changed December; if you didn’t see my December 1st long-list, it’s here. A few December releases did make my Top 25 line-up.

If you have followed this blog for awhile, you’ve already noticed I am a bit restless about formatting. This year, I just alphabetized records most of the year and used an asterisk system to indicate my level of enthusiasm (I am not a critic; I am merely an enthusiast who measures records by the degree to which my short hairs stand up while playing an album). I also did not separate out archival digs or reissues. I vote in the Francis Davis Memorial Jazz Critics Poll, but below, I did not weed out jazz (however, I will share my poll ballot, which would change if I resubmitted it today). To paraphrase Duke Ellington, there’s only two kids of music: good and bad. Seldom this year did I write at much length about albums; if I mentioned them at the top of the post, that indicated that I really cared. Also, my perspective about ordering records is very subjective: my life experiences, prejudices, 42-year-career as an English teacher, my 63-plus years hanging out in the middle of the country, my commitment to being a married man but also to seeking new aesthetic territory to open my mind—those are the determiners, and I respect yours, as different as they may be. Finally, I’m a hardcore Heraclitian (?): you can never step in the same river twice, because you are mutating by the moment and the river just keeps on running. Apply that to a piece of music you’re listening to for, say, the 157th time; I have Professor Longhair’s Crawfish Fiesta on right now, two days after hearing the combo’s unique drummer Johnny Vidocovich play live 40-some years after that record got waxed, and damn right I’m different than I was at 19 and my ears are way better after that show. Anyway…the point is, I’m not asserting that these are rankings that you should mind, my friends.

Thoughts: I have been invulnerable to Americana / folk / alt-country whatever since, oh, 2016. To be honest, even though many artists categorized as such are en resistance, and even though I am a Midwestern white guy one generation removed from the family farm, I just have not wanted to hear what those white (mostly) guys have had to say. Childers (intense vocals conjuring Gary Stewart—read Jimmy McDonough’s new bio of that one), The Delines (really downbeat and sharp writing from off the grid or hanging by the fingernails from it), Tommy Womack (a lifelong struggler apparently indomitable despite not being in denial), and I’ll throw in octogenarian Irish folk legend Christy Moore (fighting his own fight at home but aware of the threats to the world at large) changed that. [ahmed], Los Thuthanaka, and a vintage Hüsker Dü live set were aural fists in the face to creeping (ok, faster than creeping) repression. Among my peers, few have sung the praises of Colombian folk goddess Karol G but that album outjukes Bad Bunny’s. If Danny Brown can get his whole health together, so can I. Death was a constant presence in my personal life in ’25, so Brotzmann’s stunning final live sessions of autumnal free jazz—if he was ever too much for you, this is where to get on board—empowered me. I liked woods’ and Fanon’s reimagining of woods’ original version way more, because it seemed to deliberately tackle the problem folks occasionally have with woods’ tracks. And I’ll stop with a big plug for Natural Information Society’s perfectly-titled album: I saw the group perform the piece (on the album, in multiple versions) live and was completely mesmerized by their militantly disciplined minimalism across nearly an hour’s playing (36 minutes in its long version here). Apologies to Sudan Archives, Lil’ Wayne, C-MAT, and maybe-just-maybe Geese for not giving your work the time it very likely deserved

Living to Listen’s Top 25 for ’25 

  1. Tyler Childers: Snipe Hunter (RCA / Hickman Holler)
  2. The Delines: Mr. Luck & Ms. Doom (Jealous Butcher) 
  3. [ahmed]: Sama’a [Audition] (Otoroku) 
  4. Los Thuthanaka: Los Thuthanaka (Studio Pankara)
  5. Hüsker Dü: 1985—The Miracle Year (Numero Group) 
  6. Karol G: Tropicoqueta (Bichota)
  7. Sabrina Carpenter: Man’s Best Friend (Island)
  8. Bad Bunny: DeBI TiRAR MaS FOToS (Rimas Entertainment)
  9. Danny Brown: Stardust (Warp)
  10. Peter Brotzmann: The Quartet (Otoroku) 
  11. August Fanon & billy woods: Gowillog (reimagined) (BackwoodzStudioz)
  12. Steve Lehman: The Music of Anthony Braxton (Pi Recordings)
  13. Christy Moore: A Terrible Beauty (Claddagh) (11/2024 release in Ireland, so I’m counting it)
  14. Natural Information Society: Perseverance Flow (Eremite)
  15. Mary Halvorson: About Ghosts (Nonesuch)
  16. Amina Claudine Myers: Solace of the Mind (Red Hook) 
  17. Ale Hop & Titi Bakorta:  Mapambazuko (Nyege Nyege Tapes) 
  18. Sharp Pins: Balloon Balloon Balloon (K / Perennial Death)
  19. Various Artists: The Bottle Tapes (Corbett vs. Dempsey)
  20. Cosmic Ear: TRACES (We Jazz) 
  21. Lily Allen: West End Girl (BMG)
  22. Tommy Womack: Live a Little (Schoolkids)
  23. doseone & Height Keech: Wood Teeth (Hands Made EP)
  24. Dijon: Baby (R&R )
  25. De La Soul: Cabin in the Sky (Mass Appeal) 

My Jazz Critics Poll Ballot (FWIW)

Best New Jazz Albums of 2025

  1. [ahmed]: [Sama’a] (Audition) (Otoroku)
  2. Peter Brotzmann: The Quartet (Otoroku) 
  3. Cosmic Ear: TRACES (We Jazz) 
  4. Mary Halvorson: About Ghosts (Nonesuch) 
  5. Steve Lehman: The Music of Anthony Braxton (Pi Recordings) 
  6. Amina Claudine Myers: Solace of the Mind(Red Hook) 
  7. Deepstaria Enigmatica: The Eternal Now Is the Heart of a New Tomorrow (ESP-Disk)

  8. William Hooker: Jubilation (Org Music) 
  9. OTHERLANDS TRIO: Star Mountain (Intakt)
  10. Joe Chambers, Kevin Diehl, Chad Taylor: Onilu(Eremite)

Rara Avis (reissues and/or music recorded in 2015 or earlier)

  1. Various Artists: The Bottle Tapes (Corbett vs. Dempsey)
  2. Rahsaan Roland Kirk: Jump Up & Down Fast—Vibrations in the Village, Live at the Village Gate (Resonance) 
  3. Cecil Taylor / Tony Oxley: Flashing Spirits (Burning Ambulance)
  4. Marco Eneidi Quintet: Wheat Fields of Kleylehof (Balance Point Acoustics / Botticelli) 
  5. Shamek Farrah & Sonelius Smith: The World of the Children (Strata-East) 

Best Jazz Vocal Albums

  1. Silvana Estrada: Vendran Suaves Lluvia (Glassnote)
  2. Laura Ann Singh: Mean Reds (Out of Your Head)
  3. Lena Bloch: Marina (Fresh Sounds)

Best Latin Albums

  1. Roger Glenn: My Latin Heart (Patois) 
  2. Miguel Zenon: Vanguardia Subterranea (Miel Music) 
  3. Aruan Ortiz: Creole Renaissance (Intakt)

Perseverance Flow (You Can Make It If You REALLY Try): My Favorite Albums, January 1st to November 1st

I shoulda had this up Friday, I shoulda had this up Sunday, but life, love, collegiality, The Pitt, stress, goodbye services (see a few ‘graphs below)—oh, shut up and get on with it, dude.

It’s truly been a bounteous year for music, and October helped. I was able to witness Natural Information Society’s “Perseverance Flow” live (it’s my single of the year at 35+ minutes) so I am a little biased about the studio recording, which will likely land in my Top 10. Right about when I was grumbling to myself about wondering if I would ever like fresh reggae-like stuff again, crafty veteran Hollie Cook dropped a nifty neo-lover’s rock album on Mr. Bongo. The thrilling but no longer living guitarist Pete Cosey makes a fascinating appearance on Melvin Gibbs’ second early-‘oughts extraction of his group Amasia’s work, and Tyler Keith, “The Richard Hell of the Deep South” (though now his leaning more toward Charles Willeford) also unleashed an intense recording from earlier days. Citric Dummies knocked out a brief but furious and funny hardcore album with my favorite title of the year. Robert Finley followed up a run of tough soul albums on the Easy Eye label with a defiant gospel recording. Sweden’s Sound Asleep label gifted us a collection from the archives of Springfield, Missouri’s The Morells (never forget Shake and Push!) featuring a heaping helping of Donnie Thompson guitar and gloriously corny songs—he is in rock and roll’s top five living plectrists—as a sweet a capella cover of a doo wop classic where he overdubbed himself as a street corner group. The magical Finnish guitarist/oudist (?) Jussi Reijonen released his second terrific album of the year, a live one in more ways than one. Sharp Pins, riding a wave of new power-pop bands, easily topped their earlier 2025 album with a kind of flowing river of catchy compositions (the structure and flow reminds me of Imperial Bedroom, though not the writing). R. A. P. Ferreira, a mic controller and writer who’s records are always interesting but sometimes a bit scattered, waxed his best slab in years. CupcakKe and Princess Nokia are back. Vernon Reid (last spotted on Swamp Dogg’s bluegrass record) still has plenty to say and play. If you dig the multi-national jazz improvising group [ahmed], you are gonna want to check out their pianist Pat Thomas’ new solo record. That’s just some of the nice new stuff to check out. Oh, and if you get a chance to see Swamp Dogg live (or take in his fantastic new documentary Swamp Dogg Gets His Pool Painted), do not make excuses: go. My wife, my friends, and I recently did both (I was privileged to have been asked to interview him post-film—a trip!) and it was unforgettable.

Allow me a brief tangent. One of my rock and roll brothers-in-arms, Bryan Stuart—we played together in each other’s first band and wrote a lot of songs that never got recorded—passed away in September. He was one of the most intense, most alive human beings I’ve ever been around—he challenged you to be in the moment. He’d been battling some demons for over a decade and they sadly got the best of him. If you’re a fan of garage rock or a long-time resident of the American Southeast, you may have seen or heard the bands he slung razor-sharp guitar and wrote for: The Angry Inches, The Ex-Impossibles, The Strychnines, The Ditch Diggers, Motor 76, and I think there were more (um, he also flew a copter in Desert Storm, an operation he had reservations about). I could not make it to Atlanta for his celebration of life, but his fellow guitarist and another of my best friends (all three of us were members of each other’s wedding party) read a tribute to him I’d like to share here. The structure may seem weird, but it was designed to parallel the insistence of Bryan’s presence, if that makes sense:

Reflections on Stu-Man 

“What I remember best about Bryan Stuart is his intensity. Being in his orbit meant having a gauntlet thrown down before you. “Can you desire this moment of living as much as I do,” Bryan would seem to wordlessly ask you, almost bodily, vibrating with energy. His eyes, boring holes into you, seemed to declare the answer: “I know that you can’t.” 

“Whether it was existing aimlessly with him in a dorm room with no plan (“Let me show you these nunchucks!” and feeling one whip so closely to my face my bangs flew up)— 

or nervously heading out to find a party with him on a Friday night (“Tonight, I’m not taking shit from anyone and we are going to have a blast!”)— 

or, completely broke, coming to his apartment for dinner—Bryan could be very selfless if a friend was in need—and having difficulty with his homemade spaghetti sauce, where he had split the difference between being a domestic and an outlaw by adding a healthy portion of Jack Daniels to it and you knew you had better not gag (“SO???!! How IS it??? How IS it???) (He actually turned out to be a great cook.)

or playing in a ragtag band in front of a ragtag house-party audience (“Hey, go put on that nightgown and come back and fellate my guitar! They’ll love it!”)— 

or on an otherwise lonely New Year’s Eve night, drunkenly making up beer commercials straight from “Springsteen’s USA!” and throwing dead soldiers at the wall (“More pretty chords HAHAHAHA!!!!!)— 

or talking music with him late into the night after he arrived by surprise at my parents’ house where I was staying for the summer and they hadn’t yet met him (From my parents’ room, 3 am, morning before my dad’s weekday work, my mom: “You guys need to shut up and go to sleep!” Then Bryan, practically yelling to me while lying on the floor with just a pillow in the strip of space between my bed and the wall: “No! Let’s listen to some more of these mix cassettes and make fun of Bob Dylan some more!”)— 

or watching him challenge a fellow groomsman—East Coaster vs. St. Louisan with an East Coast attitude—to a Johnny Thunders jam-battle at 2 a.m. in the hotel room next to ours after my wedding reception (“Give me the guitar and tell me the song and let’s DO IT, man!”)— 

or, just stopping by his house in northern Atlanta on our way to Tybee Island for the night to discover he had secretly arranged a partial reunion of our first band—Wayne Coomers and the Original Sins—complete with studio recording (he also, the next day, forced upon me—you could not say no to him—a VHS titled The Pirates Live at Dingwalls that’s still one of the shit-hottest live rock and roll videos I’ve ever seen, and it seems he did not leave it behind when he stepped on a rainbow)–

or arguing with him about existence on the phone for hours (“Name me one book, right now, we’re fifty-five years old, that’s gonna tell me one thing that I don’t already know that I need to know! Name me one!”) (He never did let me answer)….”

Bryan LIVED, a LIVE WIRE. 

I don’t intend these memories as a critique. He upped the ante of the moment, and I was very seldom equal to the task, and he would be disappointed in me. That is not a bad reason to be disappointed, and upon reflection, given the stakes of life, perhaps I should have striven harder. Intensity in a person for living is a gift. And it is not easy, always, to be in that person’s company. They leave a mark.  

Robert Frost’s epitaph is “He had a lover’s quarrel with the world,” and I think Bryan expected more of our world, sometimes, and that was not easy for him. I am always going to remember Bryan for his intensity, his upping the ante, and his explosive laughter and unspoken love on those very rare occasions when I was able to meet the ante. 

I never raised it, that’s for certain.”

New Year’s Eve, ’88, Stu “showing me” an Iggy biography, probably saying, “Here, read this now, man!”

Our shared favorite bands when we were together: Dolls, Thunders, Stooges, Thee Michelle Gun Elephant (especially), Stevie Ray, early Thorogood (Bryan learned to play GREAT guitar faster than anyone I have ever seen), Stones.

On with the music–keep livin’, and look out for folks who may be struggling:

MY LIST OF AURAL PLEASURE
January 1 – October 31, 2025
BOLD = New to the List
ASTERISKED* to ***** = Damn good! to Holy SHIT!
ITALICIZED: Excavations from the Past / Reissues

Sorry, no sampler because eff Spotify—buy physical and digital media, new or used!


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

Africa Express: …Presents…Bahidora (World Circuit Limited) ****
Amarae: Black Star (Golden Angel) ***
Amasia: Anamibia Sessions 2 (Archetext)
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) ***
Anna Hogberg Attack: Ensamseglaren (fönstret) ***

Ichiko Aoba: Luminescent Creatures (Psychic Hotline)

Artemis: Arboresque (Blue Note) ****
Mulatu Astatke: Mulatu Plays Mulatu (Strut) ****
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)

Christer Bothén: Christer Bothén Donso n’goni (Black Truffle) 
Johnny Bragg: Let Me Dream On (Org Music) ***

Patricia Brennan: Of The Near and Far (Pyroclastic) ****
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) ****
Citric Dummies: Split with Turnstile (Feel It)
clipping: Dead Channel Sky (Sub Pop)

Clipse: Let God Sort ‘Em Out (Roc Nation) ***
Common and Pete Rock: The Auditorium, Volume 1 (Casa Loma)
Hollie Cook: Shy Girl (Mr. Bongo) ***
Cosmic Ear: TRACES (We Jazz) *****
The Cosmic Tones Research Trio: The Cosmic Tones Research Trio (Mississippi Records) ***

Sylvie Courvoisier & Mary Halvorson: Bone Bells (Pyroclastic) ***
Sylvia Courvoisier & Wadada Leo Smith: Angel Falls (Intakt)
Chuck D: Chuck D Presents Enemy Radio—Radio Armageddon(Soundspeak)
cupcakKe: The Bakery (self-released) ***
Lucrecia Dalt: A Danger to Ourselves (RVNG International) ****
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) ****
*
Dial Up: Dial Up (Aerophonic)
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) ***
Silvana Estrada: Vendran Suaves Lluvia (Glassnote)
Ex-Void: In Love Again (Tapete Records)
Shamek Farrah: First Impressions (Strata-East) ***
Shamek Farrah & Sonelius Smith: The World of the Children (Strata-East) ****
Fieldwork: Thereupon (Pi Records) ****
Robert Finley: Hallelujah! Don’t Let the Devil Fool Ya! (Easy Eye)
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)
Tomas Fujiwara: Dream Up (Out of Your Head) ****
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) ****
HAIM: I quit (Haim Productions) ****
Keiji Haino and Natsuki Tamura: what happened there? (Libra)

Mary Halvorson: About Ghosts (Nonesuch) *****
Hamell on Trial: Harp (for Harry) (Saustex)
Phil Haynes & Free Country: Liberty Now! (Corner Store Jazz) ***
Heat On: Heat On (Cuneiform)

The Hemphill Stringtet: Plays the Music of Julius Hemphill (Out of Your Head Records)
The Hives: Forever Forever The Hives (Play It Again Sam)
Horsegirl: Phonetics On and On (Matador)

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

Hot 8 Brass Band: Big Tuba (Tru Thoughts) ***
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) ****

JID: God Does Like Ugly (Dreamville/Interscope)
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) ****
Tyler Keith: I Confess (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) ****

Mahotella Queens: Buya Buya—Come Back (Umsakazo) ****
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) ***
Mexstep & Principe Q: Tráfico (Puro Unity EP)
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)
kelly moran Don’t Trust Mirrors (Warp)
The Morells: You’re Gonna Hurt Yourself (Sound Asleep)
Maria Muldaur: One Hour Mama (Nola Blue)
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: Perseverance Flow (Eremite) ****
Natural Information Society and Bitchin’ Bahas: Totality (Drag City)

The Necks: Inquiet (Northern Spy)
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)
Linda May Han Oh: Strange Heavens (Biophilia) ****
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) ***
Kassa Overall: Cream (Warp) ****
Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra Led by Horace Tapscott: Live at Widney High December 26th, 1971 (The Village) ***
Raphael Pannier: Live in St. Louis, Senegal (Miel Music) ***

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)
Preservation & Gabe ‘Nandez: Sortilège (BackwoodzStudioz) ****
Princess Nokia: Girls (Artist House)
The Prize: In the Red (Anti Fade Records) ***
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 & Kenny Segal: The Night Green Side of It (Ruby Yacht / Alpha Pup) ***
R.A.P. Ferreira: Outstanding Understanding (Ruby Yacht)
Vernon Reid: Hoodoo Telemetry (Artone / The Players Club)
Jussi Reijonen: sayr—salt/thirst (unmusic) ****
Jussi Reijonen: sayr-kaiho—Live in Helsinki (unmusic) ****
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)

Sharp Pins: Radio DDR (K / Perennial Death)
Sharp Pins: Balloon Balloon Balloon (perennial) ****
Matthew Shipp: The Cosmic Piano (Canteloupe Records) ****
Patrick Shiroishi: Forgetting is Violent (American Dream)
Anthony “Big A” Sherrod: Torchbearer of the Clarksdale Sound(Music Makers Recordings EP)
$ilkMoney: WHO WATERS THE WILTING GIVING TREE ONCE THE LEAVES DRY UP AND FRUITS NO LONGER BEAR? (Lex)
Laura Singh: Mean Reds (Out of Your Head)
Slick Rick: Victory (Mass Appeal) ***
Peter Stampfel: Song Shards (Jalopy Records) ***
Luke Stewart / Silt Remembrance Ensemble: The Order (Cuneiform) ***

Yuhan Su: OVER the MOONs (Endectomorph Music)
Sudan Archives: THE BPM (Stones Throw)
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)

The Third Mind: Right Now! (Yep Roc)
Three-Layer Cake: “sounds the color of grounds” (Otherly Love)
Pat Thomas: HIKMAH (TAO Forms)
Los Thuthanaka: Los Thuthanaka (Studio Pankara) ****
Trio Glossia: Trio Glossia (Sonic Transmissions) ****

Trio of Bloom: Trio of Bloom (Pyroclastic) ***
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)

Wednesday: Bleeds (Dead Oceans) ***
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) ***

LATE BREAKING!!!! The Makaya McCraven EPs on International Anthem smoke!

33 1/3: My Favorite Albums of the Year So Far (January 1st to April 30th)

Whew! It has been a month.

My in-person musical highlights of April were witnessing the L.A. born-and-bred/St. Louis Black Artists Group-associated poet K. Curtis Lyle perform his long and stunning The Collected Poem for Blind Lemon Jefferson, driven by Damon Smith beating the fuck out of his doghouse bass and creating surprising sounds that perfectly punctuated the work, as well as marveling at Jeffrey Lewis magically taking control of St. Louis’ marvelous dive The Sinkhole like the greatest music teacher alive. I’ve included Lyle’s latest work below, even though it was a late-2024 release–so it goes with the slow. Big thanks to the humble, smiling genius Matt Crook and Dismal Niche for their continued imagination and effort to bring underheard sounds to Columbia, Missouri.

Regarding the rest of the new items on my cumulative list of 2025 records I’ve so far been captivated by?

  1. No, I am not on the Nyege Nyege Tapes or Satoko Fujii payrolls, nor do I get review copies from Nyege Nyege Tapes (I demand them from Libra Records jk). Both forces have truly been on a creative roll and bring life and rhythm to my house with each new release.
  2. The Delines, Patterson Hood, and Craig Finn chipped away at the thickening personal ice block separating me from enjoying most of the “Americana” genre.
  3. If you get a chance to see Jeffrey Lewis, take it. You get excellent songs, impish charm, songs for the hear-and-now…and Lewis-illustrated history lessons.
  4. If you are so fed-up you need some in-your-face music, may I direct you to the new Sumac-Moor Mother team-up? Or would you prefer some Backxwash? Or maybe clipping? All three acts are at their finest on these releases.
  5. I believe Argentinian jazz pianist Rocio Gimenez Lopez is one of the least well-known terrific musicians in the world. Her new album of interpretations of jazz classics is sublime. Please give her a shot.
  6. I have pushed the freak-folk/psychedelic-doom/quiet-REAAAAALLLLY fucking loud-quiet Japanese band Les Rallizes Denudes several times here before. Check out the below RSD reissue for maybe the best way into their work.
  7. There are now several Bill Orcutt Guitar Quartet albums out there, many featuring interpretations of the exact same songs in different live settings and also featuring ace Ava Mendoza. You need at least one: you can get the studio version, but I would also take your pick of the live versions, as they all go into different sonic territory. Fans of Quine, 75 Dollar Bill, even Mdou Moctar have no reason to ignore me.
  8. When you hear the NOLA team-up of Galactic and Irma Thomas, you will not believe Irma’s 84. This isn’t their first collab; when they lock in they sound made for each other. And while I’m talking soul, you may have given up on SAULT (not sure why you would have, but they are not exactly stingy with their output, and might have created in you some aural calluses), but please give 10 a chance: it carries a timely, easeful late great-period Sly vibe.
  9. That’s right: Ed Hamell and Jinx Lennon have new records out. Get your rabble roused and your heart emboldened.
  10. The Bitchin’ Bajas’ Cooper Crain: Columbia, Missouri’s Smithton Middle School’s most creative graduate. He wasn’t on my team during his tenure there, but I was made aware of him of my students who were in his orbit.

TO THE LIST: Items in bold are new; I’ve added a track from each album (when available) to an ongoing accompanying Spitify playlist; anything with an asterisk I especially enjoyed; anything fully italicized is an excavation from bygone days; yes, I’m eventually going to put them in order from most enjoyable to simply enjoyable–but not yet.

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

Marshall Allen’s Ghost Horizons: Live in Philadelphia, Volume 1 (Otherly Love Records—out on May 23 but be on the serious look-out!) ***

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)****

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

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

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)

Sylvie Courvoisier & Mary Halvorson: Bone Bells (Pyroclastic)

clipping: Dead Channel Sky (Sub Pop)

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)

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

Ex-Void: In Love Again (Tapete Records)

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

FKA twigs: Eusexua (Young Recordings Limited)

Satoko Fujii GEN: Altitude 1100 Meters (Libra)

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

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

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

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

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

The Hemphill Stringtet: Plays the Music of Julius Hemphill (Out of Your Head Records) Note: release date = April 4, 2025****

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)****

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

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

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) ***

Lady Gaga: Mayhem (Interscope)

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

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

James Brandon Lewis: Apple Cores (Anti-)

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

LOLO: LOLO (Black Sweat)

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

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

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

The Mekons: Horror (Fire)***

Mean Mistreater: Do or Die (self-released)

Mac Miller: Baloonerism (Warner Records)

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

Billy Mohler: The Eternal (Contagious)

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

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

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

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

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)*****

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

Marek Pospieszalski Octet & Zoh Amba (see below): NOW! (Project financed by a scholarship from the Minister of Culture and National Heritage “Młoda Polska” & Katowice City of Music UNESCO) Note: release date = November 29, 2024

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

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

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

SAULT: 10 (Sault Global)***

Serengeti: mixtape 2 (serengetiraps / self-released)

Serengeti: Palookaville (serengetiraps / self-released) Note: release date = December 25, 2024

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)****

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)

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

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

Taj Mahal & Keb’ Mo’: Room on the Porch for Everyone (UMG EP) (Note: a related full album releases in May that contains NONE of these excellent songs)

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

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

The Tubs: Cotton Crown (self-released)

Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory: Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory (Jagjaguwar)

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

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

The War & Treaty: Plus One (Mercury Nashville)

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

Simon Willson: Bet (Endectomorph Records)

Jeong Lim Yang: Synchronicity (Fully Altered Media) The Young Mothers: Better If You Let It (Sonic Transmissions)****

SAMPLE THIS SHIT!