Madonna – Confessions II: I remember the moment in 1998 on the NJ Turnpike when I took Ray of Light out of my CD player and had to refrain from throwing it out the window. She broke my casual fandom with one incredibly half-assed attempt at spiritual insight. Over nearly 30 years, I’ve occasionally noticed her flaccid attempts at provocation,… Read more »
DJ Plead – Please: DJ Plead created a late-night vibe that feels more like a soundtrack than a club record. A lot of writers seem to focus on his Lebanese heritage, but his Middle Eastern roots are a subtle whisper behind his foundation in Western electronic dance music. While each song portrays a complete thought, I wish he’d expanded more… Read more »
SML – Spontaneous Music Live: I’m not sure I’ve ever heard a “jazz” group that better captures the nuanced movement of electronic DJ music. Josh Johnson’s sax lines evolve with such subtlety that I’d get lost in the mood and not even realize he was playing something completely different than he was 5 minutes before. I prefer Anna Butterss’ acoustic… Read more »
Olivia Rodrigo – You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl so in Love: Rodrigo and Dan Nigro created a perfect summertime album, the kind you can imagine a generation of kids recklessly dancing to as they celebrate a day out and then mourning to as they process the tragedies of their day. I’m excited to dig deeper. goat (jp) /… Read more »
Nina Nastasia – Dogs: One of my favorite things about music is the way you sometimes find and fall in love with an artist who’s been around for ages. That’s this week with Nina Nastasia. Dogs is incredible. Her voice and music has echoes of so many other artists yet it combines to hit me like nothing else. Bela Bartok… Read more »
Death Cab for Cutie – I Built You a Tower: When Narrow Stairs came out eight years ago, I recognized its intellectual strength but never felt its heart the way I did with Transatlanticism and, to a lesser degree, Plans. On first listen, I Built You a Tower is good, but I hear too much head and not enough heart…. Read more »
Jeff Buckley – Live À L’Olympia | Live at Sin-é: I listened to these two back-to-back and they show completely different sides of Buckley’s immense talent. The first four songs from the concert in France demonstrate the raw power he could unleash with his full band, while the solo shows at Sin-é shine a bright light on his talent both… Read more »
Valerie June – Owls, Omens, and Oracles: This is one of those albums that makes genres seem stupid and irrelevant. Is this R&B? Folk? Roots? Indie? Pop? All I know is this is an incredibly joyful album, one that challenges us to find light in the darkness around us. Donna Summer – Love to Love You Baby: The first time… Read more »
Gia Margaret – Singing: I wake up in the middle of the night and quietly play Singing, the dog lying beside me as I turn the volume as low as possible to avoid waking the house. Hearing the record in this way lets me hear parts of it that I’ve never heard before, like the heartbeat behind “Everyone Around Me… Read more »
Mitski – Nothing’s About to Happen to Me: Back in March, I wrote that this is an easy album. I oversimplified. Yes, the album is more sonically accessible than most of her other records. Lyrically, though, this is anything but easy. This is a record of trauma and mistakes and self-doubt and betrayal and death. My initial high point is… Read more »