Released: February 26, 2021
Years ago, my friend Kelly and I would listen to music and dance for hours on the roof of his Greenwich Village apartment building. It was a celebration of music and movement and friendship on starry Saturdays when we had no money or cloudy Mondays when the city that never sleeps was sleeping.
Looking back, dancing on that roof was like dancing in a bubble before bubbles existed.
Year of the Living Dead is John Tejada’s pandemic album, and it reminds us there is room for celebration and dancing in our bubbles. I’m not an expert on Tejada’s music, other than what I’ve heard on various mixes. This is sparser and less melodic than I expected, and it is also more joyous. The glitchy beats and blankets of sound initially made me imagine Ricardo Villalobos reinterpreting Beaucoup Fish, but that’s not quite right.
What is right is the way Year of the Living Dead makes me feel. As spring begins to peek through the darkness of an especially isolated winter, this record invites us to step outside and dance under Saturday stars. We don’t need clubs or crowds, we just need earbuds and the sky and, if we’re lucky, a good friend.
So, this didn’t take me to a rooftop in Greenwich Village. It took me to driving in Miami in the summer. That ends up being cool, because that is where I got really into the Lazy Dog album which was kind of a big deal for me in terms of appreciating electronic music.