Jessie Ware – That! Feels Good!: Julianne Escobedo Shepherd inspired me to listen to That! Feels Good! when she wrote that the record is “a genre (disco) revival album that’s painstakingly true to its source material, but doesn’t sound like a curdled rehash.” She’s right, Ware pulls it off. This is fun and sexy, and it makes me wish I were listening to it while hanging out in Central Park in the summertime.
Tim Hecker – No Highs: I don’t know how Hecker keeps making albums that are different yet still unquestionably sound like him. I appreciate some of the articles about this record and the questions they’re raising about ambient music.
Paul Winter / Winter Consort – Icarus: I’ve avoided Paul Winter because I assumed it was bad ‘70s new age. It is ‘70s, it is new agey, but I can’t call it bad. “Icarus” and “Ode to a Fillmore Dressing Room” sound exactly like they should sound, based on their titles. I’m surprised by how much I enjoyed this.
Natural Information Society – Since Time Is Gravity: Long improvisational jazz jams inspired by long improvisational jams from other cultures and times. Why hasn’t anyone done this in this way before? Or if someone did, why didn’t anyone tell me?
CeCe Peniston – Finally: The title track is probably my favorite early ‘90s house-inspired dance song, but I’m not sure I’ve ever listened to the whole record. It didn’t grab me, but it led me to a bunch of remixes of “Finally” that I never heard before.
The National – First Two Pages of Frankenstein: I listened in the background while I was doing other stuff on a rainy day. I got the rainy day part right, but this isn’t a background album. I want to listen again when I can give it my proper attention.
The Soft Pink Truth – Shall We Go on Sinning so That Grace May Increase: This record is a trip. I listened to it probably five times this week and I still have no idea what to write about it. If you don’t like what you’re hearing at any given moment, keep listening because it’s about to change into something completely different.