Taylor Swift – Speak Now: From the early line about a careless man’s careful daughter to the triumphant glow of “Long Live” (a strong contender for my favorite Taylor Swift deep cut), I love the storytelling on Speak Now.
Rich Ruth – I Survived, It’s Over: This has stayed in regular rotation for the past few weeks and I hear new things on every listen. There are a lot of moods on this record, fostered by the interplay between the different instrumentalists.
Jessie Ware – That! Feels Good!: This record feels good!
Deee-Lite – Dewdrops in the Garden and Sampladelic Relics and Dancefloor Oddities: Jessie Ware makes me think of Dewdrops, one of my favorite records of the mid-‘90s and a time capsule that brings back what it felt like to live in NYC in 1994. Sampladelic has its moments but ultimately feels like a contractual obligation to Elektra.
Colin Stetson & Sarah Neufeld – Never Were the Way She Was: This is a lovely album. I cannot even begin to wrap my head around where Stetson ends and Neufeld starts.
Thelonious Monk – Big Band and Quartet in Concert: The quartet concert is meh but the big band concert is enthralling. It taps into the same kind of energy that makes Mingus’ work from this period so amazing. The piano solos in “Evidence” and “Epistrophy” bring me closer to understanding why Monk’s playing was revolutionary.
Sasha – Global Underground 003 San Francisco: This is like a greatest hits of late-’90s progressive house and trance. I played it so loudly on a road trip that the silence when it ended was uncomfortable. Also my ears hurt, which brought back all sorts of memories of dancing at Sasha and Digweed’s residencies at Twilo so many years ago.
The Joy Formidable – Hitch: I bought a used car this week and Hitch was the first thing I played. Unfortunately, the person who owned the car before me boosted the midrange and positioned the sound in the rear corner of the car. Seriously, it was the weirdest stereo setting I’ve ever heard. It took most of the album for me to realize the stereo was to blame, not the songs and production.
Orville Peck – Pony: It’s like Roy Orbison filtered through David Lynch.
Carl Cox – Global Underground 038 Black Rock Desert: How is Carl Cox so amazing live and so bland on record?
Bleachers – Take the Sadness Out of Saturday Night: Based on records I’ve loved in the past, I should love both this and First Two Pages of Frankenstein. I’m not done with either, but so far my reactions to both lean toward indifference.
Old friends who made it into rotation this week: Jimmy Eat World: Bleed American; Taylor Swift: Midnights and Lover; Low: HEY WHAT; The National: First Two Pages of Frankenstein; Elkka: DJ-Kicks.