Sly and the Family Stone: Stand!: I listened to What’s Going On a few months ago, and the words struck me as overly simplistic. Stand! lands in a much better place and the words here resonate so much more. Plus, unlike What’s Goin’ On, there’s no flute, just raw, fiery funk.
Alice Coltrane: The Ecstatic Music of Alice Coltrane Turiyasangitananda: I put this on right after Stand! ended, thinking it’d be laid back and mystical. The energy of the opening track fits incredibly well with the fire of Stand!. This is soul music in every sense of the word.
Grateful Dead – American Beauty: When I first started exploring the Dead, I listened to all their studio albums but the live records turned me into a fan. I’m just starting to revisit the studio records. If I heard this on its own, I’m confident I’d dismiss it the same way I’ve dismissed CSN: At best, good folk/rock that’s not for me, and at worst, the epitome of all that was wrong with the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. Hearing it after 15 years of immersing myself in live recordings, though, makes me hear each song as a framework on which 24 years of experimentation was based.
A Silver Mt. Zion – This Is Our Punk Rock, Thee Rusted Satellites Gather + Sing: I never spent the same amount of time with the early ASMZ albums as I did with Horses in the Sky and beyond. I pulled out This Is Our Punk Rock, put it on in the background, and heard enough to realize I need to sit down and spend some quality time with this music.
Underworld – Second Toughest in the Infants: This is a strong contender for the top 10 most important records in my life. It excites me as much today as it did when I was first wrapping myself in its depths.
Jessie Ware – Devotion: Evan Pearson’s remix of “No to Love” is the highlight of the bonus material on the 2022 RSD release. I’m sure I’ll keep listening to this in the coming weeks, but I think I’ve run out of things to say, other than I understand why Allmusic gave it 5 stars.
Grateful Dead – 10/17/72 (St. Louis, MO): I haven’t had a chance to listen in one sitting, but this feels different than other shows I’ve heard. Usually, it seems set one had shorter, poppier songs with less jamming, while set two typically stretched out into experimental explorations. So far, the only song that stretches out is “Playin’ in the Band” in set one. I’m curious to see what happens when I spend some dedicated time with this one.