Gracie Abrams – Good Riddance: Why do some voices hit us so much harder than others? Certainly, some of it is objective: I am drawn toward breathiness and away from melisma, but that doesn’t explain why I feel no draw to many breathy singers and a strong draw to a handful of melismatic vocalists. So what is that je ne sais quoi that makes a singer like Abrams hit me so hard? I listened to “Where do We Go Now” probably 20 times this week, and I could easily lose myself in trying to comprehend the magic in how she delivers lines like “What a brutal way to die.” Is it physiological, something in her voice that perfectly vibrates with my ears? Is it psychological, a connection to the moment an important childhood bond developed? Whatever it is, I hear deep magic in this album, and I am loving every moment I spend with it.
Japanese Breakfast – For Melancholy Brunettes (and Sad Women): After reading Crying in H-Mart, I can’t help but wonder which songs are about Michelle Zauner’s relationship with her dad. Some (like “Little Girl”) seem pretty obvious, but “Honey Water” takes on different meanings when I think about it from a daughter/father perspective instead of a girlfriend/boyfriend.
Barker – Stochastic Drift: This is an odd record. It’s experimental in a disjointed and angular way that typically doesn’t sit well with me, but the compositional structure and performances give this an energy and humanity that transcend its fragmentation. I’m not sure it’s an album I’ll ultimately like, but it’s one I want to hear again.
Lynyrd Skynyrd – Pronounced Leh-nerd Skin-nerd: “Gimme Three Steps” is one of the two songs on this record that I know from my formative years with early ‘80s rock radio, but until this week, I never noticed its complete absence of bragging egotistic toughness. Whether I’m listening to the Grateful Dead or Kendrick Lamar, the themes are often about triumphing over an adversary rather than fleeing a situation that you badly messed up. This is a funny song, but there’s a humility and humanity that deeply resonate with me.
Grateful Dead –10/18/72 (St. Louis, MO): I didn’t realize how disconnected I felt from the 8/6/1974 show I’ve been listening to until I put this on. From the opening of “Bertha,” this performance sucked me in. The 14 songs in the first set went by in a blink and kept my attention the entire time, and the second-set jam that’s bookended within “Playing in the Band” kept my attention in a totally different way.
Old friends who made it into rotation this week: Chaos in the CBD: fabric Presents Chaos in the CBD
Record store finds this week: This was my first time lining up for Record Store Day. I’m disappointed that I didn’t get the Gracie Abrams Radio City record, but I got everything else on my relatively short list, including the live Laufey and Sly & the Family Stone records.