Chet Baker – Chet Baker Sings: Late on Sunday night, I want to unwind with night music that won’t require too much from me. I mentally flip through my records and stop when I get to Chet Baker, and it is perfect.
Young Fathers – Dead | 28 Years Later (Original Soundtrack): The first two songs on the soundtrack, “Promised Land” and “Lowly,” are as good as anything the band has released, but I’m going to wait on the score until I see the movie. Instead, I played Dead for the first time. I wasn’t actively listening but I liked everything I heard.
Khruangbin – Mordechai: Thunder was rolling outside, the cat was on my lap with his head buried in my shirt, and two dogs were frantically pawing at me for help. Mordechai was in the CD player so I reached up and pressed play. Within three songs, all three of them were sleeping on the floor together. Last week I contemplated whether this was music by desert outcasts or clever club kids. Now two things are clear: Khruangbin are animal whisperers and I like them.
Gracie Abrams – Good Riddance: I’ve actively listened to this record for the past three months, and I just made it to side 3. The first three songs—“This Is what the Drugs Are for,” “Fault Line,” and “The Blue”—didn’t catch me, so I wondered if the spell was finally broken. Nope. As soon as the hauntingly beautiful piano opened “Right Now,” I was enchanted.
Pink Floyd – Animals: This is my second time listening to the album, and it sandwiches what I love about Wish You Were Here with all the things I’ve come to hate about the band. Animals is a tough record for me, but for every moment where I want to turn it off, there are two that make me keep listening.
John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman – John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman: Together, they found secrets in these songs that I’m not sure anyone else ever did.
Grateful Dead – 3/23/95 (Charlotte, NC): The way Hornsby, Garcia, and (I assume) Welnick interact on “Space” make it a strong contender for the best version of the jam I’ve ever heard.
Old friends who made it into rotation this week: Japanese Breakfast: For Melancholy Brunettes (and Sad Women); Laraaji: Day of Radiance;
Record store finds this week: I’ve never gotten into Bruce Springsteen, but it’s time. I found his first two records for cheap, along with Scriabin’s “Poem of Ecstasy” conducted by Abbado in Boston.