Effie – Pullup to Busan 4 More Hyper Summer It’s Gonna Be a Fuckin Movie: I listened to this so much at the end of December that Pullup to Busan became my fourth-most streamed album for the month. Effie is pushing hyperpop to its limits while giving a middle finger to K-pop. I don’t particularly care about either genre, but I’m all-in on the excitement of this record.
Lauren Bousfield – Salesforce: Pullup to Busan reminded me Bousfield’s latest, which is high praise since Salesforce was in constant rotation for me throughout 2023. To my ears, the two records are kindred spirits.
Carl Bean – “I Was Born This Way”: I’m embarrassed to say I never heard this house standard until I ran across a 12” with remixes by Shep Pettibone and Timmy Regisford. It’s absolutely a 5-star record and it reminds me that no matter how much I know about music, I know a tiny fraction of all the greatness that’s out there.
Sudan Archives – The BPM: On my first listen, I heard glitchy R&B. On my second listen, I heard off-center dance music. Both times, I heard nods to Sade. I suspect all of that is there, and it’s an indication that this record deserves at least a couple more listens.
Alice Coltrane – The Carnegie Hall Concert: It starts strong and gets more intense with every song. By the fourth side, this music is either the sound of insanity or the sound of spiritual oneness with all things. Maybe both. The liner notes are good, too. The first essay helps me understand the spirituality of the performance and the second helps me understand how miraculous it is that the recording survived.
Chet Baker – Performs and Sings Swimming by Moonlight: The moment I heard “Moon and Sand” from the soundtrack to Let’s Get Lost, I was a fan of Chet Baker. This collection contains 23 songs and spoken commentaries from those sessions late in Baker’s life, and the mix of vulnerability, fragility, and talent makes each one feel like a precious gift.
HAAi – Humanise: The album is slowly opening up and revealing its heart. I stand by my comments last week that I don’t hear the ecstatic positivity that I’ve read about in so many reviews, but rather a person on a conscious, intentional quest for joy and hope in difficult times.
Mono – Walking Cloud and Deep Red Sky, Flag Fluttered and the Sun Shined: Brian Eno once talked about the power of listening to music at low, almost imperceptible volumes. I unintentionally had the volume low when I put on Walking Cloud and the experience was like hearing this record for the first time. Everything about this begs to be played loud so you can bathe in the dynamics, but try listening to “16.12” so quietly that the opening strings are a whisper and the chaotic climax gently reaches your ears.
Paul de Jong – If: The Books’ music never stuck with me but If feels promising. The album came as part of a mystery box from Temporary Residence, and its mish-mosh of styles reminds me of Not Drowning, Waving, a band I fell in love with back in the early ‘90s for their outsider approach to mixing samples with organic and folk-influenced music. A few of de Jong’s musical choices seem questionable on my first listen, but there’s so much good here that I’ll play this again and dig deeper.
Zammuto – Anchor: Part of the same mystery box as If, fellow Books alum Nick Zammuto’s solo album didn’t grab me nearly as hard as de Jong’s. The music is solid and touches on a lot of glitchy sounds that resonate with my ears, but the kitschy cleverness of some lyrics (especially “Hegemony” and “Henry Lee”) create a barrier for me. The good here is truly good, though, and I’m not writing off Anchor yet.
Grails – Miracle Music: This is my first time hearing Grails and I’m wondering how I missed them for the past 20 years. Miracle Music immediately clicked with me and I want to spend some time unpacking and understanding these songs.
Laufey – Typical of Me | A Matter of Time: Laufey’s debut is charmingly sweet, darkly humorous, and mostly unremarkable. Listening back-to-back with her latest record highlights how much she’s grown as an artist in just a few years, and how she deftly juggles her influences and her inner vision to create a unique style. A Matter of Time didn’t make many year-end best-of lists (though it did, for better or worse, get a Grammy nod), and that’s an egregious oversight.
Daniel Avery – Tremor: I like Daniel Avery but I don’t like this throwback to the mid-‘90s. I got bored with The Crow soundtrack 25 years ago, and I certainly don’t need to hear an album that sounds like B-sides that didn’t make the cut. This made several year-end lists and reminds me to take those lists with a grain of salt.
Old friends who made it into rotation this week: Alpha: Come from Heaven; Interpol: Turn on the Bright Lights; Gracie Abrams: Good Riddance; Japanese Breakfast: For Melancholy Brunettes (and Sad Women);
Record store finds this week: I picked up Olivia Rodrigo’s album from Glastonbury in hopes her live performance might resonate with me more than her studio work. I also found Christmas by Low, an album that somehow flies completely under the radar, even for some local record store owners. I also found a CD of Modeselektor’s DJ-Kicks set, which I’m very excited to have.