Miss Grit – Under My Umbrella | Gia Margaret – Singing: The vocal refrain on “Tourist Mind,” the opening track of Under My Umbrella, is one of those odd English quirks that could be interpreted in two opposite ways. Maybe when Margaret Sohn sings, “I’ve never wanted to be so alone,” they mean they’re bathing in a joyously introverted quiet that is greater than anything they’ve imagined, or maybe they’re drowning in the worst solitude they’ve ever experienced. Under My Umbrella is filled with this kind of duality: dark and light, machine and human, lost and found, despairing and joyous. And maybe it’s because I listened to Under My Umbrella and Gia Margaret’s Singing back-to-back, but these two records share a duality, like two sides of the same coin. While Gia Margaret is finding her way back to her human voice after an injury and two instrumental albums, Sohn is finding her way to her human voice after previously hiding behind inorganic sounds.
John Coltrane – France 1965: The Complete Concerts: These three sets highlight facets of the John Coltrane Quartet (Coltrane, McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison, and Elvin Jones) that their studio recordings didn’t fully capture. I’m particularly happy to hear Garrison featured so prominently, with two long solos that reiterate why he remains one of my favorite bassists.
Laufey – A Matter of Time: Live at Madison Square Garden: I didn’t see Laufey on Bewitched, so I loved hearing the live album from that tour. This album, however, doesn’t capture what I felt seeing the A Matter of Time tour last fall. Part of that is simply because live albums cannot ever capture the thrill of a show, but I also miss Laufey’s between-song banter, the charming stories that connected me to her and the songs. Stories like that don’t typically translate well to live records, but I do miss them here.
Jessie Ware – Superbloom: This feels like Ware and her songwriting partners—a mostly different group this time around—tried to create a bunch of classics that surpass the summertime disco energy of That! Feels Good! Objectively, they mostly succeed, but subjectively, it doesn’t make me want to get up and dance the way her last album did. At its worst, Superbloom has a feeling of being assembled by a committee that was tasked with creating infectious joy.
Honey Dijon – The Nightlife: Unlike Superbloom, Honey Dijon’s The Nightlife doesn’t try to be anything other than a record filled with original house(ish) anthems, and it succeeds fantastically. I had to get through the record once just to process its sounds and feels, but by my second pass, I was ready to jump up and start dancing.
Public Image Ltd. – First Issue: I am amazed that John Lydon sang on Never Mind the Bollocks, declared punk to be dead, and created an entirely new and different genre, all in less than a year-and-a-half. I love the mix of head and heart on this album, anger and hope, malaise and curiosity. Jah Wobble’s forays into dub are my favorite parts of the album, especially on the first and last tracks.
U2 – Boy: I never thought of U2 as being post-punk, but after reading the band’s early history and listening to the influence that First Issue had on this album, it’s obvious. Even more interesting, I can hear hints of everything the band ever did in these songs.
Robert Plant with Suzi Dian – Saving Grace: I’m still unpacking this record, and the thing about it that stood out to me this week was how many times Robert Plant takes a back seat to Suzi Dian and the band. Despite his name being first, this is a collaboration and every musician on it—especially Dian—has ample opportunity to shine.
Old friends who made it into rotation this week: John Coltrane: A Love Supreme; Led Zeppelin: IV; Jay Som: Belong; Richard Strauss: Arabella (Bayerisches Staatsorchester, Joseph Keilberth)