Valerie June – Owls, Omens, and Oracles: This is one of those albums that makes genres seem stupid and irrelevant. Is this R&B? Folk? Roots? Indie? Pop? All I know is this is an incredibly joyful album, one that challenges us to find light in the darkness around us.
Donna Summer – Love to Love You Baby: The first time I listened to Love to Love You Baby, I commented on how lackluster the B-side felt compared to the disco banger on the A-side. I started with the B-side this time and I heard those songs differently. The songs, along with Summer’s delivery, subtly convey melancholy, loneliness, and longing. But then I flipped the record and played the A-side, and all that fell away as 17 minutes of funky disco sexuality washed over me.
Aerosmith – Aerosmith: I was curious if Aerosmith would jog memories of playing the cassette when I was a kid. Nope. The album didn’t impress me then and it doesn’t impress me now. Even “Mama Kin” (which is clearly the highlight of the seven songs that aren’t “Dream On”) is filled with guitar solos that say nothing and arrangements that go nowhere. The one thing that surprised me is how young Steven Tyler sounds, and how his signature yawp had not yet become a cliché.
Rachael Yamagata – Starlit Alchemy: I could say so much about the way Starlit Alchemy describes the challenges and joy of midlife, but for now, all I’m going to say is that it’s a perfect album for a rainy Saturday.
The Clash – The Clash | London Calling: I listened to the first record and it sounded like a good punk record and nothing more. So I asked Bob what I’m missing, and he said I’m missing the “lyrical depth that is about love, work, class, and politics,” among other things. With that in mind, I listened to some of the lyrics on London Calling with a focus I’ve never given them. I’ll get back to the self-titled record, but I’m floored to find an entire layer to London Calling that I never heard before.
Gia Margaret – Singing | Miss Grit – Under My Umbrella: I played these back-to-back on a car ride home, a full-circle return to my initial observations about their similarities and differences. I love how both Gia Margaret and Margaret Sohn play with disguising and revealing the human voice as they explore how we disguise and reveal ourselves from the world around us. Under My Umbrella doesn’t have quite as much emotional range as Singing, but both albums reach cathartic endings that hint at what might—or might not—come next for each artist.
Grateful Dead – Dick’s Picks Vol. Nine (Madison Square Garden, New York NY, 9/16/1990): I’m surprised at how often I’ve come back to this show in the past few months. On more than one occasion, I’ve woken up in the middle of the night, put in my earbuds, and fallen back asleep as I try to understand the respective spaces that Hornsby and Welnick fill and how they each interact with the rest of the band. The instrumental jams in set 2 are among my favorites, and “Drums” could stand on its on as a techno-infused movie score.
Old friends who made it into rotation this week: Laufey: A Matter of Time; Cardinals: Masquerade; Honey Dijon: DJ-Kicks; Dijon: Absolutely; Khruangbin: Mordechai
Record store finds this week: I picked up Boxer by The National at a local shop while trying to wrap my head around the fact that the record is nearly 20 years old. How did that happen?!?!