Van Morrison – His Band and the Street Choir: I listened a couple more times this week and it’s growing on me. Yes, the blues and New Orleans roots that I mentioned last week are very real and very uninteresting to me, but the album has moments that harken back to the weirdness and emotional intensity of Astral Weeks. I’m hoping to sit and give it a focused listen next week.
Men I Trust – Equus Caballus: This is one of three albums that a guy on Reddit with a lot of overlapping taste recommended to me. On first listen, it seemed to alternate between annoying twee novelty and the kind of off-kilter indie pop that gets under my skin in the best possible way (I’m looking at you, Jay Som). “Another Stone” was the initial highlight, and one of these tracks (I can’t remember which) beautifully steals Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams.”
Grateful Dead – May 20, 1973 | May 15, 1977: “Samson and Delilah” was my big surprise this week. This May ’77 show was the first time I heard both the fire and the fun in this song, and the performance would’ve gotten me out of my seat if I wasn’t driving through the cornfields and wild sunflowers of the Midwest. The 1973 show rolled in the background for pretty much my entire trip, and it was cool to learn that my sister and I share a love for “Tennessee Jed.”
Old friends who made it into rotation this week: John Coltrane: Blue Trane; Nina Nastasia: Dogs
Record store finds this week: I picked up vinyl copies of Pulp’s This Is Hardcore and Bowie’s Blackstar, and I couldn’t pass up a copy of Spatial, No Problem by Lee Perry and Mouse on Mars. Not a bad haul for Nebraska!