I wasn’t impressed when I listened to Promises last year, so when I heard that Pharoah Sanders died, I decided to try again. The repeated motif is hypnotic, the strings border on inspired, and I love Sanders’ singing on “Movement 4,” but the sax is terrible. This is the kind of dodgy, ‘80s-inspired playing that led to my hatred of… Read more »
Kendrick Lamar – Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers: This is my first pass through Mr. Morale, and like all his records, listening is challenging. Not just deciphering the album’s meaning, but also reconciling it with my desire for Lamar to be the moral compass for modern music. But as he says on this album, “Kendrick is not your savior.”… Read more »
I’ve never heard Back to Back before now, so I decided to research the album. Google led me to what might be the most curmudgeonly review I’ve ever read on Amazon. But I get what the guy is saying. Hodges’ playing is so good that he makes me forget that saxophone is my second-least favorite instrument. The rhythm section is… Read more »
After a long break from both listening to and writing about music, I’m itching to do both. I want to try something different though, something that doesn’t feel like a chore and does encourage me to tackle my ever-growing stack of unheard music. I’m going to write a listening journal. I like the idea of combining music and journaling. For… Read more »
Cover records are a tricky business at best and yet I find myself drawn to them. I’m never sure if it is for the train wreck or the diamond in the rough. In this case, it was mostly just nondescript rehashings. For the most part, what is good on this record is what was good in the original recordings. Where… Read more »
I’m getting old…but not as old as the Scorpions. Klaus Meine and Rudolph Schenker have been at it for over and 50 years and Mathias Jabs has been with them for over 40. With the core of the band from their prime intact, Rock Believer is their 19th studio album. If they put a question mark after the opening track,… Read more »
For many of the last 17 years, I have created an end of year comp that I call Missed Hits. The idea was to share music that hit me and that I expected many people had missed. Despite spending a lot of time discovering and writing about music in early 2021, I kind of expected this task to be more… Read more »
Lamb is my biggest sleeper artist of the past 25 years. My reaction to their first album was somewhere between “huh?” and “meh,” but they crept into my subconsciousness and Lou Rhodes emerged as one of my all-time favorite voices. I was listening to Rhodes’ collaboration with Cinematic Orchestra on the lovely Ma Fleur when I discovered she released four… Read more »
My ear isn’t what it used to be, but I think the first downbeat on Now Here No Where is a bowed contrabass over a drum hit. If an entire album can be summarized by a single moment, that is the moment. This record balances things we perceive to be binary: organic and electronic, warm and cool, soundscapes and bangers…. Read more »
When I heard that Joris Voorn mixed a new Global Underground set, I immediately hunted it down. As soon as that first melody opened up, I prepared for an epic release of beats. Other than a bass drone, nothing came. Track two began, and again, no release. While there is a ton of innovation within electronic dance music, the genre… Read more »