Best New Records I Heard in April 2024

Two of these albums have sold more than all the ones I've reviewed in the last 2 years combined

Daniel Romano & Outfit – Too Hot to Sleep. Wikipedia lists 28 full-length albums and a couple EPs  since 2009 with Daniel Romano as the primary artist or key band member. That’s a nearly impossible level of musical proficiency. I’ve only heard half a dozen or so, and I like all of them. He doesn’t stick to any one approach, but he does generally play rock music with a highly melodic content. This album is the most raucous one I’ve heard. Ten songs go by in less than half an hour, with drums flailing, guitars and keyboards humming, bass driving, and Romano’s helium-infused vocals soaring great big gigantic hooks. Maybe you can get the gist of this album if you melt down all your Ohio Express, Raspberries, Bad Brains, and Todd Rundgren albums, then let the goo cool and see what’s left in the grooves.

Waxahatchee – Tigers Blood. I have a Facebook friend who simply doesn’t like Katie Crutchfield’s voice, and thus doesn’t spend much time listening to her records using the nameWaxahatchee. Me, I’m the opposite – I like her voice so much it overwhelms my ability to think critically about what she’s doing. I can tell you this new record seems her strongest to date. The stately rhythms of this music, drawn from country, folk, and rock idioms, are compelling backdrops to Crutchfield’s elegantly shaped melodies. She likes to play around with bar lines, sometimes crushing extra beats in, sometimes shifting beats to the next bar. She sometimes sings her own background vocals, sometimes relegates that job to a man; either way, she sounds best with another voice playing off her.  I am confident that if I could ever concentrate more on the words and less on the resonant emotional pull of her sound, I might finally realize she is the consummate lyricist people tell me she is. Until then, I’ll just enjoy the feelings this record gives me and think harder about the next record I play.

Elbow – Audio Vertigo. A contender for most quotable song lyric of 2024: “There is no cocaine in this cocaine.” Don’t you hate when that happens? I’ve been a fan of Elbow for nearly 20 years now, but I have to admit after the double whammy of Leaders of the Free World and Cast of Thousands, these past 15 years have been a bit of a slog to get through. The records have always been good, but they haven’t called me back for repeated listens in a long time. This one, however, is a return to liveliness. Elbow’s songs are always a sort of hook-and-rhythm-laden prog rock, with Guy Garvey’s elegant crooning delivering melodic grace time and time again. But, on the afore-mentioned lesser records, there wasn’t as much oomph to the records, not enough liveliness to really snare me. This time, they sound wide awake and alive. I’ve long thought of them as a more pop-directed version of Radiohead, so if that sounds like it could be your thing, this is a good one to pick up.

Vinicius Cantuaria – Psychedelic Rio. This isn’t the kind of psychedelic sounds we’ve grown used to here in the States, but I can easily see Brazilians thinking this record is way the hell out there. Cantuaria is working with two Italian musicians – bassist Paolo Andriolo and drummer Roberto Rossi. Not only that, but Cantuaria is playing electric guitar, not acoustic. Most of these songs are things he’s at least co-written and recorded before, but whether or not you know the originals, this is a fresh take. Cantuaria’s vocals are in the soft and sweet tradition of Brazilian pop, but the music is funkier, darker, and generally more assertive. “Rio Negro” opens the record sounding like a Brazilian version of “Superfly.” Antonio Carlos Jobim’s classic “Insenstatez” is the most familiar song here, with a neatly elastic push and pull between the vocals and the music. The arrangement of “Nossa Estrada” is especially compelling, with more instruments adding counterpoint to the vocals, guitar, bass, and drums.

Gary Clark, Jr. – JPEG RAW. If you stopped paying attention to Clark because you thought he was just another blues/rock journeyman, you’re in for a very pleasant surprise. While blues is still incorporated in his music, so is funk, jazz, hip hop, soul, and probably half a dozen other sources as well. This particular record is a tour de force, possibly the album that holds together better musically than anything I’ve heard in months. While he’s genre jumping and bringing in guest artists ranging from Valerie June to Stevie Wonder to George Clinton, the fury and the solidarity of Clark’s vision is always front and center. I’m sure individual songs – especially “Maktub” and the Stevie Wonder partnership “What About the Children” – would sound great on a radio show smart enough to program them, but every song here builds on the last one. The sum of the excellent parts is infinitely expressive.

Sierra Ferrell – Trail of Flowers. Ferrell plays a number of stringed instruments, knows how to use her distinctive voice to its best advantage, and writes smart and catchy Americana-based songs. The new album explores heartache and breaking hearts, the joys of cooking chittlin’s, separations both anxious and accepting, and other subjects. The music has a nice sparkle to it, a rootsy energy that allows Ferrell to sing confidently and with spirit. Be prepared to find certain melodic fragments bouncing around in your brain now and again – not necessarily hook lines so much as the way she expresses some musical thoughts.

Beyoncé – Cowboy Carter. I’m writing this less than two weeks after the album appeared online, and still sometime before it gets a physical release. I’ve already seen more articles written about this record than pretty much any album in ages. Here’s another one, albeit much shorter. Beyoncé has finally won me over – and I’m not alone. I know many people personally who never paid attention to her who have fallen in love with this record. I’m not sure it’s really because the record is skewed country, or at least Americana. Linda Martell, an African-American female country singer who never broke big in the 70s, talks about the restrictions of genre in one of her two cameo appearances herein. Beyoncé doesn’t have to deal with any restrictions whatsoever. She just follows her muse wherever it takes her, and on this album, the biggest connection to country music is that with few exceptions, she is writing songs with classic pop form – verse, chorus, bridge. More importantly, she’s writing songs that demonstrate a mastery of melody, harmony, and rhythm. More importantly than that, she’s singing them exquisitely and with passion, and bringing in a variety of guest stars famous and barely known who can match her vocals. Of course I love the Miley Cyrus duet, but heck, I never realized Post Malone could sing toe to toe with Beyoncé. Willie Jones and Shaboozey are the big winners in the unknown category. You’ve probably heard about her version of Dolly Parton’s “Jolene,” which to my ears is the least enjoyable song here – I don’t like the vengeance angle taken here. You may have heard she sings “Blackbird” by the Beatles – this one is lovely and inspirational. If you’ve only heard one song, it’s “Texas Hold ‘Em,” which I love to death – a two step line dance number with extremely catchy chorus and arrangement, not to mention lyrics about slumming in a dive bar while driving a Lexus. One last thing and I’ll stop for now – there are moments of exquisite beauty on this record, vocal arrangements for Beyoncé and her backing singers that bring the hairs on the back of the neck up every time I hear them. This is gonna be a hard album to beat out at the end of the year.

The Staves – All Now. There used to be three Staves, but now there are only two, which must have worked hell on their live show arrangements of older songs. Jessica and Camilla Stavely-Taylor (can you tell they are British from their last name?) don’t miss Emily on this new record, however. With just two singers, the harmonies are less complex, more direct, and still beautiful. You know how it is when siblings sing together, right? The songs this time have more impact than I remember from previous records. It’s modern folk/pop/rock, I guess. I just know whenever I hear “All Now” and “After School,” I get that kind of uptempo singalong feeling going on, and whenever I hear “Recognise” I feel all sad and empathetic. “Last night we saw Counting Crows / All the songs you would recognize / I’m scared you wouldn’t recognize / Me.” Oh, man, that “me” resonates hard.

Wonder Women of Country. Six songs. Three singers. Kelly Willis, Melissa Carper, Brennen Leigh. I love all three of these singers, and was overjoyed to find them teaming up, if a bit sad that they only combined for two songs apiece. But, heck, I haven’t heard anything from Willis in years – I just checked Wikipedia and there are at least a couple albums I need to find. She is every bit the exquisite singer she was back in the 90s when she made a serious run in the alt-country scene. Carper has been a fave of mine for only a few years, and her distinctive voice nails the leads on her two songs and leads the harmonies behind the other two. Brennen Leigh is the youngest of the bunch, but she decides to sing the oldest fashioned song here in a Hawaiian styled country song. All six songs are top notch, I just want a lot more.

Alejandro Escovedo – Echo Dancing. I’ve seen Alejandro Escovedo live enough times to know that his songs are never graven in stone. Different musicians suggest different arrangements, and new lyrics might show up now and again. His previous album was a Spanish language reinterpretation of the album before that. Thus, it’s no surprise that he does here what few have ever done successfully – completely reinterprets songs from records he’s released over many years. He flew to Italy to team with musicians Don Antonio and Nicola Peruch. These two play multiple instruments and between the three of them, they create a hazy, lazy, intensely focused sound that allows the songs to take on brand new identities. At first, old familiar favorites like “Castanets” (here recast as “Casteñuelas”), “Last to Know,” and “Wave” felt strange and distant, but after a few listens, they strike me as newly perfect versions. And, while I’ve spent a lot of time listening to Escovedo in my life, there are several songs here from albums I’ve either never heard or didn’t play enough. “John Conquest” and “Sacramento & Polk” get things off to a heavy rocking explosive start. There aren’t many artists who could get away with a concept like this, but Alejandro Escovedo once again proves that he knows exactly what he’s doing.

Khruangbin – A La Sala. After spending some time collaborating with Leon Bridges and Vieux Farka Touré, this little old band from Texas has returned to its mostly instrumental roots. Guitar, bass, drums, and space are the key ingredients on this record. Sometimes, there is a keyboard adding chords quietly in the background, and some other times there are vocals nearly indecipherable mixed low below the guitar. But mostly, it’s just the three of them, playing slow, thoughtful, mysterious melodies and rhythms. This is the way they sounded when I first heard them, and while they continue to explore different musical sources, it is this essential combination of three personalities that makes them special.

Alice Russell – I Am. It’s pretty cheeky to let your bio begin with a sentence like “Alice Russell is universally acknowledged as one of the best modern soul voices of our time.” This British singer is very good, but I don’t think I’ve seen anybody else claim she’s one of the very best. Either way, she’s been away from the recording studio for over a decade until coming up with this solid return. Her co-writer and producer TM Juke gives her some pretty stunning and often unique arrangements to let her vocals shine here. I’m not sure that any of these songs are world-beaters but they do work well enough to get me to keep listening. I like the interplay between Russell and her backing singers throughout the record. These r&b grooves are built on complex layers of vocals and instruments, and make creative use of empty space in unexpected places.

John Moreland – Visitor. I looked it up before calling him a Texas singer-songwriter, and it turns out he’s an Oklahoma singer-songwriter. Not much difference, really. Like most of the greats from Texas since Townes Van Zandt started the trend some 55 years back, Moreland writes poetic lyrics and sets them to simple but memorable melodies. He does, however, possess one of the strongest, most compelling voices of the whole genre. Moreland also knows exactly how to use that voice to best advantage, breaking at just the right moments, swelling subtly on key words. There is a song here, “One Man Holds the World Hostage,” which captures the Trumpian zeitgeist pretty well without ever saying his name. Another song, “Ain’t Much I Can Do About It,” has nothing to do with that, but does put the catchiest hook to work on a song about the ways life works for better or for worse.

Mei Semones – Kabutomushi. Here’s a young woman who sings in Japanese and English and writes complex yet infectious melodies. Her bio suggests it’s a combination of jazz, bossa nova, and math rock, and I can’t think of a better way of describing what she does. These five songs only last 17 minutes, and they tend to run into each other as if the EP is a single composition. But don’t forget the catchiness. I mean, if you hear it, you can’t forget it, but I’m assuming most of you haven’t heard this one yet. She’s also a fascinating guitar player, coming up with guitar parts to these songs that support the melodies while also sounding distinctively new.

Melissa Aldana – Echoes of the Inner Prophet. This is the second Blue Note album from the Chilean-born young tenor saxophonist. She dedicates the title cut to Wayne Shorter, and there is definitely a Shorter vibe going on in the kind of knotty compositions she comes up with. Her band here includes Lage Lund on guitar, Fabian Almazon on piano, Pablo Menares on bass, and Kush Abadey on drums. While Aldana is unquestionably the leader, and Lund shines especially brightly, the band plays as a unit, with individual instruments weaving around each other. Solos happen, but they are mostly short intervals built upon different sections of the pieces being played. I’m especially taken with the beautiful “Cone of Silence,” though the title does make me wonder if Get Smart reruns were a staple of Chilean television in the 90s and early 00s.

Maggie Rogers – Don’t Forget Me. The formula is very simple. Good singing, forthright songwriting, catchy tunes, familiar song structures, and occasional nods to Fleetwood Mac. This new album by Rogers is way better than the previous one I liked a couple years back. Though the production is modern – there are, of course, no instrumental solos and the sound is somewhat compressed – the verities of 70s pop/rock are the building blocks Rogers uses here. She gets away with it because she’s really good at coming up with new ideas that sound old, and because she’s so dang good at singing. She has a supple voice with a sweet tone that she can bend and squeeze for just the proper amount of ache at the right moments.

Larry Campbell & Teresa Williams – All This Time. Campbell spent seven years as the lead guitarist for Bob Dylan’s touring band around the turn of the century, and several more years working with Levon Helm. He’s also played on plenty of records in any decent collection of vaguely Americana styled rock. He’s been married to Teresa Williams for decades, and the two of them have been releasing damn fine duet records for about ten years now. This latest one shows off their strengths – two strong vocalists who can sing lead or harmony; songwriting skills with an emphasis on strong melodies and sing-a-long hooks; a rolodex filled with hot musicians; and of course, that exuberant lead Telecaster (I think) in the hands of Campbell. There’s a sweet little song here about how Laurel & Hardy can help you smile when you’re down, and an exhilarating version of Buddy & Julie Miller’s “I Love You.”

Taylor Swift – The Tortured Artist Department. I’ve read quite a few takes on this album, and yet I know I’ve seen only a drop in the bucket that is the Taylor Swift Opinion Industry. So, my apologies if I’m not the first, but has anybody else pointed out how often this record cracks jokes? I mean, yeah, she’s moping about men who didn’t meet her expectations, and yeah, she’s got one goofy football metaphor song about the guy who hasn’t let her down (yet). But in and around these songs, there are hilarious bits. “I’m having his baby,” she tells her unapproving parents, then quickly follows with “No, I’m not but you should see your faces.” I mean, that’s a pretty nasty thing to say in real life, but it’s hilarious in a pop song like this. In the song “Clara Bow,” she tells a listener she looks like Clara Bow, a silent movie actress practically unknown to even the most hardened TCM or Criterion Channel fanatic, then says she looks like Stevie Nicks, and finally ends up with the greatest compliment of all, “You look like Taylor Swift.” Swift’s songs are rarely interpreted by other singers, but I think it would be fun for somebody to cover this one. Besides the yucks, I simply find this album (the 16-songs on the physical release – I will check out the 15 other cuts eventually) to be thoroughly enjoyable. Some people complain that Swift no longer traffics in the gigantic hooks she did in her country and early pop phases, but the songs are engaging and musically interesting even if the hooks are smaller. She demonstrates all sorts of singing skills throughout the album, and the arrangements put her vocals (and the guest appearances by Post Malone and Florence + the Machine) front and center. Frankly, I think this might be her most consistent release in several years.

Matthew Shipp – New Concepts in Piano Trio Jazz. I’m not entirely sure how new the concepts are, but I love the way Shipp plays piano with Michael Bisio on bass and Newman Taylor Baker on drums. It’s avant-garde music that has a groove even when the drums are just commenting on the bass holding down the beat, or when the piano is bouncing back and forth between right and left hands. All three players are equal participants here. The music is fairly intense though it has some short lyrical passages sprinkled in. My language of description is not nearly as developed as these musicians skills, so I’ll just stop here.

Elizabeth King – Soul Provider. I was raving about this woman three years ago when she came out of retirement after spending 50 years raising kids. She’s a fabulous gospel singer, with a supple and subtle alto that can go from a scream to a whisper and back again without any effort. This time around, the backing band is led by Will Sexton, and it provides a nicely sinuous groove with lots of reverb on the guitars. Songs range from standards like “I Couldn’t Hear Nobody Pray” to the funky title track to the jazzy “Look at Your Life” to the Velvet Underground’s “Jesus.” Yeah, you heard me. It never occurred to me that Lou Reed, who was Jewish, was writing a gospel song back in 1969 – the same year King first recorded – but here we go. “Help me find my place / Help me in my weakness / ‘Cause I’m falling out of grace” makes perfect sense to King. At 80, she’s making up for all the years without recording, and it doesn’t sound as if she’s lost a single bit of her amazing voice.