Sudan Archives – Natural Brown Prom Queen. The word in her bio is that she wrote and recorded this album in her basement during lockdown days. I’d have guessed this was done in a studio with dozens of musicians on stand-by for when she wanted strings or acoustic bass or the perfect guitar lick, or any of a number of sounds which pop up briefly only to flit away. Brittney Parks doesn’t make music that’s easy to categorize. She raps, but it’s more r&b than hip-hop. She sings but doesn’t overemphasize her voice. She’s catchy but the music is more artsy than pop. She loves sex but she speaks of it on her own terms and as just one aspect of her fully rounded musical life. It took me a couple listens to get caught by the hooks, but once I got there, I was eager to here it all again.
Little Simz – No Thank You. Here’s another record that took me a couple spins to get comfortable with it. I quite enjoyed her last album, Sometimes I Might Be Introvert, and this one is not as brash as that one was. If anything, it’s more introverted, with the occasional blast of a sampled horn chart or choral vocal stuffing harsher sounds in the middle of calm and controlled beats. Simz is still a master of delivering words, lots and lots of them, in that English accent I’m not smart enough to identify specifically. I keep getting lost in the flow of her vocals, mixed with the beats and the backing melodies; the lyrics will reveal themselves over more time.
Jeong Lim Yang – Zodiac Suite: Reassured. In 1945, Mary Lou Williams came up with one of the most ambitious ideas in jazz – a suite of 12 connected musical pieces named in honor of each sign of the zodiac. She recorded the suite as a jazz trio, and orchestrated it for a combination of jazz combo and symphony orchestra, achieving a couple of expensive performances which lost a great deal of money. I stumbled across a CD of the trio versions about 25 years back, and found them to be delightful. Bassist Jeong Lim Yang, with pianist Santiago Leibson and drummer Gerald Cleaver have now taken up the mantle, digging deep inside the original music for sharp new takes with plenty of fresh improvisatory ideas. This modern trio keeps the melodic content of the originals, though sometimes stretched out or interpolated. Whether you know the inspiration or not, this record is a modern jazz trio gem.
Marlowe – Marlowe 3. It’s entirely possible that I didn’t hear the best hip hop record of 2022 until the first week of January 2023. I mean, Buck 65’s King of Drums was my fave, and this one may be better than that one. Certainly Solemn Brigham, the rapping half of the duo called Marlowe, is better on the mic than Buck 65; the question is whether producer/mixologist L’Orange is better, with his mix of old time radio drop-ins, psychedelic rock, huge funky beats, and breaks from records few would imagine contained breaks, than Buck 65, who tends to use a wider variety of beats but a more pointed variety of samples. At any rate, this third record from the North Carolina duo is a blast to hear. Brigham serves up a variety of rap flows that always match beautifully with L’Orange’s ecstatic backing sounds. Even the skit tracks are loads of fun, because the beats are good enough to make a proper song if they’d felt like it. A major blast of a record.
Onom Agemo with Ahmed Ag Kaedy – Tartit. Onom Agemo is a German band and Ahmed Ag Kaedy is a guitarist and singer from Mali. The music takes off from the Tuareg desert blues style we’ve heard on any number of albums in recent years, then mixes in some free-form sounds, a little reggae, and a touch of Afrobeat. Six tracks averaging six and a half minutes each are propulsive blasts of energy. I’m used to the basic sound of chanted lyrics, percussive and aggressive guitar, and thumping bass and drums. But the addition of saxophone, sometimes holding down a bottom end note, sometimes spiraling into energetic overtones, occasional flutes with melodic riffs, and a keyboard sound straight off old Fela records makes for something that sounds entirely new. The Germans and the Malian sound like they’re working together while challenging each other at the same time, a nice tension that gets leads to dance floor relief.
King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard – Laminated Denim. It’s been something like 17 years since I used to regularly submit to a regimen of exercise. Twice a week, that regimen included thirty minutes spent on a treadmill. I suspect if I had the benefit of this exactly thirty-minute long album in those days, I would have burned twice as many calories. These two exactly fifteen-minute long tracks are energetic, driving, and trance-inducing in just the right way for moving ones legs in a regular motion for the duration of each song. Fortunately, they work pretty well for getting me to grade multiple old jazz records and price them accordingly, one of the things I do in the record store. This is the fifth different King Gizzard release of 2022, and once again, they do what they want like nobody else even tries to do.
Cristina Vane – Make Myself Me Again. This European transplant has absorbed pretty much all the Americana sounds you can name. Blues and bluegrass, country and folk, she shines in every style. This album came out back in May, but I only just recently discovered her pure, emotive vocals and her strong slide guitar and banjo skills. I love her guitar tone – I don’t know what model that is she plays, but it’s very pretty and combined with her fingers on the strings makes for a restrained but powerful sound. She’s a talented songsmith, too. This is only her second full-length album credited on Discogs. I’m excited to hear where she’s going to go from here.
Lola’s Dice – Pura Maldad. I don’t hear any examples of pure evil in this upbeat, contagious batch of songs from Venezuelan émigrés to the U.S. In fact, I don’t hear any examples of purity of any kind. I know enough Latin music to realize that these guys are mixing and matching all sorts of styles, creating a blend that may not make perfect sense to the people left behind in their homeland, but which will get the dance floor filled in multi-cultural parties anywhere else. Lots of guitar involved in this music, too, which is fine by me.
Bob McKee – I Don’t Want You In Here. It’s a rare autobiographical song that both finds a perfect metaphor for the stages in one’s life and makes it seem like all those stages were worth experiencing while leading up to contentment with one’s lot today. But this St. Louis songwriter/guitarist/songwriter, longtime member of the Vondrukes, one of our town’s finest rock bands, has come up with a winner in “Cars.” Far from the dystopia of Gary Numan’s song of the same name, McKee’s gem simply puts events of his life in the context of different automobiles he’s owned. It’s an effective conceit that both makes me feel more connected to the singer and makes me want to try the idea on my own life. I don’t want to belabor my praise for just this one song, because there are eight more fine cuts on this album. Some rock nicely, some are acoustic guitar ballads, all are worth hearing.
Fred Hersch and Esperanza Spalding – Alive at the Village Vanguard. Hersch is one of those jazz pianists who can seemingly play in any style, and always has something fresh to bring to the table. Spalding is – well, you try to describe her in a single sentence. She’s a fantastic bassist, a wonderful and inventive songwriter, and a singer with enormous skill and nuance. Only the latter is on display here, as she leaves the bass at home and serves as a chanteuse with Hersch on piano. It turns out she can whip her way around a standard, playfully commenting on the lyrics of a Gershwin masterpiece or a minor Bobby Troup / Neal Hefti number from a Jean Harlow biopic I never knew existed. She also brings all her knowledge as a musician to her scat singing, which is among the most impressive I’ve heard. All this, and she interacts with the audience. This was the first record released in 2023 I heard; it’s also the most enjoyable released this month to date.
Dave Brickey & the 40 Pass – Adjusted Memories. This is a St. Louis band of veteran musicians, most of whom I’ve never encountered in the couple dozen years they’ve been playing in various combos around town. I know of Mike Fitzsimmons, the very tasteful lead guitarist whose solos emerge out of these songs with just the perfect amount of ambience and concision. And I know Jon Parsons, keyboardist extraordinaire who rarely calls attention to himself, but always makes what he plays on better than it would be without him. Brickey himself reminds me of Australia’s Paul Kelly – there’s that same vocal timbre, and the same adjustment of folk balladry into pop/rock songcraft. I like this EP; the songs are varied and catchy, not to mention well-played and arranged. Maybe I’ll run into one of these guys next time I’m at the grocery store.
Margo Price – Strays. This album has the remarkable quality of leaping up in my estimation every time I hear it. If this keeps up, another two or three listens will make it one of my favorite records. Or it might plateau and stay where it is after three spins – a very nice, warm and empathetic collection of sometimes sad, sometimes vigorous songs. Price has pulled further and further from the country/soul roots of her early work, achieving now some glamourous big sound mixed with a quiet inner-directed voice much of the time. The hooks are sounding stronger every time, the general feel of the songs is grabbing me, and I’m quite pleased to continue following the work of this very talented musician.
Pongo – Sakidila. This Angolan-Portugese singer mixes up African rhythms and occasionally instruments with heavy EDM beats and sonics to make for one groovy good time. I have no idea what she’s singing about, but her vocals push hard above the rhythms of the music, and the combination makes for a seriously uplifting bath of sound. This record came out back in April, but I only discovered it when I started seeing it on some year-end lists – no matter how hard one tries, it’s impossible to keep up with everything. But this was well worth finding eventually.
Daniel Rossen – You Belong There. I’m always a sucker for a good art pop song, and Rossen delivers quite a few gems here. Arrangements with nylon guitar, strings, mallets on drums, long legato melodic phrases, and lots of bits where everybody just sticks on the same chord before releasing into a lovely passage of something else. I was first attracted to his guitar work, some delicate and intricate finger picking, then his voice, which reminds me a little of the guy in DeVotchKa, but with less of an overwhelming sound.
Jesca Hoop – Order of Romance. I like her idiosyncratic sense of melody, her commitment to arpeggios built around interesting chords, her wide open spaces production with the very close-mic’d vocals, her occasional choices to drop a very wide interval in an otherwise folky melody, the way her double-tracked vocal harmonies remind me at times of the Roches, and just the general vibe. Pay attention to the words, and she’s got an equally wry view of the world, not to mention some mother issues which, depending on how autobiographical songs such as “I Was Just 14” might be, are pretty devastating.
James Yorkston, Nina Persson, The Second Hand Orchestra – The Great White Sea Eagle. James Yorkston has been making records for a couple decades, but I’ve never encountered him before. He came from the English folk circuit, but with a fresh take on traditional music styles, and he has also written at least one novel. Nina Persson was the singer in the Cardigans. The Second Hand Orchestra is an English collective that seems capable of forging perfect backing for this music, whether it needs a flute counterpoint or delicate strings or a light rock sound. These songs, written by Yorkston, are heavy lyrically, concerned with fatherhood and his role as a son, full of mystery and magic. Another candidate for best release of the month.
EJ Fitch – Bright Arms and Baby Heirlooms. It’s a bold move to put your four weakest songs at the front of a 14-song record. There’s nothing wrong with these first few cuts – they are solid enough four-square guitar-based rock’n’roll with a heavy feel of the indie world back in the mid to late 80s. But, beginning with a rollicking instrumental anchored by guest Dominic Schaeffer’s saxophone and propelled by occasional “Wooh-hoo”’s from Fitch, this record recovers the excitement and vitality of the best of his influences. The Replacements, a little REM, even an unexpected nod to Camper Van Beethoven. Fitch and his talented cohorts work hard to make this all sound spontaneous, as if it’s on the verge of falling apart. But every ramshackle vocal part is in the exact right place for upping the energy. I first saw Fitch in the Treeweasels (who also have a very nice new EP) here in St. Louis way back in about 1989, and he’s been in lots of bands since. Tracks 5-14 here may be the best I’ve ever heard him. Look him up on Bandcamp.
Kirk Lightsey – Live at Smalls Jazz Club. Merely by staying alive to reach 85 years old, Lightsey has earned a closer listen at last. He’s been around a lot of jazz greats his whole life, but there aren’t all that many albums with his name as the leader. This live set, recorded in 2021, puts him square in the role he’s most comfortable – as one member of a killer ensemble. Guitarist Mark Whitfield – there’s a name I haven’t heard in decades, after he lost his early major label contract when the majors decided jazz was no longer a thing they wanted to do – could almost be the leader here; his whiplash-inducing barrages of notes alternating with lyrical lines are the first thing to grab attention. Bassist Santi DeBriano and drummer Victor Lewis are beyond solid, too. Lightsey’s solos may not be flashy, but they are musically precise and effective. This is excellent mainstream jazz.
I’m left with a grasp on what these releases actually sound like, which is both unusual and appreciated!
It’s also good to be made aware of Daniel Rossen’s continuing output, in addition to being “the other singer” in Grizzly Bear.
Hey Steve! Thanks for including "Bright Arms & Baby Heirlooms". Greatly appreciated!