The variable orchestration and detailed lyrics found on Fourth Corner show Trixie Whitley’s ability to structure ideas in separate environments, all while maintaining descriptive imagery for her voice to project upon.
On paper the pairing appears unlikely — one was born in ’69, the other turns 69 next week — but Ben Harper and Charlie Musselwhite bridge their age gap with a proper album that traces their bond to the late ’90s. Blues great John Lee Hooker recruited them for a session, and that first meeting inspired another in 2003, when Harper backed Musselwhite on his Grammy-nominated Sanctuary. Get Up! reunites these old souls a decade later, with Harper leading the effort on his twelfth album and first for Stax.
Unknown Mortal Orchestra's second album, aptly titled II, is being released on Jagjaguwar and the band shows off some musical evolution in its sly psych-rock skronk. An amalgamation of dusty, garage-rock production, cozy, “as if” sampled grooves, falsetto vocals and opaque funk nudge the band forward.
Pared down and clocking in at just over thirty minutes, Beta Love serves as a reminder that sometimes more actually is more.
Centralia is mood music, perhaps enjoyed best as a palate cleanser in a music library shuffle, or in certain settings—with a nice pair of headphones, during a yoga or meditation session, or as a soundtrack to the television during a 3am post-party.
Camper Van Beethoven’s eighth album and first in eight years revives the character study of American oddities the band’s reunion record, New Roman Times, hatched way back in 2004. On La Costa Perdida, Camper keeps the crazies confined to small-town California in this second ode to scandal and scoundrels, among them a fugitive speaking broken Spanish and harboring a secret he can’t outrun. This “half-aware-o caballero” of the album’s upbeat title track kills off his woman and goes on the lam, all the while snarling a half-sinister warning: “You don’t wanna know.”
With Wolf’s Law, The Joy Formidable have released what is sure to be a contender for year-end album best of lists. These might be bold words for an album that is only being released in January, but Wolf’s Law improbably fuses together epic rock with gorgeous melodies, swelling choruses, singer Ritzy Bryan’s both pixie-ish and ethereal vocals and all the dramatic sweep and scope of a concept album without imploding under its own weight like most concept albums do.
No one is making music like Free Energy. The Philadelphia-by-way-of-Minnesota five piece just self released their second full length, Love Sign, after parting ways with James Murphy’s DFA Records.
In lieu of the usual assortment of outtakes and alternate recordings, only a small array of which appear on this deluxe edition of Steve Winwood’s Arc of a Diver, the two CD set includes a BBC Radio documentary which follows a customary blueprint of interspersing scripted intros to interviews of peers including brother Muff and co-musicians such as the late, long-time Traffic collaborator Jim Capaldi. Much of what's here is easily well-known or researched (of particular interest the various music that’s referenced) but also, as is usually the case, nuggets of insight appear alongside the over-emotive segues.
Ahh the elder Punk…what becomes of him or her? Most 12 years old slam-dancers want to grow up to be Mike Ness but that can't be everyone's path. You can keep on the Hey Ho Let's Go! route until you die like godfathers The Ramones, or you could find yourself in some sort of mid tempo vortex of middling hell ala The Scenics with Dead Man Walks Down Bayview
