Short Attention Span Record Reviews, July 2020

DAMIR IMAMOVIC – Singer Of Tales
I suspect that the Venn Diagram for people who like Slayer, Dolly Parton, AND traditional Balkan music contains exactly zero people apart from myself, but in any case, if you’re interested – this Bosnian dude has released a solid Sevdah record. (7)

EMPTY COUNTRY – Empty Country
An impressive debut from Joe D’Agostino, ex-frontman of Cymbals Eat Guitars, not as loud as CEG but just as vast-sounding and ambitious and emo-ish. (8)

FATHER JOHN MISTY – Anthem +3
Benefit 4-track covers EP, the main attraction being Leonard Cohen’s “Anthem” as the other covers (Cat Stevens, Link Wray, and another Cohen song) are previously released. (8)

HAIM – Women in Music Pt. III
The Soft Rock Queens of L.A. go past their early 80’s Fleetwood Mac fixation, enhance their sound with new influences and darken it up a bit, with glorious results. (8)

KAVUS TORABI – Hip to the Jag
From the very depths of the English psychedelic underground, having worked with the Cardiacs, Monsoon Basoon, Guapo and Gong among others, this guy finally releases a solo album and it’s just as bonkers and otherworldly as you might’ve expected. (7)

KHRUANGBIN – Mordechai
Hyped-up trio combines 50% American psychedelic dub-funk with 30% African influences and 20% South-East Asian sounds, ends up 40% boring. (6)

MAGICK TOUCH – Heads Have Got to Rock 'n' Roll
Sort of like a Thin Lizzy/Dokken hybrid. Would have been much bigger in 1983. (7)

TRANSGLOBAL UNDERGROUND – Walls Have Ears
Largely responsible for popularizing in the 90’s the electronica/world music hybrid later exploited by the likes of Thievery Corporation, TGU are back with something resembling the original line-up and an album worth a few spins if you’re in a nostalgic mood. (7)

WILLIE NELSON – First Rose Of Spring
He is 87 years old. This is his 70th album. He has smoked more weed than everyone else alive in the State of Texas put together. You can excuse him for writing just two new songs this time around and mainly doing covers. (7)

WINO – Forever Gone
Doom metal godfather does solo acoustic record but it doesn’t sound like a solo acoustic record, it sounds like a doom metal record for which he couldn’t afford to pay the electricity bill or hire a band. (7)