Short Attention Span Record Reviews June 2021

BALKAN TAKSIM – Disko Telegraf
Romanian Ethno-electronica duo raise a storm. Great music to dance to. (8)

BLACK MIDI – Cavalcade
Weirder and noisier than the rest of the British post-punk bands they’re grouped together with, these guys are more like a mid-90’s math rock combo doing an 80’s King Crimson tribute. (8)

BLACKBERRY SMOKE – You Hear Georgia
The true heirs to Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Allmans are back with another strong effort – they even look more like Skynyrd now, with an expanded 9-person line-up featuring three guitarists plus female back-up singers. (8)

BLOODKIN – Black Market Tango
Unfortunately I just discovered this great band because Danny Hutchens, its driving force, passed away, thanks to a loving tribute by friend and megafan Patterson Hood. A fantastic album of hard rocking but literate Americana, produced by David Barbe (remember Sugar?). (8)

DAVID BOWIE – The Width Of A Circle
My love for Bowie’s “The Man Who Sold The World” is well documented, and this compilation of BBC live radio sessions, alternate mixes, remasters, demos, and singles from 1970 is marketed as a companion piece to last year’s alternate title/cover re-release. A lot of it is non-essential, not that this will stop the obsessive fans of course. (7)

CIRITH UNGOL – Half Past Human
True heavy metal that’s as ugly as the guys who make it. As with every Cirith Ungol release, the love-or-hate vocals make all the difference. (8)

JOHN HIATT WITH THE JERRY DOUGLAS BAND – Leftover Feelings
Legendary Nashville tunesmith teams up with hot bandleader/producer for bluegrass-leaning Americana collaboration that works fine. (8)

ANTHONY JOSEPH – The Rich Are Only Defeated When Running For Their Lives
Jazz and poetry, coming across like a “made in UK” version of The Last Poets. (8)

LOSCIL – Clara
This ambient electronica record is perfect to listen to while listening to something else, and I mean this in the best possible way. (8)

MDOU MOCTAR – Afrique Victime
2021’s second unlikely guitar hero (the previous one being Yasmin Williams), this self-taught, Niger-based Tuareg lets rip on his left-handed Stratocaster with a fresh take of the desert blues pioneered by Tinariwen. Check out the shredding title track. (8)

MONSTER MAGNET – A Better Dystopia
Covers album focusing on obscure tracks by Hawkwind (of course), Pentagram, Poo-Bah, Dust, The Pretty Things, Table Scraps, The Scientists, Morgen etc. Get yourself an educational ass-kicking. (11)

DAVID JOHN MORRIS – Monastic Love Songs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8V_hCqO6UQs. (5)

MARIA MULDAUR WITH TUBA SKINNY - Let's Get Happy Together
Remember “Midnight At The Oasis”, a hit from 1973? Apparently Muldaur still records, and this collaboration with a New Orleans band specializing in 1920’s & 1930’s traditional jazz is a riotous romp down Bourbon Street. (7)

PERTURBATOR – Lustful Sacraments
Honestly, I don’t get synthwave in general and Perturbator in particular – this goth electropop thing was not very interesting in the 80’s, and it’s not very interesting today. (6)

DUSTY SPRINGFIELD – The Complete Atlantic Singles 1968–1971
You know, when I was a kid I thought Dusty Springfield and Buffalo Springfield were relatives? True story. So anyway, here’s a batch of recordings that can rival even Aretha’s output on the same label during the same time period. (9)

Short Attention Span Record Reviews May 2021 - The Edition Where I Give Three 10's

AROOJ AFTAB – Vulture Prince
NY-based Pakistani artist creates one of the most stunning sets of music in recent memory by merging her country’s musical tradition with jazz. This will give you chills. (8)

THE BLACK KEYS – Delta Kream
Going back to their Delta blues roots and stripping it down on covers album, paying tribute to their heroes (John Lee Hooker, Junior Kimbrough, R.L Burnside etc.). I loved it. (8)

HOLLY COLE – Montreal (Live)
Look, I’ve had a respectful little crush on Holly for the past 25+ years, and I think she’s a fantastic jazz singer, and I love her albums with the original Holly Cole Trio, and an intimate Holly Cole Trio Xmas gig in NYC back in the mid-90’s is one of the 10 best concerts I’ve ever attended, and this is a live reunion of that trio, so: (10)

ADRIAN CROWLEY – The Watchful Eye Of The Stars
Good album by the Irishman with some help from John Parish and members of Portishead, but Leonard Cohen comparisons are impossible to avoid. (7)

DROPKICK MURPHYS – Turn Up That Dial
The kings of the beer-soaked singalong are back with another batch of working-class Celtic punk anthems. (8)

MARIANNE FAITHFULL WITH WARREN ELLIS – She Walks In Beauty
Faithfull recites poems of the Romantics (Keats, Byron, Shelley, Tennyson, Wordsworth) over ambient soundscapes created by Nick Cave’s right hand. A labor of love. (7)

FUCKED UP – Year of the Horse
This is a fucked up masterpiece. A Fucked Up masterpiece. Fucked Up’s masterpiece. Whatever. (10)

GOJIRA – Fortitude
Definitely the metal album of the year, possibly the metal album of the decade. (10)

JACK INGRAM, MIRANDA LAMBERT, JON RANDALL – The Marfa Tapes
Desert session live, one-take, acoustic, recorded outside lo-fi with one mic and a guitar or two. A beautiful country album with great songwriting and a bold move from Lambert, a bona fide superstar of the genre. (8)

TOM JONES – Surrounded By Time
At 80 years old he releases his most experimental album ever. Ethan Johns produces for the fourth time and does a great job again on a bunch of very interesting covers, ranging from Michel Legrand to Todd Snider. (8)

ASHLEY MONROE – Rosegold
Subversive country artist and 1/3 of the Pistol Annies skips country altogether this time and goes for a pop/trip-hop vibe, with mixed results. (7)

ROSALI – No Medium
Country rock like prime Linda Ronstadt fronting Crazy Horse, and yes, it sounds as awesome as it looks. (8)

ST VINCENT – Daddy’s Home
Not her best album, but an entertaining and rather shticky early-70’s pastiche. (7)

TODD SNIDER – First Agnostic Church Of Hope And Wonder
Funky hippie country blues from veteran singer/songwriter trying to get over the recent loss of close friends and musical heroes. (7)

SONS OF KEMET – Black To the Future
Shabaka Hutchings is already a star on London’s jazz scene and this riotous party of an album will make him a mainstream household name. (8)

SQUID – Bright Green Field
Yet another interesting young English post-punk band with a vocalist who can’t (or won’t) sing to add to the whole Black Country, New Road / Dry Cleaning thing, so it’s officially a trend now. These guys are more like early Talking Heads/Gang Of Four gone krautrock. (8)

Short Attention Span Record Reviews Apr 2021 Vol. II

THE LOUDER STUFF

THE ARMED – Ultrapop
Sort of like Dillinger Escape Plan meets Genghis Tron. (7)

BONGZILLA – Weedsconsin
Listening to this album gave me some serious munchies, and I haven’t even touched the stuff in ages. (7)

DYLAN CARLSON & LORI GOLDSTON – Feral Angel
Carlson is the guy from Earth, Goldston is the cellist you know from Nirvana’s “MTV Unplugged”. No surprise this sounds like Earth with cello. (7)

GRETA VAN FLEET – The Battle At Garden's Gate
Making fun of these guys is as easy as shooting fish in a barrel but really, it’s not that bad if you don’t mind everything sounding like Rush doing a decent Led Zeppelin impression. (6)

MUSTASCH – A Final Warning - Chapter 1
21 minutes of hairy hard rock. (7)

JEFF ROSENSTOCK – Ska Dream
Rosenstock’s excellent 2020 album “No Dream” made the Music Geek’s Top-10 last year, and he just surprise-dropped a ska version of it! Ska is so uncool that this is pretty cool. (7)

THE TREATMENT – Waiting For Good Luck
(Big AC/DC verses) + (Big Def Leppard choruses) - (the Big production) = (7)


THE OTHER STUFF

RHIANNON GIDDENS & FRANCESCO TURRISI – They’re Calling Me Home
Recording in lockdown with her partner in life and music, Giddens looks into a centuries-long tradition to explore the concept of home. (8)

CORY HANSON – Pale Horse Rider
A simply fantastic psychedelic country record, like 1996 Radiohead doing a Gram Parsons tribute album. (8)

DAMON LOCKS & BLACK MONUMENT ENSEMBLE – Now
Afrobeat and gospel-infused experimental jazz, this is probably the blackest black music can get. (8)

PARKER MILLSAP – Be Here Instead
A singer-songwriter’s singer-songwriter on his 5th strong album. (8)

PEGGY SEEGER – First Farewell
Folk royalty bids us farewell after a career spanning seven decades. This is a beautiful album, full of warm and funny original songs. (8)

ESPERANZA SPALDING – Triangle EP
Three meditative vocal jazz exercises by Spalding and her band, perfect for these times. (8)

SHARON VAN ETTEN – Epic Ten
For the 10th anniversary reissue of her second album “Epic”, Van Etten invites a very eclectic mix of her influences and peers (from Fiona Apple to IDLES) to cover the whole thing and the result is, well, epic. (8)

Short Attention Span Record Reviews Apr 2021

CACTUS – Tightrope
70’s hard rock legends’ strong return. Worth the admission ticket even if it’s just for Carmine Appice’s huge kick drum sound, it’s like he’s hitting a wet blanket with a baseball bat. (7)

CLARK – Playground In A Lake
Veteran electronic musician rebrands himself as neoclassical, the label move from Warp Records to Deutsche Grammophon a strong signifier. (7)

DRY CLEANING – New Long Leg
First Black Country, New Road, now Dry Cleaning – I don’t know when/why post-punk-influenced art rock with vocalists who talk rather than sing became a thing, but it’s a very good thing. (8)

FLOATING POINTS & PHAROAH SANDERS – Promises
Electronica artist enlists 80-year old sax legend and the London Symphony Orchestra for triumphant ambient album. (8)

GENGHIS TRON – Dream Weapon
A very different sound from “Board Up The House”’s synth-led noisefest that had made them cult heroes back in 2008: Grindcore elements set aside, a new singer who goes for a shoegaze-y dreamy approach rather than screaming, a real drummer who adds an organic quality. End result is more synthwave than mathcore but better than Perturbator, Carpenter Brut and all those guys. (8)

GODSPEED YOU! BLACK EMPEROR – G_d's Pee At State’s End!
More symphonic-punk than post-rock. (7)

NEW MOON JELLY ROLL FREEDOM ROCKERS – New Moon Jelly Roll Freedom Rockers Vol. 2
Just like Vol. 1 released in 2020: The same bunch of sort-of-famous blues, rock, and Americana guys having fun jamming in the studio. (7)

JANET SIMPSON – Safe Distance
An interesting female country rock singer/songwriter, an outsider to the country music establishment who does her own thing – she’s 44 and I believe this is just her first album. RYIL Margo Price, Lucinda Williams, that sort of thing. (7)

TOMAHAWK – Tonic Immobility
One of Patton’s bands but more Jesus Lizard than Faith No More. (8)

MORGAN WADE – Reckless
Add one more to the long list of new, interesting female country rock singer/songwriters. This one’s produced and mentored by Sadler Vaden, Jason Isbell’s guitarist, and she’s got a bit of grit under the nails. (7)

Short Attention Span Record Reviews Mar 2021 Vol. 2

THE LOUDER STUFF

EYEHATEGOD – A History Of Nomadic Behaviour
Sick music for sick people. (8)

HUMAN IMPACT – EP01
Relive the glory days of New York’s 90’s noise rock scene with misleadingly titled second full album by supergroup featuring members of Unsane, Cop Shoot Cop and Swans. (8)

MOS GENERATOR – The Lantern
Cultish stoner rock band tweak and re-release an EP that was a limited edition 10-inch back in 2007. Children of the Sabbath. (7)

SAXON – Inspirations
Heavy metal veterans covering heroes of previous generations (Stones, Beatles, Kinks, Hendrix, Zeppelin, Sabbath, Purple), sort-of-peers a couple of years ahead of them (Motorhead, Lizzy, AC/DC), and… Toto? Sounds like they had lots of fun in the studio. (7)

PAUL STANLEY’S SOUL STATION – Now And Then
It’s not loud. It’s not Kiss. It’s Stanley with an 11-piece band (featuring Kiss drummer Eric Singer) embracing his love for Motown and classic early 70’s proto-disco soul with 5 original songs and a bunch of cover versions (Smokey Robinson, Temptations, Al Green, The Spinners, The Stylistics etc.). A very pleasant listen. (7)

SUNBURNED HAND OF MAN – Pick A Day To Die
Weird psychedelic rock that sounds like a bunch of punks buttfucking mid-70’s Pink Floyd. (8)

SERJ TANKIAN – Elasticity
5 songs originally written for a SOAD album that never happened, it’s the closest Tankian has come to the SOAD sound throughout his solo career. (7)


THE OTHER STUFF

THE CITY CHAMPS – Luna 68
Shit-hot Southern-fried funky soul/jazz by Memphis-based organ trio, check it out! (8)

LANA DEL REY – Chemtrails Over The Country Club
This feels like a transitionary piece of work, as if she wants to move away from the L.A.-noir but still figuring out exactly how to do it. Not the true masterpiece that “Normal Fucking Rockwell” was, still a very good album. (8)

JAY GONZALEZ – Back To The Hive
Drive-By Truckers keyboardist/third guitarist’s solo album is a welcome departure from the DBT sound: This is classic 70’s-style AM radio power pop – think Badfinger, Todd Rundgren, that Beatles/Beach Boys influenced stuff, all vintage keyboards and multi-layered vocal harmonies. (7)

VALERIE JUNE – The Moon And Stars: Prescriptions For Dreamers
Americana’s rising star on her best album yet. (8)

JIMBO MATHUS & ANDREW BIRD – These 13
Former Squirrel Nut Zippers bandmates on collaborative album of originals that sound like Appalachian folk and blues classics from ages past. Just Mathus’ guitar, Bird’s violin and their voices. So hauntingly beautiful that I actually started crying during “Three White Horses And A Golden Chain”. (8)

ISRAEL NASH – Topaz
Texas-based hippie gives off strong Chris-Stapleton-meets-My-Morning-Jacket vibes, music-wise and hair & beard-wise. (7)

SOUTHSIDE JOHNNY – Grapefruit Moon: The Songs of Tom Waits (Remastered)
One of my absolute favorite albums of the last 15 years, Southside Johnny’s big band jazz interpretations of Tom Waits tunes, now remastered and re-released. A must hear for those who missed it the first time around, i.e. everyone. (10)

VLATKO STEFANOVSKI– Taftalidze Shuffle
In the 80’s Yugoslavia Stefanovski established himself as a bona fide guitar hero with his band Leb I Sol, and this solo old-school record oscillating between classic rock, funk rock, and jazz fusion proves he’s still got it. Warning – lyrics in his mother tongue might sound alien to untrained ears. (7)

RYLEY WALKER – Course In Fable
Walker jokes that Genesis was the main influence on this record, but I’m listening to it right now and I don’t think he’s joking. (8)

Short Attention Span Record Reviews, Mar 2021

JULIEN BAKER – Little Oblivions
This year’s Phoebe Bridgers. (8)

BLANCK MASS – In Ferneaux
Blanck Mass’ electronic music, a combination of noise, EDM and industrial, is known to be aggressive and loud, but this time around it’s more ambient. (7)

NICK CAVE & WARREN ELLIS – Carnage
It’s mind-boggling how this guy can release consistently great work throughout a 40+ year career, his face deserves a spot on rock’s Mount Rushmore next to the Bob Dylans and Neil Youngs of this world. This one bites harder than the last couple of minimalistic Bad Seeds albums in terms of instrumentation and texture. (9)

ALICE COOPER – Detroit Stories
Building upon 2019’s “Breadcrumbs” EP, Alice pays tribute to his Detroit roots with some solid hard rockin’ garage punk and soul. Bob Ezrin produces, members of the MC5 and Grand Funk Railroad guest. Rocks pretty hard for a 73-year old! (7)

DEATH BY UNGA BUNGA – Heavy Male Insecurity
Classic 90’s high-energy rock ‘n’ roll Norwegian style (e.g. Gluecifer, Turbo Negro) infused with some pop-punk silliness. (8)

DJANGO DJANGO – Glowing in the Dark
Their best album to date, a fantastic, catchy and very danceable new wave/art rock/disco hybrid. (8)

THE HOLD STEADY – Open Door Policy
The Rock band (with a capital “R”) that OWNED the 00’s is back with their best album since 2008’s “Stay Positive”. I love this. (8)

MAXIMO PARK – Nature Always Wins
7th album for the Northern England indie rockers, and probably their best one since that PERFECT 2005 debut. (8)

MELVINS – Working With God
If you look beyond the silliness and jokes (e.g. opening the album with the Beach Boys’ “I Get Around” re-imagined as “I Fuck Around”, not one but two tracks titled “Fuck You”, etc.), you’ll find a cornucopia of ass-kicking metal riffs that would make Mastodon green with envy. It’s certainly a top-10 Melvins album, no mean feat considering they’ve probably released more than 30 to date (nobody’s counting, not even the band themselves). (8)    

MOUSE ON MARS – AAI
An electronic music experiment utilizing artificial intelligence both as a theme and as a tool, easier to admire than to enjoy. (6)

WILLIE NELSON – That’s Life
Willie Nelson does Frank Sinatra tribute, how can this NOT be good? Certainly better than Bob Dylan’s “Shadows In the Night”. (8)

TINDERSTICKS – Distractions
Sparser and more repetitive/hypnotic than the usual lush cinematic Tindersticks sound, half the songs on “Distractions” are terrific, the other half annoying. ((9 + 5)/2 = 7)

Short Attention Span Record Reviews, Feb 2021

THE BESNARD LAKES – The Besnard Lakes Are The Last Of The Great Thunderstorm Warnings
A truly epic psychedelic rock album and an early candidate for my year-end List. (9)

BLACK COUNTRY, NEW ROAD – For The First Time
Seemingly out of nowhere, this young band releases its debut featuring buckets of chutzpah and a fully formed sonic identity – and even though it brings to mind a combination of great 90’s bands that went totally unnoticed (Firewater meets Lifter Puller, anyone?), these guys will actually make it big: Hottest new rock band out of the UK since the Arctic Monkeys. (9)

FARMER DAVE & THE WIZARDS OF THE WEST – Farmer Dave & The Wizards Of The West
Byrds meets Grateful Dead meets Hawkwind meets Link Wray? It’s groovy, man! (7)

JIM GHEDI – In The Furrows Of Common Place
Intriguing and totally out of time, this 2021 album by the Irishest-sounding guy ever has more in common with the John Faheys and the Fairport Conventions of this world than with anything belonging to this century. (7)

ARLO PARKS – Collapsed In Sunbeams
If a 19-year old can write such a gorgeous record in her bedroom, there’s still hope for pop. (8)

NANCY SINATRA – Start Walkin’: 1965-1976
If you thought she didn’t record much worth remembering beyond “These Boots Are Made For Walkin’”, here’s a fantastic anthology of Nancy’s career and a testament to the genius of Lee Hazelwood. (9)

SOEN – Imperial
A Venn diagram where 2000-2010 Opeth intersects Tool and Disturbed. (8)

AARON LEE TASJAN – Tasjan! Tasjan! Tasjan!
A great pop rock album that sounds like something out of the Jeff Lynne late 80’s playbook (e.g. Traveling Wilburys, Tom Petty’s “Full Moon Fever”). I still prefer “Silver Tears”, the best album of 2016 that didn’t make the List because I heard it too late, but still. (8)

THE WEATHER STATION – Ignorance
Come December you’ll see this one topping several year-end lists from Pitchfork to Uncut, which would be quite an accomplishment for an album with a yacht rock vibe and speaks volumes for the quality of the songwriting. In any case, imagine “Mirage”-era Fleetwood Mac fronted by Margo Timmins of the Cowboy Junkies and you’ve got the general idea. (8)

YASMIN WILLIAMS – Urban Driftwood
An extremely talented acoustic guitarist with a totally unique technique, Williams sounds unlike any other player out there. (8)

STEVEN WILSON – The Future Bites
An intriguing pop album about consumerism and technology: It’s got songs close to No Man’s electronica-infused territory, and funky jams bringing to mind The Temptations and Prince, but very little that sounds like Porcupine Tree. And that’s fine. (8)

VARIOUS ARTISTS – Cuba: Music And Revolution Culture Clash in Havana, Cuba, Experiments in Latin Music 1975-85, Vol 1
The Buena Vista Social Club project introduced us to pre-revolutionary Cuban music, now this excellent collection digs deep into the Western-influenced music produced underground during the Castro years, blending the Latin stuff with jazz, rock and psychedelia, ending up sonically not too far from Brazil’s Tropicalia but with more brass. (8)