This was my second time participating in Music Writers Exercise, a Twitter challenge created by writer Gary Suarez where each day in February you listen to an album you’ve never heard before and tweet about it using the hashtag #MWE. Most people who participate are music writers themselves, but there are plenty who just do it for fun like me, although my day job is music-related. I had a much harder time writing reviews snap judgments this time, and I’m not as happy with how they came out, because most of my vocabulary and cognitive abilities have disappeared after a year of pandemic living. I also didn’t get to finish a whole month’s worth, because work got in the way, but I loved almost everything I heard and that’s what matters most to me!
- Playboy Carti, “Whole Lotta Red” (2020) #MWE is off to a rocky start! If I was ten years younger and still drank I would’ve LOVED this album and played “M3tamorphosis” over and over at 3am. It’s definitely a late-nite album. But now that I’m older I mostly feel hungover listening to it. https://shop.playboicarti.com/products/whole-lotta-red-digital-album
- LINGUA IGNOTA, “CALIGULA” (2019) FUCK IT I’M LEAVING THE CAPS LOCK ON. WOW!! WHAT A VOICE! THIS ALBUM BLEW ME AWAY!!! I can’t wait to listen to it next time I’m painting so I can splash the red ink around. Fav. tracks so far: FRAGRANT IS MY MANY FLOWERED CROWN, SORROW! SORROW! SORROW! https://linguaignota.bandcamp.com/album/caligula
- Mdou Moctar, “Ilana: The Creator” (2019) One of the Tuareg guitar gods from the Sahara region who play Desert Blues, one of my favorite musical genres ever. Standout track “Tarhatazed” is a direct line to Eddie Van Halen’s “Eruption” and the album just bursts wide open after that! https://mdoumoctar.bandcamp.com/album/ilana-the-creator
- Syreeta, self-titled (1972) Debut album from Stevie Wonder’s creative collaborator and former spouse. What surprised and delighted me the most is her voice, which is glassy and precise but also sweet and girlish, and it compliments the futuristic atmosphere so well. https://www.discogs.com/Syreeta-Syreeta/master/187129
- Clan of Xymox, self-titled (1985) One of the first darkwave bands [goth+new wave, or synth-driven goth/post-punk]. I must have heard at least half of this album before on various dance floors over the years. Take me back!! https://shopusa.4ad.com/clan-of-xymox
- Tim Heidecker, “Fear of Death” (2020) Aw man. This is supposedly a “serious” album but it still feels like a parody? I guess that is the Comedian’s Curse— even when they are trying to be sincere there is still a sense of holding back. Only the last song moved me bc of Weyes Blood’s melancholy vocals and slide guitar. https://timheidecker.bandcamp.com/album/fear-of-death
- Sufjan Stevens, “A Sun Came” (1999) Embryonic Sufjan! It’s all here- the oboe solos, Christianity & Greek mythology, and a dozen other musical styles which he would soon abandon, including free jazz and grunge. I was excited to hear it all as a huge fan, & it’s better than just an early curiosity. https://music.sufjan.com/album/a-sun-came
- Open Mike Eagle, “Anime, Trauma and Divorce” (2020) another brilliant album from Open Mike Eagle! He captures what it’s really like to try and pick yourself up after having your life shaken to its core, and he does it with honesty, humor, and grace. https://openmikeeagle.bandcamp.com/album/anime-trauma-and-divorce
- Magnetic Fields, “The Charm of the Highway Strip” (1994) feels a bit slight compared to the albums that followed, but even mid-tier Magnetic Fields is pretty damn great, and you can always count on them for a fantastic song about the moon. https://themagneticfields.bandcamp.com/album/the-charm-of-the-highway-strip
- Miles Davis, “On the Corner” (1972) pulled me in right away! It’s skronky, raucous, and very danceable thanks to the pulsing (proto)disco beat and forays into Afro-Latin and Indian percussion. I can hear the influence this must have had on No-wave about a decade later! https://www.milesdavis.com/albums/on-the-corner/
- Alice Coltrane feat. Pharoah Sanders, “Journey in Satchidananda” (1971) is some of the most gorgeous, heavenly music I have ever heard in my life. What took me so long to listen to this??!?!? I wish this album would go on forever so I could keep on hearing it for the first time. https://www.alicecoltrane.com/journey-in-satchidananda
- Bob Dylan, “Under the Red Sky” (1990) The album cover says it all. I was hoping to find something to like here, but nahh. Every song plodded on for what felt like 20 min. You can tell he really needed a break. For completists only. Everyone else skip ahead to Time Out of Mind. https://music.apple.com/us/album/under-the-red-sky-remastered/717157868?app=itunes
- Mogwai, “Young Team” (1997) I made the mistake of trying to listen while sitting upright at my desk at first, but this is dreamy music that only makes sense while you’re sinking into your in bed in the dark, staring up at the ceiling (or even better, stars) Then it’s perfect. https://mogwai.bandcamp.com/album/young-team-deluxe-edition-digital-album
- Dead Can Dance, “Into the Labyrinth” (1993) 1st thought: whoa it’s the Myst soundtracks! I could go on about the common threads of early musical traditions (drone, chants, reed pipes, melismatic singing etc) or I could just call it sexy cathedral music. Either way it was groovy. https://shopusa.4ad.com/into-the-labyrinth
- Robert Glasper Experiment, “Black Radio” (2012) is a mostly mellow blend of jazz, hip hop, and neo soul with about half the Soulquarians on guest vocals, so ofc it sent me straight to my late-90s r&b comfort zone. Ends with a Smells Like Teen Spirit cover for good measure! https://bluenote.lnk.to/GlasperBlackRadio
- Georgia Anne Muldrow, “Seeds” (2012) Freewheeling 70s-influenced r&b, in both sound and the new-agey lyrics. I can hear the comparison to Roberta Flack that I’ve read in a few places. This is the kind of music I can’t fully appreciate until it’s at least 70° outside. https://fuzzoscope.bandcamp.com/album/seeds
- Tierra Whack/Whack World (2018) WOW! 15 minutes, 15 songs, 15 voices, 15 alter egos. If you’re feeling jaded, put this on now! It will make you feel excited about the strange possibilities of art, music, and life again! Must watch the video first: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOTebhPy04g
- Black Dresses/Peaceful as Hell (2020) The dense noisy textures of WASTEISOLATION are toned down here (but not too much!) which allows so many great things to emerge, like catchier melodies and some of the sharpest songwriting i’ve heard in years. Fav. track so far: IM A FREAK CUZ IM ALWAYS FREAKED OUT https://blackdresses.bandcamp.com/album/peaceful-as-hell
- Bo Diddley, “The Black Gladiator” (1970) Bo Diddley’s psychedelic album, where he starts out teaching you how to build an elephant and ends belting out an aria. Sounds like it was recorded at some sweaty outdoor festival in the middle of the summer, so it’s a good cure for the Feb. funk. https://www.discogs.com/Bo-Diddley-The-Black-Gladiator/master/185884
- Iannis Xenakis, “Pleiades” performed by Kroumata Percussion Ensemble (1990) Clattering, violent but also hypnotic composition. I’m not surprised to hear an influence of gamelan ensembles here, esp. in “Metaux”— that music has always felt very cosmic to me. https://music.apple.com/us/album/xenakis-pleiades-psappha/331779181
- Neil Young, “Trans” (1982) Neil Young does Kraftwerk! I love it! His clear falsetto is really well suited for this kind of music and all its vocal effects, but the album is still such an endearingly awkward fit. So much fun! Can’t wait to play “Computer Cowboy” at a real party someday! https://www.discogs.com/Neil-Young-Trans/master/38685
- Anderson .Paak, “Ventura” (2019) Better than Oxnard, doesn’t reach the heights of Malibu, but that album is hard to beat! Still a fun, breezy pop album, just right for riding around in a convertible or any fast moving vehicle. Fav. track: Jet Black (feat. Brandy!) https://music.apple.com/us/album/ventura/1456218234
- Adrianne Lenker, “songs” (2020) is mossy, green springtime melancholy, enhanced by ambient sounds of chimes, rain and birds chirping. Her voice is how i imagine a dryad would sound. I know i’m making it sound twee but trust me, it isn’t! Fav. tracks: ingydar, zombie girl https://adriannelenker.bandcamp.com/album/songs
- Leonard Warren, baritone; Morris Levine, conductor, “Sea Shanties” (1948) some of the arrangements are a bit cutesy but it’s easy to imagine them in a movie musical of the time. And Warren’s voice is what it’s all about here. Fav. track: Haul-a-way, Joe https://archive.org/details/78_rio-grande_leonard-warren-tom-scott-morris-levine_gbia0036362
Last year’s reviews.