This year, I will try to write a short post somewhere near the beginning of every month that highlights the albums I added to my music library the previous month.
The debut post for this series is (typically) late, but it’s not like the post changes because it’s late. Regardless of what day it is today, January still ended on January 31st, so this list does too.
All told, I added 11 albums to the library last month. Here they are, in reverse order of preference:
11. the record, by boygenius
Winning Best Alternative Music Album and Best Rock Song from the Recording Academy, boygenius’s the record was also nominated for Best Album of the Year and Best Engineered Album – Non-Classical, and includes songs nominated for Record of the Year, Best Rock Performance, and Best Alternative Performance.
And yet, I’m ranking it #11 out of 11 in the albums I added to my library in January. To be fair, the singing of the three talented women on this album — Phoebe Bridgers, Julien Baker, and Lucy Dacus — is gorgeous, the songwriting is top-notch, and the instrumentation creates exactly the right mood for each song.
I’m only ranking it #11 because the moods they create on the record are not moods I often want to find myself in. They are mostly dreamy, mellow, and folky…all good things, just not particularly my things.
**UPDATE: 2/22/24**
I’m an idiot.
I was able to take a couple of long-ish car rides over the past week or two and really listen to this album the whole way through without distractions. It’s sooooo good.
Yes, it’s mostly dreamy, mellow, and folky, but there are some real rockers too — and it has one of the most mind-worming lines I’ve heard in a while (“In another life, we were arsonists!”) — and, frankly, I’m madly in love with this album now. It deserves all the accolades it has received. If you haven’t listened to it yet, get it, get in a car, and drive.
10. The Lost Mystique of Being in the Know, by Rising Appalachia
Recommended by my brother-in-law, Rising Appalachia offers an intriguing form of multi-instrumental Appalachian folk music by two sisters with beautiful, sultry voices, Leah Song and Chloe Smith, each of whom is gifted on a wide variety of instruments, from banjos and fiddles to percussion and didgeredoos.
The predominance of female voices in generally mellow moods naturally compares to boygenius, but the world-music influence in Rising Appalachia’s sound makes it much more intriguing to my ear. The albums’ instrumental tracks, such as “Ngoni” and “Tempest,” have also found their way onto my “Writing Tunes” playlist (which is where at least half of all the music I listen to each month is played).
If you enjoy The Be Good Tanyas, Iron & Wine, or Paul Simon’s more mellow stuff, I think you’ll enjoy Rising Appalachia.
9. Highway Butterfly: The Songs of Neal Casal, by Various Artists
You probably don’t know Neal Casal. Before hearing him play with Circles Around the Sun, I hadn’t either, even though I’d heard his guitar on albums from Todd Snyder’s rock band, Hard Working American, and with the Chris Robinson Brotherhood.
His work with Circles Around the Sun catapulted him into my consciousness, however. The band formed after Justin Kreutzmann, son of the Grateful Dead drummer, Bill Kreautzmann, hired Casal to compose the intermission music for the Dead’s (never gonna happen) final tour, Fare Thee Well. He found the guys in the rest of the band and record five hours of jams. Well, it turned out people really enjoyed the intermission music, and they received an offer from a label to make an album: Interludes for the Dead.
I’d love to say, “And they all lived happily ever after,” but on August 26, 2019, Neal Casal died by suicide at the age of 50. He played at the Lockn’ Festival the night before with Oteil & Friends, his last performance before taking his life.
Following his death, 130 musicians came together to record 41 of his tunes, a fitting tribute to this underground influence. Proceeds from the album, and a live concert, provide instruments and music lessons to students from New Jersey and New York state schools, as well as to mental health supports for musicians.
The album contains performances by artists such as Marcus King, Billy Strings, Circles Around the Sun, Hiss Golden Messenger, Jimmy Herring, Phil Lesh & The Terrapin Family Band, Susand Tedeshi & Derek Trucks, Oteil Burbridge, Steve Kimock, Duane Trucks, Bob Weir, Dave Schools, Warren Haynes, Steve Earle, Joe Russo, and the Allman Betts Band.
Not every song is a winner on this 3-CD set, but if you’ve never heard of Neal Casal, it’s a decent look at the influence this incredible guitarist had on his community.
8. Equalizer, by Tauk
A regular on the jam band circuit, Tauk fuses jazz, funk, prog rock, and instrumental jams featuring guitar, keyboards, bass, and drums. I defy you to listen to these folks and not nod your head.
I’ve ranked it #8 for the month because, while I enjoy it, it doesn’t break any new ground for the band. You could intermix this album with 2014’s Collisisions and not know which song belongs on which album.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing. After all, I dig their sound. I just happen to tend towards seeking out what’s new.
7. We Are Sent Here by History, by Shabaka & The Ancestors
A few years ago, I fell in love with the album Your Queen is a Reptile by Sons of Kemet, a UK-based jazz band with musicians from all around the world. The group was led by Shabaka Hutchings, a saxophonist, clarinetist, and composer from the Carribean.
Your Queen is a Reptile is a powerful album, with each song named after a black female leader (e.g., “My Queen is Harrient Tubman,” “My Queen is Angela Davis,” and “My Queen is Nanny of the Maroons” — taken together, the list of titles is a fantastic curriculm for Black History Month).
That sense of power, pride, and history follows Hutchings to this album, Shabaka & The Ancestors’ We Are Sent Here By History, an octet comprised of Hutchings and seven South African musicians, fusing African influences into modern jazz modalities. The saxophone matches with jungle calls, vocal chants, dazzling piano and drums, oaths, prayers, lectures, and song, leading to soul stirring crescendos that connect even this white man to black history.
6. Uncle John’s Band, by John Scofield, Vicente Archer, & Bill Stewart
Do you like smooth electric guitar played with a sharp focus that is influenced by everything from rock to jazz? Can you imagine that guitar, accompanied by bass and drums, performing instrumental interpretations of classics such as Dylan’s “Mr. Tambourine Man,” Neil Young’s “Old Man,” Leonard Bernstein’s and Steven Sondheim’s “Somewhere,” Miles Davis’s and Bud Powell’s “Budo,” and the Grateful Dead’s “Uncle John’s Band,” with original songs interspersed between?
This is a rainy day album, but not a sad day album. It rewards focused listening, but allows itself to become background music, the familiarity of the classics calling back your attention in between incredible flights of jazz fancy.
5. Odd Times, by lespecial
Recommended by my drummer brother-in-law, Odd Times is an interesting mix of heavy rock played with a jam band’s sensibility. The introductory notes on the album opener, “Lungs of the Planet,” followed by the driving drums and guitars, will have you think you’re listening to a band that would put three skulls on the cover of their album (which indeed, you would be).
But about two minutes into the tune, everything slows down and we get this haunting voice singing about how “the lungs of the planet are currently burning” and “leaders ignoring the man in the conference hall,” and you look at the album covers burning forest on the left, healthy forest on the right, clock in the center, and the skulls dripping oil onto a flat plate.
“The fungal species / and old growth we must protect. / It is a matter of national defense. / We have enough here / to feed and clothe everyone. / Harness vibration, / achieve equilibrium.”
And you realize you’re listening to a bunch of tree-hugging hippies who are rightfully angry, and they’ve discovered a fantastic blend of metal and jam to convey the complexity of hope and despair in the 21st century. They call their genre “.”
That’s just the opening tune. But have no fear: the rest of the songs from this prog-tronic power trio will not disappoint.
If you dig Primus, I think you’ll dig lespecial.
4. Wood / Metal / Plastic / Pattern / Rhythm / Rock by 75 Dollar Bill
This 2016 album, created by the duo of Che Chen and Rick Brown, is a mood that contains everything in its title. It is instrumental music comprised of wood, metal, plastic, pattern, rhythm, and rock. The percussionist generally uses a wooden box. The guitarist drones in a West African kind of way. It presents world music through a brain that seems in the grip of a fever dream while simultaneously tripping on acid, all while sitting in their tent in a dark African jungle, with the cacophanous song of insects chirping mixing with the urban sounds of car alarms and street musicians.
It’s freaking glorious. Half the time you don’t know what instruments you’re listening to. Is that a guitar or an electric violin? Are those horns or a bow drawn across a cello hooked into a sythesizer? What the hell is happening? And why do I love it?!
3. Power Failures, by 75 Dollar Bill
Remember how I said above that you could interweave tracks from Tauk’s 2014 and 2023 albums and not be able to tell the difference?
Well, you could try that with 75 Dollar Bill’s 2016 and 2020 albums, and while you wouldn’t doubt that they came from the same band, 2020’s Power Failures feels more mature, with the sounds layered on top of one another in a strategic manner rather than dropped atop one another like aural pick-up sticks. The songs seem like they know where they’re going more than their predecessors, even if, in reality, they did not.
The album is a collection of rehearsals and jams for a 2019 tour that was cut short by the pandemic. The duo are joined by guests such as Yo La Tengo’s Ira Kaplan, but they remain true to themselves here.
The Guardian described the sound of 75 Dollar Bill as “placeless, gripping grooves,” and I don’t think I can improve on that description.
2. Trust in the Lifeforce of Deep Mystery, by The Comet Is Coming
In an interview with M magazine, one of the founders of The Comet is Coming, the drummer of the band, who goes by the name “Betamax,” explained how the band came together.
Me and Danalogue the Conqueror play as a psychedelic electro synths and live drums duo called Soccer96. We began to notice a tall shadowy figure present at some of our gigs. At some point, he appeared at the side of the stage with his sax in hand. When he got up on stage to play with us, it created an explosive shockwave of energy that stunned us all. A couple of weeks later King Shabaka rang me up and said, ‘Hey, let’s make a record.’
“King Shabaka?!” you say. “As in Shabaka Hutchings of Shabaka & the Ancestors? The band you mentioned above?”
That’s right! Way to pay attention! You win a cookie!
I actually found my way to Shabaka & The Ancestors after falling head over heels for The Comet is Coming.
If Shabaka & The Ancestors and Sons of Kemet highlight Hutchings’ incredible ability to channel African history through his saxophone, The Comet is Coming gives him an outlet for getting butts out of seats and onto the dance floor.
Despite its ability to shape compelling dance grooves from heavy synths, tight drums, and repetitive horns, The Comet is Coming is not just a dance party. There’s a message there if you have the ears to hear. As the poet Kae Tempest recites over their instruments, “There is a scar on the soul of the world and it needs you to look.”
1. Hyper-Dimensional Expansion Beam, by The Comet is Comin
Once again, I defy you to interweave 2019’s Trust in the Lifeforce… and 2022’s Hyper-Dimensional… and not tell the difference. It had only been three years between the two albums, but Hyper-Dimensional… feels more “of this time.”
It’s probably because the electronic elements are out in full force here, making the whole thing feel more modern, as does the way the sound of King Shabaka’s horn seems to fill the entire recording studio. If 75 Dollar Bill is “placeless, gripping grooves,” Hyper-Dimensional… is very much place-based, except that its place is between the wires and in the infinite expanse of the aethernet.
The last four albums have been essentially the soundtrack of my writing life for the past month, but it’s this album that often forces me to stop typing, nod my head, and just listen.
I never regret it.