1. Dawn Richard - Goldenheart
Even though there's a lot of 'alt' and 'indie' and 'ethereal' R&B getting lumped together these days, I really appreciate that the best artists are creating their own unique aesthetic, and Dawn Richard's theatrical battle cry dance ballads are a beautiful example of that. Her voice is kind of this throughline that lets you trace the emotional thread through this whole variety of sounds that Druski shuffles through, so you don't even realize how omnivorous it all is. I liked how the Armor On EP was basically a classic vinyl-length album, and functioned well in that way, but I think Dawn's aesthetic lends itself well to sprawl, as evidenced by Last Train To Paris. So this album being over an hour long, which is usually the kind of thing I consider an instant negative in assessing most albums, works for me here. It takes a good long while to warm up -- almost all my favorite songs so far are in the second half, especially "Tug of War" -- but her vibe is already epic, so she may as well make an epic. By the way I've got a running Spotify playlist of 2013 albums I've been listening to, but it's littered with albums that didn't make the cut for these lists and things I haven't listened to yet, not quite the same thing as my singles playlist.

2. Tegan And Sara - Heartthrob
Like a lot of people I'm only just really seriously checking out Tegan And Sara for the first time with this album, maybe because it's kinda their pop crossover, maybe just as a tipping point for the cult popularity they've had for a while. But I was mainly interested because it was produced by Greg Kurstin, who's a pretty interesting figure to me right now, a guy straddling the lines between Top 40 radio and the major label alt world, at a time when they've never been more intertwined. Also, he's just got a great ear, and this stuff is equal to his best work with The Bird & The Bee or on the last Pink album. Their voices on the old stuff could be a little hard for me to take, but they sound great in this sparkly synth pop context, like Cyndi Lauper or something. "Love They Say" is the shit.

3. The Joy Formidable - Wolf's Law
The Big Roar was my #1 album of 2011, but it was the kind of debut album that presented a band as this awesome, fully formed thing that didn't necessarily need to be expanded on, or even seemingly leave much room to grow. But this is a really killer second album, that keeps the distortion pedals loud without painting the band further into a 'shoegazer' retro corner, with all these impish playful elements (the piano on "The Leopard And The Lung," the goofy wah-wah on "Maw Maw Song") that give the band more personality while also sounding great and demonstrating their range. I do wish this album had a perfect entry point single like "Whirring," though, if for no reason than that this is the band I wish more than any other right now to be hugely commercially successful.

4. Mr. Moccasin - XAHA
These guys are from Baltimore and I know one of them, Greg, whose other project Heart of Hearts I wrote about here a while back. They're a pretty interesting band, I don't really know where they're coming from with musical influences or what the backstory or subtext of the songs is, and I kind of don't feel like I need to because I just love the sound of it. "Blue Light" and "Tall Tales" are a great 1-2 toward the end of the album.

5. DJ AngelBaby - Get Pumped Vol. 1
I already wrote about this a couple months ago, but I don't know if I really got across how fun it is, really lotta great Baltimore club jams on here.

6. Il Sogno del Marinaio - La Busta Gialla
Mike Watt is one of my all-time musical heroes, and I feel like the existence of this album is a good example of how awesome he is: he met guys in Italy while on tour years ago, kept in touch, and when they asked him to do a tour with them, he suggested they write the material for the tour in a week of practice and then record an album of the songs. I enjoyed Watt's solo album and possibly overrated
"Partisan Song" and "Funanori Jig"

7. Petra Haden - Petra Goes To The Movies
Petra has done several memorable a cappella covers now (including all of The Who Sells Out, as suggested by Mike Watt!), and at this point I kind of think the joke is getting a little old and it's a shame that someone so talented gets so much more attention for covers than for originals. But this is still a pretty fun, trippy listening experience, and this time she actually allows some instrumental accompaniment, although it's still mostly her amazingly elastic voice making most of the sounds. I like that the selection is very diverse -- some songs, some instrumental scores, some very famous, some totally unfamiliar to me. "Calling You" from Bagdad Cafe is a pretty amazing song I discovered from this album. There's also a hilariously well done version of one of the instrumental tracks from Trent Reznor's Social Network score. At the very least, better than the months other covers record from a Nels Cline collaborator (the new EP from Eleni Mandell's The Living Sisters).

8. Gary Allan - Set Me Free
This guy does good grizzled heartbroken country, first album of his that I've heard so I don't know how it stacks up, but I like it. The second half is what's been really hitting more immediate for me, especially the whole stretch from "Hungover Heart" to "Pieces."

9. Future & FreeBand Gang - Future Presents F.B.G. The Movie
Obviously Future is having a great moment right now, and this mixtape is well-timed. But it also feels like kind of a deliberate stopgap project, showcasing his label roster more than anything else, so I don't think of it in terms of comparing to Pluto or even Astronaut Status. Still, there are a few pretty huge, undeniable Future records in here, and only a few dead zones like terrible Casino verses. And the tape exists as a nice aggressive counterpoint to all his R&B collabs on the radio right now, a reminder of what most of his music actually sound like. The solo tape that Young Scooter from FreeBandz also dropped in January seems to be more well regarded than this, but that guy just sounds like a Gucci Mane impersonator to me, makes everything he does kind of unexciting. Of course, this also ends with a track with a couple Baltimore dudes on it, which is cool.

10. Charlie Wilson - Love, Charlie
I always feel like I should know more of Charlie Wilson's music, especially because I got to interview the man once, and this is pretty good, obviously doesn't have much Gap Band funk (and the one track that does, "My Baby," has some cheesy backing vocals), but his amazing voice is in good form and he's got at these regal ballads and celebratory love songs. "Turn Off The Lights" is my favorite off this one.

Worst Album of the Month: A$AP Rocky - LONG.LIVE.A$AP
I'm not averse to rap albums that have more of a vision in the production than in the rapping -- I just praised the Wiz Khalifa record on those very terms -- but this aesthetics-over-everything philosophy that A$AP epitomizes is just a bad look. He's just the most loathsomely vacant dude, hasn't written a hot line in his life, and the beats aren't even that great. The bonus track with Gunplay is dope, at least.

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 10, 2013 at 1:45 PM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.