Monthly Report: June 2020 Albums
1. Hellbound Glory - Pure Scum
Reno, Nevada singer-songwriter Leroy Virgil has been plumbing a particular vein of debauched and depraved country and roots rock since Hellbound Glory's 2008 debut Scumbag Country, and he's still finding enough inspiration that he just got around to writing the inevitable song titled "Renowhere." Pure Scum is produced by second generation outlaw country star Shooter Jennings and it's Hellbound Glory's third album for Shooter's Black Country Rock label, and strikes hits a nice balance between wild-eyed songs like "DUIORDIE" and wounded ballads like "Someone To Use." The best song, "Dial 911" ends with a stabbing victim pleading, "darling if you love me, dial 911," followed by the sound of a heartbeat slowing down and flatlining. Here's the 2020 albums Spotify playlist I put every new album I've been listening to in.
2. Coriky - Coriky
I kind of rolled my eyes a couple years ago when people excitedly talked about the new group featuring 'half of Fugazi' after Ian MacKaye, Joe Lally, and Amy Farina started playing out a trio. After all, anyone who's heard MacKaye and Farina's 3 albums as The Evens can attest, they make good music together, but you're better off checking your expectations at the door as far as comparing it to Fugazi (same goes for Lally's solo work). Just last year, the owner of several Washington sports teams offered a large sum of money for a Fugazi reunion, which I think makes it even less likely than before that one will ever happen. That said, the Coriky album has quite a few moments that are louder than anything on the Evens records and give me a little bit of a Fugazi feeling, and the presence of Lally filling out the rhythm section gives MacKaye a little more room to cut loose and play noisy solos on "Say Yes" and "Shedileebop," which are probably my favorite moments on the album. And Farina's more bombastic drumming reminds me of her performances on Ted Leo's Treble In Trouble EP that I've long been a big fan of. And I dig the way the three of them trade off on lead vocals and sing harmonies.
3. Bob Dylan - Rough And Rowdy Ways
The first three songs on Rough And Rowdy Ways, Bob Dylan's first collection of new songs in 8 years, contain dozens and dozens of first person statements starting with the word "I," many of them florid and humorous boasts, particularly on the first two songs. It struck me as an interesting turn from somebody who has resisted embracing his own mythology or autobiographical readings of his lyrics for many decades. There's also an ambitious 17-minute song about American history since the JFK assassination, and a 9-minute song that appears to be about little more than Key West being a lovely place. I spent a lot the last couple months working on two pieces about Bob Dylan and listening to the first 15 years of his career. But I'm not really someone who hangs on Dylan's every word, particularly after the '70s, and I was a little surprised by how entertained I was by the lyrics on Rough And Rowdy Ways.
4. Chloe x Halle - Ungodly Hour
Chloe and Halle Bailey (will they drop the trendy "x" someday? I can only hope) came into the public eye as one of the first acts signed to Parkwood Entertainment, talented teenagers with an auspicious stamp of approval from Beyonce herself. And up to this point it feels like their music career has proceeded at an unhurried pace, with arty and often self-produced music with stated influences like Billie Holiday and Bjork that doesn't seem aimed at the charts, while they've booked TV and film gigs that have kept their public profile steadily rising. And Ungodly Hour feels like the point where they officially declare themselves ready to play the game and be on the radio with the lead single "Do It," but it feels like they found their own path to it, it's not too forced or removed from their earlier stuff. Right now "Busy Boy" and "Don't Make It Harder On Me" are my favorites but the whole thing hangs together pretty well.
5. Pale Spring - Dusk
I was happy to see L.A. via Baltimore transplant Emily Harper Scott follow up her full-length debut barely a year after 2019's Cygnus, it feels like she's really building up some well deserved career momentum with these records. My early impression of Dusk is that it's more synth-based and less guitar-based than her first album, and has this placid soothing exterior with these dark unsettling feelings and melodies kind of pushing up from under the surface. Right now "Bruise" is my favorite track, it has this very subtle Baltimore club-ish pulse to it
6. Norah Jones - Pick Me Up Off The Floor
About 15-20 years ago, Norah Jones sold tens of millions of albums of pretty and soothing jazz ballads, mostly covers and standards. And to her credit, she seems to have taken that enormous and unusual success as license to make a really wide variety of music with a wide variety of collaborators and find a more idiosyncratic voice as a songwriter. Last year's 7-song quickie To Begin Again really impressed me and Pick Me Up The Floor feels like an expansion on that vibe, still built around her piano and smoky voice but pushed into some more unusual shapes. "Hearts To Be Alone" as a tricky 9/8 meter that I adore listening to, and "Heartbroken, Day After" has a nice little nod to one of my favorite Willie Nelson deep cuts, "Hands On The Wheel."
7. City Girls - City On Lock
It was pretty impressive that City Girls' career flourished pretty well during the 18 months that the more talented half of the duo was in prison. And I think they stepped up from their previous releases, but I almost just want a JT solo project at this point, I get stressed out hearing Yung Miami's flow careen completely off the beat
8. Mt. Joy - Rearrange Us
For the last few months, it seemed like almost every time I asked my wife what music she was listening to, the reply would be "Mt. Joy." So I was curious to check out their new record, and I'm really enjoying it. There's some very pretty folky acoustic stuff but I like the more fleshed out songs with electric piano like "Rearrange Us" and "Death" the most.
9. various artists - Saving For A Custom Van
Father/Daughter Records released this Adam Schlesinger tribute album just 2 months after COVID-19 took Schlesinger's life. And I imagine it wasn't hard to find 31 artists, including Ted Leo and Nada Surf and Tanya Donelly, to cover his songs, he wrote so many good ones. But I especially like that they didn't limit the selections to Fountains Of Wayne, there's stuff from Ivy and "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" and Josie And The Pussycats and of course That Thing You Do! and other projects. I really binged on FOW when I made my deep cuts playlist and it's great to hear some of those songs covered, Suzy Shinn and Charlie Brand do a great job with my favorite, "All Kinds of Time." Sales of this album go to MusiCares' COVID-19 Relief Fund, so buy it.
10. Bad Moves - Untenable
The Washington, D.C. band Bad Moves released a single ahead of their 2nd album that caught my eye because of the title -- "Cape Henlopen" is named after a part of Delaware where I grew up (I graduated from Cape Henlopen High School). And now that the album's here, I think that's still my favorite song on the record, but the whole thing is a nice punky indie pop record, I'm partial to the more rocking stuff like "Fog Is A Funny Thing."
The Worst Album of the Month: RMR - Drug Dealing Is A Lost Art EP
In February, an unknown guy in a ski mask went viral with a video where he sang a Rascal Flatts ballad with gangsta rap lyrics, and four months later he's got a major label project out with features from Future, Lil Baby, Young Thug, and Westside Gunn. I think everyone involved in this must be pretty thirsty to be in on the ground floor of the next Lil Nas X-style country rap novelty. I can't stand the guy's voice, he sounds like Pleasure P from Pretty Ricky singing about trapping. The worst song is "I'm Not Over You" produced by Timbaland, which is really uninspired compared to Tim's country rap stuff for Bubba Sparxxx.
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, July 08, 2020 at 10:28 AM.
You can skip to the end and leave a response.
Post a Comment