Monthly Report: September 2020 Albums
1. All Them Witches - Nothing As The Ideal
The Nashville band All Them Witches hit a lot of my sweet spots of heavy blues rock and psychedelia and other '60s/'70s influences that I don't always necessary want to hear a modern band put their spin on unless the playing and production are really at a high level. And their 6th studio album, recorded at Abbey Road, captures their sound perhaps more fully than ever, just hearing the guitar tone on the quiet first couple minutes of the album before the drums kicked in got me excited for what was to follow. "The Children of Coyote Woman" is a sequel to a couple songs from an earlier album ("The Marriage of Coyote Woman" and "The Death of Coyote Woman" from 2013's Lightning At The Door) that indicates some intriguing larger mythology here. But mostly I just love the sound and mood of what these guys are doing, drummer Robby Staebler has a great relaxed feel and hits one or two killer drum solos on here. Here's the 2020 albums Spotify playlist I fill with every new release I check out this year.
2. MAX - Colour Vision
Over the past couple years, I've kind of filed Max Schneider, better known as MAX, under the category of white or ethnically ambiguous male artists on Top 40 radio like Lauv and Bazzi and Bryce Vine who I jokingly dismiss as 'frat R&B' for coming off like the singing counterparts to dorky white rappers like Hoodie Allen and Gnash (who guested on MAX's first two charting singles, respectively). So I wasn't expecting much when I put on MAX's debut full-length, and it really impressed me, the guy can really sing and the production is varied and interesting, the title track in particular just sounds epic. It kind of reminds me of where Bruno Mars was at circa Unorthodox Jukebox, and also Patrick Stump's solo album, which I guess makes sense since MAX was briefly signed to DCD2 earlier in his career.
3. Thurston Moore - By The Fire
The past 12 months have brought great new albums from Lee Ranaldo and Kim Gordon that really took them further from the traditional Sonic Youth sound in interesting ways that involved samples and loops. But the other half of the band, Thurston Moore and Steve Shelley, have continued making a lot of music in the last few years in more of a classic SY mold, which I didn't think I'd find interesting right now, but I really like By The Fire. It really might be my favorite song-driven Moore solo album since Psychic Hearts. 4 of the songs run over 10 minutes, and the whole thing is just really varied and expansive, kind of in the vein of last year's sprawling 2-hour instrumental album Spirit Counsel but with the addition of vocals. The first half of the album is mellow and melodic in the vein of Sonic Youth's post-2000 albums, but then "Locomotive" and "Venus" really give me some Confusion Is Sex vibes, which is great and a little unexpected.
4. Shy Glizzy - Young Jefe 3
Another great entry in what is at this point probably one of the best mixtape series going. "Top Floor" and "Slide Over" are up to the standard of his previous songs produced by Zaytoven, and "Feel The Vibe" is really an ideal Shy Glizzy/Meek Mill record. The song with Jeremih and Ty Dolla Sign has been sounding good on the radio in D.C., too.
5. Fletcher - The S(ex) Tapes EP
Cari Fletcher is one of the more promising pop singers on the cusp of stardom lately, most of her stuff is sad sultry breakup songs produced by Frank Ocean's main collaborator Malay. I particularly like the really bass-heavy cuts on here like "Silence" and "The One" but the whole thing is good, hopefully she has a full-length on the way.
6. Semisonic - You're Not Alone EP
I always really liked Semisonic, especially The Great Divide, but I never even totally get sick of "Closing Time," and have been happy to see Dan Wilson go onto a highly successful songwriting career. But hearing the band back together and making songs much like they made in the '90s really scratches a nice itch, "Lightning" in particular has a certain guitar tone that I really missed.
7. Height Keech - Wild Height Keech
I really find it inspiring how unceasingly prolific Heightman is, he's always out there plugging away and expanding on his unique style of hip hop. Last year's Raw Routes was one of his best albums ever and this is a solid follow-up, "This Brutal World Is The Only World There Is" with Jenn Wasner from Wye Oak is a pretty amazing song.
8. Sault - Untitled (Rise)
I always kind of roll my eyes when the music press starts breathlessly covering a 'mysterious collective,' but I actually heard about this album from a co-worker, and it is pretty good. I particularly like the strings on "Street Fighter."
9. various artists - Angelheaded Hipster: The Songs of Marc Bolan and T. Rex
All-star tribute albums can be kind of a dull obligatory music industry ritual, but Hal Willner was regarded as possessing the unique skill set to assemble some of the rare worthwhile tribute albums, and this sprawling double album of T. Rex covers was the last big project Willner finished before COVID-19 took his life in April. So Angelheaded Hipster feels like a testament to both Bolan's genius and Willner's genius, with a wide range of artists that really demonstrate how far Bolan's influence reaches, with big rock stars like U2 and Joan Jett doing the big T. Rex glam rock hits and Devendra Banhart and Maria McKee and ohters taking on the Tyrannosaurus Rex-era folky '60s material. Most of these songs were really fresh in my mind from making my T. Rex deep cuts playlist, so I really enjoyed hearing these, even if the covers are largely close to the originals, aside from some subtle reinventions like Nick Cave's "Cosmic Dancer" -- Perry Farrell gets credit for the most spot-on Bolan impression on "Rock On." But I'm shocked nobody took a pass at one of T. Rex's best and most widely covered songs, "20th Century Boy."
10. Joe Wong - Night Creatures
I still think of Joe Wong as the drummer on Parts & Labor's later albums, including the excellent Receivers, but he's had a pretty interesting career since then, composing scores for film and television, and interviewing tons of famous drummers on his podcast The Trap Set. Nite Creatures, his first proper solo album, is produced by Mary Timony and is a really impressive psych rock album with a 24-piece orchestra, and he's a got a really soothing deep singing voice and some interesting arrangements.
The Worst Album of the Month: Machine Gun Kelly - Tickets To My Downfall
Almost every successful white rapper has some roots in rock music, and sometimes exploring those roots is fun and illuminating, like Post Malone's deep cut-heavy Nirvana covers set earlier this year. And C-list rapper Machine Gun Kelly, who has seemed to fall upwards for his entire career, has seemingly stumbled into an unlikely triumph with his first rock album: it's his first #1 on the album charts, and the first #1 in 12 years for Bad Boy Records, where MGK is bizarrely the only artist besides Diddy to have released 5 albums on the label. Unfortunately, it really sucks, with MGK never dropping his tough guy rapper voice enough to even sing well by pop punk standards, and perennial rap/rock fusion go-to guy Travis Barker keeps things slick and professional enough that MGK's charmless songs somehow sound worse than they would with raw lo-fi production. Halsey, who once referenced Blink 182 on a #1 pop hit, guests on "Forget Me Too," and hearing her belt out over power chords and Barker drums is the only real high point of the album. I'm no fan of Lil Wayne's Rebirth, but it at least felt like a far more interesting curio.
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