Monthly Report: August 2023 Albums
1. Victoria Monet - Jaguar II
It's kind of cool to think that one of this year's breakout R&B stars is a thirtysomething mom who's spent a decade co-writing hits for other artists (including some Ariana Grande #1s). And it feels like Victoria Monet put in the work to get to this moment and is ready for it, the production values on her albums, shows, and videos are all stellar, and she makes opulently sexy music that melds modern sounds and retro influences pretty gracefully. Someone on Twitter tried to score points off Silk Sonic by comparison their album unfavorably to Jaguar II in terms of their respective approaches to '70s soul, but as many people pointed out, both albums are produced by D'Mile, who's on an incredible run these days and definitely has done some of his best work on here, the horns in particular are awesome. Other than the singles that I've been enjoying all summer, my favorites on Jaguar II so far are "How Does It Make You Feel" and "Good Bye." Here's the 2023 albums Spotify playlist with everything I've been listening to this year.
2. Margaret Glaspy - Echo The Diamond
Apparently Margaret Glaspy's first two albums got a fair amount of press, but I wasn't familiar until her third album was recently released and a couple of the freeform/adult alternative radio stations I listen to played the single "Act Natural." This record has a very clear, sparse sound to it, the drums have some nice forward momentum, the guitars are lightly sludgy, and she has this voice that cuts through the track, I particularly like "Irish Goodbye" and "The Hammer And The Nail."
3. Renee Rapp - Snow Angel
Renee Rapp is great in her role on "The Sex Lives of College Girls," and it bummed me out a little to hear that she decided to leave the show and will be only in the third season a little bit. I kinda wish she waited until a little further along in her music career to sideline her TV career -- even Donald Glover had some Hot 100 hits under his best before he left "Community" -- but she's a great singer and I'm really enjoying her full-length debut. Rapp's primary collaborator on Snow Angel is Alexander 23, who co-produced Olivia Rodrigo's "Good 4 U," and some of the album has a bit of that same funny oversharing pop/rock vibe, particularly the opening track "Talk Too Much," but there's a nice range of sounds and tempos and some very memorable, unexpected lyrics on "Tummy Hurts" and "Poison Poison."
4. Morgan Wade - Psychopath
Nashville has such a set system that it's rare that a major label will sign a country singer and re-release their independent album, but Morgan Wade's 2021 album Reckless did so well that it got reissued by Arista Nashville last year. And her first album recorded for Arista, Psychopath, is excellent, she really knows how to write a hook and the production by Jason Isbell sideman Sadler Vaden has a nice mix of grit and polish, my favorite song so far is "Losers Look Like Me" and "Want."
5. Zach Bryan - Zach Bryan
Zach Bryan is another country singer who seemed to build his audience independently so well that he's really cutting his own unique path as a major label artist, beginning with last year's gargantuan 34-song American Heartbreak and a minor radio hit, "Something In The Orange," that sounded unlike anything else on country stations. Bryan's follow-up album is half as long, but it's self-titled and self-produced and feels just as ambitious, in some ways more wide-ranging. The collaborations with The Lumineers and Kacey Musgraves seem to suggest a couple different career paths he could go down from here, and the Musgraves duet seems like it could be a serious Hot 100 hit in the wake of #1s by Jason Aldean and Oliver Anthony. He still makes me roll my eyes with his snarky asides about Nashville -- he says "I don't need a music machine tellin' me what a good story is" in the first 30 seconds of this album -- but he's created his own lane so well that he can afford to do that.
6. Sonic Youth - Live in Brooklyn 2011
Sonic Youth played a few South American festival shows after this, but this album is a recording of their last U.S. show, and it's gone down as a special show in the band's long history. Steve Shelley wrote the setlist, over a third of which is surprisingly early songs from before he joined Sonic Youth, kind of a cool career-spanning set that touches on some less obvious songs from each era along with a few staples. And the band just sounds fantastic, I saw them several times from 1998 to 2009 and really wish I could've seen this one. The band has released a lot of great concert recordings from their archives over the last few years, but if you had to pick one definitive Sonic Youth live album, this would probably be it. I like the panning in the mix, too, you've got Thurston's guitar on one side and Lee's guitar on the other side, really kinda feels like you're there in front of the stage.
7. Mick Jenkins - The Patience
Mick Jenkins has been so consistent for a decade now, but I feel like he's underrated in that grown up rap lane, what he's doing isn't any less commercial than, like, J. Cole, but he just never got that kind of mainstream exposure. The Patience is kind of short at 27 minutes but it still feels like a complete album.
8. Gloss Up - Shades Of Gloss
Gloss Up, part of GloRilla's Memphis crew, released her first Quality Control project in January, and Before The Gloss Up has really been one of my favorite rap projects of 2023 so far. But I guess it was supposed to be a warmup mixtape for Shades Of Gloss, but the latter is only 3 minutes longer and has slightly bigger features, and isn't necessarily better. Still, I'm happy to get two projects from her in one year,
9. Cindy Wilson - Realms
The B-52's released their last album in 2008, and have been winding down for the last couple years with a farewell tour. So it's a pleasant surprise that one of the band's singers has become a solo artist fairly late in life, releasing two solo albums on Kill Rock Stars since turning 60. Realms is very indie disco synth pop, Wilson's voice occasionally reminds you of that surreal joy The B-52's' music conjured but it feels like she's staking out her own territory distinct from the group.
10. Des Rocs - Dream Machine
I raved about the Des Rocs single "Never Ending Moment" shortly after hearing it for the first time, and was really looking forward to this album. And I got a sinking feeling as I put on Dream Machine and there were some really awful lyrics in the first few songs, but it picks up eventually and there's some fantastic guitar on here.
The Worst Album of the Month: Jon Batiste - World Music Radio
Jon Batiste is the son of a New Orleans music dynasty and a hugely talented jazz musician who rose to mainstream fame as Stephen Colbert's late night bandleader and an Oscar-winning film score composer. But it felt kind of jarring when Batiste's pleasant but unremarkable 2021 album We Are won the Grammy for Album of the Year last year. It was far less popular than its competitors (every other AOTY nominee charted in the top 10 of the Billboard 200, while We Are peaked at #86 when it was released and at #25 after the Grammy wins), and just not that good. Batiste's follow-up is an ambitious and cheesy concept album about an "interstellar traveler griot named Billy Bob Bo Bob," and it just debuted at #104. World Music Radio leans into global eclecticism, with guest spots by Kenny G and Lil Wayne and a K-pop group (does it really matter which one?) and an Afrobeats singer (does it really matter which one?) and on and on, but mostly it fails because Batiste isn't much of a singer and pop music isn't really his forte, it's just a chore to listen to.
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