album reviews

チャクラ - 南洋でヨイショ (8/16/2024)

チャクラ - さてこそ (8/16/2024)

At the Drive-In - Acrobatic Tenement (8/22/2024)

The Dismemberment Plan - "!" (8/28/2024)

Club Music - Club Music Vol. 1 (8/30/2024)

Bad Bunny - X 100PRE (9/4/2024)

Djavan - A Voz, O Violão, A Música de Djavan (9/13/2024)

Aissaoua Brotherhood of Marrakesh - The Music of Islam, Vol. 5 (9/27/2024)

Malvoeaux - Targets (10/1/2024)

Don Caballero - American Don (10/2/2024)

Guerilla Toss - GT Ultra (10/8/2024)

Guerilla Toss - Gay Disco (10/25/2024)

Dave Bixby - Ode to Quetzalcoatl (10/29/2024)

Astrud Gilberto - Talkin' Verve (11/1/2024)

OTTO - Clam Day (11/15/2024)

Slint - Tweez (11/20/2024)

Stan Getz & João Gilberto - Getz / Gilberto (12/5/2024)

Don Caballero - What Burns Never Returns (12/6/2024)

DJ Sabrina The Teenage DJ - Charmed (12/17/2024)

Guerilla Toss - Twisted Crystal (1/21/2025)

Daedelus - Invention (1/28/2025)

Héctor Lavoe - A Man And His Music: La Voz (2/26/2025)

Don Caballero - Don Caballero 2 (3/11/2025)

(3/18/2025) יחזקאל ציון - אזמר בשבחין

John Coltrane - Giant Steps (4/2/2025)

Deerhoof - Offend Maggie (4/18/2025)

Various Artists - The Music of Islam Vol. 15: Muslim Music of Indonesia, Aceh, and West Sumatra (5/9/2025)

Lola's Pocket PC - Lola's Pocket PC (5/15/2025)

Seapony - Go With Me (5/19/2025)

Minutemen - Double Nickels on the Dime (5/21/2025)

Молчат Дома - Этажи (5/30/2025)

Pretend - Bones in the Soil, Rust in the Oil (7/21/2025)

TV Girl - French Exit (7/22/2025)

Johnny Cash - At Folsom Prison (7/23/2025)

Ponytail - Ice Cream Spiritual (8/1/2025)

大貫妙子 - SUNSHOWER (8/7/2025)

Ini Kamoze - Ini Kamoze (8/8/2025)

Various Artists - World Psychedelic Classics 3: Love's a Real Thing (9/24/2025)

Palm - Rock Island (11/13/2025)

Omni - Deluxe (1/16/2026)

大貫妙子 - Copine. (5/27/2026)

Dexter Gordon - Go! (5/28/2026)

Dexter Gordon - Go (1962)

Genre: hard bop

Length: 37:44

You're just not going to find a jazz album that I love more than this one. It's impossible. To me, Go captures the intended feeling behind hard bop almost perfectly. At once classy, bombastic, emotionally resonant and, especially on I Guess I'll Hang My Tears Out to Dry, bluesy, Go is a short but excellent foray into the hard bop world for the uninitiated, and a treat for any jazz lover.

I'll note that Love for Sale is one of the common openers and closers for segments of NPR's Marketplace – and, to that end, it's an amazing song for that transitionary purpose. If there's any hard bop album that I could put on as I'm entering, say, Baltimore, or D.C., and feel as if I'm deeply involved in some kind of important business – it's Go, for sure. Dexter Gordon, main saxophonist and a legendary tenor, is sure to keep you moving along.

大貫妙子 - Copine. (1985)

translation: Taeko Ohnuki - Copine. Copine is French for girlfriend

Genre: techno kayō, sophisti-pop, art pop, city pop, new wave, synth funk

Length: 40:20

Soft, light, sweet, but still full of that modern chic feel that Taeko Ohnuki knocks out of the park. If SUNSHOWER sounds like summer, this album is like the gentle transition from winter into spring, or perhaps summer into fall.

Recorded between New York City and Tokyo at the height of the City Pop boom, Copine is an iconic cosmopolitan-themed record in Ohnuki's discography. It's hard not to get addicted to the opening riffs in Les Aventures de TIN TIN, quintessentially 80s in tone as they are – you feel as if you're walking into a department store or a mall, ready to shop without a care in the world. Ohnuki's vocal performance is superb across the board, and she displays her excellent knack for natural and distinct pronunciation capabilities across multiple languages by singing in Italian on Amico, sei felice? (Friend, are you happy?), and in both English and Japanese on Leave me alone.

Overall, fantastic album. My favorite song on this is the opener, Les Aventures de TIN TIN.

Omni - Deluxe (2016)

Genre: post-punk, indie rock, slacker rock, jangle pop, egg punk

Length: 30:00

This album feels and sounds youthful, modern, and British or perhaps Australian, so I was surprised to learn that Omni is actually from Atlanta. Nothing about this album is Southern!

Deluxe is an enjoyable short album with angular guitar riffs, punk bass lines, and dramatic vocal performances by leadsinger Philip Frobos. The listener is granted a punchy introduction in Afterlife, a great summer-y opener. Lyrical content overwhelmingly seems to be observations on awkward relationships, made obvious in wails on songs like Eyes on the Floor, and undramatic modern milieu in repeated post-punk styles. This is certainly felt on Siam, my favorite song on Deluxe. There is a kind of drag that Mitchell leans on in that song specifically that separates it from the rest of the album; more laid-back, yet more dramatic at the same time.

Palm - Rock Island (2018)

Genre: math pop, progressive pop, neo-psychedelia, psychedelic pop, MIDI music, art rock

Length: 41:26

Eclectic is the first word that comes to mind when I think of this album. Right from the start, the listener is treated to a bright choir-like sample-based melody on Pearly, the perfect opener to an album that sounds a little bit like heaven.

There aren't many words I feel like I can use, other than eclectic, to describe this album further. It's difficult to discern any particular themes. However, there is this deliciously melodramatic aspect found in the vocal performances, clearly heard on songs like Composite, Bread, and Color Code, that gives the entire album a strangely warm feeling. Each song is its own room in a Gaudí shaped mansion, ballasted by favorable but irregular rhythms. My favorite is certainly Color Code for its positive and uplifting feel.

Various Artists - World Psychedelic Classics 3: Love's a Real Thing: The Funky Fuzzy Sounds of West Africa (2005)

Genre: afro-funk, mbalax, afrobeat, wolof, mande

Length: 64:20

This compilation of West African music from the 70s incorporates a wide variety of artists and styles. It is funky, fresh, and incredibly danceable. Lyrical content for each song that is sung in English carry themes of justice, love, and equality before the divine – I love it! It'll be hard to find yourself staying still to these groovy rhythms and joyful melodies.

Joy is the overwhelming feel of this album. It's clear on songs like Love's a Real Thing, called out to a smooth funk backing by Super Eagles, the legendary funk rock group from the Gambia, and others like Allah Wakbarr by the lesser-known (but equally legendary) Ofo & The Black Company from Nigeria. My personal favorite on this is the opener, Minsato Le, Mi Dayihome by Beninese band Orchestre Poly-Rythmo De Cotonou Dahomey. I just love the interplay between the bass and the guitar on that one, along with the leadsinger's dramatic, enraptured performance.

Ini Kamoze - Ini Kamoze (1984)

Genre: dancehall, reggae, dub, digital dancehall

Length: 31:42

This golden little EP introduces the listener to the sound of reggae and dancehall legend Ini Kamoze, perhaps best known for his later popular hit, Here Comes the Hotstopper. Before he was causing a riot in the northeast US, though, Kamoze was hard at work creating dancehall tracks like the ones on this self-titled EP.

The tough side of Jamaican reggae is heard right from the beginning on this EP, with the gunshot-like percussion establishing the rhythm on Trouble You a Trouble Me. Kamoze's voice is uplifting and passionate, and for the rest of the album the listener is taken through the streets of Kingston. Themes on the EP are optimistic and positive, such as celebrations of reggae music on World-A-Music and invocations to respect others in General:

Look around you and what do y'all see? Mighty people, rockin' graciously If you hurt one, you hurt yourself too You must love one 'cause they're just like you...

RING!

Throughout the tracks, samples bleed in and out of nearly every song. Since this is reggae, the samples can seem to warp along with the duration of the song – an interesting effect that keeps the listener guessing as to what comes next, despite the repetitive rhythms that reggae and dancehall entail. Overall, excellent EP and introduction to 80s dancehall. My favorite track on this is Wings With Me, which I believe is a love ballad.

大貫妙子 - SUNSHOWER (1977)

[transliteration: Ohnuki Taiko | translation: Taeko Ohnuki]

Genre: city pop, jazz-funk, kayōkyoku, new music, jazz fusion

Length: 44:33

You're cruising in a kēi car, somewhere in the concrete metropolis of Tokyo or Kobe. It's late afternoon and the sun is beginning to cast its rich orange glow on the sea in the horizon and surrounding buildings. Windows down, sea breeze, and on the radio is SUNSHOWER by city pop legend Taeko Ohnuki. You are relaxed, taking in a deep breath as the bass guitar on 都会 [tōkai | City] immerses you in the aura of late 70s, early 80s Japan.

SUNSHOWER is, simply put, an album to be experienced. It will fill your heart up with joy right from the anticipatory trumpets on Summer Connection, Ohnuki's excellent starter to the album. Ohnuki sings with passion in playful ballads like くすりをたくさん [Kusuri o Takusan | Lots of Medicine], and the listener will find her voice sonorous and rich. The way she can dynamically switch between passion and dispassion is perhaps best presented on Silent Screamer, a wonderful, danceable little tune with its incorporation of flutes at nearly every turn. My favorite song on this is 都会 [tōkai | City] for its beautifully melancholic and relaxed feeling.

Ponytail - Ice Cream Spiritual (2008)

Genre: noise pop, math pop, math rock, art punk, neo-psychedelia, noise rock

Length: 33:58

This is certainly one of my favorite albums of all time. Ponytail's Ice Cream Spiritual, when it first hit my freshman-in-college ears so many years ago, was one of the most unexpected and beautifully strange albums I'd ever listened to at the time. Even still, I can get goosebumps to the freshness of the intense, sparkling energy that flows from the amazing dual guitar work performed on this album by Dustin Wong and Ken Seeno.

Entirely manic. None of the lyrics you'll hear on this, save for the comedic, "Oh no, I'm late for school!" on Late for School, make any sense. Leadsinger Willy Siegel can be said to be "speaking in tongues" for the duration of the entire album. I will admit that the listener may find themselves a bit confused when Siegel starts the first track, Beg Waves, by making a kind of baby-like raspberry noise. Fear not, for Siegel's performance becomes the perfect complement to the rapid and explosive instrumentation throughout the entire record. You'll eventually find yourself dancing to insanity like I did.

My favorite track on this album is G Shock. That guitar breakdown is never going to leave my heart.

Johnny Cash - At Folsom Prison (1968)

Genre: country, outlaw country, rockabilly, traditional country

Length: 45:25

I knew that I'd probably fall in love with this album for some time, but until I actually listened to it, I really had no idea how much I would enjoy country legend Johnny Cash's At Folsom Prison, a live album recorded at Folsom State Prison in California in May 1968. Right from the first song, the listener is brought into the very room with Cash and the inmates at Folsom. His piercing acoustic breakdowns are best experienced in a car, windows down, amazingly loud and, if you're lucky enough, shortly after some kind of negative event in one's personal life, like a heartbreak.

It is a strange feeling to feel as one with the huge band of inmates, whose whoops and cries and yells are recorded alongside Cash's superb delivery of nearly every song. Cash is not alone on this, there are many other musicians and even another vocalist, Jane Carter, who jumps in at Jackson. Cash'll have you a-laughin', as in 25 Minutes to Go, a humorous take on an inmate's perspective of an execution, and he'll have you a-cryin', because almost everyone can relate to the lyrics of I Still Miss Someone. Overall, beautiful, beautiful album, the very definition of a fun time. My favorite on this must be Cocaine Blues for its simultaneously humorous and serious tone and theme.

But I shot a man in Reno Just to watch him die . . .

TV Girl - French Exit (2014)

Genre: indie pop, neo-psychedelia, plunderphonics, bedroom pop, hypnagogic pop, indietronica, trip hop

Length: 40:42

I think this album can best be described as delightfully colorful and playful, with a potent tinge of sad-boy-hours-type indie bedroom pop lyrics and feel. Indeed, TV Girl has become somewhat of a pariah in today's popular music scene, if only because the lyrics to most of the songs on French Exit are laden with references to failed romantic and sexual aspirations and the exaggerated (though sometimes quite real) longing toward women specifically felt by the stereotypical young cishet boy of today – or the past 10 years or so, rather.

Still, despite being drenched in this kind of "cringey" incel energy, French Exit is a beautiful plunderphonic pop album that may radically change its listeners' opinions on how sample-heavy a song may be. Playful song themes like an enchanted Vietnam War soldier in Pantyhose (referencing Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried), and the rush of getting away with sexual delinquency in Daughter of a Cop give the album a somewhat lighthearted feel, but they are contrasted by deeply emotional songs like Lovers Rock and envy ballad Her and Her Friend. Overall, a gem of an album and a moment of recent popular music history that should be experienced. Major downside is the lead's voice. My favorite song on this is The Getaway for its excellent use of dialoguing samples.

Pretend - Bones in the Soil, Rust in the Oil (2009)

Genre: post-rock, math rock, midwest emo, slowcore

Length: 77:11

This album is just gorgeous and, in my opinion, the near-perfect execution of what that vague term midwest emo seeks to accomplish. Intricate and complex drumming that seems to dance with itself, Luke Palascak's soft and delicate singing, and, yes, all the twinkles. As a post-rock album, too, many of the songs are complete in their orchestration. Sequencing seems to have changed over the years as I've streamed this one, but what appears to be the final version of the album has an excellent buildup and release that comes to a head on the track that the album is named for.

Overall, Bones in the Soil, Rust in the Oil is an amazing midwest emo album that evokes the emotional milieu of modern dilemmas people face nowadays. Enjoyers of American Football or Cap'n'Jazz are sure to find enjoyment of Pretend in equal measure to the legacy of the Kinsella twins. Perfect for rainy days or simply overcast ones. My favorite song on this is Legs to Walk Us, to Drop Us. That buildup and the release at "Forget about the cost of it all..." – sure to cause goosebumps!

Молчат Дома - Этажи (2018)

[transliteration: Molchat Doma - Etazhi | translation: Houses are Silent - Floors]

Genre: coldwave, darkwave, synthpop, gothic rock

Length: 33:13

I was surprised to find that RateYourMusic does not consider Etazhi post-punk. It is certainly a genre that I expected to add onto this post when I listened through the album. Some element of postmodern, darkened, synth-infused post-punk was what I had thought I'd listened to. Regardless of naming specifics, Molchat Doma's Etazhi is an excellent exhibition of coldwave punk, deeply mixed with gothic influences.

Belarusian coldwave act Molchat Doma blow listeners away with a cohesive and consistent album across all of its songs. There's the very danceable Танцевать [Tantsyevat' | Dance], contrasted by the ominous vocal performance on Коммерсанты [Commyersant'y | Businesspeople]. The theme of this album seems to be the hopelessness of life in Eastern Europe in the post-Soviet collapse era, but that could certainly just be my dandy Western ears making projections. Overall, my favorite song on this was Фильмы [Fil'm'y | Movies], or maybe the following song for its lovely dramatic vocal performance, Волны [Voln'y | Waves].

Minutemen - Double Nickels on the Dime (1984)

Length: 1:14:19

Genre: post-punk, art punk, post-hardcore, funk rock, punk blues

Energetic punk rock from legendary California band Minutemen. Double Nickels on the Dime delivers its listeners to a seaside San Pedro punk show, with leadsingers D. Boon and Mike Watt as their hosts. Youthful, lively, and raw, Double Nickels on the Dime is a classic in the post-punk scene and likely one of its greatest albums of all time.

The album is overtly political, with references to the Vietnam war in Viet Nam, the threat of proletarian revolution in Theatre Is the Life of You, and the great divide between the West and the Communist bloc in West Germany. The theme is simple: get fired up about the system, but enjoy the party while it lasts. While I liked nearly every song, I did not like the song You Need the Glory - it sticks out like the sorest thumb in the middle of the otherwise perfect album. My favorite song on this is Viet Nam for its puncturing lyrics and explosive feel.

Seapony - Go With Me (2011)

Genre: dream pop, indie pop, indie surf, bedroom pop, twee pop, noise pop

Length: 37:39

Light, refreshing – like a surf rock version of easy-listening, Go With Me is an enchanting little album. The album is mostly lo-fi surf rock ballads, each led by vocalist Jen Weidl. Weidl's ethereal vocals are backed up by a guitar and drums for simple but savory melodies and rhythms.

The ocean and the sea seem to be huge themes on this, which make for an enjoyable "coastal" feel to the whole record - especially in the song Into the Sea. Some lyrical themes along with the sea are uncertainty in romantic encounters, as in I Never Would, and certainty in others, as in I Really Do. Despite these dramatic themes, the entire album retains a sense of lightheartedness that is refreshing to take in on a nice spring day. My favorite song on this is Always, for its nostalgic and playful melodies.

Lola's Pocket PC - Lola's Pocket PC (2019)

Genre: synthpop, electropop, synthwave, indietronica, dream pop, progressive pop, art pop, chillsynth

Length: 31:12

Lola's Pocket PC's self-titled album is a lush and ambient synthpop piece that'll have any listener in deep contemplation. Short, dynamic, ethereal and colorful, Lola's Pocket PC blasts its listeners with a ray of feminine energy right from the start. It's worth noting that Sputnik, the alias of the artist behind Lola's Pocket PC is also known as Weatherday.

Though I had trouble interpreting the lyrics, there is a deep sense of melancholy throughout each song. The opener, Pocket PC, starts with a subtle electronic requiem that expands into a synthetic orchestra, topped by Sputnik's brilliant vocal performance. Beauty to be appreciated in the cascading synth on You Have Telescoping Arms and Fingers (But I Still Love Yooou!). My favorite song on this album is Your Near-Death Experience.

Various Artists - The Music of Islam, Vol. 15 - Muslim Music of Indonesia; Aceh and West Sumatra (1998)

Genre: Islamic religious music, Southeast Asian classical music, Indonesian music, rapai dabõih, Minangkabau music

Length: 149:23

Starting off with a ritual song about handling Sumatran tigers, this album manages to strike an odd balance between being hauntingly beautiful and, frequently in the first segment, mind-numbingly repetitive. But I would argue that the hauntingly beautiful parts largely outweigh the dragging repetition that one may feel when listening to the fourth segment of Dol-Tasa drumming.

It's rather difficult to put into words the way the voices of the singers toward the end of the first segment, in Salawek Dulang: Lagu Meriam Penangkis (Song of the Cannon Interceptor) get stuck in one's mind long after the song has played. The drone and warp of the mens' voices are very moving, if one has the ear for it. The second segment of this album is top tier, with female Seudati (a traditional Acehnese dance) singers inundating the listener with a series of beautiful, pseudo-a cappella melodies. My favorite song on this album is Phõ and the subsequent Seudati Inong series, for which I was unable to find a proper translation.