Only passingly familiar with a few tracks from that Gene Clark album, looking forward to the whole thing. But I love that first EG album…can’t wait to revisit that first side, which has some really amazing songs (Mrs. Bean!)
Sadly, your album didn’t make it to the list. Might want to retry.
Love the Gene Clark album. Really fitting well for me.
Agreed on the Gene Clark!
I’ve added some hooky new wave rock to keep the summer going: Spitting Image by The Strypes.
They’re awesome! And I think still teenagers!
I tend to be pretty skeptical of “roots” music, just because it feels like a total ghetto of fakery and nonsense. And so when someone on this forum recommended JD McPherson’s 2015 record “Let The Good Times Roll” a few years ago, I gave it a spin, expecting to hate it.
And yep, sure enough, the title track that leads off the record sounds…well, if you’re only sort of paying attention, you’re thinking it sounds like a 1980s beer commercial. But then it goes into a bitching raveup section that gets your attention a little more, and comes out with this lyric line: “I drift away/underneath auspicious stars”. I mean, holy shit, what a great goddamned line.
And that’s the genius of this record, which I now kiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinda think might be my favorite album of 2015. Because of McPherson’s literary background (MFA, creative writing) he’s able to slide in lines like that throughout this record where they sit like little landmines, waiting for you to find them and be gobsmacked by 'em. (“It’s all paid but the heed” is another favorite.) This is a gloriously two-faced record. In the light of day it sounds celebratory. At night, though, you notice that it’s full of all kinds of weird, spooky imagery and musical moves that makes you think this coulda been blasting out of shitty speakers in Charlie Starkweather’s stolen car as he and Carol made midnight travels across the blank Nebraska plains.
He’s also got an amazing band who understands American classicist song forms implicitly, and this echoey, hazy recording on vintage tube equipment sounds perfect as a result. And we gotta talk about McPherson’s amazing voice, a sort of plaintive, nasal croon that sits somewhere between John Fogerty’s swampy twang and Buddy Holly’s Lubbock sweetness. I think it’s one of the most distinctive and perfect rock voices in the history of the genre.
In the end, what JD McPherson does is get to the same kind of spooky/weird/arty inerestingness that Jack White wants to get to…but JD seems to do it much more organically and in more satisfying ways, He’s like a baseball pitcher who can’t throw a fastball that goes straight, if you get my meaning. There’s always something cool and interesting happening in each of these songs.
I’m adding a collection of pastoral psychedelia that I’m enjoying in the form of Oddfellow’s Casino album Oh, Sealand. They bring to mind bands like XTC, Current 93’s more recent work, a little Talk Talk influence, and maybe some of Julian Cope’s solo work. But they’re way too accomplished to be this underheard.
This album is really good! Thanks for introducing me to one I’d been missing out on lo these many years.
I agree. This is so up my alley I bought it after the first 20 seconds of the first song. Thanks @charmtrap!
So so so so, sorry, last month is here.
This month: we are Americans.
I was tempted by the new LCD Soundsystem but I’ve had this one lined up for a while.
The last couple of weeks has been mostly soundtracked by Frankie Rose’s dreamy new album, so that’s what I’m adding. In fact, I think I’ll go listen to it again…
(Glad the Rocketship worked out for you guys…it’s definitely one of my faves.)
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Hi hi! Anyone in?
Sorry for the delay! EMA is a lunatic. Good stuff.
In a similar vein, I’ve added King Krule’s latest The OOZ.
Ugh, I was travelling at the turn of the month, and then totally forgot when I got back.
Not sure if I’ve ever added jazz to this list, but this Ambrose Akinmusire double live album is really working for me. I don’t really expect anyone to get through the whole thing, but just in case it turns out to be your thing too…
http://www.bluenote.com/cdn/mceuploads/releases/AmbroseAkinmusire_ARiftInDecorum_cover.jpg
And I just added Coco Hames’s solo record, which is awesome.
No, you’re all awesome!
Looking forward to consuming this little feast.
I have reset the list for November
And gone with something unusual
Enjoy?
It’s a year or so old now, but I just recently discovered the many and various joys of exmagician’s album Scan The Blue. This is the kind of laid-back catchy-as-hell psych-pop I am simply unable to resist.
