Purchase log picks, May 2019

[Olivier Messiaen - Turangalîla Symphony]

Anthony De Mare, Pianos and Vocals (Music of Meredith Monk and John Cage)

Given how well De Mare sequenced the pieces on this album, I bet recitals featuring these works would have been amazing.

Easterhouse, Waiting for the Redbird

Contenders is the album that has remained in print, but Waiting for the Redbird appealed to me more as it played on the turntable.

Janet Jackson, Janet Jackson

The Janet we know today began with Control, and it’s the furthest Miss Jackson will go in live performances. Of the two albums that preceded it, this self-titled debut has the better songs.

Justin Timberlake, Futuresex / LoveSounds

I think I reacted more to the production of this album than to the actual songs.

Kacey Musgraves, Same Trailer Different Park

I didn’t find Golden Hour terribly impressive, but I didn’t want to dismiss Kacey Musgraves out of hand. So I picked up Same Trailer Different Park when I found it at the thrift store. That’s when I understood.

Kalapana, Kalapana

I didn’t realize just how much Kalapana’s first album dominated radio broadcast in Hawaii during the 1970s. I picked up a vinyl copy of the album on a whim, having grown up with the name but not necessarily the music. It turns out I heard them a lot when I was still too young to care about building a music collection.

Olivier Messiaen, Turangalîla Symphony (Toronto Symphony, Seiji Ozawa)

I’ve been fascinated by the third mode of limited transposition since we covered them in a music theory class I took in 2017. The Turangalîla Symphony is one of those works you’re told to know, even if takes you a while to get around to listening to it. The 2-disc vinyl edition of this recording includes Toru Takemitsu’s November Steps, which gets dropped on subsequent CD reissues.

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