Archives

Purchase log, 2023-04-11

[Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit - They Wait]

I catalog my music purchases on Collectorz and Discogs, but they don’t give me a sense of change over time. So I’m noting them here weekly as well.

New releases

Files
  • Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, “They Wait”

Catalog

CD
  • Alanis Morissette, Jagged Little Pill Acoustic
  • Björk, Vespertine
  • Red Hot Chili Peppers, Freaky Styley
  • Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Red Hot Chili Peppers
Vinyl
  • a-ha, Hunting High and Low

Reissues

Files
  • Neutral Milk Hotel, Ferris Wheel on Fire

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Favorite Edition 2022 Year Final

[Utada Hikaru - Bad MODE]

I’ve sometimes struggled to find 10 albums to put on my year-end favorite list. This year, I’ve had to expand the list. The last time I encountered a release year this packed with contenders was 2002.

Utada Hikaru, Bad MODE

Most of this album was released as singles, and to be honest, I wasn’t entirely convinced they would coalesce into a whole. Then Utada brought in the remaining pieces, and it all made sense. My attention span has gotten a lot shorter since thrift shops became my main source of music discovery, and I don’t listen to albums as deeply as I did. But I paid Bad MODE a lot of attention.

Beyoncé, RENAISSANCE

Solange is still my favorite Knowles sister, but with RENAISSANCE, I’ve finally come around to Bey herself. This album is queer af, and I’m all for that.

The Linda Lindas, Growing Up

The Linda Lindas are the band I wish the Donnas could have been.

Kendrick Lamar, Mr. Morale and the Right Steppers

I hate to reduce the worth of an album down to a few tracks, but it’s tough to ignore the weight of “We Cry Together” and “Auntie Diaries”. The former is uncomfortably raw, while the latter is refreshingly empathetic, given hip-hop’s historic casualness with homophobia and transphobia. The rest of the album is great, but those two moments actually make it difficult to recognize there is a rest of the album.

Perfume, PLASMA

PLASMA is something of a reset. 2018’s Future Pop was OK, but the singles preceding that album’s release fell flat. Not so with the singles on PLASMA. While I had trouble picturing Bad MODE as a complete album, I could sense immediately that PLASMA would be a keeper.

Ty Herndon, Jacob

Ty Herndon had a relapse that nearly cost him his life, but his recovery resulted in an album compelling for its honesty and vulnerability. He suffered to create great art, and let’s hope he never has to go through that again.

TwoSet Violin, Fantasia

I don’t look to TwoSet Violin to champion modern composition, but Jordan He’s score to the duo’s ambitious short film suits their common era sensibilities.

Omar Apollo, Ivory

(Don’t compare him to Frank Ocean. Don’t compare him to Frank Ocean. Don’t … aw, screw it.) Omar Apollo is what would have happened if Frank Ocean spent his formative years being a Death Cab for Cutie stan. That sounds like a dig, but I happen to like both Frank Ocean and Death Cab for Cutie.

Charlie Puth, CHARLIE

I haven’t run into a better modern day word painter than Charlie Puth. “Charlie Be Quiet!” is a master class on using pop production to reinforce lyrics.

Robin Holcomb, One Way or Another, Vol. 1

This album brings together songs from Holcomb’s catalog along side a smattering of new material and covers, all sparsely captured. Emmylou Harris sang some tight harmonies with the Nash Ramblers on “Hard Times Come Again No More”. Holcomb’s version speaks an entirely different harmonic language.

Other favorites:

  • Midnight Oil, RESIST: The message on the band’s final album hasn’t changed since their start and somehow feels more urgent than ever.
  • Tears for Fears, The Tipping Point: Everything you like about classic Tears for Fears, updated to sound very much 2022.
  • Björk, Fossora: My favorite Björk albums reign in her avant-garde tendencies just enough to let the pop hooks shine through. Fossora is not easy listening, but it’s engaging.
  • Freedy Johnston, Back on the Road to You: During his Elektra years, I preferred Johnston’s quieter albums over his louder ones, and on this new outing, he’s got the right balance between the two.

More year-end favorites can be found in the Purchase log picks for the fourth quarter.

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Purchase log, 2022-11-15

[Meredith Monk - The Recordings]

I catalog my music purchases on Collectorz and Discogs, but they don’t give me a sense of change over time. So I’m noting them here weekly as well.

New releases

CD
  • Christine and the Queens, Redcar les adorable etoiles
Vinyl
  • Björk, Fossora
  • Hilary Hahn, Eclipse (Andres Orozco-Estrada, Frankfurt Radio Orchestra)

Catalog

CD
  • Frederic Chopin, Nocturnes: Complete Recordings (Daniel Barenboim)
  • Johannes Brahms, Violin Concerto in D, Op. 77 (Nigel Kennedy, Klaus Tennstedt, London Philharmonic)
  • NSync, No Strings Attached
  • Pat Metheny Group, Still Life (Talking)
  • Rush, Signals
  • Sō Percussion, Amid the Noise
  • Stephen Wilson, Grace for Drowning
  • The Roots, The Roots Come Alive
  • The Style Council, Cafe Bleu
  • Soundtrack, BLEACH BEAT COLLECTION
Vinyl
  • Caroline Shaw and Sō Percussion, Let the Soil Play Its Simple Part

Reissues

CD
  • Guns N’ Roses, Use Your Illusion I (Deluxe Edition)
  • Guns N’ Roses, Use Your Illusion II (Deluxe Edition)
Boxed Set
  • Meredith Monk, The Recordings
Vinyl
  • Ride, Nowhere

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Purchase log, 2022-10-04

[Huey Lewis and the News - Picture This]

I catalog my music purchases on Collectorz and Discogs, but they don’t give me a sense of change over time. So I’m noting them here weekly as well.

New releases

CD
  • Amanda Shires, Take It Like a Man
  • Björk, Fossora
  • Santigold, Spirituals
  • Steve Reich, Runner / Music for Ensemble and Orchestra

Catalog

CD
  • Das EFX, Dead Serious
  • Dashboard Confessional, The Places That You Have Come to Fear the Most
  • Descendents, Somery
  • Huey Lewis and the News, Picture This
  • Pale Saints, In Ribbons
Vinyl
  • Aaliyah, Aaliyah
  • Cyndi Lauper, True Colors
  • George Michael, Listen Without Prejudice, Vol. 1
  • Robyn, Honey
  • Sting, The Bridge

Reissues

CD
  • Janet Jackson, Japanese Singles Collection
  • Wilco, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (Deluxe Edition)
Vinyl
  • Caitlin Cary, While You Weren’t Looking

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Looking ahead: September-November 2022

LOVE PSYCHEDELICO, A revolution, Sept. 28

It’s nice to see international artists make their catalogs available through streaming services. I don’t think I’ve had to go to the Evil Sharing Networks for active Japanese artists in a while. I haven’t really followed LOVE PSYCHEDELICO lately, but at least now, I can listen to this new album on release day.

Björk, Fossora, Sept. 30

The singles released ahead of this album seem to indicate Björk has gone back to the kind of beats she was making on Volta. I’m digging this low winds sound.

Darren Hayes, Homosexual, Oct. 7

I like the frankness of this album title.

easy life, MAYBE IN ANOTHER LIFE, Oct. 7

OK, I admit I got into this band because of the skeletons commercial for Kia. I’m ignoring the singles and waiting for release day to listen to the new material. I’m still enjoying the previous album, life’s a beach, way too much right now.

Robin Holcomb, One Way or Another, Vol. 1, Oct. 14

The last time Robin Holcomb recorded a singer-songwriter album was 20 years ago with her final Nonesuch album, The Big Time. This new album is just her and a piano.

Royal Wood, What Tomorrow Brings, Nov. 4

I can’t say I got into Royal Wood’s previous album, but the singles he’s released ahead of this album sound vastly different from what he’s done before. He’s gotten into beats and synths but in a way that enhances folk singer croon.

Luke Evans, A Song for You, Nov. 4

Luke Evans had some interesting song choices on his debut album. This follow-up doesn’t have many songs I immediately recognize, but given that he covers R.E.M., Donny Hathaway, Simon and Garfunkel and a traditional song in Welsh, he makes another set of bold choices. This album also contains two new songs Evans co-wrote.

Guns N’ Roses, Use Your Illusion I (Deluxe Edition), Nov. 25
Guns N’ Roses, Use Your Illusion II (Deluxe Edition), Nov. 25

Really, Use Your Illusion II is the album worth exploring, but I’m willing to throw in Use Your Illusion I out of due diligence.

Vinyl

Caitlin Cary, While You Weren’t Looking, Sept. 30

Any interest I had in Whiskeytown is all about Caitlin Cary and not one whit about Ryan Adams.

Beyoncé, RENAISSANCE, Oct. 7

I’m no acolyte of Beyoncé by any stretch of the imagination, but the queerness of this album is unmistakable.

Duran Duran, Medazzaland, Oct. 14

A loss of momentum on the heels of the highly successful The Wedding Album fated this album to obscurity. At the time, I thought the brilliance of this album would win out and prove the ambivalent mainstream audience wrong. I’m not so sure anymore. This album is so fiercely original that it may have been greeted with hostility than with a collective meh. A quarter century later, we get to revisit this album.

ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION, Planet Folks, Oct. 26

How much did I not get into AKFG’s previous album Hometown? I didn’t bother to snap up the vinyl pressing before it went out of print. Planet Folks is not as good as World World World or Landmark, but I like it enough to place a preorder for this vinyl release.

Duran Duran, All You Need Is Now, Nov. 11
Duran Duran, Astronaut, Nov. 11
Duran Duran, Red Carpet Massacre, Nov. 11

In addition to CD reissues back in August, three albums from Duran Duran’s third decade get vinyl reissues under the RSD Essentials series. I’m sorry to see Pop Trash not included in this set. It’s better than Astronaut and Red Carpet Massacre but still not really the band’s best. To be honest, any album in this set other than All You Need Is Now is really stretching the “essentials” descriptor.

Duran Duran, FUTURE PAST (Complete Deluxe Edition), Nov. 25

The original vinyl release of FUTURE PAST had fewer tracks than the CD, so this reissue includes additional tracks and the non-album single “Five Years”, which is a David Bowie cover.

BONNIE PINK, Blue Jam, Nov. 3
BONNIE PINK, Heaven’s Kitchen, Nov. 3
BONNIE PINK, evil and flowers, Nov. 3
UA, Are U Romantic?, Nov. 3
Hajime Chitose, “Wadatsumi no Ki”, Dec. 3
Quruli, “WORLD’S END SUPERNOVA”, Dec. 3

To confuse matters, Japan has it’s own commercial holiday to celebrate vinyl called Record Day, which is not to be confused with Record Store Day Japan, the spring event with its own set of domestic reissues. Unlike RSD, Record Day doesn’t restrict availability to brick and mortar stores. The main event happens Nov. 3, with a spillover day on Dec. 3. I’m skipping the BONNIE PINK reissues, but I’ve already pre-ordered UA, Hajime Chitose and Quruli.

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Purchase log, 2021-08-03

[Ke$ha - Rainbow]

I catalog my music purchases on Collectorz and Discogs, but they don’t give me a sense of change over time. So I’m noting them here weekly as well.

New Releases

  • Björk x Hamrahlíð Choir, “Cosmogony”

Catalog

CD
  • Billy Joel, 52nd Street
  • John Coltrane, Coltrane (1962)
  • Kesha, Rainbow
  • Kinky, Kinky
  • Los Fabulosos Cadillacs, Fabulosos Calavera
  • Ornette Coleman, Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation
  • Outkast, Big Boi & Dre Present … Outkast
  • The Rolling Stones, Through the Past, Darkly
Vinyl
  • N.E.R.D., In Search of …

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Purchase log, 2021-03-09

[Riz Ahmed - The Long Goodbye]

I catalog my music purchases on Collectorz and Discogs, but they don’t give me a sense of change over time. So I’m noting them here weekly as well.

New releases

Files
  • Wayne Horvitz, Live Forever, Vol. 1: The President – New York in the ’80s

Catalog

CD
  • Björk, Telegram
  • Heiner Goebbels, The Man in the Elevator
  • Ikara Colt, Chat and Business
  • Marilyn Manson, Mechanical Animals
  • Steve Reich, Reich Remixed 2006
  • Talitha Mackenzie, Indian Summer
  • The Darkness, Permission to Land
  • Tone Lōc, Lōc-ed After Dark
Files
  • Adam Neely, “…it ain’t my fault”
  • Adam Neely, “7:11”
  • Adam Neely, “a.i. lo-fi #1”
  • Adam Neely, “Clarity” (with Little Kruta)
  • Adam Neely, “g a r o t a”
  • Adam Neely, Gig Vlog M I X T A P E vol. 1
  • Adam Neely, “no pride (leonard bernstein remix)”
  • Adam Neely, “polytonal lo-fi”
  • Adam Neely, “the ’15 minute’ tune”
  • Adam Neely, time//motion//wine
  • Adam Neely, “two microtonal lo-fi jams”
  • Adam Neely, “we got people playing pianos”
  • Adam Neely, “優待 k m a r t ジャズ”
  • Duran Duran, “Five Years”
  • George Walker, Sinfonia No. 5 (Seattle Symphony, Thomas Dausgaard)
  • Riz Ahmed, The Long Goodbye
  • sungazer, sungazer vol. I
  • sungazer, sungazer, vol. 2
  • sungazer, “want to want me”
  • Test Pattern, “This Is My Street”
File upgrades

These albums were previously purchased as MP3 downloads and upgraded to FLAC.

  • Duran Duran, “Boys Keep Swinging”
  • Eluvium, Shuffle Drones
  • Kronos Quartet, Plays Sigur Rós
  • Shaprece, COALS
  • TV Mania, Bored with Prozac and the Internet?

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Purchase log, 2020-03-10

[The National - Boxer]

I catalog my music purchases on Collectorz and Discogs, but they don’t give me a sense of change over time. So I’m noting them here weekly as well.

Catalog

CD
  • Björk, Selmasongs
  • Bill Frisell, The Intercontinentals
  • Herbie Hancock, Future Shock
  • Herbie Hancock, Head Hunters
  • Julieta Venegas, MTV Unplugged
  • Taylor Swift, Taylor Swift
  • Teresa Stratas, The Unknown Weill
  • XTC, Mummer
  • Soundtrack, The Book of Mormon (Original Broadway Cast)
Vinyl
  • Michael Kiwanuka, Home Again
  • The National, Boxer

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Purchase log, 2019-03-19

[Pop Will Eat Itself - This Is the Day ... This Is the Hour ... This Is This!]

I catalog my music purchases on Collectorz and Discogs, but they don’t give me a sense of change over time. So I’m noting them here weekly as well.

This past weekend was the Friends of the Seattle Library Book Sale, which usually provides a few weeks’ worth of listening.

Catalog

CD
  • Aretha Franklin, Aretha’s Best
  • Atmosphere, Overcast!
  • Beck, Mutations
  • Billy Idol, Idolize Yourself: The Very Best of Billy Idol
  • bis, The New Transistor Heroes
  • Björk, Drawing Restraint 9
  • Bon Jovi, Slippery When Wet
  • Branford Marsalis Quartet, Crazy People Music
  • Daniel Lanois, Acadie
  • David Bowie, Pin Ups
  • Dawn Upshaw, Voices of Light
  • Einstürzende Neubauten, 80-83 Strategies Against Architecture
  • György Ligeti, Ligeti Edition 5: Mechanical Music
  • Jane’s Addiction, Nothing’s Shocking
  • Joanna Newsom, Ys
  • John Zorn, The Gift
  • Johnny Cash, American Recordings
  • Josquin des Prez / Giovanni Palestrina, Motets / Masses
  • Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin II
  • Lizz Wright, The Orchard
  • Lovage, Nathaniel Merriweather Presents … Lovage: Music to Make Love to Your Old Lady By
  • Mazzy Star, So Tonight That I Might See
  • Mike Patton, Adult Themes for Voice
  • Oingo Boingo, Dead Man’s Party
  • Osvaldo Golijov, Ainadamar
  • PJ Harvey, Let England Shake
  • PJ Harvey, Rid of Me
  • Pop Will Eat Itself, This Is the Day … This Is the Hour … This Is This!
  • Queen Latifah, Nature of a Sista
  • Robert Palmer, Addictions Volume 2
  • Roberta Flack, First Take
  • Sonic Youth, Washing Machine
  • Soundgarden, Louder Than Love
  • Spice Girls, Spiceworld
  • Stephen Sondheim, Putting it Together (Original Cast Recording)
  • The Beatles, Yellow Submarine
  • The Mars Volta, De-Loused at the Comatorium
  • The White Stripes, Get Behind Me Satan
  • Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane, At Carnegie Hall
  • Tom Tom Club, Tom Tom Club
  • William Grant Still, Africa
  • XTC, Nonsuch
  • Yaz, You and Me Both
  • Various Artists, Stay Awake
  • Soundtrack, Pride and Prejudice (BBC Television serial)
  • Soundtrack, Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi (Spirited Away)
  • Soundtrack, Sense and Sensibility
Vinyl
  • Dead Or Alive, Mad, Bad, and Dangerous to Know
  • Eleanor Steber, Barber: Knoxville: Summer 1915 / LaMontaine: Songs of the Rose of Sharon
  • Millions Like Us, Millions Like Us
  • Olivier Messiaen, Et Exspecto Resurrectionem Mortuorum / Couleurs de la Cité Celeste
  • Olivier Messiaen, Petites Liturgies de la Présence Divine
  • Olivier Messiaen, Tashi Plays Messiaen – Quartet for the End of Time
  • Robert Palmer, Clues
  • Robert Palmer, Double Fun
  • Robert Palmer, Maybe It’s Live
  • Robert Palmer, Pride
  • Robert Palmer, Sneakin’ Sally Through the Alley
  • Stephen Sondheim, Pacific Overtures (Original Broadway Cast)
  • William Schuman, Symphony No. 3 / Symphony for Strings
  • Yvonne Elliman, Yvonne
  • Soundtrack, A Room with a View

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