Released in 1983, Fuuyuu Kuukan is an album ahead of its time. Yes, it’s got its moments of era-appropriate city pop, but other times, it sounds like it could have been made in 2024.
Chappell Roan, The Rise and Fall of a Midwestern Princess
The Rise and Fall of a Midwestern Princess was released in September 2023, but it didn’t really take off till 2024. Part of me really wants to include this album in the Favorite Edition 2024 list, but I will abide by the letter of the law and call it one of the best catalog finds of the year.
Onitsuka Chihiro, UN AMNESIAC GIRL -First Code 2000-2003-
The music in this boxed set is thoroughly vetted, and I’ve even come around to THIS ARMOR, which I didn’t actually like at the time of release.
John Zorn, Simulacrum
John Zorn doesn’t usually talk to the press, but he did speak to Rolling Stone years back about how his ensembles have influenced heavy metal and vice versa. Zorn pushes his collaborators to do things they can’t picture themselves doing, and the resulting performances brim with nervous energy that always sounds confident. All that is on display with Simulacrum.
Yellow Magic Orchestra, Naughty Boys
The path from Kraftwerk and Roxy Music to the Human League and Duran Duran runs through Yellow Magic Orchestra.
Princess Goes, Come of Age
Princess Goes to the Butterfly Museum has truncated their name, and on this second album, the songwriting has gotten tighter. The band’s debut THANKS FOR COMING felt a bit scattered, but on this outing, they’ve created an album that holds together from start to finish.
SZA, CTRL
Yes, yes, I’m a late-comer to SZA, which all you all have known about for the past seven years. (I gave SOS a shot on the streaming services, but I never gave it a second listen. Maybe I should.) The remarkable thing here is that I bought a used copy of the vinyl record. It’s harder to find recent hit albums like this one as used CDs.
Shannon, Let the Music Play
The title track of this album is a classic, but it cast such a long shadow that the album from which it came gets overlooked. No, the remaining tracks aren’t as strong as “Let the Music Play,” but they aren’t complete filler either.
Xenakis Minor, XM1
There is some ferocious piano playing on this sprawling three-track EP, which clocks in at 41 minutes. (I’m not making the rules here. That’s what they call it.) And it’s prog rock. Actually prog rock on a piano, no guitars. Sit with that for a while.
Cocco’s first four albums loom pretty large over her discography, so it’s easy to fall into the trap of comparing her subsequent works to that early corpus. That said, Beatrice harkens back to the storminess of Rapunzel and has some of the catchiest songs she’s written since Emerald.
John Zorn, Simulacrum
Leave it to John Zorn to devise a hardcore jazz ensemble consisting of organ, guitar and drums, with the organ part played by John Medeski or Medeski, Martin and Woods.
Tyler Childers, Rustlin’ in the Rain
I’ll admit the video for “In Your Love” drew my attention to Childers, but I also love the concept behind this album: pitching modern day songs to Elvis Presley.
Onitsuka Chihiro, UN AMNESIAC GIRL -First Code 2000-2003-
No era of Onitsuka Chihiro’s career has been as thoroughly mined as her first three albums. With each jump to a new label — from EMI to Universal to Victor — a new compilation comes out to remind listeners what Onitsuka produced in those early years. This latest boxed set compiles Insomnia, This Armor and Sugar High along with B-sides and non-album singles. I didn’t pick up This Armor when it was first released, so it’s nice to have a physical copy.
Sleater-Kinney, Little Rope
It seemed like the band wandered a bit after Janet Weiss’ departure before finding their footing again on Little Rope. It sucks that it came in the wake of tremendous loss for Carrie Brownstein.
Ms. Dynamite, A Little Deeper
I remember seeing this album all over the UK press back in 2002, and I understand now why that was so.
Tiffany Poon, Diaries: Schumann
Poon has such an enthusiasm for the works of Robert Schumann that it spurred me to take out the Album for the Young and learn a few of the pieces geared for adults. Beethoven’s shadow looms over Schumann, but his works have fleeting moments of spice that hint at the coming dissolution of harmony later in the 19th Century. But Poon is not concerned about that future past. She just wants listeners to love Schumann as much as she does.
Kim Gordon, The Collective
I love that Gordon wanted to make this album more “beat-oriented.” I wonder sometimes if this album is what clipping ought to sound like.
Descendants, Milo Goes to College
How much more punk can you get with a 15-track album that totals 22 minutes in length? None. None more punk.
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