Archives

Purchase log, 2023-03-07

[Robert Palmer - The Island Records Years]

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

Vinyl
  • Kelela, Raven

Catalog

CD
  • Deana Carter, Did I Shave My Legs for This?
  • Kamasi Washington, Heaven and Earth
  • Ministry, In Case You Didn’t Feel Like Showing Up (Live)
  • Ofra Haza, Ofra Haza
  • Robbie Williams, Intensive Care
  • Sugar, Besides
  • The Delgados, Hate
  • The Walkmen, Bows + Arrows
  • Wolfmother, Wolfmother
Vinyl
  • Massive Attack, Blue Lines

Reissues

CD
  • Robert Palmer, The Island Records Years

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Purchase log, 2023-02-14

[INXS - Shabooh Shoobah]

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
  • Kelela, Raven

Catalog

CD
  • Arthur Honneger, Symphonie No. 1 / Pastorale D’été / Pacific 231 / Rugby / Mouvement Symphonique No. 3 (Charles Dutoit, Bavarian Radio Symphony)
  • Bruce Springsteen, The Promise
  • Okkervil River, Black Sheep Boy Appendix
  • Q-Tip, The Renaissance
  • Queens of the Stone Age, … Like Clockwork
Vinyl
  • INXS, Shabooh Shoobah
  • Red Hot Chili Peppers, Mother’s Milk

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Favorite Edition 2021 Catalog

[Riz Ahmed - The Long Goodbye]

It’s been five years since I discovered the media section of Lifelong Thrift Shop, and I’m at a point where I’m making fewer discoveries. These days, I pick things up because they pique my curiosity, and I anticipate I’ll be re-donating a lot of the albums I bought in the past year.

Still, the vast majority of my listening these days is catalog, as the Favorite Edition Year Final will make clear. In the past, I might have scoffed at someone as new and popular as Olivia Rodrigo. Now? I shrug and follow the mantra, “Let people like things.”

There’s a lot of music out on which I missed when I sought the dopamine hit of finding a new favorite band.

  • Riz Ahmed, The Long Goodbye: Rogue One is probably my favorite movie in the Star Wars extended universe, and Riz Ahmed is big part of why. I’m usually skeptical of Hollywood actors making music, but The Long Goodbye is amazing. It’s a breakup record, but with an entire country. The interludes don’t even feel that arch.
  • Linda Ronstadt, Mad Love: “Hurt So Bad” drew my attention this album, which I then discovered had some solid post-punk credentials on it. I still don’t think calling it her “new wave” album is entirely accurate, though.
  • The Fixx, Reach the Beach: I bought this album on the strength of “One Thing Leads to Another” alone, but I was surprised to find “Save By Zero” on there.
  • Kelela, Take Me Apart: I love that today’s R&B artists draw on influence outside the genre. This album feels more like Utada Hikaru.
  • Laurie Anderson, Big Science: I have two other Laurie Anderson albums that did not answer the question why she’s so lauded. Then this album popped up at the thrift store, and it became clear.
  • Alexander O’Neal, Hearsay: This album did well at the time, and it’s definitely a fine production by Jam and Lewis.
  • Test Pattern, This Is My Street: Man, I want an entire physical release of this Documentary Now! parody of Stop Making Sense.
  • Brothers Johnson, Light Up the Night: Sure, this album was made in the last throes of disco, but there is some mighty fine playing here. And “Stomp!” is timeless.
  • Electric Light Orchestra, Time: I’m definitely not the target market for the orchestral classic rock of ELO, but this album was essentially the band’s detour into new wave. And I’m all for that.
  • A Taste of Honey, Twice as Sweet: Yes, this album concludes with “Sukiyaki”, but the 9 tracks preceding it are no slouch.

Other favorites:

  • Big Pig, Bonk
  • fIREHOSE, If’n
  • Arditti Quartet, Arditti
  • Control Machete, Artillería Pesada, Presenta …
  • Prefab Sprout, Two Wheels Good (a.k.a Steve McQueen)

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Favorite Edition 2021 Year Half

[Utada Hikaru - One Last Kiss EP]

On May 10, 2021, I received the second dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. I had an appointment to get the Johnson and Johnson vaccine, but on the day I was to drive 20 miles to get it, distribution of the vaccine was paused.

After weeks of wondering when I’d be eligible to get a vaccine, followed by another few weeks of battling for an appointment, I had little mental energy left to do anything but work and practice for my music lessons.

Record Store Day Drops happened, and I was actually dreading it. A large music shop in my neighborhood closed permanently, and I haven’t eulogized it yet.

After a year and change of a pandemic that is nowhere near close to ending, I haven’t put much energy into listening to music of the current year. I visit the thrift shops every week to discover the past, but the present has no allure for me.

TL;DR: I don’t have much to offer for this half-year list.

The one release to which I’ve listened with any consistency contains remixes of a song released more than a decade ago. I’ve been distracting myself with so much YouTube and violin practice that I have a backlog of unopened vinyl, including titles I bought on Record Store Day.

I hope the second half of the year is kinder than the last year and a half.

Here are my favorites of 2021, what few I could find.

  • Utada Hikaru, One Last Kiss EP: I haven’t cottoned to an Utada song this hard since “Be My Last”, and all the incarnations of “Beautiful World” on this EP makes a strong argument that it too is one of her strongest songs.
  • Anton Reicha, Reicha Rediscovered (Ivan Ilić): Reicha is pretty obsessive about interrogating the theme of L’Art de varier (The Art of Variation) to the point it’s almost maddening. But maybe that’s the point.
  • Yo Majesty, Return of the Matriarch: Earlier this year, I had a hankering to hear “Club Action” by Yo Majesty, though I had sold my copy of Futuristically Speaking … Never Be Afraid when cash got tight. So it was a bit of serendipity to learn the duo reunited to release Return of the Matriarch.
  • Princess Goes to the Butterfly Museum, Thanks for Coming: I actually don’t think this album is as good as it could have been. The trio’s self-titled debut EP is actually stronger, but it has enough attitude that I can’t completely dismiss it.

The older I get, the more I find music from the past I hadn’t yet discovered more interesting than the new.

  • Riz Ahmed, The Long Goodbye: Wow, a breakup record with an entire country. Amazing.
  • Laurie Anderson, Big Science: Oh, so that’s why Laurie Anderson is a BFD.
  • Kelela, Take Me Apart: I find indie R&B way more interesting than indie rock these days.
  • The Fixx, Reach the Beach: File under: an album I would have owned a long time ago if only I learned who sang those songs at the time I first heard them.
  • Linda Ronstadt, Mad Love: I’ve read the success of Mad Love allowed Ronstadt to record more adventurous albums, which makes me wonder what would have happened if she had done another new wave album.

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Purchase log, 2021-06-01

[AJICO - Setsuzoku]

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
  • AJICO, Setsuzoku

Catalog

CD
  • Doug E. Fresh and the Get Fresh Crew, The World’s Greatest Entertainer
  • Evelyn Glennie, The Music of Joseph Schwantner (St. Louis Symphony, Leonard Slatkin)
  • Floratone, Floratone
  • Hiroshima, Odori
  • Mary Jane Girls, Only Four You
  • Pat Benatar, Precious Time
  • Ratt, Out of the Cellar
  • Rolling Stones, Emotional Rescue
  • Shabazz Palaces, Black Up
  • The Vaselines, The Way of the Vaselines
  • Soundtrack, Kill Bill, Vol. 2
Vinyl
  • Brothers Johnson, Right on Time
  • Kelela, Take Me Apart
  • Laurie Anderson, Big Science
  • Melt-Banana, cell-scape

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Purchase log picks, March 2021

Riz Ahmed, The Long Goodbye

I liked Rogue One probably a lot more than an average Star Wars fan might, so I was willing to entertain Riz Ahmed’s hip-hop work with the usual skepticism afforded to Hollywood actors dabbling in music. This work is no dilettante effort. Ahmed prosecutes the societal forces in the UK that brought about Brexit in an astonishing performance.

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

Wayne Horvitz dives into his archive to surface this must-have collection of live recordings and outtakes.

Kelela, Take Me Apart

I love how modern day R&B artists are willing to blur the lines between pop music and indie rock.

fIREHOSE, If’n

I’ve known about this album since it was first released in 1987, but I was too young at the time to have understood the impact of the Minutemen on independent rock.

sungazer, vol. I
sungazer, vol. 2
Adam Neely, time//motion//wine

I never paid much attention to YouTube till I learned about Adam Neely and music theory YouTube. It’s been a year now since I discovered his channel, and YouTube has since eclipsed Science Channel as my television entertainment of choice. Neely’s own music combines electronic beats with rhythmically complex jazz, and while I enjoy watching him explain music theory, I sometimes wish the YouTube algorithm would give him enough slack to create more music.

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Purchase log, 2020-03-30

[Penzias and Wilson - Rescue the Fly]

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
  • MONO, Beyond the Past: Live with the Platinum Anniversary Orchestra
Files
  • Penzias and Wilson, “Rescue the Fly” / Empty Ensemble, “String Quartet Song No. 6 (Reiwa 3 Remix)”

Catalog

CD
  • ABC, Abracadabra
  • Bob Dylan, Highway 61 Revisited
  • Einojuhani Rautavarra, Angels and Visitations / Violin Concerto / Isle of Bliss
  • fIREHOSE, “if’n”
  • Guided By Voices, Hold on Hope EP
  • Hiroshima, Ongaku
  • Huey Lewis and the News, Huey Lewis and the News
  • Huey Lewis and the News, Small World
  • Jonathan Elias, Requiem for the Americas
  • Kelela, Take Me Apart
  • Milla, The Divine Comedy
  • Peter Gabriel, Shaking the Tree: Sixteen Golden Greats
  • Richard Wagner, Die Walküre (Vienna Philharmonic, Georg Solti)
  • Sergei Rachmaninoff, Piano Concerto No. 2 / Rhapsody on a Theme By Paganini (Vladimir Ashkenazy, London Symphony Orchestra)
  • Spice Girls, Forever
  • Wolfgang Mozart, Le nozze di Figaro (James Levine, Metropolitan Opera)
  • Yo Majesty, Futuristically Speaking … Never Be Afraid
  • Soundtrack, The Saint

Reissues

CD
  • Robert Palmer, Collected

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