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Purchase log picks, August 2021

[Ashanti - Ashanti]

Deafheaven, Infinite Granite

I bet the metal fans hate this album. Since I’m more of a post-rock / shoegazer fan, I find it brilliant. Also, gutsy. It takes bravery to risk change that alienates a portion of your fan base.

Ashanti, Ashanti

I sold this album when cash got short, but “Foolish” is one of those songs that just pop into my head for no reason. So on a recent trip to the thrift shop, I welcomed this album back in my collection and discovered how well it’s held up since its release. Yeah, it’s a bit long — as albums of the CD era are wont to do — but the best bits overshadow the filler.

Gang of Four, 77-81

This sprawling boxed set of Gang of Four’s first two albums contains a full live album, an EP of singles and a cassette tape of early demos.

I bought the vinyl version back in March, but I also wanted to pick up the CD boxed set as well. The packaging is stark but beautiful. My only objection is the digital downloads that accompany the CD set. The sides of the digitized cassette are not broken down by track. But I have to admit, that is punk as fuck.

Jam and Lewis, Volume 1

Yeah, it’s about damn time Jam and Lewis took top billing. There are singers of whom I probably would never have heard if they hadn’t worked with Jam and Lewis.

Cyndi Lauper, True Colors

Similar to ZZ Top’s Afterburner, True Colors followed an immensely popular album, and while its predecessor had more hits, this album is the better collection of songs. Despite incredibly corporate covers of the title tracks in subsequent years, the original has some daring arrangement choices, particularly the fake ending with just percussion, an underrated technique in pop production.

Jeff Mangum, Live at Jittery Joe’s

If you are a fan of On Avery Island or In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, there is little you’ll find objectionable on this solo live album.

Camper Van Beethoven / Cracker, The Virgin Years

The compilation was only made available as a promo, but it’s one that ought to get an official release. As the title indicates, it compiles tracks from two Camper Van Beethoven albums and two Cracker albums, all released by Virgin in the late ’80s and early ’90s.

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Purchase log picks, July 2021

[Prefab Sprout - Steve McQueen a.k.a Two Wheels Good]

Kesha, Rainbow

This album has a lot of attitude, which it should given Kesha’s well-publicized legal battles. It’s fundamentally a pop album, with rock and country providing a gritty sheen.

ZZ Top, Afterburner

Eliminator has the bigger hits, but Afterburner is the better album.

Prefab Sprout, Two Wheels Good (a.k.a Steve McQueen)

Prefab Sprout is one of those bands about whom I knew without actually hearing their music. So it was nice to discover they fell somewhere between Yaz and ABC in their pursuit of a jazzy new wave sound.

TV on the Radio, Return to Cookie Mountain

I didn’t get TV on the Radio at first. The few excerpts I heard seemed unfocused and tuneless. But I picked up their albums from thrift shop to see if I could eventually understand. By then, I had listened to more hip-hop and R&B and realized the band is Black af. A decade and a half ago, my rockist collection had little room for Black voices.

Aceyalone, All Balls Don’t Bounce

I confess to sacrilege — I didn’t pay attention to the lyrics on this album. The beats are too damn distracting.

The National, Trouble Will Find Me

The National is one of those bands I like, but I would not consider myself a fan. I would seem demographically suited to be one, given the rest of my collection, but I just haven’t been convinced enough to jump in two-footed. But I do like Boxer and this album.

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Purchase log picks, June 2021

[Paul Moravec - Tempest Fantasy / Mood Swings / B.A.S.S. Variations / Schrezo]

The Highwomen, The Highwomen

I picked up a Highwaymen album from the thrift shop a while back, and despite Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson all showing up on the same album, the sum of its parts fell short of a whole. The Highwomen do a far better job in that regard.

Paul Moravec, Tempest Fantasy / Mood Swings / B.A.S.S. Variations / Scherzo

My first encounter with Paul Moravec was at an internship for the label Composers Recordings Inc. (CRI). The label reissued some Moravec recordings in its catalog on CD, and I got a free copy. Most of the promos I got during my internship were starkly downtown or uptown — the distinction back in the 90s between the young-ish minimalists and their older dodecacophanists. Moravec stood out because he was tonal af and made no bones about it. I lost that disc over the course of a few moves, but I remembered his name.

The Neptunes, The Neptunes Present … Clones

I bought this compilation when it first came out because I really liked what Pharrell and Chad Hugo were doing in the studio. But I had no clue about hip-hop history, so a lot of it went over my head. I had to sell it for cash during leaner times, but I picked it up again at the thrift shop.

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Purchase log picks, May 2021

[Arditti Quartet - Arditti]

Alexander O’Neal, Hearsay

When this album was released, I felt a bit of Jam and Lewis fatigue. After doing right by Janet Jackson and the Human League (somewhat), the production duo seemed to be everywhere. Of course, 30 years later, I picked up this album at the thrift store because Jam and Lewis are on it.

Yo Majesty, Return of the Matriarch

It doesn’t feel like they went away.

Dmitri Shostakovich, The Symphonies (Concertgebouw Orchestra, London Philharmonic, Bernard Haitink)

I’m incredibly familiar with the 15 string quartets of Dmitri Shostakovich, but I’ve been ambivalent about his symphonies. So I’ve been picking up Shostakovich symphony albums piecemeal when they show up at the thrift stores. I finally lucked into a box set at the now-defunct Seattle location of Everyday Music.

Of course, I have to agree with consensus about the fifth symphony. I don’t think the seventh is actually that great, but I do like the crunchiness of the eighth.

Arditti Quartet, Arditti

I’ve actually wanted to own this album for a long time, given its proximate release to Kronos Quartet’s first few major label albums. But the flow of time made me forget about this album till I saw it at Everyday Music before the store’s closure. (I do own a disc of Ligeti quartets on which Arditti performs.) I don’t want to enter the debate about which quartet is “better”, but I can understand critics who would side with Arditti.

John Adams, On the Transmigration of Souls

Wow, this piece really is mournful.

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Purchase log picks, April 2021

Laurie Anderson, Big Science

I haven’t really understood why Laurie Anderson is so revered, even after listening to some of her other albums (Mister Heartbreak, Strange Angels.) I finally got around to listening to Big Science, and then I knew.

Grace Jones, Slave to the Rhythm

I like Warm Leatherette more, but as far as album covers go, Slave to the Rhythm has an iconic one.

Sturgill Simpson, Cuttin’ Grass, Vol. 2

I’m not sure if the first volume of Cuttin’ Grass was meant to reveal any new facets to Simpson’s early albums, but it feels like the second volume does a better job of it.

Heaven 17, Penthouse and Pavement

Heaven 17 gets thrown in with Tears for Fears, ABC and Depeche Mode in music recommendation engines, but Penthouse and Pavement shows they were a little less melodic and a bit less danceable than those bands. And that’s not a knock.

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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 picks, February 2021

[Maxi Priest - Bonafide]

Big Pig, Bonk

I read about Big Pig when I was a teen-ager, but none of the record stores in Honolulu would carry Bonk. So when I spotted the album at the thrift shop, I picked it up. Singer Sherine Abeyratne is the big draw here, but a band with up to 5 drummers makes quite a sound. The album was released in 1988, so expect a lot of post-new wave.

Control Machete, Artillería Pesada, Presenta …

When rock en Español started getting traction in the US at the start of the 2000s, the genre was nearly pigeon-holed by rap-rock groups fashionable at the time. I drove to Dallas on a whim to catch the first Watcha Tour, and the evening was dominated by hip-hop and electric guitars. By the time Control Machete took the stage, I was getting worn.

So it’s my bad to have dropped the ball on this album.

Cocco, Kuchinashi

Cocco’s music let in a lot more sunshine after the birth of her son, but on this album and its predecessor, some of the storminess from her early work is creeping back in.

Test Pattern, “This Is My Street”

I so want the entire Test Pattern concert to be released on a physical audio medium. Yeah, I have the Documtary Now Blu Ray.

Antoine Reicha, Reicha Rediscovered, Vol. 3 (Ivan Ilić)

There are 57 variations on this 86-minute album. At various points, that theme keeps pounding at you. And yet, I feel compelled to take in all 86 minutes. Reicha really interrogates this theme, as does Ilić.

Siouxsie and the Banshees, Tinderbox

I’m an opportunistic Siouxsie fan — if I can find their albums for cheap, I’ll pick them up. I’m fond of Superstition, even if I recognize it’s probably not their best. But Tinderbox has so far convinced me why Siouxsie has a loyal following.

Soundtrack, The Crow

Rhino reissued this soundtrack on colored vinyl back in October 2020, and it sold out immediately. I was curious why, so I grabbed one of many copies on CD at the thrift shop. I understand — it’s a pretty good mixed tape of the predominate music of the mid ’90s.

Maxi Priest, Bonafide

I am old enough now not to care if you judge me for totally loving “Close to You”, but the rest of the album is actually quite enjoyable. I found myself digging it even though I’m clearly not the target market for it.

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Purchase log picks, January 2021

[Linda Ronstadt - Mad Love]

Linda Ronstadt, Mad Love

I had no idea this album was considered Ronstadt’s new wave album. Yes, three Elvis Costello songs are on this album, and “Hurt So Bad” has a scorching guitar solo more characteristic of the late Andy Gill. But it doesn’t sound like some new Romantic looking for a TV sound.

Carpenters, The Singles 1969-1973

There was a time when digging the Carpenters was an ironical act. The 90s are distant enough that I think we can sincerely dig the Carpenters now.

The Chemical Brothers, Dig Your Own Hole

I was skeptical of the whole attempt to make electronic dance the heir apparent of grunge. But that doesn’t detract from the Prodigy and the Chemical Brothers releasing some durable albums from that late-90s era.

bloodthirsty butchers, Mikansei

bloodthirsty butchers have a talent from making long songs that don’t feel as long as they are.

The Fixx, Reach the Beach

I knew the Fixx were responsible for “One Thing Leads to Another”, but I had no idea they were also behind “Saved By Zero”. To be honest, the songs sound like they’re from different bands.

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Purchase log picks, December 2020

[Animotion - Animotion]

Animotion, Animotion

I owned this album on vinyl, but I never played Side B all that much because the two hit singles were the two first tracks of the album (“Obsession”, “Let Him Go”). This album also had to compete with Duran Duran, Tears for Fears and ABC for my attention, and it didn’t fare well. Eventually, I would sell the record for cash.

I picked it up again at the thrift store and actually gave Side B a few spins. As a whole, the album holds together incredibly well. I went so far as to find the expanded edition reissued by Cherry Red on CD.

Big Black, Songs About Fucking

The arm of Big Black stretches long.

Richard Goode, Beethoven: The Complete Sonatas

Nonesuch offered a priced-down reissue of this boxed set for $25 to celebrate Beethoven’s birthday. That same week, I spotted a used copy of the original boxed set selling for that exact amount.

Sam Hunt, SOUTHSIDE

On Twitter, I said, “I find Sam Hunt simultaneously fascinating and disappointing.” The disappointing part are the bro country lyrics. The fascinating part is the use of hip-hop beats in country, which I hear is actually a thing.

Bruce Springsteen, Letter to You

Spike Lee has been described as someone who doesn’t know how to end his films. I sometimes feel the same about Bruce Springsteen. This album does drag after a while, but the stronger moments rank up there with his most renowned works.

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Purchase log picks, November 2020

[Whitney Houston - Whitney Houston]

SUPERCAR, OOKeah!!

SUPERCAR’s vinyl reissue campaign from 2017-2018 gave me an excuse to explore the band’s first three albums. The campaign didn’t include a pair of albums released in 1999, OOKeah!! and OOYeah!! So they’ve escaped my attention till now. I prefer OOKeah!! over OOYeah!!, although the latter include “Be”, a song with a darkly humorous video that can only come from Japan.

So, when can we get these albums reissued on vinyl?

Kylie Minogue, DISCO

Kiss Me Once was one of the last albums I downloaded from eMusic, and I skipped Golden altogether. So I approached DISCO with a fair amount of caution. Oh, she’s back.

PJ Harvey, Dry

Friends tried to get me into PJ Harvey by playing To Give You My Love. I would have gotten on board much sooner if they had played Rid of Me or Dry instead. I am, however, eagerly waiting news for a vinyl reissue of Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea.

Drive-By Truckers, Plan 9 Records, July 13, 2006

I’ve subjected myself to 3-LP live albums before, but this one is a scorcher from start to finish. I still see some copies of this Record Store Day exclusive in the wild, so you should get it if you spot it.

Whitney Houston, Whitney Houston

I disliked Whitney Houston growing up. Her songs were played to death on the radio, and just about every track on this album was released as a single. So how did I end up liking it more than 30 years later? The non-single tracks are actually pretty decent. Paired with the big showstoppers, Houston’s self-titled debut holds together exceptionally well. I didn’t even mind hearing the old singles again.

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