Tuesday, January 2, 2018
Music Week
Music: Current count 29119 [29058] rated (+61), 364 [388] unrated (-24).
Initial calculation on rated count was +41, which seemed plausible
enough, but when I moved the albums list from the scratch file to the
notebook I counted 44, so clearly something was amiss. I went back and
searched for unrated albums and found 20 I had failed to update --
obviously going back before last week, in some cases more than a year.
I don't have a lot of unrated physical 2017 CDs -- maybe a dozen,
including some inconvenient but still playable vinyl -- so I've been
doing a lot of streaming, especially items from interesting EOY lists,
and a fair number of them have been short: the Dawn Oberg is just
three songs, more are legitimately EPs, and with the refocusing on
vinyl a lot of regular albums clock in close to 30 minutes. I try
to work faster streaming, avoiding replays unless I really feel the
need to confirm a good record, and short goes faster still.
December's Streamnotes
went up on the last possible day, which has in turn pushed
Weekend
Roundup and this post a day later than normal -- three-day
weekends and all that.
I got a last minute Pazz & Jop invite, thanks to some strings
Bob Christgau pulled. I finally did a quick sort on my
Best Non-Jazz list without actually resampling anything, then
slipped William Parker's Meditation/Resurrection into the
top ten to maintain a little jazz cred. (Also bumps Kendrick Lamar's
Damn, which I have little doubt will win without me.) I have
no confidence that these are the ten best (mostly non-jazz) albums
of 2017, but they are good ones, interesting ones, ones worth noting:
- William Parker Quartets: Meditation/Resurrection (AUM Fidelity) 12
- Orchestra Baobab: Tribute to Ndiouga Dieng (Nonesuch/World Circuit) 10
- Sylvan Esso: What Now (Loma Vista) 10
- Pere Ubu: 20 Years in a Montana Missile Silo (Cherry Red) 10
- Joey Bada$$: All-Amerikkkan Bada$$ (Pro Era/Cinematic) 10
- Hamell on Trial: Tackle Box (New West) 10
- Re-TROS: Before the Applause (Modern Sky Entertainment) 10
- The Perceptionists: Resolution (Mello Music Group) 10
- Steve Earle & the Dukes: So You Wannabe an Outlaw (Warner Bros.) 9
- Craig Finn: We All Want the Same Things (Partisan) 9
I don't keep track of singles, so I'm hopeless there. One idea that
did occur to me was to look up anti-Trump songs. I found lists from
Guardian,
Mic,
Pitchfork, and
Rolling Stone.
In the end, I picked (only seven, but I expected zero):
- Joey Bada$$, "Land of the Free" (Pro Era/Cinematic)
- Oddisee, "NNGE" (Mello Music Group)
- The XX, "On Hold" (Young Turks)
- DJ Shadow (feat. Run the Jewels), "Nobody Speak" (Mass Appeal)
- Perfect Giddimani, "Dollnald Trummp" (Giddimani)
- L7, "Dispatch From Mar-a-Lago" (Don Giovanni)
- Dawn Oberg, "Nothing Rhymes With Orange" (self-released)
Obviously, could have done better had I spent more time, but top four
would probably have hung on. I did manage to sample another half-dozen
songs, including Fiona Apple's "Tiny Hands" and YG's "FDT" (but didn't
get to Brujeria's "Viva Presidente Trump!" -- on virtually all the lists --
until too late).
New records rated this week:
- Aesop Rock & Homeboy Sandman: Triple Fat Lice (2017, Stones Throw, EP): [bc]: B+(***)
- Alvvays: Antisocialites (2017, Polyvinyl): [r]: B+(**)
- Julien Baker: Turn Out the Lights (2017, Matador): [r]: B
- Blushh + Maddie Ross: Split (2017, self-released, EP): [bc]: B+(**)
- Brockhampton: Saturation (2017, Question Everything/Empire): [r]: B+(*)
- Brockhampton: Saturation II (2017, Question Everything/Empire): [r]: B+(**)
- Brockhampton: Saturation III (2017, Question Everything/Empire): [r]: B+(**)
- Tyler Childers: Purgatory (2017, Hickman Holler): [r]: B+(**)
- CupcakKe: S.T.D (Shelters to Deltas) (2016, self-released): [r]: B+(**)
- CupcakKe: Audacious (2016, self-released): [r]: B+(***)
- CupcakKe: Queen Elizabitch (2017, self-released): [r]: B+(**)
- Dev: I Only See You When I'm Dreamin' (2017, Devishot): [r]: A-
- Fever Ray: Plunge (2017, Rabid/Mute): [r]: B+(*)
- Dori Freeman: Letters Never Read (2017, MRI): [r]: A-
- Charles Gayle Trio: Solar System (2016 [2017], ForTune): [bc]: A-
- Justin Gray & Synthesis: New Horizons (2017 [2018], self-released): [cd]: B+(**)
- Emily Herring: Gliding (2017, Eight 30): [r]: B
- Homeboy Sandman: Veins (2017, Stones Throw, EP): [r]: B+(**)
- Hvalfugl: By (2017, self-released): [r]: B+(**)
- NERD: No One Ever Really Dies (2017, I Am Other/Columbia): [r]: B+(**)
- New York Electric Piano: State of the Art (2017, Fervor): [cd]: B+(*)
- Dawn Oberg: Nothing Rhymes With Orange (2017, self-released, EP): [bc]: B+(*)
- One O'Clock Lab Band: Lab 2017 (2017, UNT): [cd]: B
- Rapsody: Laila's Wisdom (2017, Def Jam): [r]: B+(**)
- Dave Rempis/Matt Piet/Tim Daisy: Hit the Ground Running (2017, Aerophonic): [bc]: B+(***)
- Eve Risser/Kaja Draksler: To Pianos (2017, Clean Feed): [r]: B
- Serengeti: Jueles/Butterflies (2017, self-released): [bc]: B+(*)
- Peter Sommer: Happy-Go-Lucky Locals (2017, self-released): [cd]: B+(**)
- Moses Sumney: Aromanticism (2017, Jagjaguwar): [r]: B+(*)
- Takaaki: New Kid in Town (2016 [2017], Albany): [cd]: B+(**)
- Turnpike Troubadours: A Long Way From Your Heart (2017, Bossier City): [r]: B
- The United States Air Force Band Airmen of Note: Veterans of Jazz (2017, self-released): [cd]: D+
- Charli XCX: Pop 2 (2017, Asylum): [r]: B+(***)
Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries rated this week:
- Vinny Golia Wind Quartet: Live at the Century City Playhouse: Los Angeles, 1979 (1979 [2017], Dark Tree): [cd]: B+(***)
- Nice! Jay Saunders' Best of the TWO (2009-14 [2017], UNT, 2CD): [cd]: B+(*)
- Art Pepper: Presents "West Coast Sessions!" Volume 1: Sonny Stitt (1980 [2017], Omnivore, 2CD): [r]: A-
- Art Pepper: Presents "West Coast Sessions!" Volume 2: Pete Jolly (1980 [2017], Omnivore): [r]: B+(***)
- Art Pepper: Presents "West Coast Sessions!" Volume 3: Lee Konitz (1982 [2017], Omnivore): [r]: A-
- Art Pepper: Presents "West Coast Sessions!" Volume 4 With Bill Watrous (1980 [2017], Omnivore): [r]: A-
- Art Pepper: Presents "West Coast Sessions!" Volume 5: Jack Sheldon (1980 [2017], Omnivore): [r]: A-
- Art Pepper: Presents "West Coast Sessions!" Volume 6: Shelly Manne (1981 [2017], Omnivore): [r]: A-
- The Rough Guide to the Music of West Africa ([2017], World Music Network): [r]: B+(***)
- Sweet as Broken Dates: Lost Somali Tapes From the Horn of Africa (1969-2002 [2017], Ostinato): [r]: B+(***)
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