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An occasional blog about populist politics and popular music, not necessarily at the same time. LinksLocal Links My Other Websites Music Politics Others Networking Music DatabaseArtist Search: Website SearchGoogle: Recent Reading
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Monday, January 27, 2025 Music Week
Music: Current count 43611 [43567) rated (+44), 30 [21] unrated (+9). I have many seemingly more pressing things to do today than compiling, much less annotating, this, but it's due today, and these days I rarely miss an opportunity to put my many other tasks off until later. Of course, the big one is figuring out what to do about my impending server apocalypse. For that, I should probably just point you to my planning file. My hope was to figure this out and do something about it last week. The reality is that I've figured a few things out, but haven't done anything. So that's still the agenda for this week, with virtually everything else in my life postponed until later. The brief story is that I host this and another half-dozen websites on a dedicated server I've leased since 2018 from a company called Hosting & Designs. The hardware, despite its age, seems adequate for my needs, but age has endangered the software: the Red Hat-derived CentOS Linux has passed its "end-of-life" and is no longer supported, especially by the the server management software -- a commercial package called cPanel, from a company called Web Pros., which has bought up former competitors (like Plesk) and used its leverage to aggressively jack up its prices while if anything reducing its support. H&D itself seems to have folded up its own support operation, or farmed it out -- details there are still hazy, but the bottom line is that the company cannot be trusted for support in the future. The other lesson is that cPanel is software to avoid if at all possible. It is currently the only software that I pay for, and I'm paying in more ways than I can count. So I'm near the end of my third or fourth leased server. Each time forces me to do a fairly extensive survey of what's available at what cost, which is what I'm trying to do now. It isn't an easy task. At a high level, there are several technologies to choose from -- discrete servers (shared or dedicated, managed or "bare metal") or virtual servers (which may be larger machines jiggered to look like multiple discrete machines, or may be drawn from even larger clouds) -- and several sysadmin software packages (cPanel is the big/expensive one, DirectAdmin is a competitor, and I've run across several others that seem to be specific to vendors; I haven't found much free software yet, but Webmin goes way back, and there must be others -- good chance some vendor-owned panels are open source-based; by the way, I've written lots of software along these lines, but way before 2000, so my sense of the state of the art is pretty atrophied). My more immediate has been on the vendors: there are dozens, and sorting through their competing offers is a lot of annoying and frustrating work. My file gives you a fairly general idea, with my notes fairly concentrated on smaller dedicated servers, virtual private servers, and hosting reseller packages. My budget isn't much over $100/month, which is arguably already more than my "business" can afford. But I do want to be able to use multiple domains, and I want to be able to continue to build and deploy small websites for friends. Given how modest my requirements are, and how severely my own sysadmin talents have deteriorated, I can hardly justify another dedicated server, even if I can afford it. A big part of the reason I'm facing some kind of crisis here is that I've never had the time or desire to properly manage my machine. So I've been lowering my sights, looking at virtual private servers, and possibly at some kind of shared hosting reseller program: the latter would limit some software options (and probably come with cPanel), but should support all the things I'm currently using, and cost much less than I'm currently paying. VPS would give me more control, and isolate my load from shared machine impacts, but it's hard to quantify such values. It's also very hard to get a good sense of just how much resource I need, and the pricing for extra CPU, RAM, etc., often strikes me as excessive. (As someone who buys components and builds his own computers, I know what they cost; on the other hand, I never factor in the cost of electricity when adding RAM, but they probably do.) So, it shouldn't take much longer to decide on a path forward, and start following it. Obviously, I went into this with a lot of fear and uncertainty. I should come out of it with a much better understanding of my system and how to manage it. Most likely, that system will also cost less, and perform better. But there are limits to how much I can rush the process. I've set up another half-dozen documents in my new planning directory, but have yet to flesh any of them out. Perhaps the most important will be one on what I'll attempt to write about going forward. I have some ideas, but I'm not ready to go into them here. For now, I'll note that I spent an hour or two on an X thread in Sunday's notebook -- someone asked "why does every single part of this economy feel like an obstacle course," and, well, look at my op. cit. server file to see how easily I can relate. Back on Wednesday I filed away another note on a bit scraped from Facebook about "why do liberals think Trump supporters are stupid?" I could have written much more, along the lines of why it doesn't do any good to tell stupid people that they're stupid even when the evidence for their stupidity is overwhelming. Of course, if I were still trying to advise Democratic politicians, I'd have to work harder to explain that more carefully. Looking farther back, there's another note on January 12, on a Biden boast about record job creation, and a riposte that "no matter how many jobs are created, Americans live under a general experience of being constantly fleeced at every turn (by landlords, banks, grocery stores, insurance companies, etc etc) & this significantly impacts perceptions of the economy. But before you get to that, the link first routes you through a compliment John Chacona paid to me about the Jazz Critics Poll. My notebook isn't intended for general readership. It's more of a personal aide de memoire, where sometimes I feel like saving kind words. I'll point out one more notebook item. One thing I've been wondering about is whether I might find it more productive to write in a more social context. It's very hard for me to gauge my usefulness (let alone effectiveness) when all I do is throw out infrequent (and often terribly long) blog posts. Admittedly, I've had pretty bad experiences attempting to pitch things in the past, leaving me with little hope for anything developing. But when I saw NonZero is Hiring!, I thought it might be an excuse to try to make contact with one of the few Substack writers I actually follow, Robert Wright. His specialty is foreign policy. As I've argued at great length in Speaking of Which, the main source of the Biden-Harris debacle -- the long-term costs of which are quite simply unfathomable -- has been an utterly disastrous foreign policy. The notebook entry explains this a bit, and includes the letter I wrote, which is probably the closest thing I have to a resume -- at least it covers the essentials, not so much for hiring me to do freelance work (which I'm not especially interested in), but more if you're interested in any sort of collaborative work. Of course, after I sent it, I started having second thoughts -- possibly based on some notes I made on Wright's books. I'll leave it at that for now. I'll look at the writing question more closely after I figure out what to do about the server. About the only other thing I've worked on this past week was the EOY Aggregate, which I've expanded to 302 lists. I've gone all the way through AOTY's lists, also Year-End Lists. I haven't done anything serious yet with Acclaimed Music Forums. I've only picked up a half-dozen or so FDJCP ballots, and I haven't touched P&J Rip-Off Poll since they wrapped up. I did pick up the Expert Witness Poll. I belatedly added the extra rank points for the Jazz Critics Poll, and also for HHGA's The Best Hip Hop Albums of 2014. I doubt that I'm done here, but not much more is really needed -- it's not like I care for who wins the 4-5 tossup between Fontaines D.C. and M.J. Lenderman (to cite two records given a second chance below, but still not near my top 200). Still, adding more jazz ballots would be more consistent with previous years' results, and I still want to collect other jazz lists for a poll-related file I've been working on (it'll be especially useful for deciding who to invite later). I'm only gradually realizing how far behind I am at various website management tasks. One egregious example is that I haven't done any Streamnotes indexes since August. (You probably don't care, but I depend on those to recall whether I've heard and forgotten possible review records, and I've been tripped up at least once on that so far). Worse, I haven updated the Robert Christgau's Consumer Guide database in close to a year. I thought I was one month short locally, but just discovered another month I had missed. That should be a pretty high priority item. There's much more to be done, but that will have to wait until I get to the appropriate planning file. There's also a good chance that the server project will sharpen my interest in website development technique. It's possible I could decide to focus more on that and less on writing. Records below are widely scattered, mostly things I ran across from various lists, and a few probable duds I pulled off the top of the black print in the EOY Aggregate. I've also taken a bit of time (especially today) revisiting albums I dismissed perhaps too quickly during the year. New this week are adding some notes on records I played but didn't regrade. Blame that on Beyoncé. I will note that changing a grade involves changing 5-7 files, so it's not something I want to do unless I have good reason. In particular, I'm reluctant to downgrade a record just because the replay fell short of what I expected, let alone hoped for -- I could have dropped Beyoncé and/or Lenderman, but I figure they were still plausibly in range, and what I found lacking in each could have been passing. I'm not sure what else should be rechecked at this point: probably lots of records I'll never get to, because I'll never notice them again. One thing I will note is that I've had zero interest in moving on to 2025 releases so far. My demo queue is up to 30, but still off my desk. Emails with download links are almost always getting deleted as soon as they come in. I expect I'll get around to that stuff when I feel like it, but no need to do so soon. I'll also note that I've done very little on the Jazz Poll since it published. I do have some more things in mind there, including a new round of mail, but I've been distracted and focused on other things, and I'm not getting much feedback I have to deal with -- which is actually fine for now. One last note is that I've plunged into the fourth of the Hobsbawm Age books, although in this case I still have my original 1994 Pantheon hardcover. For some strange reason, I don't seem to be able to find a scan of its book cover, so I resorted to the paperback, and even there I only found a cover that is skewed and needed to be cropped (which I did a bad job of). I think these are very good books to be reading at this particular time. New records reviewed this week: 2nd Grade: Scheduled Explosions (2024, Double Double Whammy): Power pop band from Philadelphia, fourth album since 2018. B+(*) [sp] 070 Shake: Petrichor (2024, GOOD Music/Def Jam): Rapper-singer Danielle Balbuena, third album since 2020. B+(**) [sp] Amy Allen: Amy Allen (2024, AWAL): First album as singer, has a considerable reputation as a songwriter working with pop stars like Sabrina Carpenter, Olivia Rodrigo, Halsey, Justin Timberlake. A curious lack of reviews or interest in this, as it actually sounds pretty good. B+(***) [sp] Armbruster: Can I Sit Here (2024, Dear Life): Took a while to map the mononym to one of the dozen-plus Armbrusters in Discogs, but first name seems to be Connor, a composer and violinist from Troy, NY, with one previous album, Masses (2022). Mostly drone, solemn at first, then mellows out, for some stretches may even be pretty. B+(***) [sp] Avalanche Kaito: Talitakum (2024, Glitterbeat): Kaito Winse, from Burkina Faso, working with Belgian duo Le Jour du Seigneur (Benjamin Chaval and Nicolas Gitto), second album. The African component heats up the frenzied electronic beats and noise. B+(***) [sp] Kelsea Ballerini: Patterns (2024, Black River): Country pop singer-songwriter, from Knoxville, fifth album since 2015, credits Taylor Swift's debut with introducing her to country music. B+(*) [sp] Naima Bock: Below a Massive Dark Land (2024, Sub Pop): British singer-songwriter, father Brazilian, formerly bassist in the band Goat Girl, second album, leans to folk. B [sp] Cigarettes After Sex: X's (2024, Partisan): American dream pop band, from Texas, singer-songwriter is Greg Gonzalez, also plays guitar, third album, I particularly liked their first album. This is very laid back, the songs mere whispers, just enough to draw you in. B+(***) [sp] Doris: Ultimate Love Songs Collection (2024, Janine): New Jersey rapper Frank Dorrey, nothing on Discogs or Wikipedia, but RYM credits him with a mixtape, 7 EPs, 15 singles, and this 50-track compilation (48:51) of lo-fi fragments, which got a rave review on Pitchfork and very little else. B+(*) [sp] Judas Priest: Invincible Shield (2024, Columbia): British heavy metal band, one I've never had the slightest interest in, their debut (Rocka Rolla) due for a 50th anniversary retread, Wikipedia counts this as their 19th studio album, first to be graced with a grade in my database. Better than I expected, reminds me that I wasn't always a metalphobe, although what few lyrics I caught did nothing to diminish my sense that they were always full of shit. B+(*) [sp] Knocked Loose: You Won't Go Before You're Supposed To (2024, Pure Noise): Another top unheard album from my EOY Aggregate list, metalcore and/or hardcore punk, singer Bryan Garris in intense screamo mode, the guitars and rhythm extra crunchy -- traits that seem to impress metal friends but are still tolerable, if not all that comprehensible, to those of us who used to dig punk and early hardcore. Best of all, the 10 songs are done in 27:28. B [sp] The Lemon Twigs: A Dream Is All We Know (2024, Captured Tracks): Rock band from Hicksville, Long Island, built around brothers Brian and Michael D'Addario, sixth album since 2015, reached the top unheard spot in my EOY aggregate: not my usual anti-metal bias this time, but because I remembered their 2023 album as one of the year's most atrocious. I was surprised to find the opening cut ("My Golden Years") agreeably jaunty, and I don't mind the Beach Boys rip ("In the Eyes of the Girl"), but the harmony on the ambitious title track turned cloying, while elsewhere they turned saccharine. B- [sp] Alison Moyet: Key (2024, Cooking Vinyl): English pop singer-songwriter, started in early-1980s group Yazoo (1982, shortened to Yaz in US), 1984 debut Alf was a bit UK hit (45 in US), with this career recap -- new takes of old songs -- her 10th. I recognize the name, but missed the albums, so the songs are all new to me. B+(*) [sp] Mustafa: Dunya (2024, Jagjaguwar): From Toronto, parents from Sudan, Mustafa Ahmed, earlier went as Mustafa the Poet, was a member of Halal Gang. First studio album. Slow, soft, soulful. B+(*) [sp] Emily Nenni: Drive & Cry (2024, New West): California-born, Nashville-based country singer-songwriter, third album. B+(**) [sp] Rema: Heis (2024, Mavin/Jonzing World/Interscope): Nigerian singer-songwriter, sometime rapper, second album, choppy beats, runs through 11 songs in a snappy 27:38. B+(**) [sp] SahBabii: Saaheem (2024, self-released): Chicago rapper Saaheem Valdery, fourth album since 2017, no relation to electronica producer Babii. B+(***) [sp] De Schuurman: Bubbling Forever (2024, Nyege Nyege Tapes): Dutch electronic producer, "De" subs for first name Guillermo, has an uncle and several cousins with DJ monikers, first album (2021) was Bubbling Inside. This seems to be a specialty of software known as Fruityloops, although I also detect actual drums puncturing the bubbles. A- [sp] Sexyy Red: In Sexyy We Trust (2024, Rebel): Rapper Janae Wherry, from St. Louis, third album. B+(**) [sp] Caroline Shaw & Sō Percussion: Rectangles and Circumstance (2024, Nonesuch): Vocalist, also plays violin, seems to be slotted as classical but I hear little that marks her as such. This is an impressive songs album -- although I note words from William Blake and Emily Dickinson, and music from Franz Schubert, among others, mixed in with the originals. The percussion group is often outstanding. B+(***) [sp] Smino: Maybe in Nirvana (2024, Zero Fatigue/Motown): Rapper Christopher Smith, originally from St. Louis, grew up in Chicago, fourth album since 2017, short (10 tracks, 28:55). B+(**) [sp] Astrid Sonne: Great Doubt (2024, Escho): Danish singer-songwriter, plays viola, based in London, fifth album since 2018, also plays some bass guitar and drums, but keeps it basic. And short (9 tracks, 26:50). B [sp] Takkak Takkak: Takkak Takkak (2024, Nyege Nyege Tapes): Japanese electronica producer, Shigeru Ishihara, based in Berlin, first album under this alias but he's used many more, like Scotch Rolex, and has been a recent member of Seefeel. The Kampala label has become a magnet for artists eager to kick up the rhythm and bang on some metal, which is pretty much what you get here. A- [sp] That Mexican OT: Texas Technician (2024, Manifest/Good Talk/Good Money Global/Capitol): Rapper Virgil René Gazca, from Bay City, Texas, second album, after several mixtapes. B+(***) [sp] Dlala Thukzin: Finally Famous Too (2024, Dlala): South African producer, "famous for his versatility in blending amapiano and afro tech with gqom," only album on Discogs but I've heard three previous volumes of Permanent Music. B+(***) [sp] Anna Tivel: Living Thing (2024, Fluff and Gravy): Folk singer-songwriter from Oregon, half-dozen albums since 2014. Pretty nice. B+(***) [sp] Sam Wilkes/Craig Weinrib/Dylan Day: Sam Wilkes, Craig Weinrib and Dylan Day (2024, Leaving): Bass guitar, drums, electric guitar. PopMatters touted this as the best ambient album of 2024, which runs counter to my assumption that ambient records are mostly electronics, while this configuration usually means jazz. But listening to it, I can see their point, or half of it anyway. Wilkes has some previous history, both in and out of jazz, including a duo album with Sam Gendel. The others thus far only show up with Wilkes. B+(*) [sp] Willow: Empathogen (2024, Three Six Zero/Gamma): Singer-songwriter, last name Smith, daughter of actors Will and Jada Pinkett Smith, also acts -- first film when she was six, first album when she was 14, sixth album at 23. B+(**) [sp] Remi Wolf: Big Ideas (2024, Island): American "funky soul pop" singer-songwriter, from Palo Alto, started with three EPs about dogs, released an album in 2021, now this second one, co-produced by high school friend Solomophonic (Jared Solomon). The ideas are promising, but the big production doesn't always help. The nominal closer, "Just the Start," suggests a different album, then sets up the "Slay Bitch" bonus track, which finally does work as dance pop. B+(*) [sp] WoochieWobbler: Thrilla (2024, self-released, EP): Second EP, I still know nothing about the artist(s), and listening to a very fractured 10 tracks (19:09) doesn't help much. B [sp] Dwight Yoakam: Brighter Days (2024, VIA/Thirty Tigers): Country singer-songwriter, debut 1986, 17th studio album, only one lacking a Wikipedia page, but hardly anyone seems to have noticed his first album since 2016. B+(**) [sp] Zawose Queens: Maisha (2024, Real World): Two women, Pendo Hukwe Zawose and her daughter Leah Zawose, from central Tanzania, the former the daughter of Hukwe Zawose (1940-2003), who had several albums, including two given international release on this label. B+(***) [sp] Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries: Joe Ely: Driven to Drive ([2024], Rack 'Em): Singer-songwriter from Lubbock, started in the Flatlanders with Butch Hancock and Jimmie Dale Gilmore, recorded the perfect Honky Tonk Masquerade in 1978, many more fine albums since then. I don't see dates, but this is reportedly a compilation of (mostly) old demos, themed to the road and spanning several decades. So should we count it as a vault album? Or just as his best in 20 years? A- [sp] Funk.BR - São Paulo (2024, NTS): Twenty-two short (54:21 total) radio shots, nearly all by artists named as DJ something-or-other. Not much more than beats, but they are distinctive. B+(**) [sp] Margo Guryan: Words and Music (1957-68 [2024], Numero Group, 2CD): Better known as a songwriter (1937-2021, played piano and sung, leaving one album (1968) and some demos, most or all collected here (2-CD or 3-LP). This leaves a variety of impressions, suggesting more than there may be. I especially line later tracks like "Hold Me Dancin'." B+(***) [sp] Like Someone I Know: A Celebration of Margo Guryan (2024, Sub Pop): New covers of 12 songs written by Guryan (1937-2021), the first 11 in order from her 1968 album Take a Picture, most handled by obscure but sympathetic alt/indie singers -- most famous are probably Clairo and Empress Of, plus Margo Price on the bonus cut. B+(*) [sp] Fumio Itabashi: Watarase (1982 [2024], Wewantsounds): Japanese pianist, debut 1979, second album, solo, starts with three covers (through "I Can't Get Started"), then four originals. [sp] Skip James: Today! (1966 [2024], Craft): Delta blues legend (1902-69), recorded nine singles for Paramount in 1931, which are revered by many, but I panned Yazoo's compilation for its poor sound. He got rediscovered in the early 1960s folk blues boomlet, and recorded several albums from then to 1969. High voice, delicate songs, plays some piano as well as guitar. B+(***) [sp] Judas Priest: Rocka Rolla [50th Anniversary Edition] (1974 [2024], MNRK/Exciter/Reach): The venerable British metal band's first album, Discogs styles it as Classic Rock. Indeed, one thing you notice is that many of the clichés of heavy metal had yet to be invented. Another thing is that this band had a built-in need for them. B [sp] Paul McCartney & Wings: One Hand Clapping (1974 [2024], MPL): Live-in-studio recordings, mostly reprising the group's 1973 album Band on the Run, performed for a documentary movie that wasn't released until 2010 in conjunction with a box set, but has been remastered for theatrical release in 2024. Own songs offer no improvement over the album, but a few oldies covers help out. B [sp] Michel Petrucciani Trio: Jazz Club Montmartre - CPH 1988 (1988 [2024], Storyville): French pianist, had a genetic disorder which left him stunted and brittle, but during his short life (1962-99) he displayed extraordinary mastery over the piano. His two 1983-84 albums for Blue Note were especially notable (100 Hearts and Live at the Village Vanguard). And since his death, various live tapes have appeared to remind us of him, including this trio set with Gary Peacock (bass) and Roy Haynes (drums). B+(***) [sp] Taylor Swift: The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology (2024, Republic): When I reviewed her album back in May, I limited myself to the 16-song, 65:08 album proper. I liked it fine, but ignored this extras package (another 15 songs, 57:13; the digital combines them both, and evidently there is a "physical edition" with four more bonus tracks). When I started compiling EOY lists, I opted to count this among the reissues/vault music, which now looks like a technical error: they do seem to be all new (or at least different) songs, unlike the Charli XCX remix, or her own "Taylor's Version" albums). These seem like good songs, but I neither paid close enough attention (nor wanted to) to say for sure. B+(**) [sp] Virtual Dreams, Vol. II: Ambient Explorations in the House & Techno Age, Japan 1993-1999 (1993-99 [2024], Music From Memory): Hard to judge this remarkably pleasant 97 minute selection, especially without having heard its previous volume, or literally any of its source material. B+(***) [sp] Old music: Virtual Dreams: Ambient Explorations in the House & Techno Age, Japan 1993-1999 (1993-99 [2020], Music From Memory): Predecessor to this year's Vol. II, offers 16 pieces in 78 minutes (3-LP or 2-CD), again artists and music I have no prior or comparative experience with. B+(***) [sp] Grade (or other) changes: Zach Bryan: The Great American Bar Scene (2024, Belting Bronco/Warner): His songs grew on you, which led me to upgrade Zach Bryan in 2023, so odds favored this one as well. [was: B+(**)] B+(***) [sp] Sabrina Carpenter: Short 'n' Sweet (2024, Island): Not sure why I resisted this pop chanteuse, aside from that it could be shorter, maybe even sweeter, but half of the songs are brilliantly hooked, and there's little point quibbling about the filler. This year's sensation, but she's been around: started posting YouTube videos when she was 10, became a Disney teen actor, first album at 16, fourth at 25. [was: B+(***)] A- [sp] Doechii: Alligator Bites Never Heal (2024, Top Dawg/Capitol): Rapper Jaylah Hickman, third mixtape, has a couple noteworthy EPs, got some major label push here, although I still have trouble noticing what other critics are raving about. [was: B+(**)] B+(***) [sp] Rosali: Bite Down (2024, Merge): I played this back in May, and judging from my review then, got literally nothing out of it, so I was surprised to find it appear in a Christgau CG. After further review, I'm noting some songcraft and decent guitar, but still not much. [was: B]: B+(*) [sp] Vampire Weekend: Only God Was Above Us (2024, Columbia): Major group in a genre I have little patience for, huge critical following for their first three albums (2008-13), lost a key member and seemed lame on their fourth (2019), by 2024 they were a group I had no interest in or patience for, so I'm not just surprised but amazed at this revisit. [was: B+(**)] A- [sp] Yard Act: Where's My Utopia? (2024, Island): British group, from Leeds, second album, James Smith's vocals are most often spoken, with bits of skits cut up and scattered. Much of this remains below my level of consciousness, but the more I focus, the more interesting bits I find. One thing I can say is that back in my teens I was fascinated with the idea of utopia, and some of that interest is resurfacing with 2024's dystopian turn in politics. [was: B+(**)] A- [sp] Rechecked with no grade change: Beyoncé: Cowboy Carter (2024, Parkwood/Columbia): Enough talent and ideas here to make an impressive album, but I'm more struck by how irritating much of this is. The mix justifies keeping the grade, but if it wasn't such work to move it, chagrin would win out. B+(**) [sp] The Cure: Songs of the Lost World (2024, Fiction): An auteur band I've never felt any affinity to makes a very listenable album of no real import. B+(*) [sp] Fontaines D.C.: Romance (2024, XL): Still sounds good. Just not good enough to bump it up. B+(**) [sp] MJ Lenderman: Manning Fireworks (2024, Anti-): I don't dislike this enough to downgrade it, but this pass I didn't hear anything to make me prefer this to the recently replayed but lower-graded Fontaines D.C., which I didn't like enough to upgrade. Those two records are neck-and-neck for 4th in my EOY Aggregate, and I really don't get why. B+(***) [sp] Mach-Hommy: #Richaxxhaitian (2024, Mach-Hommy): Like all of his records, just a bit too inscrutable for my limited attention span. B+(***) [sp] Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:
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