#1992 Johnny Thunders - So Alone

Ex-New York Doll twists pop rock of the 50's and 60's; twists but never breaks, just sneers and tortures the sound, keeping the hookiness alive. I wish it'd had gone further, shown a little less respect, been more willing to rip shit apart - the giant list of guest stars might have given it a bit of the ol' superband jitters - but it's still a scuzzy, fun little footnote 3/5

#1991 Greensky Bluegrass - If Sorrows Swim

Mumford and their calculated emotion-baiting ruined this sound. I can't hear a single layered exaltation over banjos, a single skyward build to something bigger over upright bass, a single chord-change//break into "oooaaaaaaawwwwooooooaaaaah!", without thinking of those smug fucks and their army of doe-eyed dipshits.

What if Mumford never existed? Better! What if, by whatever mechanism, I wasn't such a jaded, smug fuck of my own pernicious breed?

What if those genuinely good turns of phrase reminded me of Dan Mangan and Josh Ritter? What if that light streaking up between the planks caught some stray grass from the rock of my heart? Because dammit, the chops seem real. The sentiment seems real. And damn, that dusty production does feel like the horse led the cart. And when I listen to this I hear musicians and music and damn if that's not hard to find these days. And surely one bad apple can't ruin an entire style for an entire generation.

And then I think about putting this on and someone going, "is this Mumford and Sons?" and I want to punch a child. What an unholy asshole I am. Power through it, Baker 3.5/5

#1990 James Chance and The Contortions - Buy

The blueprint for cool music for cool people: wailing saxes, wailing men, funk guitars, a general atonal punk / no wave disregard for musicality. Dance music for the post-everything crowd.

It's lazy, arch, ugly, insincere nonsense - everything it does Minutemen did better (or decided not to) 2.5/5

#1989 Blitzen Trapper - All Across this Land

Blitzen Trapper always sounds the same // never sounds the same, orbiting that same country-flecked sun at every distance in every dimension. This time out the they've gone full wide-eyed on America, riding that long lonely road with Bob Seger, John Cougar and The Boss.

It's full and rich and feels right. All Across this Land might have seen like a tacky pop move from another band, but it's just another memorable stop on the map for these wanderers 4/5

#1988 Motorhead - Overkill

Trying to respect Lemmy here, whose stuff I overlooked till he died, who bristled when Motorhead got called "metal", but man Motorhead sounds a lot like metal, like the metal that came before and the metal that came after, from Sabbath to Metallica to the whole New British Wave. Those're some solid riffs.

Themewise and scenewise though, you see his point - there's no scifi, no horror, no hair, no pretension, all dirt and grit and punkrock dontgiveafuck. Most metal guys are secretly pussycats.

These guys don't seem like secret pussycats.

No theater here, its dead direct like good old Rock and Roll, doing its own thing and fun as hell to listen to by accident, just by bein fuckin cool 4/5

#1987 Elbow - The Take Off and Landing of Everything

Peaceful post-rock that seeks to soothe, that tries to deliver us, the world-weary and the death-obsessed, to something beyond. Admirable goal.

It works in places, those hypnotic churns, that rounded sound. But I couldn't quite get with it, held back by the similarity to late-era Peter Gabriel, in terms of Garvey's voice and the way its themes run watery by the end. To return to, maybe, when I'm less jaded 3/5

#1986 The Beatles - Yellow Submarine

Is it possible? This blind spot?

I'm a big fan of the big late 5, of the Early Stuff, but the weird 2nd tier falls through, and the shock of that 2nd side of instrumentals, the shock of Only A Northern Song, that now knocks me over backwards on the (re?)listen, I think I might have never heard this before that day on the late 28th, 2015. How strange. I suspect this is the last Beatles album I ever get to hear for the first time.

I'm not trying to be contrary but:

Yellow Submarine // All You Need is Love, whatever.

And the second side instrumentals, eh, meh for double.

But fuckina. Those remaining 4, Only a Northern Song, All Together Now, Hey Bulldog, It's All Too Much [edit: ok, ok drunky - All Together Now is nothing special], god they knock it out. They find that sweet spot where the lads were a little selfaware about their spot, where a fist of truth punches right the fuck through in all these ways. They are, arguably, a few of my favorite Beatles songs, this brilliance that shines through The Beatles, more clearly than anything this side of Sgt Peppers' title tracks. They know, and in that knowing the transcend the transcenders.

Pretentious twatling aside, lukewarm instrumentals aside, there are at very least four incredible tracks here, and even a couple more if you unclench your heart. Maybe its that fuckedup Zooropa spirit in me, but I love, love, love those 4 lost 2nd tier tracks. Did from the first listen, more so in this review-time relisten.

Something shines through here, when a band has the freedom to do themselves as hard as they want, aware but unfettered by their own patterns, that rebellion against expected levels out to just dead even and something real comes through.

Shine on you crazy fuckin diamonds - and we're out, first and only Beatles album to find its way onto this blog ever you four souls. Fuckit. Even All You Need Is Love is pretty great, as it cracks me on the home stretch. Shine the fuck on 4.5/5 [edit: fully half the album is basically completely forgettable. I'm a mess.]

#1985 Arca - Mutant

If you need the newnewnewnew and want to hear sound fucked to pieces in whole different ways, this guy's got Oval/Matmos/Aphex-level game. Rips, expands, shatters, melts - physical excess. As experimental/noise goes it's listenable, hints of a human edge; Cronenberged beats and some actual notes lounge on islands in static seas.

Hell to listen to though 2.5/5

#1984 DJ Koze - DJ Kicks

Koze's Kicks turn is introspective, mellow, a series of hypnotic, soft-hooked landscapes sewn together by uncanny vocalizations. Yoni Wolf's yowl, Shatner's muttering, The 2 Bears // Marker Starlings' Albarnian croons, cast among conversations between mechanical voices and chopped samples - it's a backbone of the familiar and the strange that distracts you from the subtle scene changes.

It's a little boring by the end, lacking peak Koze's heady swoons, but you'll come away with memories of a journey to a place where they speak the language, but with different dialects, with customs that inspire you to forget 3.5/5

#1983 Deerhunter - Fading Frontier

Outside of a couple of brilliant songs on Microcastle (7 years ago!) I cannot figure out what the scene has ever seen in Deerhunter. Pretty, sure, but Fading Frontier's sleepy songs are completely forgettable, swift-fading dreams at best. And even the upbeat moments sound like Smashing Pumpkins' late-era gutless pop stabs.

I've listened to this damn thing 3 times now and still can't call up a note of it. Maybe that's the appeal, a soporific for the terminally bored 2.5/5

#1982 Viet Cong - Viet Cong

Surely two full-on waves of post-punk is enough? But Viet Cong's debut LP is packed with new collisions, a kaliedescope of [New Order/Pixies/Gang of Four//BOC] at their artiest, with shards of that PtBS buzzsaw sear, churning with seductive menace. Harmonic, hypnotic, insistent, shimmering, blackened, sexy - a maze of fuzzy walls at uncanny angles, breaking open into pits and parlours, inviting, dangerous, electric 4.5/5

#1981 Downtown Boys - Full Communism

Those giant saxes make a wave, pushing every song forward, surging unstoppable.

The thrashing, the wailing, the thundering guitar chug - all vital, exciting. Ruiz's righteous rants hit the heart of the matter with blunt and barb. But it's that sax wave that give it power, Springsteen gone double psycho rockabilly what knocks you down and drags you away. Essential 4.5/5

#1980 Archy Marshall - A New Place 2 Drown

I listened to this while I wrangled computers and came off underwhelmed.

Now I sit watching the ocean blazing silver-white with reflected hazed sunlight, plants swaying in front erratic breeze, and I bob my head and feel kinda high and I go, ok, ok. Deep in blankets, behind walls of haze, moving in slow motion, beats burble and click, words drip like clocks, hip hop for the very gone 3.5/5

#1979 Count Five - Psychotic Reaction

Sounds of early second-wave American garage - these guys were copying (and covering) The Who before it was cool. End up sounding more like The Small Faces. Could do worse.

There's invention and energy here, but it's not on fire - the boys can't quite just let it fly. They want to sound *good*, or at least like their British heroes, worshiping American rock the long way around. There's ambition in the crannies where there should be --fuckit--[* **] - - * , and it steals some of that garagey energy, till it sounds also-ran in retrospect 3/5

#1978 The Flaming Lips - Hear it Is

Straight on from the debut: it's those same aluminum buzzsaw guitars shaped into actual songs. That post-punk churn churns on, newly spiked with anthems, builds, swerves - actual excitement! It gets  samey by the end (Man From Pakistan is a Frankenstein of just-heard tricks) but there's bristling tension, prickling uncanniness, and just enough puckish fun 3.5/5

#1977 The Flaming Lips - The Flaming Lips

Scenesters' chronic overrating of The Soft Bulletin stunted my interest in the Flaming Lips for decades - its whiny half-underground sound was a warning sign on the band's entire early era.

Incorrectly! Their menacing, sheetmetal post-punk debut is fascinating, serving up its own simmering weirdness, plus a glimpse at seeds before rotten fruit. It's not *great*, stirring the same pots for too long, but it'll give you a jagged little dose of hypnosis. Essential for anyone remotely interested in the Lips' 30 year (!) career 3/5

#1976 The Marshall Tucker Band - The Marshall Tucker Band

I really should hate this, but something about this album's just so damn agreeable: its supersoft, too-perfect mix of country, honkytonk, Americana softrock and jammy meanderin just makes me smile. It's overpolished, overpretty, undergritty, but dammit it pulls it off. It's unpretentious without being showy about how unpretentious it is (I'm looking at you, Lynerd fucking Skynerd), just shuffling along and inviting you for the ride 4/5

#1975 The Barrel Fires - The Barrel Fires

Listen / buy here!

I dig the imperfection. It's a charming little EP, sounding like the boys were all about finding the spirit of the moment, unwilling to grind it out. And it's pretty: full of dulcet guitars, vocals and vocals with just that pillowey touch of reverb.

Too pretty for my taste though. It's good! These guys totally did what they set out to do. It's pretty music from some nice-sounding lads, but I like a lot more whiskey in my tea 3/5

#1974 Jeremih - Late Nights: The Album

Auto-tuned, synth-n-glitch-drenched R&B's taken over a lot of hip hop's territory, conquering most of the neutral zone, crushing the airwaves.

"Maybe that's not such a bad thing!" I thought a couple times here, I gotta admit.

At its best The Album's awesome - it's icy, weird, cool, nicking experimental indie-electronic angles to bring heart and vulnerability and drugaddled laserblur to your 2am. Planez is creepy, alien, slitheringly charming. Pass Dat's strangely beautiful, some collision of Jamie XX and Grimes. And Giv No Fuks gets by on core premise.

But there's so much filler here, so much dopey club-ready generica, so much meandering and wandering that fails to keep your attention.  I don't know what the hell Don't Tell Em did to earn a hundred and twenty three million Spotify listens - that song's boring as shit.

It's a fine line between being cool and lilting over, straight falling asleep in your private booth. Dude has got an eye for a hook, but he's not ready to go album-length, and a bunch of weakass guest appearances can't cover it up 3/5

#1973 Diggs Duke - Civil Circus

For decades, jazz + anything = watery twaddle. But lately we're getting somewhere: the brainfeeder crew brewing up winedark jazz / hip hop soup, Donnie Trumpet spiking sunny asides into Chance's raps, Kneebody and Daedelus disappearing into eachother...

Add Diggs to the list of dudes making it work - horns and floaty organs work their way through spoken word, R&B, and electronic-etc to make something uncanny, funky, and cool - like the cover art's cubism. You're never really sure where its headed while it slips out from under you, glitches, layered ooos, beerlight sax wanderers, spinning something hypnotically wooly and downright pleasant, flashes of day in night 4/5

#1972 The Funkees - Dancing Time, the Best of Eastern Nigeria's Afro Rock Exponents 1973-77

Funk and psychedelic rock rolled out real strange and slow - those 60's organs and wickawack guitars crying out over horns, chants, and oblong beats. It's vibrant, exciting, hypnotic. It's hard not to make the comparison to Tropicalia, especially with that blownout garagey production, even if vibe's real different

The pacing runs a little overlong - eventually it all starts to sound a bit the same - but this's essential for anyone interested in rock outside the Western world 4/5