NILS FRAHM
Released January 26, 2018
PREFAB SPROUT
Released September 7, 2009
GENESIS
Released March 28, 1980
ANDERSON. PAAK
Released October 28, 2014
GARY CLARK JR.
Released February 22, 2019
NEW 2019 MUSIC: With the deep synthetic tone that would not sound out of place upon a classic Dr. Dre album, we arrive at this year's brashest, boldest, most enraged opening shot for an album released this year so far...
"I remember when you used to tell me
Nigga run, nigga run
Go back where you come from
Nigga run, nigga run
Go back where you come from...
...Fuck you, I'm America's son..."
Paranoid and pissed off, directly in the middle of Trump country and armed with guitar in hand, Gary Clark Jr. returns with "This Land," his most fully realized album to date, which combines the best elements of his two previous albums, the wildly diverse "Blak And Blue" (released October 22, 2012) and the more intimate "The Story Of Sonny Boy Slim" (released September 11, 2015).
Where the former album was ambitiously expansive and the latter album was a tad more tentative, "This Land" finds Clark Jr. at a new artistic crossroads and the tension contained within his refusal to adhere to anyone's expectations of him as a striking blues artist or 21st century guitar hero and discovering precisely how wide his musical reach is and can be while furthermore addressing the state of affairs in 2019 is distinctly palpable and often explosive in its ferocious delivery.
With an enormous production quality that returns Clark Jr. to the sonic landscape of "Blak And Blu,"
and a nearly 72 minute running time, this new album, in addition to his monstrous blues based workouts contains the slow boil to burn of "I Got My Eyes On You (Locked And Loaded)," dabbles into reggae textures with "Feeling Like A Million," the Chuck Berry by way of The Ramones punk-a-billy roar of "Gotta Get Into Something," the Ennio Morricone/Latin samba hybrid "When I'm Gone," a stinging instrumental in "Highway 71" and the Prince pastiche "Pearl Cadillac."
In fact, as I listen to the album more and more, it feels as if Gary Clark Jr. is attempting to create his own version of a classic Prince album, a work that defies classification while showcasing his own multi-faceted songwriting skills, striking vocals, and of course the bedrock of the blues from which spirals journeys into soul, R&B, hip-hop and funk with his trademark guitar fireworks as the glue to hold everything together.
And while he doesn't quite have Prince's peerless reach (and frankly, who could?), "This Land" definitely displays Clerk Jr.'s strenuous stretch, powerfully admirable, and often amazing. I still believe that he has that GREAT album inside of him and while "This Land" doesn't quite reach that pinnacle, it is the sound of an uncompromising, seeing artist getting ever closer to that mountaintop.
REIGNWOLF
Released March 1, 2019
NEW 2019 MUSIC: Thank you, Cameron Crowe!!
I am more than certain that the first I had ever heard of Reignwolf, the musical brainchild of Jordan Cook, was via the second episode of Crowe's vastly under-appreciated Showtime series "Roadies" (2016) in which Cook scored and his band Reignwolf possessed an unquestionably explosive appearance so dynamic, it immediately made me search the internet and local record stores for any of the band's music. Yet, aside from a tiny smattering of singles, no albums existed as of yet.
Well, now, and a whopping seven ears after the band's official beginning, Reignwolf's debut release has arrived and it has proven itself to being more than worth the wait...and it leaves us wanting even more as well as putting to rest all of these ridiculously premature notices of the death of the guitar.
As with Gary Clark Jr., Reignwolf's bedrock appears to be embedded within the blues with helpful thunderous wallops of Zeppelin swagger and alt-rock fury ("Over & Over" really sounds like a lost Nine Inch Nails track) that should make the likes of Jack White look dangerously over his shoulder.
In a scant 29 minutes, Reignwolf's "Hear Me Out" explodes with flamethrower riffs and propulsive, pounding (and sometimes, decidedly lusty) grooves while Cook's extraordinary vocals and dive bombing guitar heroics offer slash and surprise with every track, featuring the pummeling "Alligator," the slinky, sinister "Ritual," the monolithic "Keeper," and the Soundgarden-esque "Son Of A Gun" as my personal favorites.
Now that we have this small but dynamite calling card in Reignwolf's"Hear me Out," I certainly hope it is not another seven years before we hear from Jordan Cook and his bandmates again.
JENNY LEWIS
Released March 22, 2019
NEW 2019 MUSIC: The year in music is still very young and without question this particular album is already one of 2019's highest achievements!
From the ashes of her band Rilo Kiley, Jenny Lewis has truly risen, and only continues to ascend, like the proverbial phoenix as her songwriting has only grown more resilient than ever.
With "On The Line," her follow-up to the excellent confessionals and peerless storytelling contained on her previous album "The Voyager" (released July 29, 2014), Lewis again bestows upon us a fully immersive collection but this time, a completely unfiltered song cycle of personal ruin (partially due to the en do her 12 year relationship with Jonathan Rice as well as the death of her Mother) and reconstruction.
Joined by an arsenal of top flight musicians including Jason Falkner, Benmont Tench, Don Was, both legendary drummers Jim Keltner and RINGO STARR (!) and the exact same producers from her previous effort, Beck for a few songs and Ryan Adams on the album's remainder--plus his guitar work throughout (despite his recent and horrible troubles I will not pretend that he does not exist and therefore was not involved with this album), "On The Line" certainly feels and even sounds like the perfect companion piece to "The Voyager."
As before, it is a work that often sounds like it was created within the same studio that birthed Fleetwood Mac's "Rumours," as that warm, dry, and undeniably hazy California vibe feels embedded within every note and groove--although this time, there is the introduction of hip-hop production techniques which have taken out the mid-range and has placed the drums high in the mix and believe me, they will BOOM through your speakers.
All of this is more than purposeful as the production completely supports the songs, which indeed showcase the turbulent evolution in Lewis' stories and confessions. Beginning with the Beatle-esque and funereal "Heads Gonna Roll" to the new day's dawning of the album closer "Rabbit Hole," Jenny Lewis' "On The Line" invites us into the progression of her life as an artist, as a woman and as a human being into a newfound autonomy and the results are the most startling of her career so far.
ANDERSON. PAAK
Released January 15, 2016
POND
Released March 1, 2019
NEW 2019 MUSIC: Yes, we have yet another of the year's best albums without question!
My specialized brand of synesthesia received a glorious workout upon the very first listen of this album, the 8th release from the Australian band, again gorgeously co-produced by former bandmate and Tame Impala mastermind Kevin Parker.
Pond's psychedelic funk dreamworld spectacularly weaved provided one sonic delight after another (especially during the astounding nearly 17 minute late album stretch of "Goodnight, P.C.C.," "Burnt Out Star," and "Selene," which is a galaxy unto itself) therefore making it the perfect album for Springtime. To my ears, it is an album designed to wake the Earth from its Winter slumber and welcome all of the new colors of the season.
TAL WILKENFELD
Released March 15, 2019
NEW 2019 MUSIC: For this, I thank my Dad.
A few years ago while on the phone with my Dad, he remarked to me about a musician he saw on television who impressed him so tremendously that he could not believe what he had seen and just had to tell me about it.
The program he saw featured a performance from Jeff Beck, but this time it was not Beck who made my Dad's head spin. For him, it was Beck's virtuoso bassist, a very young woman clearly skilled beyond her years. "The bass player, son," he said. "She's just a kid...and she...was...phenomenal!!!" At the time, I really had no idea of who he had seen but upon investigation, I discovered the identity of the bassist, whose name is Tal Wilkenfeld and ever since, I ensured to keep tabs upon her activities.With the arrival of "Love Remains," we have yet another early 2019 release that is one of the very best albums I have heard this year and from an artist that has firmly established herself as a decidedly unique and forward thinking musician.
Stretching from the bass and including her skills as a guitarist plus as a singer and songwriter, Wilkenfeld's album is by turns elegant and explosive and one that demands the fullest of your attention. Whether losing myself in the crystalline, Joni Mitchell-esque lyricism of "Haunted Love" and "Under The Sun," being thrashed around by the tornado fury of the Zeppelin howl that is "Hard To Be Alone," or throughout the remainder of the album's seven remaining, genre elusive selections, Tal Wilkenfeld's "Love Remains" is enormously enveloping in its fullness of sound and vision.
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