JONATHAN WILSON
Released October 15, 2013
HALL & OATES
Released October 19, 1974
TODD RUNDGREN
Released February 1972
TAME IMPALA
Released October 5, 2012
PAUL AND LINDA McCARTNEY
Released May 17, 1971
SANTANA
Released November 9, 1973
LED ZEPPELIN
Released November 19, 1982
THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS
Released May 13, 1997
STONE TEMPLE PILOTS
Released June 19, 2001
CHEAP TRICK
Released September 1977
UNKNOWN MORTAL ORCHESTRA
Released May 26, 2015
NEW 2015 MUSIC: Truthfully, Tame Impala brought me here...(sort of). For whatever reasons, Unknown Mortal Orchestra has seemingly been musically linked to Tame Impala within the music press, and all of the positive notices for this album, which includes the disco/funk tinged single "Can't Keep Checking My Phone," eventually guided me to purchasing a copy. Well, at least to my ears, any musical connections the two bands may share sound fleeting to me and in fact UMO sounds even more esoteric and downright oddball--kind of like if MGMT and Air somehow met in the middle--a middle they created themselves. It certainly has its charms but I think this one will have to grow on me.
KAMASI WASHINGTON
Released May 5, 2015
NEW 2015 MUSIC: Kendrick Lamar, Flying Lotus and Thundercat brought me here, as Kamasi Washington, who has collaborated with all of those aforementioned artists, boldly steps out into his own musical universe with the 3 disc/3 hour jazz (mostly instrumental) album, appropriately entitled "The Epic."
I am still making my way through the album (I'm into the second disc), but I have already been enormously impressed not just with the instrumental virtuosity and Washington's vision as he has composed, produced and arranged the entire behemoth (from the actual musical to the large cast of musicians) himself but by how he has bridged a certain gap with being uncompromising and fully accessible. So far, songs have ranged and stretched to very lengthy running times of 12 to 14 minutes long but I don't believe that one would ever find themselves lost within the music, unable to grasp onto any ideas.
The melodicism is paramount, making for music to grab along to as Washington and his exemplary team of musicians craft one soundscape after another and fill your ears with tremendously exploratory solos throughout. So far, I have felt that I have heard the musical influences of John Coltrane, Pharaoh Sanders, and Charles Mingus as the music itself flows so freely and dramatically from fusion to soul to opera and even pop. I have been seriously impressed so far...I wonder if this will end up on my list for being one of the best albums of 2015? We'll see...
CHROMATICS
Released March 26, 2012
THE AMAZING
Released February 17, 2015
NEW 2015 MUSIC: Curse you, Steve from B-Side!!!!!Once again, on another innocent visit to my favorite record store, I was greeted with the sounds of another album that instantly captured my attention and inspired yet another purchase. This time, it's The Amazing, a neo-psychedelic band from Sweden whose current album (their fourth), kind of sounds like Temples merged with a dash of Nick Drake and a healthy dollop of "Meddle" era Pink Floyd. This is a band unafraid of taking their time and crafting lengthy songs that reveal autumnal landscapes and those bittersweet feelings that arrive with seasonal changes. Except for one sequence of heavy feedback, the entire album sounds almost like one long sunset.
UTOPIA
Released January 1984
JONATHAN WILSON
Released September 13, 2011
PRINCE
Released October 27, 1982
ROBERT PLANT AND THE SENSATIONAL SPACE SHIFTERS
Released September 8, 2014
WILCO
Released (physical version) August 21, 2015
NEW 2015 MUSIC: Now this really was a surprise!!!! For their first studio effort in four years, and a surprise release to boot, Wilco returns with an album that is brisk, sharp, rough and ready for action, weaving "White Album" starkness with some Television punch. Nice to hear that the band still has some scrappiness to themselves.
THE BLACK KEYS
Released May 12, 2014
TAME IMPALA
Released July 17, 2015
Still in HEAVY rotation!!!!!!!!!!!!
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