Music
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We normally don’t list reissues in with our Top 50, but we’re happy to make
an exception for this wickedly cool Zambian rock record — and besides, to whom
...read more
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James Mercer of the Shins plus Danger Mouse: Okay then, what are your questions? Well, basically, all you want to know is, Does this pairing work? Yup. Danger Mouse’s skill as a producer, you...read more
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Soundway has done a great job with this. Even the Fela Kuti cut — an early 7” version of “Who’re You?” that’s rawer than the more familiar version — has not previously been reissued. Th...read more
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This album’s lengthy subtitle still doesn’t encompass all of the sounds on display here. The Don Issac Ezekiel Combination has gospel-group harmonizing, several groups deploy jazz-tinged stylings, ...read more
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“We want another one! Just like the other one!” Oh yeah? Well good, because guess what kids? Volume Two very literally picks up right where She & Him, the dream-pairing of Zooey Des...read more
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The new and third Band of Horses album is being jointly released by an odd trio of indie and major labels, but fans care about just one thing: those harmonies. Infinite Arms has them in spades, sta...read more
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Sometimes it seems like Black Mountain is just toying with us -- such as within the first two minutes of "The Hair Song," the opening track on the Vancouver band's new album, Wilderness Heart. With...read more
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Another month, another compilation of cool '60s/'70s African music. Yawn... HEY!!! Do not sleep on this one! Analog Africa, one of a few unimpeachably fantastic labels dedicated to such pursuits, b...read more
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On to Zambia we go, where frontman Rikki Ililonga and his Musi-O-Tunya band pioneered the sort-of genre known simply as Zamrock back in the '70s. As put forth on the awesome two-disc set Dark Sunri...read more
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Such an unglamorous title for such a smooth, sparkling and deep record. On first listen I didn't notice all the musical nods to New Order on Destroyer's ninth (holy...!) album, which just proves th...read more
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Charles Bradley is 62 years old, but this is his first album
after a lifetime of tribulations. His singing is definitely James Brown-esque,
but the accompaniment here -- by the Menehan Street Band ...read more
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Lo and behold, Danger Mouse -- who first achieved notoriety with his
Jay-Z/Beatles mashing project The Grey Album -- has stealthily become
one of American music's real auteurs. His latest effor...read more
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Here's one to slot into your hypnagogic-pop shelf -- not too close to Ariel Pink but, you know (between P and U, I suppose). Unknown Mortal Orchestra began as a sort-of studio project based around ...read more
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The past decade has seen an explosion in both the quantity and quality of '70s African-music reissues, and among the specialists in this field, a few match but none surpass the Analog Africa label....read more
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Chances are good these legends from the tiny west African nation of Benin didn't call their 1973 debut The 1st Album -- can you imagine the cajones that would've taken? Then again...wow, this recor...read more
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Original badass Jim Ford had just one studio album released during his lifetime, but 1969's Harlan County is so good it cemented him as a legend (it didn't hurt that his songs have been covered by ...read more
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Quite possibly the album of the year. On their sophomore LP, the Bay Area
duo Girls have delivered a genuine rarity: a bold and ambitious indie-rock album that not only delivers all the goods but ...read more
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One of the more impressive box sets we've seen this year (if not longer), this mammoth work—more than 10 years in the making—throws back the veils of time to tell the story of how John Fahey came t...read more
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Followers of the past several years worth of African-music reissues have likely noticed the way that certain Caribbean sounds had manifested around the continent during the 1970s (Congolese rumba, ...read more
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At the time these sweet jams were committed to magnetic tape, the western Africa nation known as Burkina Faso was still called Upper Volta, but that's splitting hairs. At the risk of sounding like ...read more
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Oh my god! But that's only a part of the story here, and actually, not even that large a part. For while "gospel" is in the title -- and sure enough, every song here in one way or another exults th...read more
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The world of pop music was hardly ready for The Velvet Underground's
first album when it appeared in the spring of 1967, but while The
Velvet Underground and Nico sounded like an open challenge...read more
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Sadly, outside of a handful of audience tapes of extremely variable fidelity, no one thought to make a live recording of The Velvet Underground during their 1967-68 peak period with John Cale prodd...read more
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In an era where Brown went on to make three studio doubles, Get on the Good Foot was the first. This 1972 album finds Brown
having great chemistry with both his newer J.B.'s and the New York
se...read more
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Marvin Gaye turned to soundtracks in the early '70s, and came out with one that ranked right alongside the epic scores done by Curtis Mayfield and Isaac Hayes. The film itself was a typical '70s "b...read more
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