Weekend Music Roundup

Welcome to the never-ending weekend where one day is the same as the other. I've made more of an effort this week to listen to a few new albums during my crazy days of Mr. Mom and Work-From-Home hero. I thank Fiona Apple for that because I wasn't about to wait any longer to listen to her new album, which is going to be near shoo-in for best album of the year. There's some other good albums on here as well, so take some time and listen to some music while you quarantine.

Fiona Apple - Fetch the Bolt Cutters: The indie art pop icon's first album in 8 years is her fifth studio album in her 24 year career. It wasn't until her last album that I became a convert to the brilliance of Fiona Apple and went back to absorb her previous work. There's an intangible soul to her voice as it sprays poetry at the listener, poetry dressed up in perfect experimental pop soundtracks. The only artists that really compares to her is Amanda Palmer, but there's something about Amanda that I've always found a little pretentious, where Fiona is blunt and expressive in her emotions, hardly hiding them in art, just poetry. This album is a masterpiece from beginning to end.  

Wolves Like Us - Brittle Bones: The third album from the Oslo post-hardcore band was one of the albums released toward the end of 2019 that I was listening to in my frenzy to hear things I might have missed. This is pretty standard post-hardcore fare. It's aggressive, lots of quick guitar and pounding drums and passable vocals. The result is kind of just okay, nothing to get worked up about and not enough to hate. If that's your genre and you're looking for another band, this might be for you. 

Toy - Happy in the Hollow: The fourth studio album from London neo-psych band was released back in January 2019 and I'd been meaning to check it out for a while. I really enjoyed their second album, released in 2013 and said at that time that this was a band to watch. Unlike most American neo-psych bands, the British bands derive influences from synth pop, new wave, and shoegaze, whereas most American tend to pull from 60s psych and folk. This is a very solid record of ethereal soundscapes and fuzzed guitar.

Graham Parker - Heat Treatment: The 1976 album from the new wave icon is his second, released 5 months after his debut. As frequent readers of the Roundup surely have noticed, I've been really into Graham's early work lately. Sure, it reminds me of Elvis Costello, but there is more of a working class grit to his style of new wave that I really connect to. This is the third late '70s album of his that I've acquired and all three are brilliant. Yet another artist that never got the acclaim he deserved, though he's by no means a forgotten artist, just a little less widely known than he deserves. 

Earl Hines - The Legendary Little Theater Concert of 1964, Vols. 1 and 2: I recently picked up this double album for a cool $4. This is a the great jazz pianist performing a collection of classics, with the great Budd Johnson on sax on a few tracks. This is an intimate and wonderful performance of swing jazz favorites. "Lester Leaps In," and "Out of Nowhere," are standouts on this live set. I think too many people focus only on the Giants of jazz and don't dig deeper (even more so than in rock). As a result, the Giants command high value. But if you dig a little deeper, there's a ton of wonderful jazz out there for a bargain. 

T. Rex - Summertime Blues Live: I don't know much about this bootleg that recently hit the webpages, except that it's radio broadcasts and that it's fantastic. I'm guessing it's a career spanning collection, but can't say for sure, and at one point, it seems like it might be one concert. Either way, as with all Marc Bolan live recordings, the result is fantastic. He has a way of making every song sound different each time he performs it, meaning there is never really a thing as having too many live records. "Girl," "Cosmic Dancer," and "Jewel" are real standouts.