Weekend Music Roundup

 

 

 

Welcome to the weekend and the return usual roundup ramblings about albums that I've been grooving to. Hopefully you all spent the week exploring Jazz after last week's post. This week I'm looking a few new releases and a couple of older ones. It's mostly indie rock, with a bit of soul and a bit of glam. All in all, this is a nice bunch of albums and hopefully there's something you find interesting enough to explore.

 

Lianne La Havas - Lianne La Havas: The third album from neo-soul artist out of London is finally getting this singer songwriter some of the attention she deserves. I loved her previous album, 2015's Blood. This album shows the maturity that comes with a five year span. Her voice has always been soulfully beautiful, and musically, the songs are stunning. It reminds me a bit of Sade, or mellower Brand New Heavies. This album hooked from the magnificent opening track, "Bittersweet." It's more jazzy and subtle than the previous album, which I respect. "Paper Thin," "Please Don't Make Me Cry," "Seven Times," and "Sour Flower," are also standouts on this near perfect summer evening album.

Palaye Royale - The Bastards: This is the third album from the Las Vegas via Toronto glam rock band. It opens with the fantastic "Little Bastards" that sets the scene for their unique take on the genre. They are the spawn of Marylin Manson, but veer more toward glam roots than metal, however, there are shock metal elements. The overwhelming feel of this record is fun and careless danger. It's not high art, it's just rock n roll. It's not perfect, but it's pretty cool. "Massacre, The New American Dream," "Tonight is the Night I Die," "Lonely," "Hang On To Yourself," and "Black Sheep" are my favorites. 

 

Sonic Youth - Perspectives Musicales: A live album from Aug. 5th 2000 performance at Cat's Cradle in North Carolina. Sonic Youth deserves more credit as being one of the most consistent bands in rock history. They never had a bad period. They were always innovative, and unafraid. "Psychic Hearts," "Mote," "Halfway to a Threeway," "Nevermind," "Kool Thing," and an early instrumental acoustic guitar only version of "Disconnection Notice" are standouts.  

The Lilac Time - & Love for All: The third album from the Birmingham jangle pop band was released in 1990 and is an album that has been in my wife's collection since before we met. Together we were fans of Stephen Duffy when we met in the late 90s, and I decided to spin this vinyl recently, having not listened to it in years. This is pretty standard jangle pop with rattly guitars and swoony pop vocals, but there were some bands that could do it and some who couldn't. Duffy was a master at it and this is a quality representation of the short-lived genre. "All For Love and Love For All," "Paper Boat" are my personal favorites.  

 

Vagabond Blues - Vessel: Released this past February, this is the second album from the Australian stoner rock band. This a sludgy psychedelic heavy blues album with lots of great riffs. There is a certain recipe that makes for a good album in this genre, one that varies very little from one good record to the next. This is one of them, they have all the ingredients and they bake it together in a pleasing way. "Red Witch," and "Dark in the Light" are my personal favorites.  

Arctic Monkeys - Unplugged: The Missus' birthday came around recently, and I usually like to make sure I purchase a record for her, one that she will love. When I saw this unofficial release with so many of her favorite AM songs in acoustic format, there was no question that this was her birthday record for the year. This isn't a band that does a lot of acoustic stuff, so it was very fresh and as brilliant as I expected.